Visualizing Memory in the Graphic Novel

CUJAH MENU Visualizing Memory in the Graphic Novel Maya Hajdu Text and image have been intertwined since time immemorial to create illustrated literature. John Bell, a leading scholar in the history of Canadian comic books, defnes them as a medium that “combines words and pictures (usually in sequential strips of panels) to create a unique form of storytelling – graphic narrative.”1 In Canada, there was a demand for censorship in the late 1980’s in response to the increasingly adult content of comic books. The mature themes that were portrayed in many of these works were deemed to be ofensive by a public who had traditionally regarded comics as a medium intended for children. For many graphic novelists, discarding the superhero genre was neces- sary in order to appeal to a more adult, intelligent audience. The move away from the superhero genre to a more mature narrative has prompted the devel- opment of a new kind of comic book: the historical graphic novel. Two impor- tant works in this genre are Chester Brown’s Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography(1999-2003) and Bernice Eisenstein’s I Was a Child of Holocaust Sur- vivors (2006). Brown and Eisenstein provide distinct perspectives of historical narratives that deal primarily with the fuidity of memory and the ways in which this can be translated into imagery and text. By exploring the narrative and conceptual limits of the graphic novel, these artists have re-defned previous views of popular culture. In Brown’s now-famous graphic novel Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (2006), the artist recounts the story of Louis Riel’s Red River Rebel- lion, his exile and incarceration in a mental asylum, and his subsequent trial and execution for his role in the North-West Rebellion. Chester Brown con- forms to comic book conventions in certain respects, but he also moves away from this format through the seriousness with which he broaches his topic. It was afer having read Maggie Siggins’ biography on Louis Riel, Louis Riel: A Life of Revolution (HarperCollins Canada, 1994), that Brown decided to create a graphic novel inspired by his life: “I read the book and thought, ‘That’s a good dramatic story—it’d make a good strip.’”2The artist favored a simple six-panel arrangement throughout the book in which he used text sparingly in an efort to have many panels that were entirely reliant on imagery. His aesthetic was in- fuenced by Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie comic strips: “Brown [emulated] Gray’s deceptively simple drawing style, including his tendency to portray huge bodies and small heads.”3The crispness of the artist’s drawings as well as the lack of tonal gradations lend a dramatic air to the narrative that is ofen rein- forced in pivotal scenes, such as Riel’s trial and execution. Brown insisted on printing his comic book on yellow newsprint in a smaller format than a regular comic book, giving the work a feeling of warmth and intimacy. Due to its smaller size and the seriousness of its topic, Louis Riel resembles a book more than a mainstream comic. Thematically, Brown was highly interested in the controversies surrounding the historical fgure of Louis Riel: was he the religious leader he claimed to be, or a dangerous madman? Riel’s anarchistic tendencies, as evinced by his leading a rebellion against the MacDonald government, are expressed throughout Louis Riel. During Riel’s trial sequence towards the end of the book, Brown establishes a heavy, dramatic setting by abandoning value gradations and opting for small white fgures set against large inky black backgrounds, thereby isolating the characters (fg. 1). In one panel, Riel tells the jury that he has not committed treason and that it is, in fact, the Canadian government that is guilty of betraying the Métis people. This scene is followed by a series of panels that are entirely silent and black, in which Riel awaits his verdict and is then sentenced to hang by the neck until death. In response to Quebecers’ pleas for mercy on behalf of Riel, Prime Minister MacDonald famously ripostes: “He shall hang though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour.”4 On this note, Brown notably caricatures Sir John A. MacDonald in an especially obvious manner: he has an extremely large nose. The distortion of the Prime Minister’s facial features demonstrates Brown’s political leanings in the matter and this reliance on caricature is indeed a useful way to critique MacDonald’s policies: “Caricature, then, is a more ideologically-charged version of the car- toon, a sort of political ‘amplifcation through simplifcation’ that accentuates certain physical features of political leaders as a way of speaking back to their power.”5 Political satire has many historical antecedents, but was a tool especially useful to 19th century French realists like Honoré Daumier. In an earlier scene, we see Sir John A. MacDonald sitting alone in a hotel room with what are presumably beer bottles strewn all over the foor (fg. 2). Macdonald laments: “… as if I don’t have enough problems… Like, what am I going to do about the half- breeds?”6 In these moments, Brown’s disapproval of MacDonald becomes ap- parent. The Prime Minister is portrayed as a man of ambition who wishes to ensure that his legacy remains intact, regardless of who opposes him. As he guzzles down his alcoholic beverages, a large onomatopoeic “Glp, glp, glp” hov- ers above his head. Like Brown, Eisenstein also utilizes the graphic novel medium to approach se- rious subject matter. Aside from her incorporation of speech balloons and zip lines (the squiggles along a limb that indicate movement), her work does not conform to many established comic book conventions. Eisenstein’s graphic novel, I was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2006), broaches the topic of growing up in the face of a traumatic past. Utilizing a medium that is ofen (although er- roneously) associated with children to represent a traumatic event, such as the Holocaust, can be problematic: “The enormity of the atrocity is such that the very act of representing it risked trivializing or over-dramatizing it.”7 The artist’s novel begins with a childhood memory of her father’s burial and the manner in which her family coped with his passing away. Eisenstein’s visual aesthetic deliberately refers to early 20th century painters. In one image, she depicts her and her siblings dancing in a circle that is reminiscent of Matisse’s The Dance (1909). In another picture, Eisenstein portrays her aunt singing atop the roof of a theatre with a fddler. This drawing has many parallels to Marc Chagall’s paintings of Jewish Russian villages, especially the ones depicting folk rituals. Unlike Brown, Eisenstein includes colors and ink washes throughout most of her drawings, and draws in an intentionally naïve style that works well considering she is writing about her childhood. She also relies heavily on text to propel her narrative, moving back and forth between a traditional graphic novel aesthetic and more of an illustrated book format. Images tend to echo text; at other times, the images themselves propel the reader into other regions of thought by adding layers of complexity to an already complex theme. With respect to subject matter, Eisenstein, like Brown, refects on mature historical subject matter. In her work, the artist attempts to express the ghostly qualities of the Holocaust in pictures and in words. With regards to the narrative Eisenstein has chosen to depict in this particular format, we must not ne- glect to mention a previous graphic novel that has had far-reaching efects and that also discusses the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale(1986- 1991) looks at the artist’s parents’ memories of surviving Auschwitz and subse- quently immigrating to the United States. Like Eisenstein, Spiegelman is the ofspring of Holocaust survivors and is attempting to come to terms with expe- riences that he has not lived through, but that still afect him in the present. In one of Eisenstein’s drawings, fve famous writers and philosophers sit around a table. Each character has a speech bubble, and the character of Primo Levi (also someone who was interned in concentration camps during WWII) announces: “I fear that my language has become inadequate, that you need to speak a dif- ferent language today.”8 Like Spiegelman, Eisenstein presents her vision of the legacy of the Holocaust in a new and creative way – through images and words simultaneously. Thematically, the parallels that can be drawn between the two artists are undeniable. However, these graphic novels difer in signifcant ways as well. Importantly, every fgure Eisenstein paints displays unique character traits and eccentricities: “[…] the portraits that Eisenstein paints are detailed with all the individual quirks and features of specifc persons.”9Spiegelman, on the other hand, famously chose to depict his characters as animals, based on their ethnicity and religion. Thus, the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Germans as cats, and the Polish as pigs. Maus’ animal characters act like ciphers that un- derline and ridicule the notion of defning people according to religion and/or ethnicity. They are symbolic of the stereotypes associated with the ways in which we view the Holocaust. Eisenstein’s characters, unlike Spiegelman’s, are not ciphers; they are individualized representations of friends and relatives. Aesthetically, there are even more distinctions to be made between Spiegel- man, Brown and Eisenstein. The drawings in Maus and inLouis Riel are heavily worked and somber; there is no lightness at all to them.

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