Sweetness. I used to tutor High School students. Now I sell insurance. I guess you could work in comic books like that with Seniors. Watchmen and V would grab their attention in an instant.
Yeah. Getting copies for everyone would be a mother (unless I whored out the school's copy room for hours), but I'd totally be interested in doing it, and I'm sure they'd love it.
aight, i`ve been away for a while now, and just now i managed to see all the replies.
Thanx a lot guys, this is very helpful of you ... I`m gonna look up everything you said here and i dont know about. What about some of the major titles from Marvel and DC ? Which ones whould you look into as literature ?
Judging from the complexity/drama of the character i`d say either The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man or Spider-Man. Not to mention Wolverine : Origins [which i recently bought (and loved it)] , and which i think is very similar to the romantic period in literature, particulary the plot, the development of the characters (especially Rose and Smitty) and of course the ending.
I honestly don't like the art much, so I had the same problem for a while. And while it may not have been as "cool" as "V" or Gaiman's stuff, I can read through it, enjoy it, and realize that its a magnificent acheivement from a literary perspective.
For mainstream, long term titles, the literary merit will probably come more from looking at the work as separate arcs or look at the individual contributions of separate authors in a different light. There might just be too much conflicting history or conflicting concepts between authors to make it worthwhile as a complete piece of literature. While most of the characters do have some degree of development, I don't necessarily look at that and the character interactions as being the definition of "art".
Most literature is expressive. The romantic period that you talk about has less to do with love stories (even though a lot of the work did revolve around lovers, lots of it also was based on man and nature) and more to do with beauty and human emotion.
The question then must become, what are the comics trying to express. For instance spider-man has the "power and responsibility" motif. This is a very strong literary device, and it allows a dimension for expression of the human condition. I'm sure if you looked through the history of Spider-Man you could find excellent moments that are ripe with artistic merit (Gwen Stacy off the bridge) and many others that deal are more geared to sales.
Actually, that final distinction between "art" and "sales" is completely arbitrary. Art is 110% in the eye of the beholder. If you were able to take something away from the "clone sage" of spider man that allows you to better imagine humanity or the universe, then it is art to you. I personally think it was crap. Neither of us would be right.
I've read V. and Watchmen, both were great.. But I have never been bothered enough to read Gaiman's run on Sandman. I have every issue of it but I tried to read it once and well:
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Nov 30th, 2006 02:56 AM
