Literature of Comics & the Graphic Narrative

Underground comics originated in the 1960s and could be found in small press newspapers as well as in self-published comic books. They depicted content that was forbidden to mainstream publications, such as drugs, sex, racism, and politics. These comics were very satirical, twisted, and broke limitations. Many people saw these comics as offensive, while others just thought it was a way of “pushing the boundaries.” Underground comics became an art movement that was attempting to be honest. These artists had a willingness to risk and didn’t try to glamorize the concepts told in their stories; they simply told it like it is. This movement gave an answer to the question, “Should it be drawn just because it can?”, and to these artists, the answer was, yes. It also showed that anybody can make comics if they wanted to. One underground comic book I read was Air Pirates Funnies , a collection of stories focused on Walt Disney characters engaging in adult behaviors that were not c

A Contract With God, written by Will Eisner, is often referred to as the first modern graphic novel, which was a term Eisner himself helped popularize. The story is set a neighborhood in the Bronx and examines the world of immigrant life in New York City in the 1930s. Drawn with pen and ink, A Contract With God is considered a semi-autobiographical work, capturing the drama of the city and its inhabitants. Will Eisner displays a specific narrative approach to graphic storytelling in this novel, having much to do with conveying strong emotions, stereotypes, as well as including a theme of religion and faith. Faith plays a strong role in this story as the man takes on dealing with faith in God, friends, family, and ultimately humanity. His story also relies heavily on stereotypes, believing that “in order to believe the action of the story, the reader has to swallow a lot of stereotypes.” These stereotypes include displaying women as desperate beings who desire status and m

In the 1930s and 1940s, a new form of the graphic narrative took hold and became known as the comic book. These more elaborate comic strips were easily portable and people really seemed to enjoy being able to read more than one comic at one sitting, something you couldn’t do with just one newspaper. Before the comic book became popular, it was very hard for animation to break out of the concept of only being for children. The stories tended to always be very unrealistic and overdramatic so it was very difficult to make them appeal to both kids and adults. There was a strong demand for the expanding and maturing audience, and a strong censorship system was created to restrict mainstream comics to appropriate subjects and representations to be kid approved. This became a big conflict; however, people then began finding a way to create stories with political and social satire that were also kid approved. So many people were drawn to comic books because these stories t