Comics in a Whole-Lot-of-Context

Because I know you'll need something to read on Wednesday (fingers are so totally crossed, let me mention)...

Within the past decade or two, the world of graphic novels - or, if you prefer, comic books - has begun to move from the fringes of the literary world into - or at least closer to - the mainstream.

Libraries are recognizing the power of drawing in young readers through offerings of manga and graphic novels. Bookstores certainly are willing to sell comics in single issues or in trade paperback forms. And, thankfully, some scholars have come to recognize that graphic novels can certainly qualify as literature of the highest regard.

In the past, I have pointed out this latter development through links to Jeff Tepper's excellentSequential History thesis regarding the development of comic books and comic culture in the US, Watchmen's presence on Time's 100 greatest English-language novels list, the work of Scott McCloud, and the number of comic-themed movies that are being made by mainstream movie studios.

This week, I offer you another highly literate source of comics info: Comics in Context.

Comics in Context is an ongoing column written by Peter Sanderson, comic book historian and lecturer at NYU. According to his Wikipedia entry, Sanderson was "first hired by DC in the early 1980s, where he was given the task of reading every comic book published by DC since 1935". He "then went to work for Marvel as their first (and only) archivist, and contributed as a researcher on the various Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series in the 1980s and early 1990s." As such, I'm thinking that he's uniquely qualified to write a "series of critical essays on comics, cartoon art, and related subjects", and his qualifications show as every one of his column entries runs for a thousand words or more.

The column is currently on issue #162 and can be found in two places. The first 132 columns can be found on IGN's website, and the rest of them on the new Quick Stop Entertainment site.

I'll admit to having only read a dozen or so of the columns - largely cherry-picking based on the summaries found on the two sites, but I'll be working back through most of the archives.