Recent Reading: Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk

 

Last night I made it about halfway through Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics. I expect I will finish the book today.

I have mixed feelings about Wolk's book. On the one hand, I enjoy reading comics, especially what Wolk might call non-superhero comics. I am glad to see that there is a person publishing a serious academic book on comics.

On the other hand, Wolk often can not quite decide whether the book is written for comic book fans who already love the form and would appreciate an academic frame to justify their love or if he is writing to academics to persuade them that comics deserve serious consideration as an art form in the same way that nineteenth century British literature does. Wolk does make some attempt to offer a theoretical foundation for his argument, but he does not seem too invested in the idea and even apologizes when he brings aesthetic theory into his argument:

Please don't throw this book across the room, but I'm going to bring Immanuel Kant's Critique of Aesthetic Judgement in here, since he worked out how visual art works on the viewer's mind more clearly than pretty much anyone else.

Wolk does bring discuss some of the serious issues and problems that plague the modern comics industry such as:

• Is the field too gendered and overly geared toward adolescent male fantasies?
• Does the field depend too much on superfans and not market itself enough to people who have not discovered comics?
• How has the change from the way comics have sold changed the field? That is, comics used to be sold as single issues the size of short magazines, but now they have increasingly been replaced by graphic novels, omnibuses, and other forms of 100 plus page books.
  

The book was published in 2007 so comics and the comics industry, as expected have changed since then. I would suggest that there are some other issues that should be asked about the current comics industry:

• Is the field entirely too dependent on a small number of independent comic shops that cater to middle class white men?
• How is the increasing prominence of electronic reading, especially ComiXology changing the field?
• Is the Disney acquisition of Marvel and the large number of Marvel superhero movies and television shows a positive development? 
• What is one to make of the many other comics that have been adapted for the big and small screen in recent years such as Watchmen, Paper Girls, the Boys, or Resident Alien?
• What are some of the comics, authors, illustrators, or industry trends that have happened since 2007 when the book was published that deserve to be looked at in some depth?
  

At least in my opinion. the best part of the book is part two. Part two is a series of essays that are as Wolk says "just about comics and cartoonists I think are interesting to discuss." Included in this section are David B's Epileptic, Chester Brown, Love & Rockets, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Dave Sim, and Alison Bechdel. This section of the book is, by far, the best and most enjoyable section. The essays can be read in any order and one does not need to have read part one to enjoy them. I think many readers would be quite satisfied to start the book with this section and decide to read part one only after that.