Comic Book as History - Coursework Example

Comic books have long been a part of the popular culture. Widely distributed are comic books featuring tightly clad and perfectly chiseled bodied characters with superhuman powers and abilities while some features adorable characters that are always humorous and much appreciated by children. These superhero comic books also dwell on typical formula of action, fight scenes and incredible powers while the adorable comic books have simple storylines that are sugar-coated for kids. In the long span of comic book art, little attention was given to the use of sequential art in narrating significant historical events, true to life stories, journalism and travelogues among others. In this view, critics and readers alike have divided opinions in using comic art to depict and narrate stories ranging from historical events such as the Holocaust, war related stories and stories with political themes to personal stories of daily struggles, fight with illness and struggle with psychological hang-ups. Some critics oppose the use of the medium which was traditionally identified with action heroes and cute cartoon characters to delve into the delicate and grim subjects especially on undertaking significant and infamous historical events such as the Holocaust. They deemed it inappropriate and disrespecting to historical events to be presented in a comic art way since the art medium was popularly identified with fantasy themed and not-so-serious stories (Witek 1989). They also question the ethical grounds of employing such unusual medium and questions the authority of the comic book creators on the depiction of historical events in comic art (Witek 1989). On the other hand, some critics and readers view the employ of the sequential art device to be giving a fresh approach and a somehow more acceptable way to read about historical events and personal histories. They see no harm in the use of comic art in narrating historical events and biographical stories reasoning that tragic historical events such as the Holocaust was made bearable to read and solicits sympathy upon understanding of the whole story without the reader going through gory sights of piled up decay of human bodies and forlorn, graven faces of the oppressed people (Witek 1989). These positive responses from some of the critics and readers have motivated comic book artists and authors to create stories tackling public and private history. This demonstrates that the sequential art form should not be limited to action heroes and cute, cuddly characters only but can be employed to chronicle almost any kind of story including history. Comic books can also be effective narratives of either personal or public history. As seen in the sequential art of Art Spiegelman and Harvey Pekar (Witek 1989), with their effective combination of visuals and words, both comic works made an impact to the literary and art world. These comic books depicting history had later on made history themselves. Spiegelman’s “Maus” narrates the story of the Holocaust from Art Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, in an autobiographical fashion. Although “Maus” portrays the Jew Vladek and his fellow Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, the comic work delivers the impression of the animal characters as humans. With one instance showing the old Vladek shedding a tear when he related the story of his friends hanged after being caught by the Nazis violating a minor law (Witek 1989). Further examination of Spiegelman’s “Maus,” he discloses the complexity of his relationship with his father with abrupt transit from sympathy to indifference of the comic artist mouse character to his father. Thus, the story also denotes the psychological struggle of the author showing the private history perspective of the comic book as evident in one of frames showing the mouse character representing Spiegelman being ordered by his mouse father to fix the drain pipe on the roof but being rebuffed by the cartoonist mouse telling the father mouse that he cannot repair such pipe problems furthering that the old Vladek should call for a handyman instead (Witek 1989). The author’s self-reflexivity and psychological need were evident in the story “Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History” which was a comic book embedded in the larger narrative of “Maus.” (Witek 1989) “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” is a perspective of art on the nightmarish events surrounding the suicide of the author’s mother in 1968. This part breaks the narrative flow of the Holocaust story expounding on the emotional stake Spiegelman has in understanding his parent’s lives. This part of “Maus” disrupts the animal motif of the comic book showing human characters including an adaptation of Spiegelman and his mother photographed during their vacation in 1958. It was also drawn with white lines on black scratchboard in a sophisticated and highly textured style reminiscent of German Expressionist woodcuts (Witek 1989). “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” is a surreal story recounted in a first-person perspective showing Spiegelman as a prisoner of guilt and paranoia he inherited from his parents. He was shown to wear striped pajamas identified with what concentration camp inmates wear. The story serves as a link between the author’s psychological suffering and his parent’s ordeal with the Nazis. This part of the comic book puts more emphasis on one of the reasons Spiegelman created the comic book which is to delve into the Holocaust encounter of his parents and how it affected his parents, in this way he would figure out his relationship with his parents (Witek 1989). In 1986, “Maus” was nominated by the National Book Critics Circle for its annual award for biography. The nomination received various reactions some questioning the ethical values of the comic book but mostly affirmative responses with the comic book earning the label “the Holocaust comic.” (Witek 1989) Spiegelman’s approach in presenting the Holocaust in an unconventional depiction also created controversy. Some critics say that a serious and delicate topic is somehow inappropriate to be presented in a sequential art form. On the other hand, some say that deviating from the usual storylines of popular comic books with super humans and fantasy worlds as their theme was phenomenal in the sequential art field (Witek 1989). Spiegelman’s dynamic illustrations and lay-out coupled with an interesting biographical storyline was deemed as a subtle and effective way to narrate the occurrences during the Holocaust without the denseness of the actual scenes from the tragic event. Moreover, the use of animals and the minimalist features of the mice which were depicted to have dots for eyes and a mere slash for a mouth while the features of the cats always partly concealed by their hats and uniforms accentuating the story of the characters more than the physical features of the character. The mice characters can be distinguished mainly by their clothing while the cat characters seem to have detailed features but can hardly be distinguished because of their uniforms (Witek 1989). Interestingly, the Gentile Poles in the story where depicted as masked pigs signifying that they were neither loyal to the Jewish people nor to the Nazis (Witek 1989). The author’s reasons for representing the characters as he did was to be consistent and accurate in narrating the story of the Holocaust complete with the emotional and physical details without the gore of realistic drawings. Spiegelman’s approach claimed sympathy from the reader encouraging them to read on stimulating sentimental responses instead of a horrific confrontation with the tragic subject. In addition, readers see the comic presentation as a relief in reading about such grim subject as the Holocaust in comparison to the conventional representation of the tragic event with forlorn human faces with background music simultaneously lamenting with the characters (Witek 1989). As a comic book, “Maus” also show glimpses of humor but borders more on the gloomy side. With one instance showing a character selling bootleg cake but later on he finds out that he had used laundry soap instead of flour for the batter. Although humor was slightly incorporated in the story, it still diverts the reader on the usual animal fable and funny cartoon animal characters (Witek 1989). Distinguishing Spiegelman’s animal characters from the popular animal cartoons are the minimal facial features, the elaborate clothes and grim expressions convincingly gives the impression of being human in contrast to Disney’s animal characters who were dressed in a cartoon fashion with distinct facial features of an animal that exhibit various emotions as that of a human (Witek 1989). In comparison to the animal fables such as Aesop’s and George Orwell’s animal characters, Spiegelman’s animal characters were aptly represented with the mice as the oppressed and the cats being the oppressors, which connote the real-life relationship of a cat and mouse. As opposed to Orwell’s use of animals, Spiegelman treats his animal characters as entirely human, with the cat-mouse relationship as the only linking factor to the animal attributes of the character (Witek 1989). Further on, Spiegelman’s characters were shown in a comic art which compensated the horrifying subject thus keeping it in a light manner convincing the reader to read on. Unlike Orwell’s animal characters who were portrayed in a humorless and generally serious fashion while concentrating on personifying the attributes of each character of the animal he used. This autobiographical comic book infused with the Holocaust story by Spiegelman exemplifies how the sequential art medium can be used effectively in narrating both private and public history. Another exemplification of a comic book as a medium for narrating history is Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor” wherein the author’s subject matter is his everyday life (Witek 1989). “American Splendor,” like Spiegelman’s “Maus” was contradictory to popular comic characters. When the pages of widely distributed comic books were splurged with invincible, seemingly problem-free and gorgeous superhuman characters, Pekar opted to show an often times pessimistic, angst ridden and average-looking hospital file clerk with no special powers or the tremendous wealth to possess avant-garde gadgets. Pekar’s story was genuinely original and an outright reality of how a typical man struggles in the rat race (Witek 1989). Moreover “American Splendor” also deviated with the spectrum of color popular comic books have that mammoth comic publishers put in circulation and unlike Pekar’s “American Splendor” which was self-published (Witek 1989). The difference between Spiegelman’s “Maus” and Pekar’s “American Splendor” was that Pekar did not draw his own comics. Instead, he teams up with various comic artists (Witek 1989). On the other hand, both “Maus” and “American Splendor” diverged from the usual escapism theme of common comic book stories. Both comic books explore the harsh realities, oppression and the everyday rat race contrasting to usual stories of humor, adventure and heroism attracting the attention of a small number of readers who deemed the different perspective of the comic books as fresh and more consoling since the readers can relate and feel real and raw emotions contrary to the fantasy settings of popular comic books (Witek 1989). In “American Splendor,” Pekar delves into his daily struggles, showing his insecurities and questions in life. It also accurately shows Pekar’s personality illustrating even his attitudes of being difficult and prickly. It also shows not only Pekar’s emotions but also that of the people around him as he narrates of instances that he had overheard and observed (Witek 1989). With the depressing theme of the stories, the author injects humor as evident during his reflective stories and mood as he swings from narrating his frustrations in life to a positive disposition in his writing career (Witek 1989). The detailed drawings and brilliant flow of the stories through the frames gives the dynamic factor to the seemingly ordinary stories of Pekar’s average and bleak life. As compared to Spiegelman’s “Maus” which was minimal in its drawings, “American Splendor’s” meticulous drawings are appropriate to its seemingly boring storylines while the minimalist drawings of “Maus” befits the strong and emotionally charged theme of the Holocaust. Each comic book captures the readers’ attention with their balance in their own storylines and drawings. The artworks in “American Splendor” was also effective in conveying to the reader moments in the comic book where the character was shown to be in a pensive and contemplative mood, the drawings also dwell in a particular scene hence giving the reader a feel of the silent and static phase of contemplation of the character. Again, Pekar defies the stereotypical dynamism of popular comic books which shows action packed, flying, and fight scenes between characters (Witek 1989). The effectiveness of both “Maus” and “American Splendor” to narrate history and their claim to authority to use sequential art as the medium to relate public and private history is evident in the reactions of the comic books’ readers. “Maus” accurately and consistently depicts the Holocaust story with such intensity of emotions evoking the readers’ sympathy but in a subtle approach without showing the gore and horror of the most infamous massive manslaughter in the history of mankind. In the private history perspective of “Maus,” Spiegelman truthfully exposes his personal qualms with his relationship with his parents, how it affected his own existence and his career as an artist that he was even motivated to create the phenomenal comic book. In addition, the comic book also mirrors the troubles and inner disputes the author has with his self in accepting and understanding of the immutable personality of his father and the constant insecurity of his mother which was pushed over to the edge by his father’s insensitivity resulting to his mother’s uneventful suicide (Witek 1989). Whereas “American Splendor” adequately tells the chronicles of the life of Pekar which demonstrates history of a common individual and providing a variety of readers a first-hand feel on the daily lives of an average citizen to those who lead lives differently from the average bracket of people while the comic character affects those who lead similar lives by instilling in their minds that beyond their despair and frustrations in their quicksand life, there is still hope and optimistic events in their destitute lives (Witek 1989). Additionally, the comic book tells the story of the people who comprise the large part of the population; those who were labeled as the working class and the underprivileged. Efficient communication with the readers was the key to the good reviews the two comic books received. By means of an exceptional tandem of drawings and original storyline, the authors Spiegelman and Pekar expressed their histories through the unusual medium of sequential art. Taking after these comic book authors, some had tackled historical events as their subject for their comic books. Some of these authors are Mariane Satrapi, Sid Jacobson, Joe Sacco, Guy Delisle, Brian Michael Brendis, James McCarthy and others. These authors undertake subject matters such as politics, war, battling with illness, and almost any topic under the sun. Some authors even used comic art to narrate travelogues, journalist chronicles and religious chronicles among others. These themes stretched the possibilities of literature expressed through the sequential art medium. Proliferation in the use of the sequential medium only proves that comic art should not be limited to leisure reading and should not be for amusement purposes only. Comic books have evolved into a tool which can be used as an informative reading. To sum up the arguments by Joseph Witek, comic books have progressed into an art medium which can be used to express not only an individual’s personal story but also to illustrate important and infamous historical events as evident in both “Maus” and “American Splendor.” (Witek 1989) Furthermore, the comic book art have surpassed the era of being bounded to fictional characters as demonstrated by Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor.” It also surpassed the boundaries of being just for amusement and humorous as shown by Art Spiegelman’s “Maus.” Therefore we can state that comic books can be informative source readings for both private and public human history. CITED WORKS Witek, J. 1989. Comic Books as History. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Read More