LIANZA 2008 Dylan Horrocks Keynote

Sunday 2 November

Conference comics laureate

Dylan joked that he is here for the free pens! (aren’t we all?)

Dylan’s talk was entitled: The rise and rise of the graphic novel

50 yrs ago there was a lot of discussion about the evils of comics, and how they should be banned, with librarians being significantly anti-comics in the 1940s and 1950s.

Dylan showed a picture of comic burning in 1950s – kids invited to bring their comics for despatch, to “cleanse their minds”. This situation is juxtaposed with today – with graphic novel collections in public libraries.

How has this change occurred?

Brief historical overview:
Comics are stories told using pictures. Dylan showed an early example of a comic from the 1400s, one with a religious theme.

According to Dylan, modern comics began in the 19th century with the work of Rodolphe Töpffer. Goethe liked Töpffer’s work and suggested that, using pictures to tell stories could to give rise to a new international language, that all of Europe could read same stories without the barriers of language. Goethe contrasted comics with caricature, which he disliked for what he saw as its unhealthy cynicism.

Georges Remi (Hergé), the creator of Tintin as onee famous example of the graphic novel from the European tradition.

For a long time Tintin and Asterix were among the few graphics novels one could find in NZ (and Australian) libraries as they were seen as “special”, and with value

In US comics featured strongly in newspapers, with the first comic books coming out in the 1930s. In 1938 we had Superman, followed by a lot of other superheroes.

Dylan showed slides of comic covers, illustrating how the genre grew – from superheroes through to romantic comics, and on to comics with other adult themes. In the 1940s other genres replaced superheroes in popularity.

Frederic Wertham argued that comics were the leading cause of delinquency in children in his book Seduction of the innocent (1954) . Ironically, due to its detailed inserts showing examples of the offending comics, this book became one of most stolen books in NZ libraries.

There were many examples of comics at the time that depicted lurid violent extreme images, including images of violence against women.

Dylan showed examples of comics depicting women with what became known as “headlights covers”.

Some comics were also accused of promoting deviant sexuality (click on the Superhero image for more detail).

In a March 1955 letter to Landfall, Bill Pearson argued that a ban on comics would reduce the chances of war in the future.

At different times different sources of entertainment were criticised: theatre, plays, music, Socrates (yes, the philosopher!) – all causes of worry that children were being corrupted
Elvis and Superman – evil. Now? Video games and eminem – whatever adults don’t understand.

In the same 1955 issue of Landfall, Margaret Dalziel wrote that there would be “no attempt to give [comics] serious consideration on aesthetic grounds, because they are simply not worth it.” (landfall, 1955) – at the time no one ever asked if comics could ever be good for kids.

How do we value comics? What aesthetic values or standards do we use?
We read pictures – need to decipher code delivered via pictures.
We are wired towards closure (gestalt theory) – we close gaps in the info we receive in order to make sense of it.

In images we try to look for living things – personification, anthropomisation

comics – give info via simple pictures eg Charles Schulz conveyed complex and subtle emotions using very simple drawings.

David B (french) – epilepsy and his brother. Epilepsy depicted as a serpent
symbols between language and image – convey a range of things depending on context
examples – Herge’s Tintin

different idioms and language of conventional signs depending on culture from which comics come – for example in Japanese manga, fury signified by “raised veins”; lust – blood nose; really aroused – raging bull with torrents of blood gushing.(Ahh so that’s what it means!!)

artists with individual style

Joe Kubert, Fax from Sarajevo, 1996

Joe Sacco, Area Safe Gorazde, 2000

John Porcellino Perfect Example, 2000 – experience of clinical depression as a teen. simple sparse style, very effective depiction of the experience of depression.

different artists, different “voice”

Scott McCloud Understanding comics: the invisible art, looking at tools and conventions cartoonists use to convey messages.

3 reasons why comics now accepted:

1. librarians have changed – librarians increasingly at vanguard of embracing new tech, new literary forms
2. comics in 1950s one of most popular forms of entertainment – tv hadn’t taken off – reading was more popular
3. comics have changed too – in last 20 – 30 years they have emerged as works of art.

I have more photos but I will have to put them up later. Bandwidth issues.