{"id":2478,"date":"2015-04-07T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T23:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2024-01-08T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T00:20:38","slug":"maggies-world-028-comics-introductions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-028-comics-introductions\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 028: Comics Introductions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 028: Comics Introductions<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Is this an easy introduction to comic books? TM & \u00a9 DC Comics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know graphic novels. What one should we read?\u201d I was attending a meeting of an area book club, and one of the members threw this challenge to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t happen often, but I was overwhelmed at the size of the challenge and at a loss for words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, I shot back with this recommendation: The Sandman, Volume 3: Dream Country<\/em>. It was the same recommendation Glen Weldon had made to National Public Radio\u2019s Pop Culture Happy Hour<\/em> \u201cI Will if You Will\u201d book club project in 2011\u2014and I should have been warned by memories of what happened next. Bright, articulate Linda Holmes<\/strong><\/a> is incredibly canny and well-read, and among her comments on the final story, \u201cFa\u00e7ade,\u201d was, \u201cI really tried, I did. But I am a trifle confused. And by \u2018a trifle,\u2019 I kind of mean \u2018really really.\u2019\u201d That should have made an ominous clatter in my brain. But no. I went ahead and suggested Dream Country<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendance at my own book-club discussion the following month was at an all-time low, and the sole attendee (a school superintendent, no less) challenged me as to why on earth I\u2019d picked the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) More than once, I\u2019d talked with someone who\u2019d expressed curiosity about comics in general, \u201cbut I\u2019ve only really followed Sandman<\/em>.\u201d So even non-comics buffs can find it an entry point to the art form. Given that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(2) Dream Country<\/em> is a brilliant collection that contains, not just one, but four short stories\u2014which lets the new reader begin to get an idea of the different approaches that a change in artist can mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(3) The bonus afterword shows what a story may look like in the beginning, before the artist interprets it. And,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(4) It contains one of my favorites (\u201cDream of a Thousand Cats\u201d) of the entire series\u2014and the World Fantasy Award-winning \u201cMidsummer Night\u2019s Dream.\u201d A natural, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was just too hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s Going On?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In the course of that 2011 NPR blog discussion, Linda Holmes commented that, since many comics \u201cexist in this larger universe that rewards not only familiarity with other works by the same writer, but works by other people who have written about a character, it may help explain why the barrier to entry sometimes does seem pretty high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a guess, what happened is that not only do I have decades of experience in reading comic books, but I\u2019ve also been reading fantasy and science fiction for that many years. In the years when reporters would quiz me about the \u201cadult\u201d nature of comic books and whether kids should be allowed to read them, I\u2019d cited bookstores. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t walk into a bookstore, close your eyes, and figure that the first book you touched would be appropriate for all readers,\u201d I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I think this may be what happened here. When I asked, \u201cYou didn\u2019t even like \u2018Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u2019?\u201d\u2014the response was, \u201cOh, I wasn\u2019t really into Shakespeare, so it didn\u2019t have much of an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since, I\u2019ve tried second-guessing myself without much success. Floundering, I wondered whether looking at Eisner Award winners might provide an approach. The titles of those results going all the way back to 1988 are available online, but remember that, again, these are recommendations from industry pros. That means the folks who chose those winners already cope easily with some of the trickiest storytelling of which the art form is capable. There\u2019s Sandman<\/em> again\u2014and before that, Watchmen<\/em>. Classics fill the lists but aren\u2019t necessarily easy intros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lynd Ward\u2019s wordless\u00a0Wild Pilgrimage<\/em>\u00a0differentiated between real life (in black) and fantasy (in orange) in 1932. \u00a9 1932 Lynd Ward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Other Approaches<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

How about a look at early comics: those published even before comics racks proliferated in general stores around the country? Lynd Ward (1905-1985), probably best known to the general public for his Caldecott Medal for The Biggest Bear<\/em> (1953), produced a series of six wordless novels for adults and one for children. Of those, Wild Pilgrimage<\/em> (1932) is one of the best known. It\u2019s an acknowledged pioneering work in the field. But his wordless novels are (as noted) wordless. That makes me question them as the best first steps for someone who\u2019s trying to grasp what\u2019s being talked about in the context of current graphic novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In earlier years, newspaper strips were logical first steps, so how about the justifiably beloved collections of Charles Schulz\u2019 Peanuts<\/em> or Bill Watterson\u2019s The Complete Calvin and Hobbes<\/em>? Tremendous fun, defendably defined as graphic novels\u2014but, again, not something the questioner would identify as what he or she was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maus<\/em>\u00a0won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. \u00a9 2015 Art Spiegelman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Brainstorming the Question<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Would something like Fables<\/em> be a bit more newbie-friendly? One person I chatted with made that suggestion. Hmm. I\u2019ve already loaned Saga<\/em> to a long-time reader and am captivated myself by Locke & Key<\/em>, which I hadn\u2019t read until recently. Maybe an anthology would do what I was trying to do with Sandman: Dark Horse Presents<\/em> has the \u201cBest Anthology\u201d Eisner Award for the last three years, and there\u2019s an annual Best American Comics<\/em> series. And there\u2019s online, which requires no investment. Allie Brosh\u2019s Hyperbole and a Half<\/em> and Matthew Inman\u2019s The Oatmeal<\/em> have produced books. No-cost best of both worlds, perhaps? More than one person told me I should have suggested Art Spiegelman\u2019s ground-breaking Maus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe I should have provided a transition by suggesting a comic-book adaptation of an existing work, so they could see what the comics art form adds. So Darwyn Cooke\u2019s wonderful morphing of \u201cRichard Stark\u2019s\u201d Parker novels and Eric Shanower and Skottie Young\u2019s treatment of L. Frank Baum\u2019s Oz<\/em> novels? How about those?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or \u2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

OK, pause. Deep breath. I suddenly flash back on a project I came up with several years ago\u2014in response to a similar question. Folks were repeatedly asking me what comics I\u2019d recommend for kids to read, and I came up with the answer by consulting a couple of experts, who not only provided the information but also introduced me (with all those decades of experience) to dozens of comics I\u2019d never seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is to say that there were all kinds of comics\u2014for all kinds of readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pick the perfect introduction to comics for a new reader, maybe the first step is to find out what that new reader already enjoys: Fantasy? Super-hero movies? Biography? Mysteries? Wild humor? Memoir?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then<\/em> make your suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggie\u2019s World by Maggie Thompson appears the first Tuesday of every month here on<\/em> Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n