Customer Reviews

Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar (Studies in Popular Culture)

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Rusty Witek was the first of a younger (well probably not so young anymore) set of academics to publish a rigorous work on comics. This book deserved attention and I reviewed it in American Quarterly. I wish I had said more about its strengths. Witek takes comic books seriously and builds an argument that flows from the comic books rather than seeing them simply reflecting society. Witek raises issues about the relationship between the form of comic art and the stories told. I did not always agree with his view, but Witek was doing things no one else had attempted with American comics at this point. If you are interested in comic books, and work that wants to discuss them seriously, you should buy this book.

As one of the artists mentioned briefly in Witek's book, I want to let readers know that Witek's analysis of my splash page for the story "May 4-5, 1970" in American Splendor #1 (1976, Harvey Pekar) is a thoughtful and accurate examination of what I was trying to accomplish. At that time, I had just discovered Will Eisner's work and was experimenting with trying to indicate time and sequence within comic panels frames as well as the more standard sequential panel-to-panel convention. Whether or not I was successful is left to Witek and the reader to decide.

Beyond that, Witek has provided an insightful and even entertaining examination of the successful (and unsuccessful) experiments that people make in translating historical or biographical events into graphic form, and into the complex drivers that motivate people to do so.
--Brian Bram