Hello all,

First off, I just wanted to mention that the Art Speigelman lecture was extremely enlightening and humorous (in a dark, sardonic way). He was engaging, personable and yet seemed to be a man who would suffer no fools. Conclusion: It was pretty neat and I definitely recommend going to see him speak if you’re at all interested in the comic creative process.

I think the feeling of Spiegelman’s lecture is best summed up in his own words.  In reference to Maus (his best selling Graphic Novel) Spiegelman mater-of-factly stated that he felt “like a blues musician with a crossover hit.” No where is this more true than in his early work, as detailed in his new book (and subject of the lecture) Breakdowns. As he spoke I realize if nothing else Spiegelman is an ADD genius; ideas flow freely from his head never lingering past the audience’s applause and laughter. Yet, it is only when this creative energy is channeled into ink that we are given the time necessarily to fully understand and appreciate his work.

To Spiegelman, “comics are diagrams” of human thought. He explains that we all think in small iconic images and in small phrases, thus the combination of thought bubble and frame is able to “pierce our critical defenses.” Comics speaks to us, directly to us, in a way no other form of media says Spiegelman. “Comics allow you to the projector of the film,” guiding the action and allowing the reader to move at his/her own pace. And so it comes as no surprise to Spiegelman that the Graphic Novel is one of the few remaining  areas of growth in the literature market (that and religion).

While Spiegelman did not directly address the subject of religion in comics, he did insist (and I paraphrase, I wish I had be able to quote) that the very first comics were the painted glass depictions of that superhero who turned water into wine. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that the first commercial cartoons were to come out in Newsprint on the Christian Sabbath, thus directly competing with God for readership (or so said turn of the 20th century fundamentalists). Thought I think the church can hardly be angry at an art form that borrows so heavily from their content and form. It stands to make sense that comics would be a good tool to use when depicting religious events, most notably the apocalypse.

Spiegelman explained that comics are by their nature ephemeral and thus “appropriate for the end of the world.” Paired with the ability of cartoons to reach their reader on their own terms makes Graphic novels immensely powerful cultural agents. And when there is humor, this only makes the comic more powerful. The root of all humor lays in hostility and violence asserts Spiegelman, what scares and bothers us is what makes us laugh the hardest and brings us together. He sited the propaganda of WW2 as an example, be it the racist depiction of Jews in Germany or of the Japanese in America. This theory could also be applied to End Times, I can think of few subjects of competing violence and destruction.

Those are the general points of Speigelman’s lecture and what I found most relevant. In closing, I just want to leave you with my favorite quote of the night.

“The great thing about comics is this: if you don’t get a painting, you assume your stupid. With a comic book, if you don’t get it, you assume the writer is stupid.”

– Jesse