May

14

The Phrenological Comic

Filed Under I'm a Bookie 

Uncertain Knowledge

Graphic novels have now become so the norm for pop culture, that publishers and authors alike are attempting to fit themselves into different niches within the genre.

Of wider popularity as of late, has been the “graphic memoir.” Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen, and Marjane Satrapi’s, Persepolis are not the pioneers of this trend, but they are definitely some of the examples out there which have brought this kind of graphic novel into the spotlight.

Another newly-coined niche, which I find a little unclear as to what kinds of graphic stories it includes or excludes is, “typographic comic.” I’d like to discuss one not so obvious, and one obvious (and maybe the culprit of the new term) graphic novels that might better help clarify the terminology as well as offer a different perspective on two entirely different books dealing with private thoughts and perspectives, rendered in an almost similar (parallel might be the better word) fashion.

Emotionally, like Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Maira Kalman’s, The Principles of Uncertainty, is the sway and crash of the waves of memories and thoughts that floods someone who has lost a loved one, and re-evaluates life while taken by the enormity (both grandeur and gravity) of everyday things.

Kalman supports her story with rich illustrations and brilliant colours. It is Kalman’s text however, illustrative and imaginative, that carry the magnitude of the book.

It is the not so obvious candidate for the title of “typographic comic” and yet without her Cy Twombly-like markings, Kalman would have only created the pretty without the memory, the surface without the story.

Ray Fenwick’s, Hall of Best Knowledge, on the other hand is the obvious pick for “typographic comic” and may be where the genre initially developed, or at least its title.

Fenwick’s book is a collection of many authors sharing many viewpoints, where generally the profound is cloaked as the absurd, and the absurd, profound.

Fenwick’s illustrations are his type. The type is the both the starring and supporting character in his book. But what is the character of such a book? That is, what is the quality revealed?

In the most unfair comparison I hope to limit myself to in this lifetime, the reader learns from both novels that knowledge exists in the principles of uncertainty, but on occasion, needs a hall pass to find its way around.

Support your local bookstore. Swipe Books on Advertising and Design (another layer of meaning!) sells both graphic novels discussed in the above post. Check out their new location as of May 2008.

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