A very sunny Friday afternoon yesterday found me walking through the extremely pleasant environs of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in the city’s Charlotte Square, right across from the Georgian splendour of Bute House, the official residence of the country’s First Minister. As ever the Book Festival seems even busier than previous years (a trend that obviously delights me) and there are excited readers from toddlers clutching their parent’s hands to elderly book lovers passing by, book in one hand, walking stick in the other. For the first time in the EIBF’s impressive history as one of the world’s major literary festivals they are hosting a number of events dedicated to graphic novels – this afternoon sees a panel chaired by Gregor Urquhart with one of the country’s bestselling novelists Ian Rankin (a long-term comics fan as I know and also now trying his hand at writing a mini-series for DC’s Hellblazer), fellow Scottish novelist Denise Mina (who has just finished a great run on Hellblazer and is working on her own graphic novel due out next year – hopefully we will winkle out some more details about if from her later on in the year) and Brit comics legend Alan Grant (a vast body of work, from Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog to Batman and the Bogie Man).
(from left to right: Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and Alan Grant signing books for eager readers after the graphic novel panel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival)
The panel was in one of the main theatres and was, I am delighted to say, very well attended, with a diverse audience taking in children and adults and ranging from interested book readers to fellow comics geeks – good to see such a range at one of the EIBF’s early forays into graphic novels (and hopefully such a good audience means they are likely to do more next year). The title of the event was “Graphic Novels – Literature of Pulp Fiction”; after an introductory segment where each of the panelists described how they first got into comics (as both readers and creators) they got down to discussing the genre, their likes and dislikes and how the medium is viewed differently by different people and different cultures. Ian, for instance, recalled living in France for a few years and noticing that the French took comics much more seriously than is the norm in Britain or America, while Alan described his first stay in France in the late 60s, where he found his host had bookshelves full of something called ‘graphic novels’; he looked at these book-length comics, so different from the 30-odd page comics available in Britain then and devoured them – in fact, he commented with a smile that this was how he first learned some of the French language!
Unsurprisingly the discussion took in the seemingly increasing trend for comics publishers to approach prose novelists with a view to collaborating on comics work, with Denise and Ian being obvious examples. Denise described how DC first approached her, a big smile on her face as she is a big comics fan already and being approached like this was both a surprise and a pleasure. In fact she was so excited that she told DC she would “eat her own guts to write Hellblazer”, perhaps not the strongest negotiating position to start with, but fortunately DC replied that they hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to go quite that far. As Alan pointed out even the largest comics titles now sell a fraction of what they did in previous years, so it isn’t surprising the publishers look for other ways to try and introduce new readers to the medium – would using novelists, with their own reputation and readership already, help to bring new readers into comics? Denise wasn’t sure if it did or not, although she noted that the reverse had certainly been true for her, with comics readers who enjoyed her Hellblazer run deciding to pick up her crime novels. Personally with more graphic novels being reviewed in mainstream press and appearing in mainstream bookstores and libraries I’d suspect there is certainly potential for reader cross-overs from both sides, which would have to be a win-win situation all round.
(cover to Denise Mina’s latest Hellblazer collection, The Red Right Hand, published by DC)
And so were there any conclusions reached regarding the status of the genre – pulp or ‘proper’ literature? As the panel said, how do you really decide which is which for any genre? Alan pointed out how arbitrary the distinctions between high and supposedly low culture are and how the perceptions of the status of some works changes with time, giving the example of Charles Dickens, now regarded as one of the finest authors in the English language canon but who, like Alan, had to slog away creating work for weekly mass publications. And again the panel noted that in many other countries this wouldn’t even be an issue – most of Europe seeing comics as genuine art and culture and Alan describing his collaboration with Japanese publishers and the higher regard paid to a comics writer there than in the UK or US. Obviously it isn’t possible to come to definitive conclusions in the space of an hour but the general consensus seemed to me to be positive, that comics were gaining ground and becoming more accepted as a serious artform. And with the genre continuing to draw on writing talent such as Denise and Ian and using the classics to draw in new readers to both comics and prose books (Alan has already completed the script for a second Stevenson adaptation, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with Cam Kennedy currently beavering away on the artwork – the Times talked to him recently about it (link via Dirk at Journalista)) I’d hope they are right to be optimistic. In fact I’d see the fact that the world’s biggest book festival would hold such a panel and that so many people would attend and enjoy it as a pretty positive sign in and of itself. On which note I’d like to say thanks to Sara and her colleagues at the EIBF who organised the event and kindly made sure I could attend it; there is another graphic novel event due next Thursday (23rd) with Tom Becker, John Fardell and Mal Peet discussing how comics and books have influenced their work in both fields – check the EIBF site for full details.
August 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
It is wonderful to see a graphic novels panel taken seriously at an event such as the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Your coverage of the panel highlights the fact that, in many countries around the world, graphic novels have already been established as ‘typical reading’. It is interesting that the U.K., Austrailia and U.S. have been slow on the uptake but there have been more than a few obstacles that retarded the acceptance.
As the acceptance grows we will see more of these panels taking place at major events. Ultimately the impetus for change is really all about revenue. The publishers have decided that this ‘new’ format can generate money and that is really quite alright with me.
Sincerely,
John Shableski
Pennysylvania, U.S.A.
p.s. I would like to point out that graphic novels are a format and that there are many genres within the format.