Just hold on a sec there, you might say. Wait a minute. What? What?!!
You’re going to talk about the graphic novel? You mean that gussied up term for a comic book? You're talking comics?
Yep.
But hang on. If you’re of a mind to balk at the very idea of reading cartoons (or reading about them), stay a moment. Give these two titles a chance. While they’re about as different from each other in look, tone, and style as two books can get, they are both – believe it or not – actually worth scoping out.
Bone -
By Jeff Smith Originally issued in nine volumes, Smith’s story centers on the three Bone cousins: earnest Fone Bone, daffy Smiley Bone, and (yes) insincere Phony Bone – odd, small, doughy white creatures tossed out of their hometown of Boneville for one (or more) of Phony’s transgressions. They eventually find themselves in a large forest full of humans, and get themselves caught up in a variation of your standard epic fantasy plot.
A lot of things could have gone wrong here. Smith owes (what seems to me, anyway) rather obvious and rather large debts to Disney, Peanuts, The Lord of the Rings, and Looney Toons (in some rather daffy and occasionally insane bouts of humor). That said, the book usually works. It manages to avoid most (though not all) of the saccharine Disney-type moments that could have killed the story, and Smith is fortunately not above drawing the really good visual gag – indeed, Smith’s visual gags are wonderfully timed and delivered, and it’s here that his debt to Looney Toons is clear.
The Lord of the Rings epic fantasy stuff begins kicking into high gear about a third of the way into the series, and it’s at this point that the humor takes a back seat, which is a bit unfortunate. Luckily, it doesn’t vanish completely, and indeed reenters the plot in strength from time to time. The series (now available in one 1300 page volume) is worth checking out.
Maus -
By Art Spiegelman I did say these books were tonally and stylistically different. Where Bone is a predominantly light fantasy/adventure, Maus is the exact opposite – a very dark tale based on a very dark historical reality.
Spiegelman, who was already an established name in underground comics when he produced this two volume work, wound up winning a Pulitzer for his efforts here. While this work addresses a number of issues (memory, marriage, and the relationships between fathers and sons), his central aim lay in addressing the legacy and ravages of The Holocaust.
But wait a minute, you might say. The Holocaust? Really? Aren’t comics a rather tasteless and crassly commercial way of addressing that vast tragedy?
They would be, if we were discussing your typical tights and a cape type comics fare. Maus isn’t tights and a cape comics fare.
The story begins as Artie (Spiegelman’s fictional proxy) visits his elderly father, Vladek. The two of them are somewhat estranged, but they soon begin to talk. Artie, an artist, is trying to write a piece on his father’s experiences in the Holocaust. Their conversation continues over the course of a number of difficult visits, and as Vladek speaks, the story of his life unfolds.
Spiegelman wisely chose to tell this story in black and white – colors would simply have seemed too garish here. He acknowledges the artificial nature of the comics medium (using animals as his central characters rather than humans), but never allows the medium to obscure the emotion of his story. It is powerfully told.
A note: I have noticed some criticism of Spiegelman’s work on various websites (Amazon, for example) – criticism aimed chiefly at his unflattering representation of the Polish people. As I mentioned earlier, Spiegelman drew all of his characters as a particular type of animal (Germans are cats, Jews mice, etc.). The Poles appear as pigs. This is an interesting (and worrisome) criticism to bear in mind if and when you read the book. But Maus is worth reading as a serious attempt to grapple with history. It simply isn't perfect.
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