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Reading Comics And What They Mean by Douglas Wolk
02/08/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Da Capo Press/Perseus Books Group. 405 page illustrated with index enlarged paperback. Price: $ 9.99 (UK), $16.95 (US), $18.50 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-306-81616-1). Buy Reading Comics And What They Mean in the USA - or Buy Reading Comics And What They Mean in the UK  check out website: www.dacapopress.com
I think the title of this book, 'Reading Comics And What They Mean', should be qualified to author Douglas Wolk's interpretation of what he classes as 'worthy comics' i.e. those comics and creators who have gotten critical acclaim or deemed avant-garde. Wolk says that for the most part under this criteria he's ignoring super-hero comics, even if 'Watchmen', 'Adam Warlock' and 'Tomb Of Dracula' fall under his analysis here. Granted the latter is in the horror genre but even Drac mixed it with many of the costumed brigade in his own title.
Even when I was heavy into reading comics, there was always an awareness that there was a snob element who looked down on the super-hero genre. I just put it down to personal taste myself. I saw nothing wrong with me reading Howard Chaykin's 'American Flagg' and Wendy Pini's 'Elfquest' amongst everything else I was reading. If a comicbook appealed to me, I tended to stay with it. Granted the American field was dominated by the super-hero genre but there were always break-out titles. It was the appeal of the story as much as the medium that was involved that made me dabble in them a little. Comicbooks were relatively cheap compared to today which enabled a decent scattershot rather than being too selective. The analysis of comicbooks, characters and creators was also a fannish occupation looking for deeper meaning in a rather unusual pursuit. Those who felt their interest in comicbooks would make them less than 'adult' often took to contemplating their own navels with how worthy so of them were for their interest. With all my own writing at that time it was more just for reality analysis. I doubt if the creators themselves analysed their techniques down to a panel-by-panel analysis.
Wolk's analysis tends to be based on what he had to hand and read. He invariably cites the British Invasion of writers Stateside but does little to look at their roots or sees what drives them. Even when he analyses Grant Morrison's work and how there is an interplay with characters on the page and them realising what they are does he draw any parallel to the 'Illuminatus Trilogy' by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. By and large, the medium of comicbooks has been invariably a derivative medium which oddly enough, only super-heroes has been the one thing really that started there. Superman might have had a parallel to Philip Wylie's 'Gladiator' and Batman to the pulp series 'The Shadow' by Walter Gibson and Norman Daniels' 'The Black Bat', but the athletic prowess and dynamics was something that developed on the six-panel page not in prose. Granted it has since fed on itself with various refinements but it is also part of the entire culture.
As I read this book, I made notes where I could take Wolk to task. I mean, he should have known that outside of the creators of Superman and Batman, no one was really allowed to sign their work at DC up until the 70s for instance. John Byrne's simplified line-work was something he learnt at Charlton to be economical, fast and stay within what they were paying him. Speaking of pay, unless comicbook creators produce they don't eat which would probably explain Steve Ditko's later work at various companies. I could also take him to task for not recognising that Ditko ended up regurgitating all the human faces from 'Spider-Man' in such as 'Shade The Changing Man'. Then again, that is probably true of most comicbook artists. The early work seems innovative but really it isn't until you see the breadth of a career to see how much repetition that carries over in their work rather than self-parodying as he suggests.
When Wolk switches and demonstrates of the comics and creators that appeals to him, the first isn't actually American or British but French, David B.'s 'Epileptic' which is also one of the few that had no examples to show what he was driving at. I suspect the lack of pictures was also a lack of rights but where comicbooks are concerned, pictures are always louder than words.
None of my comments above should turn you away from this book if you have an interest in the more shall we say mainstream approach to comicbooks. Any book discussing comicbooks is invariably going to cover what the writer has most experience with and read which means it will also invariably cover the same prejudices. The same would also apply to anyone reading this book. Generally speaking, if you like most comicbooks that aren't super-hero based then you will find this book hitting on your favourite creators and the work they've done. Whether you go along with Wolk's assessment as to why you read them would have to be left up to your own judgement. The comicbook medium is large enough to cover all tastes and not just one specific element.
One useful thing Wolk recognises at the end of his book that there hasn't been much in the way of new material in this area in the past couple decades. Whether this is because of lack of funding or creators not having a need to express themselves in this area he's not so sure. With the expense it takes to put a new comicbook on the market these days where new titles can sink or swim in a couple issues, I'm inclined to believe that truly experimental comicbooks have been left by the wayside for the moment. Then again, the same could have been said with all the examples Wolk cites at the time of their release. They'll happen when there's a desire to say anything.
GF Willmetts
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