Kwik Kwotes #2
by T. Hodler
Thursday, June 17, 2010
I thought [the visuals] were stylistically subordinate; words and pictures are what a comic strip is all about, so you can’t say what’s more important or less. They work together. I wanted the focus on the language, and on where I was taking the reader in six or eight panels through this deceptive, inverse logic that I was using. The drawing had to be minimalist. If I used angle shots and complicated artwork, it would deflect the reader. I didn’t want the drawings to be noticed at all. I worked hard making sure that they wouldn’t be noticed.
—Jules Feiffer, in the introduction to Explainers. [Italics mine.]
Huh. It’s almost like Feiffer deliberately intended his art to be … what’s the phrase I’m looking for? “Not much to look at?” Yes, that’s it! God forbid anybody should agree with him.
Labels: clueless critics, Jules Feiffer, nerd court
lol
Shots fired, man down!
In Crumb’s new PARIS REVIEW interview, he goes out of his way to cite Schulz and Feiffer’s strips as influential to him as a young man learning how to think critically in the late-50s and early-60s. He was clearly a fan of both artists. What a stupid ‘controversy’.
It’s a good rule of thumb to keep in mind, “He’s R. Crumb, and I’m not.”
Wow, it’s almost as if some bloggers write things that they don’t really believe and can’t defend in a desperate bid for attention!
I get what Feiffer is saying. I love what Feiffer is saying. It is what makes him an iconoclast in the truest sense of the word. Feiffer is accomplishing for comics what Beckett (who’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ held a strong influence on Feiffer) did for theatre– to create a minimal setting that emphasizes the power of speech as it becomes an object floating in the air itself. Beckett reduced the stage to a bare minimum– with ‘Godot’ a tree and a moon, and the result was that every litle movement, gesture, spoken word, shuffle, slap, squeek and fart had an impact. I think comics needs more iconoclasm– to break convention and turn it on itself. Afterall– this isn’t a medium with a single relationship between text and image, there are many relationships. A comic need not have text, but can be a sequence of pure images (which, when Feiffer’s text is removed from his panels, becomes almost Muybridge like its simple, balletic changes). I think even the issue of narrative is suspect. What is, afterall, a narrative. I often believe that the comics crowd gets ossified in its thinking, and can learn a little more from other art forms and makers that are bold enough to stretch and even break the frame. I’d like to see more shots fired, more chalk outlines in the alley surrounding old-fashioned conceits like “traditional narrative.” Comics, like all art forms, can also be poetry.
Revised: I get what Feiffer is saying. I love what Feiffer is saying. It is what makes him an iconoclast in the truest sense of the word. Feiffer is accomplishing for comics what Beckett (who’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ held a strong influence on Feiffer) did for theatre– to create a minimal setting that emphasizes the power of speech as it becomes like an object itself floating in the air. Beckett reduced the stage to a bare minimum– with ‘Godot’ it was a tree and a moon, and the result was that every little movement, gesture, spoken word, shuffle, slap, squeek and fart had an impact. I think comics needs more iconoclasm– to break convention and turn it on itself. Afterall– this isn’t a medium with a single relationship between text and image, there are many manifestations of such a relationship. A comic need not have text, but can be a sequence of pure images (which, when Feiffer’s text is removed from his panels, becomes almost Muybridge-like with iits simple, balletic changes). I think even the issue of narrative is suspect. What is, afterall, a narrative. I often believe that the comics crowd gets ossified in its thinking, and can learn a little more from other art forms and makers that are bold enough to stretch and even break the frame. I’d like to see more shots fired, more chalk outlines in the alley surrounding old-fashioned conceits like “traditional narrative,” or the standard fetishizing of craft over daring formal conceit. Comics, like all art forms, can also be poetry.
Tom Crippen’s been trying so hard to get comments, it was just a matter of time before resorting to just trolling.
There does seem to be a wave of this kind of thing.
Chris Ware is lame, Dan Clowes a bore, R. Crumb a dim bulb, Gilbert Hernandez lacks (ah-hem) verisimilitude.
Has anyone noticed? What are the guys from the “Hey Look At Me Utilitarian” side of the spectrum fans of.
Nancy. Only Nancy.
No, they also like yaoi.
Man, the rump Journal sure has basically had a week-long “have you no sense of decency” moment.
I like that most call The Comics Journal by the name “tcj.com” now – like the Journal died or something. It’s been replaced by “junior”, no?
Big Daddy Groth sure has been an absentee dad. Sorry, Gary. Just sayin’.
Daddy’s on the drink again.
Yeah, They need to get some new furniture. That stuff they got from Ikea is junk.
“Cough syrup, m’ boy, cough syrup” ( say with W C Fields accent)