McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern is a literary magazine periodical put out four times a year and edited by Dave Eggers. It is known for it’s experimental and creative layouts and packaging, and for its themed issues. Issue 13 (Spring 2004) is “An Assorted Sampler of North American Comic Drawings, Strips, and Illustrated Stories, &c.” and is guest edited by Chris Ware. Featuring an illustrated fold-out book jacket designed by Ware, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #13 is an excellent primer for North American “indie” comics.
Given that McSweeney’s is a literary magazine, you would have to assume that the point of Issue #13 is to introduce graphic fiction to those who are unfamiliar with it. The book starts with an illustrated introduction by Ware, comedically breezing through “The History of Cartooning”, and then treats us to some early examples of the genre by Toefler, Herriman and Schultz. And certainly, the book doesn’t abandon its literary roots, interspercing (as it does) the graphic fiction with written articles from Chip Kidd, John Updike and others on how comics influenced their art.
And even though the first few comic excerpts resemble the daily gag strips you see in your local rag, the content is also decidedly literary. There are no super-powered, muscle-bound, homo-erotic heroes in tights here (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Black-and-white is the order of the day here, and autobiography of a Bukowskian nature is rampant. It is, in a word, excellent.
Issue #13 collects many important pieces of work from the origins of North American comic art in the early New York dailies right up to the time it was published in 2004. And “North American” is right; there is a good representation made by Canadian artists, including pieces by Seth, Chester Brown and former Hamiltonian David Collier. This was an important book; since its publication, several other anthologies of graphic fiction have made the scene (Ivan Brunetti’s Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories, Vols. 1 & 2, and the Best American Comics series, to name a couple).
If you are interested in comics, but the adolescent power-fantasies of DC and Marvel put you off; if you love indie writing; if you find the potential of this medium intriguing in any way: do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of this book.
Hypothetically related posts: