120 Vol. 16, No. 1 (2015)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey. The Graphic Novel: An Introduction.
Charlotte Pylyser
NY: Cambridge University Press, 286 pp., 2015 ISBN 9781107655768
ISBN 9781107025233
The Graphic Novel: An Introduction (2015), written by Jan Baetens (University of Leuven) and Hugo
Frey (University of Chichester), provides its readers with a historical and critical introduction to a medium that has increasingly featured in the scholarly practice and discourse of the past decade: the graphic novel. Although graphic novels are frequently studied in academic contexts, specialists of comics, both in and outside the academy, have been hesitant to award the idea of the graphic novel sustained attention. This reservation has its roots in the cultural legitimisational and commercial strategies in which the graphic novel has historically been implicated and which preclude it from having theoretical value in the eyes of many. Rightfully arguing that the graphic novel constitutes a critical and historical reality, Baetens and Frey’s book constitutes a very inspired alternative to the strategy-theory dichotomy which has previously rendered the graphic novel hard to talk about. As Baetens and Frey’s point of view is the possibility condition for the very thematisation of the graphic novel it comes as no surprise that their work is the first book-length publication devoted to the subject. The Graphic Novel: An Introduction breaks important new ground by explaining how the graphic novel can be considered a medium proper and developing a much-needed toolbox for how to engage with this medium. Baetens and Frey’s text is written in an accessible style and is royally peppered with illustrations for which the beautiful cover image by graphic novelist Chris Ware is an excellent teaser.
Following an introduction in which the authors review important statements in the debates on the graphic novel and attempt to construct a definition of the medium, they focus their attention on the history, the forms and the themes of the graphic novel. The Graphic Novel: An Introduction concludes with a short bibliographical guide which should prove an absolute boon to those still finding their footing in the study of the graphic novel.
Baetens and Frey conceive of the graphic novel in opposition to on the one hand the cartoon and on the other hand the comic book. Their context-sensitive and historically aware definitional exercise both anchors and orients the reader in the text and allows for a nuanced reading of the graphic novel medium as a “self-knowing “play with a purpose” of the traditional comic book form” (Baetens and Frey 19). In light of this elegant and quite definitive statement about the graphic novel, the authors’ insistence on the impossibility of a single and definitive graphic novel definition is quite surprising. This insistence can be better understood, however, when we consider that in their book Baetens and Frey also respond to a host of existing definitions that are characterised both by their failure to comprehensively describe the graphic novel and by their essentialist focus on object properties on the level of form, content,
121 Vol. 16, No. 1 (2015)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
publication format and production and distribution. In their insightful discussion of these categories, the authors effectively and rightfully conclude that although certain properties, such as a recognisable style, an autobiographical inclination, the book format or independent publishing may be considered typical of the graphic novel none of these are essential to descriptions of the medium. There is no doubt that Baetens and Frey’s dual-phased definition constitutes a tremendous advance in the study of comics and graphic novels. However, the authors’ unacknowledged yet complex interweaving of on the one hand an alternative definition and on the other hand a dismissive response to existing definitions may be confusing to readers, especially to those who are not particularly well-versed in the discipline of comics studies. A more explicit contextualisation of the book within comics studies could have improved accessibility in this respect.
While The Graphic Novel: An Introduction involves French Bande dessinée and British comics
and graphic novels into its exploration of the medium, the book is self-avowedly American-centric. A case could certainly be made for this choice based on the definition which the authors propose, but Baetens and Frey unfortunately do not include an explicit rationale for their focus. Apart from defying the expectations which readers are likely to bring to a book with an introductory purpose, the authors also miss an opportunity to stimulate internationally comparative research through this omission.
Baetens and Frey’s chronological description of the historical context of the graphic novel in the first part of the book is one in which the authors’ American focus is particularly noticeable. In their historical contextualisation the authors provide a comprehensive and stimulating overview of the dynamic between marginalisation and legitimisation in the emergence of the American graphic novel. Baetens and Frey respectively comment on the moral panic surrounding comics in the mid-20th century, the underground movement which emerged as a result of mid-20th century censorship attempts and the breakthrough of the graphic novel in the 1980s. Although their description does not fundamentally deviate from already existing historiographic accounts, the authors often take a refreshing perspective to specific historical phenomena. In this context, the highly informed exploration of the relationship between comics and pop-art, in which the role of television is foregrounded, as well as the investigation of the significance of Robert Crumb for the emergence of the graphic novel are particularly noteworthy. The focus on the American graphic novel leads to some surprising statements in this part, such as the claim that Watchmen (1987), Maus (1972-1991) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) signify the breakthrough of the graphic novel when other, more internationally-oriented and more woman-oriented constellations (always involving Maus) are conventionalised in the study of comics and graphic novels.
The Graphic Novel: An Introduction continues with a second part devoted to the form of the
graphic novel. More particularly, the workings of panel and page layout, style and word-image interaction and storytelling are discussed. The first chapter in this part introduces the various ways in which panels can be combined on a page and the manner in which this layout interacts with the visual contents of panels. Because the chapter is quite technical and draws heavily on the insights of formal comics theory (Benoît Peeters, Thierry Groensteen, Charles Hatfield), it is likely to come across as challenging to student readers. Those who take up the challenge will find that Baetens and Frey provide excellent tools
122 Vol. 16, No. 1 (2015)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
for graphic novel analysis as well as a number of very creative example analyses, however. The authors’ examination of the lay-out of the cover of Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers (2004) comes particularly highly recommended.
Whereas the chapter on panel and page lay-out distinguishes less sharply between comics and graphic novels and has a more analytical finality, the chapters on style and word-image interaction and graphic novel storytelling reconnect more emphatically with the authors’ inquiry into the specificity of the graphic novel. Both chapters are a joy to read and introduce analytical concepts alongside interesting example analyses. They continue the concern with Francophone discourse on comics, which was largely absent from the first part of the book. With regard to style and word- image interaction, Baetens and Frey productively introduce the notions of graphiation - the idea that a graphic text can have a visual signature - and grammatextuality - the idea that words are also images. On the level of graphic novel storytelling, the authors explain the narratological specificity of the graphic novel by detailing the way in which spatialisation, characterisation and abstraction function in the medium. Of note here are Baetens and Frey’s reading of space in Martin Vaughn-James’s The Cage (1975) and their uniquely interesting argument for the embodiedness of characters in graphic novels.
The final part of the book is devoted to themes typical of the graphic novel. Drawing on their considerable expertise in word-image studies and the history and politics of visual culture, Baetens and Frey critically investigate the relationship between the graphic novel and literature and that between the graphic novel and nostalgia. The authors draw attention to the vibrant exchange between literature and comics on the one hand and detail how graphic novels appropriate literary themes, modes, methods and culture on the other hand. Pertinent examples of the latter dynamic include Disposession, Simon Grennan’s 2015 adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s John Caldigate (1879) and Matt Madden’s constrained comics making experiments in 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (2005). On the topic of nostalgia, Baetens and Frey situate the appropriation of comics heritage in graphic novels in a larger culture of nostalgia as well as thematise the (ethical) challenges which the urge to revisit past comics material implies for the graphic novel. In this particularly rich and inviting chapter, which touches on such fascinating and diverse phenomena as the interpretation of Jack kirby’s work as Fascist art and Chris Ware’s current yet nostalgic 2013 cover for The New Yorker, the authors also remind us that not all graphic novels treat history in a nostalgic or solely nostalgic manner.
In showing how graphic novels enrich the language and culture of comics with literary themes, modes, methods and literary culture and by explaining how the medium appropriates comics heritage, Baetens and Frey can certainly be said to corroborate their initial observation that the graphic novel is a self-knowing “play with a purpose” with the traditional comic book form. However, a better motivation of the choice of the objects of appropriation - literature and the comic book - might have been included as not every national graphic novel production engages with them to the extent that or in the way that the American graphic novel does.
The Graphic Novel: An Introduction is a landmark volume which manages the enormous
challenge of rendering it possible to speak productively about the graphic novel and of producing a satisfying definition of the medium. The historical and critical toolkit with which it outfits its readers
123 Vol. 16, No. 1 (2015)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
is impressive in both its breadth and depth. The few gaps that arise from the difficult balancing act between the authors’ pioneering vision and the exigencies of an introductory work leave something to the imagination for other scholars and students of the graphic novel.
Charlotte Pylyser has recently obtained a PhD from the University of Leuven. Her dissertation
describes the historical function of the graphic novel and of the Flemish graphic novel in particular based on Michel Foucault’s archaeological method. She is currently preparing a project on the question of co-authorship in contemporary media culture.