Graphic Novels — Not Your Father’s Comics

Comic books have been popular in the U.S since the mid 1930’s, but if you went looking for the latest edition of Superman, The Hulk, or the Classics Illustrated version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at your local library back then, you were out of luck. Comic books were not acquired by libraries for circulation to their patrons.

Today patrons go to an online catalog, rather than the drawers of the old card catalog to search for materials. A quick search for “comic books” in the David A. Nims Library’s collection returns 44 titles. Expanding that search to the C/W Mars Union Catalog results in more than 10,000 results! What’s going on here?

Well, these books are not really comic books, but what are called “graphic novels.” They can be hard or soft cover, typically are full color, and have titles such as Logicomix, an Epic Search for Truth, Maus : a Survivor's Tale, and The 9/11 Report : a Graphic Adaptation. I have purchased several titles for the Nims library based on enthusiastic positive reviews, and as I catalog them I always skim through them to get a better sense of their content. After I cataloged Logicomix, an Epic search for Truth, I decided this book was too intriguing to put immediately on the shelves, and I checked it out. Reading it frame by frame, I found I was caught up in this book – it was a true page-turner.

I have always been interested in mathematics and philosophy, and I have a passing familiarity with Bertrand Russell and the other mathematicians featured here. But I was never interested in actually reading Principia Mathematica, the three-volume work of roughly 2,000 pages (362 pages to prove 1 + 1= 2?!) which Russell and Alfred North Whitehead wrote over many years in their attempt to construct the foundation of mathematics on symbolic logic. However, reading Logicomix I learned much about Russell’s life and the struggle he and Whitehead endured to write Principia Mathematica, and I was reminded again that mathematics (even arithmetic) could be an all-consuming intellectual discipline. Furthermore, I came to appreciate Logicomix as a substantial literary and artistic achievement. The authors Apostolos Doxiadis, a mathematician turned novelist and filmmaker, and Christos Papadimitriou, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, have created a book of which Carlo Wolff, writing in The Boston Globe, said “reading Logicomix is like stumbling upon the best college class you never expected and settling down for enlightenment.” Imagine, enlightenment from a “comic book!” Barry Mazur, Gerhard Gade University Professor at Harvard University wrote "This magnificent book is about ideas, passions, madness, and the fierce struggle between well-defined principle and the larger good. It follows the great mathematicians--Russell, Whitehead, Frege, Cantor, Hilbert--as they agonized to make the foundations of mathematics exact, consistent, and complete. We see how Gödel illuminates their project. We see the Erinyes of Aeschylus's Oresteia giving up their principle of merciless revenge in favor of considered justice. And we see the band of artists and researchers--and the all-seeking dog Manga--creating, and participating in, this glorious narrative." Other reviews have been just as enthusiastic in their praise for Logicomix. Forget about the categories of "comic book," or even graphic novel, clearly there is a wide-spread consensus that this book is a significant achievement.

If you haven’t already discovered graphic novels, search the David A. Nims Library catalog and check out a selection that piques your interest and curiosity. These books may not change your life (or even your reading habits), but then again they just might.

A Sampling of Recent Acquisitions

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work by Martin Geck – More than a century ago, Albert Schweitzer indicted Bach biographers for a fixation on the composer's technical mastery, contending that such a focus blinded them to his poetic genius. In 2000 a perceptive German musicologist finally published a life study so perceptive and capacious that even Schweitzer would have applauded, and now a gifted translator has made that award-winning biography accessible to English-speaking readers. Writing for both the scholar and the general reader, Geck delivers a portrait of Bach--as man and as musician--more carefully nuanced and complete than those of any of his predecessors. In his portrait of the young Bach, for instance, Geck teases from a mere handful of documents clues as to how a self-taught organ-tuner won exceptional privileges from Arnstadt authorities. And in probing the repeated metamorphoses in Bach's artistic styles, Geck shows how Bach's rare creative talent fused devotion to tradition with experimental daring. The same analytical sophistication reveals how Bach's music reflects a Christian faith inspired by Lutheran mysticism and Pietist devotion. But even as he unveils the origins of Bach's sublime spirituality, Geck reminds readers of the rooted humanity of a boon companion who relished a mug of hard cider. Ordinary lovers of music will join specialists in praising this book. – Bryce Christensen, starred review, Booklist
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou – An ambitious full-color exploration of the life and ideas of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, the book meticulously interconnects Russell's life, the timelessness of his ideas and the process of creating the book. While a comic about the quest for the foundations of mathematics may seem arduous, it is engrossing on many levels; the story moves, despite heavy philosophical and technical information, as the images, dialogue and narration play off each other. Russell's story is framed within a speech he gave on the brink of America's entry into WWII, in which he expounds his life and philosophical journey. Russell's story is also framed by the creators working in Greece, as they discuss and mold his life into a narrative structure. One of the most prominent themes is the conflict and symbiosis between madness and logic. The fear of madness haunts Russell because of childhood trauma, as he neurotically pushes himself toward what he conceives of as its opposite, a system for certainty. Inventive, with both subtle and overt narrative techniques, the comic form organizes the complex ideas into a simpler system, combining to form a smart and engaging journey through the ambiguity of truth. – starred review, Publishers Weekly
• Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) by Bram Stoker – Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (Others include Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania and horror scholar David J. Skal are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania.
• A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich – This is an unusual work for Yale University Press: a children's history originally published 70 years ago. But it is a work one can quickly come to love. Gombrich, later known as an art historian, wrote this primer in 1935, when he was a young man in Vienna (it was soon banned by the Nazis as too "pacifist"). Rewritten (and updated) in English mainly by Gombrich himself (who died in 2001, age 92, while working on it), the book is still aimed at children, as the language makes clear: "Then, slowly the clouds parted to reveal the starry night of the Middle Ages." But while he addresses his readers directly at times, Gombrich never talks down to them. Using vivid imagery, storytelling and sly humor, he brings history to life in a way that adults as well as children can appreciate.The book displays a breadth of knowledge, as Gombrich begins with prehistoric man and ends with the close of WWII. In the final, newly added chapter, Gombrich's tone sadly darkens as he relates the rise of Hitler and his own escape from the Holocaust—children, he writes, "must learn from history how easy it is for human beings to be transformed into inhuman beings"—and ends on a note of cautious optimism about humanity's future. – starred review, Publishers Weekly
• Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman – When the book opens, Charles Darwin is trying to make a decision, and he is doing so in time-honored fashion: drawing a line down a piece of paper and putting the pros of marriage on one side and the cons on the other. As much as Darwin is interested in wedded life, he is afraid that family life will take him away from the revolutionary work he is doing on the evolution of species. However, the pluses triumph, and he finds the perfect mate in his first-cousin Emma, who becomes his comforter, editor, mother of his 10 children—and sparring partner. Although highly congenial, Charles and Emma were on opposite sides when it came to the role of God in creation. Heiligman uses the Darwin family letters and papers to craft a full-bodied look at the personal influences that shaped Charles’ life as he worked mightily to shape his theories. This intersection between religion and science is where the book shines, but it is also an excellent portrait of what life was like during the Victorian era, a time when illness and death were ever present, and, in a way, a real-time example of the survival of the fittest. Occasionally hard to follow, in part because of the many characters (the family tree helps), this is well sourced and mostly fascinating, and may attract a wider audience than those interested in science. Austen fans will find a romance to like here, too. – Ilene Cooper, starred review, Publishers Weekly