Ay LiterAr QuArterLy October 2015 X Vol. 5. No. 4 s pecial Focus: the edge of Difference in Comics and Graphic novels Essays GuEst Editor: tom FostEr Out from the Underground by susan simensky Bietila Gender, Trauma, and Speculation in Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas by Regina Yung Lee Finder; Finder; Fan Culture and in this issue Non-Compliance t hird World hird by taylor Boulware GrandmothEr maGma Trying On Sex: Tits & Clits Comix X by Roberta Gregory Carla Carla Book rEviEws s Jennifer’s Journal: The Life peed M of a SubUrban Girl, Vol. 1 by Jennifer Cruté c n Ava’s Demon e il by Michelle Czajkowski Supreme: Blue Rose by Warren ellis and tula Lotay The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore Ms. Marvel, Volumes 1/2/3 created by G. Willow Wilson and “since its launch in 2011 The Cascadia Subduction Zone has emerged as one Adrian Alphona of the best critical journals the field has to offer.” h Jonathan McCalmont, February 18, 2013, hugo Ballot nomination FEaturEd artist $5.00 Carla speed Mcneil Managing Editor Ann Keefer Reviews Editor Nisi Shawl vol. 5 no. 4 — October 2015 Features Editor L. Timmel Duchamp GuEst Editor: tom FostEr Arts Editor Kath Wilham Essays Out from the Underground h $5.00 by Susan Simensky Bietila 1 Gender, Trauma, and Speculation in Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas by Regina Yung Lee h 5 Fan Culture and Non-Compliance by Taylor Boulware h 9 GrandmothEr maGma Trying On Sex: Tits & Clits Comix by Roberta Gregory h 14 Book rEviEws Jennifer’s Journal: The Life of a SubUrban Girl, Vol. 1, by Jennifer Cruté reviewed by S. Qiouyi Lu h 18 Ava’s Demon, by Michelle Czajkowski reviewed by Jamie Kingston h 20 Supreme: Blue Rose, by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay reviewed by Cynthia Ward h 22 The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore reviewed by Karen Burnham h 24 Ms. Marvel, Volumes 1/2/3, created by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona reviewed by Tili Solokov h 26 FEaturEd artist Carla Speed McNeil h 28 Subscriptions and single issues online at: To order by check, payable to: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $16/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $5 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (PDF format): [Washington State Residents $10 per year add 9.6% sales tax.] Electronic single issue: $3 Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode n y Out from the Underground by susan simensky Bietila Graphic novels of all kinds have Code: no immorality, no nudity, no se- reached unparalleled popularity and va- duction, profanity, perversion, or rape. riety. While traditional superhero com- No excessive violence, and no use of ics have continued to proliferate beyond the word “horror” or “terror” in the title. the serial magazine to film and video Nothing ghoulish — no vampires, were- games, alternative or indie “comix” have wolves, or zombies. And to top it off, converged with political cartooning and institutional authorities — police, judges, illustration to produce a wide variety government — had to be depicted as to- The graphic novel’s of fiction and nonfiction in the form of tally good and incorruptible, while any growth is exponential and drawn books. Many writer/artists, who opposition was by definition criminal. international… had for decades written and drawn short- Every story’s obligatory conclusion was a polar reversal for the er stories for anthologies or as serials, are capture and punishment of the evil doers. genre since the 1950s, now publishing full-length books, and Cold comics for the Cold War. The when Comic Books were these books are sold in fine bookstores Comic Code’s clout was financial, like censored…. and shelved in libraries. Graphic novels the Hays Code governing major studios’ are included in school curricula, starting motion pictures or the Comstock Law’s with the widespread use of Art Spiegel- postal policing. Distributors would not man’s Maus, to teach the Holocaust, and sell publications unless they bore the the author/artists of these works are be- Comics Code’s seal of approval. ing included in mainstream museum col- In the world of high art, when I was lections and gallery shows. The graphic an art student in the mid-60s, New York novel’s growth is exponential and inter- Abstract Expressionism reigned. Paint- national, with Japanese manga and an- ing for galleries and museums dominated i ime also having a worldwide following. American art. In the ’50s, McCarthyist College courses in sequential art or the kangaroo courts on college campuses fired 1 serial drawn narrative are offered in Art and blacklisted faculty for leftist sympa- and English departments. This trend is thies. Art Departments and Schools of a polar reversal for the genre since the Art were “cleansed” of political content 1950s, when Comic Books were cen- as well as regionalism, and narrative itself sored, blamed for juvenile delinquency, was shunned. Art that told a story, even and burned in bonfires. Many threads as allusion, was derided as propaganda or converged to bring Graphic Novels, par- illustration, as “commercial art,” not wel- ticularly those critical of conservative so- come in fine arts’ polite society. Despite The wave of radicalism that grew throughout the cial mores, into acceptance. this, the drawn narrative persisted as a re- 1960s saw the inception Growing up in the 1950s, I was not sistant strain. But politics and social com- of myriad underground allowed to read comic books or watch mentary were radically severed from the newspapers,…a venue cartoons on TV. My parents thought American art canon. It took decades and for wildly transgressive they were lowbrow, a bad influence. multiple social transformations to thaw comix…. America was propagandized with psy- this Cold War chill. chiatrist Frederic Wertham’s much-cited The wave of radicalism that grew 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent. throughout the 1960s saw the incep- Congressional hearings concluded that tion of myriad underground newspapers, comics contributed to juvenile delin- both countercultural and political, united quency. Comic books were accused of by their refusal to obey authority. These having a covert agenda of promoting il- papers were highly visual and provided licit sexuality and political subversion… a venue for wildly transgressive comix, to children. And yes, there were book which violated each of the proscrip- burnings — bonfires of comic books. tions of the Comics Code with flam- Comic book publishers then estab- boyance, by publishing crude, rude, and lished official censorship, the Comics grossly sexual sequential art. P ropelled Cont. on p. 2 n Out from the by opposition to the Vietnam War, Alison Bechdel) or biography (Isadora Underground by Black, women’s, and gay liberation Duncan by Sabrina Jones). Many graphic movements, rock music, and the coun- novels, such as Maus, cross fictional and (cont. from p. 1) terculture, the constraints of the comics nonfictional genres and refer self-con- industry were blasted away. Despite this, sciously to other works and genres of the Comics Code was not completely art. They span straight representational abandoned until 2011. illustration to the fantastical invention Sequential narratives Sequential narratives are as old as the so possible in this medium, history and are as old as the cave cave paintings, painted tepees, or Illumi- journalism to myth, metaphor, and fancy. paintings, painted nated manuscripts. My political author/ There are books without words, includ- tepees, or Illuminated artist friends describe our historical ing The Arrival by Sean Tan, Flood by manuscripts. progenitors as Hogarth (A Rake’s Prog- Eric Drooker, and The System by Peter ress, 1732-33), Goya (Disasters of War, Kuper, and literary adaptations, such as 1810-1820), Rodolphe Topffer (Histoire Peter Kuper’s version of Franz Kafka’s de Mr. Jabot, 1835), and the proletarian Metamorphosis and the new Classics paintings and prints by Robert Henri, Illustrated series. John Sloan, and the Ashcan School at The current wave of graphic nov- the start of the 20th century. Iconic sto- els differs from comic books not only ries without words by Frans Masereel in content but also in creative method. (Passionate Journey, [Belgium] 1919) Mainstream comics publishers use the and Lynd Ward (God’s Man, 1929) have industrial model of Taylorist assembly been highly influential stylistically as lines, where there are separate writers, well as thematically. editors, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and The early 20th-century cartoons and letterers, a strict hierarchy of specialists. illustrations by Wobblies (the IWW-In- This model is profit-driven and has a Many graphic novels, such dustrial Workers of the World) modeled history of exploiting the artists and de- as Maus, cross fictional H the artist/activist’s role, creating art, po- nying creators’ rights to the ownership of and nonfictional genres and refer self-consciously etry, and songs in the midst of bloody la- their artwork. In contrast, contemporary 2 to other works and genres bor battles in the US. Another influential graphic novels are often the product of of art. locus of art activism was in post-WWI an individual artist/writer. Germany, where the ironic and satirical Self-published zines are a precursor art of comrades George Grosz and John of this creative process. A phenomenon Heartfield was created in close proxim- from the ’80s and ’90s to the present, ity to the barricades during the failed emerging out of the longer history of the 1919 German Revolution. They went on fanzine, riot grrrl, third-wave feminist, to create scathing work critiquing the queer punk, and personally-expressive or rise of fascism. So the participation of autobiographical zines grew out of the artists in radical social movements and d.i.y.