{"id":2611,"date":"2017-06-06T11:58:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2611"},"modified":"2024-01-09T12:01:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T20:01:57","slug":"maggies-world-052-abstracted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-052-abstracted\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 052: Abstracted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 052: Abstracted<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Harvey Pekar pointed out that in comics, there\u2019s no limit to how good the words can be or how good the pictures can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if the pictures are \u2026 well \u2026 short of masterpiece status?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, I discussed with Joe Orlando the challenges of providing thumbnails with comic book layouts, and he suggested I do what he\u2019d recommended to others wrestling with the problem. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing rough layouts, just draw a star to indicate the character,\u201d he said. \u201cThat way, you don\u2019t get bogged down in trying to figure out how the thumb connects to the palm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that\u2019s OK for rough layouts, I used to be more demanding when it came to the finished art for a comic book or comic strip story. I found myself limiting my admiration to comics artists whose work was based on correct anatomical structure\u2014or on consistent adaptation to a stylized cartoon anatomy. (I\u2019ve always appreciated such controlled stylizations as John Stanley\u2019s for Little Lulu, Frank Jupo\u2019s comic book fantasies, and Charles Schulz\u2019s carefully structured two-dimensional creations.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what I used to consider \u201csloppy\u201d comic art \u2026 Well \u2026 I dismissed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kids in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s probably figured they could draw as well as cartoonist Munro Leaf.\u00a0Manners Can Be Fun<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Munro Leaf The style was refined for comics decades later by Matt Feazell.\u00a0Cynicalman \u2026 the Paperback!<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Matt Feazell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, though, I began to realize that powerful match-ups of words and pictures don\u2019t necessarily require meticulous artistic realism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades ago, for example, I\u2019d enjoyed the work of Munro Leaf. (There\u2019s more about him and his comic art in the 10th installment of this series.\u00a0Click here to read it.<\/strong><\/a>) In his series for\u00a0Ladies\u2019 Home Journal<\/em>, the kids who were observed with disapproval by his \u201cWatchbirds\u201d were basically stick figures. Characters in his\u00a0\u2026Can Be Fun<\/em>\u00a0books were similarly primitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that, he crafted a career with his line drawings\u2014and today there are several successful skilled creators who use such images to provide illuminations for their tales. The Cynicalman<\/em> work by Matt Feazell and the webcomic xkcd<\/em> by Randall Munroe demonstrate that such an approach can work well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor is non-representational comic art limited to stick figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goofy Graphics<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

As comics fandom emerged, its denizens were informed by three basic reference books: Martin Sheridan\u2019s Comics and Their Creators<\/em> (1942), Coulton Waugh\u2019s The Comics<\/em> (1947), and Stephen Becker\u2019s Comic Art in America<\/em> (1959).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary focus of the three was the comic art found in newspapers. Sheridan pretty much limited his mention of comic books to an entry on Superman; Waugh and Becker limited themselves to a chapter each on the comic book business. Waugh\u2019s comic-book complaints included the comment that \u201cit doesn\u2019t seem possible that anything so raw, so purely ugly, should be so important.\u201d Becker, writing later, was more kind\u2014though he indicated that it was primarily a mere stepping-stone to a better kind of comic art: \u201cThe industry employs thousands of men, and has proved a good starting point for aspiring cartoonists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Goofy storytelling from some creators didn\u2019t depend on artistic realism.\u00a0Silly Milly<\/em>\u00a0brought daily wackiness.\u00a0Silly Milly<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 NYP Holdings, Inc. Milt Gross\u2019 work appeared in strips, books, comic books, and more.\u00a0I Shoulda Ate the Eclair<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Ziff Davis, LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But each expressed admiration for the oddball zany art in features they singled out as classic. In a wrap-up chapter of Comic Art in America<\/em> (1959), Becker wrote about \u201cThe Lyric Clowns,\u201d which he listed as George Herriman, Crockett Johnson, Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz, Milt Gross, and Rube Goldberg. Gross\u2019 Yiddish wordplay may be responsible for his smaller audience these days\u2014despite his pioneering wordless comics novel She Done Him Wrong<\/em>. Nevertheless, Waugh wrote, \u201cThere is something archaic about him; he is the funny man who has had a good time and laughed since man\u2019s dawn-days.\u201d Becker commented that both Calvin Coolidge and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. had paid tribute to Gross, devoting many pages to a man he called \u201cone of the century\u2019s great comic artists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less well known\u2014almost never reprinted\u2014was a cartoonist to whom Becker tipped his hat in his last paragraph, referring to Stan MacGovern, \u201cwhose Silly Milly<\/em> wowed readers consistently for as long as he drew it.\u201d Ever heard of it? It\u2019s hard to find a sample these days, though the feature began in 1938 and ran into the 1950s. The strip shown here comes from Ron Goulart\u2019s reliable 1990 volume The Encyclopedia of American Comics<\/em>, where he provided more information than there\u2019s room for here. The strip\u2019s influence spread, though its fame has dwindled over the years. Jack Mendelsohn\u2019s Jackys Diary<\/em> strip (originally without an apostrophe), for example, clearly reflected MacGovern\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Today \u2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, decades of dedication to powerful images of superheroes and amusing depictions of anthropomorphic funny animals haven\u2019t restricted reception of less representational art in storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who\u2019d have thought Matt Groening\u2019s simple style could captivate audiences? Well, the people who read his comics, right?\u00a0The Big Book of Hell<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Matt Groening Productions, Inc. Allie Brosh took readers into a world of emotion via powerful abstractions.\u00a0Hyperbole and a Half<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Alexandra Brosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her stunning 2013 book collection of Hyperbole and a Half<\/em>, for example, Allie Brosh conveyed, as the cover said, \u201cUnfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened.\u201d Though her imagery bordered on the abstract, it made her messages clear and their impact immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told National Public Radio\u2019s Terry Gross in 2013, \u201cThe reason I draw myself this way is that I feel that this absurd squiggly thing is actually a much more accurate representation of myself than I am. \u2026 I am this crude absurd little thing, this squiggly little thing on the inside. So it\u2019s more of a raw representation of what it feels like to be me.\u201d She added, \u201cReally, a lot of time goes into this crudeness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And more and more examples of the excellence of non-representational art in comics continue to appear. The work of such brilliant creators as Matt Groening, Marc Hempel, Lynda Barry, Jason Shiga, Daryl Seitchik\u2014and, for that matter, to such concepts as \u201crage comics\u201d\u2014provide a mosaic of abstraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much for my early preconceptions of what \u201cgood art\u201d might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, what it boils down to is this: There\u2019s no limit to how good the words can be or how inventive the pictures can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky for us!<\/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! All of our regular featured writers will be taking off the month of July.<\/em><\/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