English department: Give graphic novels a chance

By: Cody Bozarth

Posted: 9/24/08

The Western Illinois University English department needs a class to study graphic novels. I'm not referring to those thin, monthly superhero comic books that birthed the medium decades ago. These are books that have stories that have a beginning, middle and end. These things are mature and provoke thought, a far cry from mindless, overmuscular supermen or scantily clad, overendowed superwomen.

That's not to say that superheroes are off limits. After all, the supers made comics a widespread medium. Even "Watchmen" - if not the greatest graphic novel of all time, then definitely one of the best of our time - is a story about masked vigilantes. Yet this is a medium that has infinite room to expand.

Completely unbeknownst to many people studying English and literature, a whole movement of autobiographical memoirs and original fiction has risen, though they are often overlooked for their "inherently juvenile" visual storytelling. Even now, books like Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" and Alison Bechel's "Fun Home" are being studied at Western, and this is a good step. But what we really need is a dedicated class.

Little distinguishes textual fiction from the graphic novel or memoir. The stories are just as well-crafted and just as insightful as any modern work of fiction, yet overdone tomes of words receive more attention from so-called literary critics than do graphic novels. Books such as "Bottomless Belly Button," "Black Hole," or "Blankets" are lengthy and succinct. Dialogue and facial expressions are easier to picture and little details don't require several pages to describe, just one panel. You can sense emotion without being told. Graphic novels are beautifully deeper than their words.

Part of what makes college necessary for specialized professions is to show students the people who got it right and help us emulate them. This graphic novel class could be an English class, but it could also be an art class. There are artists at Western who are fully capable of telling stories, but these stories are unique because of the medium. We, as an institution of higher education, need to show budding artists an avenue of creativity that they may have not considered.

After all, we may have aspiring graphic novelists on campus. It's our duty to show them who has done it right: Chris Ware, Scott McCloud, Jamie Tanner, Paper Rad, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Charles Burns, Seth, Art Spiegelman and Daniel Clowes. There are hundreds of amazing graphic novelists. It's a young medium of expression that has an incredible power, and it demands a common cultural attention.