Dude, why so many excuses? I friggin' wrote a comic book about the political wranglings of Parliament in 1832 (you were a century off - but still, trippy) so clearly you're not alone in such thoughts.
DC and Marvel do seem to flood the market with predictable superhero books, but looking a little harder will reveal many of the types of stories you describe. Consider the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, a Holocaust memoir, or Sandman, which incorporates many world mythologies into mature fables. Some entries in the Classics Illustrated cover historical events. I'm sure there are lots more examples I've yet to stumbled upon.
True that there are still so many possiblities left open, as the "medium" is fairly young. Keep developing ideas, though . . .
Yeah, read Maus, read part of Persiopolis (about growing up in increasingly fundamentalist Iran, while pushing for westernisation), and read pt 1 of Sandman. All of which, of course, had completely slipped my mind. And I know Marvel has Thor, and I know there are attempts at capturing history in comic book form, but they tend to be either far too campy (Thor, Conan, etc) or far too focused on teaching first, and then art. For example, I looked up historical comics, to find a single strip about Amerigo Vespucci sailing to the New World in 1499. THe art consisted of a ship sailing, a close-up of Vespucci, and a map of the North American coast. What would be better, in my mind, would be a picture of a ship sailing, but not from a few hundred feet away, but rather from the deck of the ship itself. Of Vespucci in his cabin, surrounded by charts and maps, guns and swords. Of coastline, with beaches, rocks, and trees. In all honesty, the premier version of the Historical Fiction that I meant would be Hal Foster's Prince Valiant.
( ... )
I think that there need to be superheroes that are more subtle. I love the persona of just about any superhero in his early months/years. Like in the spiderman movie, when his costume consists of a ratty, spray-painted shirt and jeans. I love the idea of a superhero, but I don't like the idea of an entire city populated by costumed ridiculousness on both sides of the moral spectrum.
I like the historical idea. You could do some incredible artwork, particularly with battle scenes. I, for one would love to see a comic about the Seven Years' war, or the Norse voyages to North America. A panel depicting the burning of the White House in the War of 1812 would be particularly awesome.
Yeah, Iknow what you mean about costumery. In the future DC universe, you tend to get the costumes on both sides of the divide, with innocent civilians (cannon fodder) standing around. The future Marvel universe, however, takes the idea that mutants (homo sapiens superior) are an evolutionary step, and suggests that normal humans (homo sapiens sapiens) will die out in several generations. The result is a world full of powerful individuals, who find themselves equal in their power, rather than maintaining a huge divide. This, of course, means that there remains the moral spectrum, but the villians are not so absurd in their grandioseness. After all, they're just normal citizens gone to crime...
And yeah, I want to see those military uniforms in all their glory and splendour, and also in misery, blood, rain, dust, and mud. I want to see fire shooting into the night sky, and blood pooling on ancient stone. I want to see splinters in the wood and dirt under the soldiers' fingernails. I want reality in the art of history and
If you want a comic book that deals with the complexity of the superhero mythos, try Watchmen by Alan Moore. It tries to realistically deal with what it means to society when you have a bunch of caped crusaders fighting crime and evil in the streets. This graphic novel references many great works of literature (the title referring to a line in a Roman play; "Who watches the watchmen?") and the comic starts to become a philosophical rumination on man. It also won the prestigious Hugo award and was named by Time magazine to be one of the best books of the last century. It completely deconstructs and analyzes what a superhero is, morally, philosophically, human. I'm currently reading it right now.
Actually, I have read Watchmen. Of all of the comics I've read that struggle with what heros mean (Marvel's Earth X, though it's not the immediate theme, some DC comic I forget the name of, but the JLA's pretty much broken up, and there's a classic apocalyptic threat from superheros fighting villians, an X-Men called Lost in the Funhouse, where the end is a struggle over how much power is too much, and Watchmen), Watchmen ends up being the most educated and ultimately ambiguous. I find that, while not as immediately satisfactory as the others, the ambiguity is real. But if you can, track down and read Lost in the Funhouse. Some of the story is lacking, but the ending is good.
there is a graphic novel called louis riel. also, at the comic book lecture at king's the guest author was a biographical graphic novel writer & wrote about heisenberg & neils bohr. if you aren't aware of these, then i think you should read them! go to a comic book shop & ask questions, that's the best thing to do. i read one last month about indian politics & culture in the past & present, & it was great.
my favorite graphic novel in the world, & possibly my favorite item, is blankets by craig thompson.
I'll keep my eyes open for them, and if I knew a really good comic shop nearby, I'd ask around. Instead, I ask my friends who stay on top of these things.
I think my first real experience of historical comics was Alan Moore's From Hell, on Jack the Ripper. While admittedly fictional, Moore's research and notes are impeccable and have made him an excellent "amateur" expert on Jack the Ripper. Moore is, in general, noted for his excellent research.
What about that set of comics(I forget the name) Cliffy lent you? Although fantastical, they seem to fit that medieval setting with wars and vicious politics, with a bit of magic and orgies as a bonus.
And there are historical comics out there. It's not all superheroes. I generally don't read superhero comic books, because I enjoy more realism than superheroes afford.
yeah, but here I'm going to go all technical. The weapons, armour, and warfare in general were all way too advanced. I mean, don't get me wrong, the author and artist together must have done a huge amount of research on them, which I appreciate, but it's not a 15th, 16th century type of culture. The feudalism and imperial attitudes are better for an earlier era. By the time that pikes would be used in largescale warfare, most of the rest of the armies would be useless. Pre-gunpowder pike warfare involved light cavalry, lots of crossbowmen, some light mounted crossbowmen, scads of pikemen, and a few halberdiers and greatswordsmen. Including heavy cavalry with mercenaries is impossible unless you're in a situation where there are a lot of cities to support you, like in Italy. If you're based in the mountains, like those comics, you can't have a cavalry based military. You can only focus on infantry, because you don't have and can't maintain the number of horses necessary for cavalry. Ok, rant over...
Ah, but there's a difference between historical realism, and economic & geaographic realism. Historical realism won't allow a culture so steeped in mythology and magic to reach early Modern warfare. (various reasons for this, main being that a culture that depends on deities and magic tends to put less faith in the immediate physical. See: Viking Berserkers who would go out into battle wearing only a piece of bear fur so they would adopt the bear's attributes, rather than wearing the coat of chainmail that they did own.) Fantasy does. Fantasy, however, does NOT create horses that thrive in mountains and that are also strong enough to carry fully armoured (80-150 lb harness, mind you, never mind the 150-200 lb fighter) knights. Fantasy also does not create mountains with mysterious, large, pockets of flat open space that allows cavalry to drill.
Comments 13
DC and Marvel do seem to flood the market with predictable superhero books, but looking a little harder will reveal many of the types of stories you describe. Consider the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, a Holocaust memoir, or Sandman, which incorporates many world mythologies into mature fables. Some entries in the Classics Illustrated cover historical events. I'm sure there are lots more examples I've yet to stumbled upon.
True that there are still so many possiblities left open, as the "medium" is fairly young. Keep developing ideas, though . . .
Reply
Reply
Reply
I like the historical idea. You could do some incredible artwork, particularly with battle scenes. I, for one would love to see a comic about the Seven Years' war, or the Norse voyages to North America. A panel depicting the burning of the White House in the War of 1812 would be particularly awesome.
Yeah, I'm really Canadian. I know.
Reply
And yeah, I want to see those military uniforms in all their glory and splendour, and also in misery, blood, rain, dust, and mud. I want to see fire shooting into the night sky, and blood pooling on ancient stone. I want to see splinters in the wood and dirt under the soldiers' fingernails. I want reality in the art of history and
Reply
Reply
Reply
my favorite graphic novel in the world, & possibly my favorite item, is blankets by craig thompson.
Reply
I think my first real experience of historical comics was Alan Moore's From Hell, on Jack the Ripper. While admittedly fictional, Moore's research and notes are impeccable and have made him an excellent "amateur" expert on Jack the Ripper. Moore is, in general, noted for his excellent research.
Reply
And there are historical comics out there. It's not all superheroes. I generally don't read superhero comic books, because I enjoy more realism than superheroes afford.
Reply
Reply
But your mention of Renaissance Italy made me think of a historical comic based on the Machiavellian politics of the time would be so awesome.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment