Cartoons, comics and their ilk are fine art. There, I said it, and I’m starting a new blog dedicated to this subject.
It starts off like this:
When Picasso drew, that was considered art.
When Vonnegut wrote, so was that.
Now, I ask you: why, when you combine the two (illustrated images plus text), why does it get such a bad rap? Why is drawing + art disparaged, out of hand, as junk? As not worthy of the moniker “art?” I’ll tell you why. Bad PR. Massive misunderstanding. An out-dated negative image perpetuated by not only detractors of the medium, but also by its so-called proponents. Think Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
2 comments
I think it does get more respect than it used to, but still not as much as it should. I think of the people that try to change perspective by re-labeling. “It’s not a comic book, it’s a graphic novel.” That doesn’t help. It sounds like a trick. Call it what it is, and let the appreciation grow. Remember when Led Zeppelin was going to corrupt the youth of the world? Now they are revered masters, and they didn’t change the name of the band to “Hot Air Balloon,” or call heavy metal “intensified electric composition.”
Now comics are called ‘sequential art.’