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Comic Innovators

The comic form is both a stepping stone from and towards the cinematic form, the glue between genres, a blending and a reimagining. But the genre term comic is antiquated and, broadly speaking, inaccurate. It implies the comedic, silly, and whimsical. And while there are certainly these types of comic strips around today, one divergent form has evolved into the graphic novel, which in many ways could become the new modern novel.

The many evolutions that have occurred to comics didn't trigger themselves. It required the steps of many different artists to create a form greater than a few panels of funny. Ever since, perhaps, Little Nemo, comics have proven to be a form with many possibilities yet to be explored.

Bill Watterson made subtle, yet groundbreaking, changes that allowed his strip Calvin and Hobbes, first designed for children, to have a growing value as the readers themselves grew with the comic strip. Many of his panels contained few words, and were dedicated to art and inner dialogues, a style very tied to cinematography. The dialogue also brought a complexity and literateness hardly seen before.

Legendary French comic artist Moebius was a master of visionary space. Light on dialogue and prose, instead opened up worlds through spectacular renderings of worlds and landscapes through vivid coloring and minimal line work. In one of his most famous works, Edena, Moebius tried to experiment with rendering his images with the least amount of lines as possible.

Largely regarded as the father of the graphic novel, Will Eisner was innovative in the business side of comic creator’s rights as well as developing more adult sensibilities in comics like The Phantom Lady and others, his most famous comic series, The Spirit. In 1978, he released A Contract with God, the first graphic novel, which centers around poor, Jewish folk living in the same tenement in New York City.

These are only a few comic artists in a wide swathe of influential and genre-bending masters. September 15th celebrates National Comic Book Day (not to be confused with Free Comic Book Day celebrated on the first Saturday of May).

By Thad Higa