Subject
Fw: Vladimir Nabokov and Comix.
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (224
lines) ------------------
> In addition, Gavriel Shapiro has an essay on "Nabokov and Comic Art" in
Lisa Zunshine's recent edited volume, Nabokov at the Limits (Garland, 1999).
>
> Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
> Associate Professor of English
> Holy Cross College
>
> >>> chtodel@cox.net 01/25/04 19:53 PM >>>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
> To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:26 PM
> Subject: RE: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
>
> >
> > Nabokov and comics
> >
> > I comment on the origin of comics in explicating "all his trim stripes
and
> > colors were a little displaced, though, in the process of comic strip
> > printing, because it was a Sunday" (124.28-30) in the "Annotations to
ADA
> > I.20" (Nabokovian 49: 40-41).
> >
> > The greatest figure so far in the history of comics, the first genius on
> the
> > scale of the great novelists and poets, is Art Spiegelman. When he was
> still
> > in charge of the comics section of the New Yorker, he drew the cover for
> > their Winter Fiction issue (the issue containing Nabokov's discarded and
> > semi-fictional Chapter 16 of "Conclusive Evidence"), December 28,
> > 1998-January 4 1999, a picture of a Sue Lyons-like Lolita in a bikini on
a
> > beachtowel reading a book called "Fiction," in the midst of a snowy
> > landscape, with a watching snowman's hat leaping up off his head as his
> > eyebrows jump up in surprise at the bikini in the snow.
> >
> > Interestingly, Nabokov never seems to have commented on the work of
George
> > Herriman, the maker of Krazy Kat, arguably the greatest talent in comics
> > before Spiegelman, whose work appealed to many artists and writers. The
> > color pages of Krazy Kat ran in the color supplements of American
> newspapers
> > from 1935 to 1944 (and sometimes do comment self-reflexively on the
> > displacement of ink-as Spiegelman does brilliantly in his "Two-Fisted
> > Painters" in *Raw*?1980).
> >
> > Brian Boyd
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: D. Barton Johnson
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Sent: 1/25/2004 7:06 AM
> > Subject: Fw: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
> >
> > EDNOTE. Boy and man, Nabokov followed the comics and frequently alluded
> > to them in his writings. Only a few critics have delved into the the
> > subject: Alfred Appel; Clarence Brown (himself a comic strip artist--as
> > well as distnguished scholar); and I (see my illustrated essay on ZEMBLA
> > that deals with VN's early interest in comics. Still rarer are the
> > comics artists themselves who have expressed an interest in VN. See
> > below.
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Sandy P. <mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com> Klein
> > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 9:30 PM
> > Subject: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
> >
> >
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/>
> >
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
> > Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1074858202527&call_pageid=968867495754>
> > http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A
> > rticle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1074858202527&call_pageid=968867495754
> >
> > Jan. 23, 2004. 10:42 AM
> > <http://www.thestar.com/images/star/nav/spacer_487.gif>
> >
> >
> > <http://ads.thestar.com/click.ng/site=thestar&Section=entertainment&page
> > =index&spacedesc=windowad>
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/040123_thompson_c_250.jpg>
> >
> > AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER
> > Graphic novelist Craig Thompson, author of "Blankets," holds pages from
> > his book Dec. 30, 2003, in his Portland, Ore., studio.
> > Comicsville, U.S.A.
> >
> >
> > BY SARAH LINN
> > ASSOCIATED PRESS
> >
> > PORTLAND, Ore. ? Craig Thompson wanted to write comics but it was rough
> > going when he moved to Portland six years ago.
> >
> > His budget was so small, he said, he'd wait outside fast-foot
> > restaurants until people finished, then eat food off their trays.
> >
> > "The first six months were harsh," says Thompson, author of the
> > critically acclaimed, mostly autobiographical graphic novel blankets.
> >
> > To survive, he painted houses for a scam artist who left him with $6,000
> > worth of bad cheques. His bike was stolen. Four men in a grocery store
> > parking lot assaulted him and another man.
> >
> > But he stayed, and found a job as a designer with Dark Horse Comics, the
> > fourth largest U.S. publisher in the growing comic book industry. Now
> > Thompson is part of a thriving Portland comics scene that includes
> > journalist Joe Sacco and superhero comics writer Greg Rucka.
> >
> > Portland and its suburbs are home to such publishers as Dark Horse, Oni
> > Press and Top Shelf Publications. The area is quieter than other comics
> > hotspots like Seattle and New York.
> >
> > "It's a place where you can daydream," Sacco, who travels the world for
> > his work, says. In peaceful Portland, "You can step out of your house
> > and think while you're out on the streets."
> >
> > Comics have come a long way from the newspaper-print funnies once sold
> > at drug stores and newsstands, says publisher Michael Richardson, who
> > founded Dark Horse Comics in 1986. Underground icons Robert Crumb and
> > Harvey Pekar broke new ground for comic book subjects in the 1960s, and
> > Art Spiegelman's Holocaust tale, Maus, brought a level of gravity to the
> > form in 1986.
> >
> > These days, readers are just as likely to find graphic novels crowding
> > bookshelves as pulpy superhero pamphlets, Richardson says.
> >
> > And the genre is growing. Graphic novels earned $100 million in 2002, a
> > 33 per cent increase from the year before, when they accounted for one
> > per cent of American book sales, according to Publishers Weekly.
> >
> > The soft-spoken Thompson, 28, published his first graphic novel five
> > years ago. Goodbye, Chunky Rice is about the seagoing adventures of a
> > lovelorn young turtle. Blankets, a 2003 Top Shelf release, explores
> > adolescent insecurities, faith, family and first loves with delicate
> > images of snow and sleep. The 582-page coming-of-age tale deals with
> > such thorny subjects as molestation and growing up in a fundamentalist
> > Christian household.
> >
> > "Stories I pursue I always want to be, at the risk of sounding
> > pretentious, literary," says Thompson, who grew up in Wisconsin and
> > whose favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia
> > Marquez.
> >
> > Thompson often meshes the fantastic with the factual. His current
> > project is the story of a love between a eunuch and a courtesan in an
> > Arabian Nights setting.
> >
> > He has filled notebooks with sketches, dreams and plot details, an
> > approach that he says helps build ties with readers. "Comics you can
> > linger over and look at each page," he says. "You see the author's lines
> > as if you're looking at a handwritten letter from them."
> >
> > Sacco takes the approach of a war correspondent, filing gritty
> > dispatches from the front lines of human suffering. His books, which
> > include Palestine and the Bosnian civil war journal Safe Area Gorazde,
> > chronicle armed conflicts in a cartoonish, crosshatch-heavy style.
> >
> > The stories have a dark, absurdist humour, according to the 43-year-old
> > Sacco, who studied journalism at the University of Oregon.
> >
> > Sacco, from the Mediterranean island of Malta, travels frequently from
> > Portland to Europe and the Middle East, and most recently went to the
> > Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He documents his experiences with
> > notes, photographs and tape recordings.
> >
> > In the 2003 memoir The Fixer, Sacco recalls Neven, the guide he met
> > while covering wartime Sarajevo. The book follows Sacco in 2001 as he
> > searches for traces of his former fixer.
> >
> > Macho and morally ambiguous, Neven has no qualms about milking Sacco for
> > money as he tells outrageous war stories and chaperones the younger man
> > through a strife-torn country.
> >
> > The former newspaperman scoffs at the journalistic ideal of objectivity,
> > arguing that everyone has a background, prejudices and a point of view.
> > "Why can't we go to a journalist and say, `Tell us what you think?'"
> >
> > Rucka has taken a more traditional approach to comics, simultaneously
> > writing titles for DC Comics' Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman series ?
> > the first writer to tackle such a hat trick since 1974.
> >
> > The task puts Rucka, 33, in a vulnerable position, given the decreasing
> > appetite for serial, pamphlet-style comic books. Superhero comics have
> > long attracted scorn from critics who see the genre as silly, even
> > infantile.
> >
> > Rucka, a published novelist, says tales of muscle-bound, masked men and
> > women let readers examine human struggles on a superhuman scale. "Nobody
> > would have asked the Greeks, `Why Hercules?'" he says.
> >
> > Comics' growing narrative consciousness can be attributed to a changing
> > customer base, says Richardson, the publisher. While fewer children are
> > buying comics, teens and adults alike are turning to the medium.
> >
> > Comic books and graphic novels are also gaining respectability as
> > serious art forms, thanks to such literary endeavours as Thompson's
> > Blankets, said Top Shelf publisher Brett Warnock.
> >
> > "It's the golden age right now."
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _____
> >
> > Learn how to choose, serve, and <http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2749??PS=>
> > enjoy wine at Wine @ MSN.
>
From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (224
lines) ------------------
> In addition, Gavriel Shapiro has an essay on "Nabokov and Comic Art" in
Lisa Zunshine's recent edited volume, Nabokov at the Limits (Garland, 1999).
>
> Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
> Associate Professor of English
> Holy Cross College
>
> >>> chtodel@cox.net 01/25/04 19:53 PM >>>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
> To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:26 PM
> Subject: RE: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
>
> >
> > Nabokov and comics
> >
> > I comment on the origin of comics in explicating "all his trim stripes
and
> > colors were a little displaced, though, in the process of comic strip
> > printing, because it was a Sunday" (124.28-30) in the "Annotations to
ADA
> > I.20" (Nabokovian 49: 40-41).
> >
> > The greatest figure so far in the history of comics, the first genius on
> the
> > scale of the great novelists and poets, is Art Spiegelman. When he was
> still
> > in charge of the comics section of the New Yorker, he drew the cover for
> > their Winter Fiction issue (the issue containing Nabokov's discarded and
> > semi-fictional Chapter 16 of "Conclusive Evidence"), December 28,
> > 1998-January 4 1999, a picture of a Sue Lyons-like Lolita in a bikini on
a
> > beachtowel reading a book called "Fiction," in the midst of a snowy
> > landscape, with a watching snowman's hat leaping up off his head as his
> > eyebrows jump up in surprise at the bikini in the snow.
> >
> > Interestingly, Nabokov never seems to have commented on the work of
George
> > Herriman, the maker of Krazy Kat, arguably the greatest talent in comics
> > before Spiegelman, whose work appealed to many artists and writers. The
> > color pages of Krazy Kat ran in the color supplements of American
> newspapers
> > from 1935 to 1944 (and sometimes do comment self-reflexively on the
> > displacement of ink-as Spiegelman does brilliantly in his "Two-Fisted
> > Painters" in *Raw*?1980).
> >
> > Brian Boyd
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: D. Barton Johnson
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Sent: 1/25/2004 7:06 AM
> > Subject: Fw: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
> >
> > EDNOTE. Boy and man, Nabokov followed the comics and frequently alluded
> > to them in his writings. Only a few critics have delved into the the
> > subject: Alfred Appel; Clarence Brown (himself a comic strip artist--as
> > well as distnguished scholar); and I (see my illustrated essay on ZEMBLA
> > that deals with VN's early interest in comics. Still rarer are the
> > comics artists themselves who have expressed an interest in VN. See
> > below.
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Sandy P. <mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com> Klein
> > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 9:30 PM
> > Subject: favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov ...
> >
> >
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/>
> >
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
> > Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1074858202527&call_pageid=968867495754>
> > http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A
> > rticle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1074858202527&call_pageid=968867495754
> >
> > Jan. 23, 2004. 10:42 AM
> > <http://www.thestar.com/images/star/nav/spacer_487.gif>
> >
> >
> > <http://ads.thestar.com/click.ng/site=thestar&Section=entertainment&page
> > =index&spacedesc=windowad>
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/040123_thompson_c_250.jpg>
> >
> > AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER
> > Graphic novelist Craig Thompson, author of "Blankets," holds pages from
> > his book Dec. 30, 2003, in his Portland, Ore., studio.
> > Comicsville, U.S.A.
> >
> >
> > BY SARAH LINN
> > ASSOCIATED PRESS
> >
> > PORTLAND, Ore. ? Craig Thompson wanted to write comics but it was rough
> > going when he moved to Portland six years ago.
> >
> > His budget was so small, he said, he'd wait outside fast-foot
> > restaurants until people finished, then eat food off their trays.
> >
> > "The first six months were harsh," says Thompson, author of the
> > critically acclaimed, mostly autobiographical graphic novel blankets.
> >
> > To survive, he painted houses for a scam artist who left him with $6,000
> > worth of bad cheques. His bike was stolen. Four men in a grocery store
> > parking lot assaulted him and another man.
> >
> > But he stayed, and found a job as a designer with Dark Horse Comics, the
> > fourth largest U.S. publisher in the growing comic book industry. Now
> > Thompson is part of a thriving Portland comics scene that includes
> > journalist Joe Sacco and superhero comics writer Greg Rucka.
> >
> > Portland and its suburbs are home to such publishers as Dark Horse, Oni
> > Press and Top Shelf Publications. The area is quieter than other comics
> > hotspots like Seattle and New York.
> >
> > "It's a place where you can daydream," Sacco, who travels the world for
> > his work, says. In peaceful Portland, "You can step out of your house
> > and think while you're out on the streets."
> >
> > Comics have come a long way from the newspaper-print funnies once sold
> > at drug stores and newsstands, says publisher Michael Richardson, who
> > founded Dark Horse Comics in 1986. Underground icons Robert Crumb and
> > Harvey Pekar broke new ground for comic book subjects in the 1960s, and
> > Art Spiegelman's Holocaust tale, Maus, brought a level of gravity to the
> > form in 1986.
> >
> > These days, readers are just as likely to find graphic novels crowding
> > bookshelves as pulpy superhero pamphlets, Richardson says.
> >
> > And the genre is growing. Graphic novels earned $100 million in 2002, a
> > 33 per cent increase from the year before, when they accounted for one
> > per cent of American book sales, according to Publishers Weekly.
> >
> > The soft-spoken Thompson, 28, published his first graphic novel five
> > years ago. Goodbye, Chunky Rice is about the seagoing adventures of a
> > lovelorn young turtle. Blankets, a 2003 Top Shelf release, explores
> > adolescent insecurities, faith, family and first loves with delicate
> > images of snow and sleep. The 582-page coming-of-age tale deals with
> > such thorny subjects as molestation and growing up in a fundamentalist
> > Christian household.
> >
> > "Stories I pursue I always want to be, at the risk of sounding
> > pretentious, literary," says Thompson, who grew up in Wisconsin and
> > whose favourite authors include Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia
> > Marquez.
> >
> > Thompson often meshes the fantastic with the factual. His current
> > project is the story of a love between a eunuch and a courtesan in an
> > Arabian Nights setting.
> >
> > He has filled notebooks with sketches, dreams and plot details, an
> > approach that he says helps build ties with readers. "Comics you can
> > linger over and look at each page," he says. "You see the author's lines
> > as if you're looking at a handwritten letter from them."
> >
> > Sacco takes the approach of a war correspondent, filing gritty
> > dispatches from the front lines of human suffering. His books, which
> > include Palestine and the Bosnian civil war journal Safe Area Gorazde,
> > chronicle armed conflicts in a cartoonish, crosshatch-heavy style.
> >
> > The stories have a dark, absurdist humour, according to the 43-year-old
> > Sacco, who studied journalism at the University of Oregon.
> >
> > Sacco, from the Mediterranean island of Malta, travels frequently from
> > Portland to Europe and the Middle East, and most recently went to the
> > Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He documents his experiences with
> > notes, photographs and tape recordings.
> >
> > In the 2003 memoir The Fixer, Sacco recalls Neven, the guide he met
> > while covering wartime Sarajevo. The book follows Sacco in 2001 as he
> > searches for traces of his former fixer.
> >
> > Macho and morally ambiguous, Neven has no qualms about milking Sacco for
> > money as he tells outrageous war stories and chaperones the younger man
> > through a strife-torn country.
> >
> > The former newspaperman scoffs at the journalistic ideal of objectivity,
> > arguing that everyone has a background, prejudices and a point of view.
> > "Why can't we go to a journalist and say, `Tell us what you think?'"
> >
> > Rucka has taken a more traditional approach to comics, simultaneously
> > writing titles for DC Comics' Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman series ?
> > the first writer to tackle such a hat trick since 1974.
> >
> > The task puts Rucka, 33, in a vulnerable position, given the decreasing
> > appetite for serial, pamphlet-style comic books. Superhero comics have
> > long attracted scorn from critics who see the genre as silly, even
> > infantile.
> >
> > Rucka, a published novelist, says tales of muscle-bound, masked men and
> > women let readers examine human struggles on a superhuman scale. "Nobody
> > would have asked the Greeks, `Why Hercules?'" he says.
> >
> > Comics' growing narrative consciousness can be attributed to a changing
> > customer base, says Richardson, the publisher. While fewer children are
> > buying comics, teens and adults alike are turning to the medium.
> >
> > Comic books and graphic novels are also gaining respectability as
> > serious art forms, thanks to such literary endeavours as Thompson's
> > Blankets, said Top Shelf publisher Brett Warnock.
> >
> > "It's the golden age right now."
> >
> > <http://www.thestar.com/>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _____
> >
> > Learn how to choose, serve, and <http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2749??PS=>
> > enjoy wine at Wine @ MSN.
>