May

12

Graphic Visions.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 12, 2008 |

shake.jpgIn a book review in New York Magazine, Dan Kois begins a review of two graphic novels for young adults by emphasizing the the fact that they’re found in the manga section of the bookstore. I’m giving away my ignorance here because I thought graphic novels were one thing and manga were another, and he does add say that manga are “pocket-size comics usually translated from the Japanese”. I thought manga were, by definition, always Japanese, but the two books Kois reviews, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and Diary Of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney don’t look anything like what I usually consider manga, but there’s really nothing wrong with using the term to cover a broader, non-Japanese genre. I’m reminded of a story Neil Gaiman told in an interview on Studio 360 about telling someone he wrote comic books. The person he was speaking to corrected him, saying, “you write graphic novels.” For Gaiman, as well as for a lot of us, there’s something ridiculous and condescending about the division between mere comic books (classified as “lowbrow”) and graphic novels (classified as “highbrow”).

The fact that graphic novels, or comic books, are primarily aimed at young adults also makes them an ideal medium for the talents of young adults. A small group of students at Stanford University, in six weeks, put together the graphic novel Shake Girl. As if producing and publishing a graphic novel weren’t an already an ambitious project, according to the students’ statement, the book is intended “to create awareness about the issues of violence against women, and more specifically, the phenomenon of acid attacks in Cambodia.” This seems pretty impressive, but probably only to those of us who don’t hang around in the manga section of the bookstore.


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