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This Sunday's NY Times magazine had a great article by Charles McGrath about comics and 'graphic novels', focusing on the contemporary 'auters': Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelmen, etc. The usual suspects for the most part.

It's a pretty respectful article about the medium. One part annoyed me though. Early on, McGrath sets up the kind of books he is going to be talking about by first dismissing the books "churned out" by the Big Two, DC and Marvel. That's all well and good but he uses a book called "Y: The Last Man" as an example of the type of book that should be "ignored". "Y" is an interesting sci-fi book that is one of the many books DC produces that helps to loosen the damaging grip superheroes have on the medium. McGrath simplifies and belittles the book by describing it as "about literally the last man on earth (the rest died in a plague), who is now pursued by a band of killer lesbians." In a funny way, that description may be accurate but it distills a fun and interesting book down to a base synopsis that makes it sound very avoidable. It's unfair to use this, of all books, as an example of what is wrong with mainstream comics.

Posted at July 13, 2004 10:06 AM