THOUGHT BALLOONISTS

Pigeonholes (a follow-up), featuring Isaac Cates

 

My “introduction” to Brian Chippendale’s Maggots (was it as far back as May 12?) was really an introduction to a way of thinking about the relationship between orthodox and experimental (or avant-garde) comics. This post inspired some interesting back-and-forth in our comments section, thanks to our friend Isaac Cates (who supplied the diagrams here, thanks).

Isaac is, among other things, an outstanding comics scholar and teacher and the co-creator, with Mike Wenthe, of Satisfactory Comics, both the minicomix series and the blog. Isaac and Mike's latest issue (which I played a very small role in helping to shape) has been the subject of a series of fascinating behind-the-scenes posts at their site:

(and you should definitely follow the links if you want to know more, and want a chance to read a clever, funny, formally inventive comic in a disarming format).

Isaac and I have taken the liberty of reformatting and expanding our comments into a proper post, here, in hopes of turning the spotlight on our discussion. First, by way of recap:

Bill Mauldin, Part 1.5

Wow. In response to my post last week on the new biography Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, I received the following gracious and encouraging reply from the author himself, Todd DePastino:

Dear Charles,

I'm writing, first of all, to thank you for your too-generous review of my Bill Mauldin bio on your blog. The essay is brilliant, not because it's so complimentary, but because it deepens and adds so much to the analysis of Mauldin and his cartoons.  Your critical perspective on the citizen-soldier myth is evocative and timely. It also provides a great lens through which to view Mauldin's wartime work.

For me, your essay immediately infused one cartoon in particular with new meaning [click on the thumbnail for a legible view]:

Let me give you the context. In the off-year elections of 1942, fewer than 30,000 of the five million overseas service men and women voted, mostly because northern Republicans and southern Democrats--both claiming "states' rights"--set up deliberately inefficient systems and cumbersome rules for polling overseas GIs. (During the Civil War in 1864, Lincoln had seen to it that Union soldiers were given leaves to vote, and polls were even set up in the field.) The Republicans saw the vote as a chance to curtail liberal-left turnout; the Democrats feared that black soldiers--liberated from the terror and intimidation that prevailed at southern polling stations--might actually exercise their right to vote. It worked, and New Dealers lost seats in the House and Senate.

To remedy the low soldier turnout for the 1944 election, liberals introduced the Green-Lucas Bill. This was intended to set up a federal commission that would send out overseas ballots to all military and civilian personnel. The same coalition of anti-New Dealers managed to amend Green-Lucas, preserve the state systems, and create barriers to the new federal ballot. Out of 11 million service men and women overseas, some 2.5 million voted, largely because the issue had raised awareness and soldiers petitioned their home states early to get ballots. Still, a fairly dismal turn-out. Soldiers disenfranchised as citizens.

No federal ballots for all servicemen, but at least they could make bets!

Thanks again for your wonderful article. Best wishes,

Todd DePastino

THANK YOU, Todd, not only for the kind words but also for casting light on a Mauldin cartoon that, at first, left me puzzled. Now I see it as yet more proof that Mauldin's wartime cartoons were political cartoons, in the truest sense of the word. It's clear from your book that, even as Mauldin rejected easy platitudes about "supporting the troops," he advocated fiercely for their genuine support, that is, their political enfranchisement.

Readers, the above is but a sample of the kind of historical contextualizing and insight that can be found in the soon-to-be-released Willie & Joe: The WWII Years -- as comprehensive an edition as is possible of Bill Mauldin's wartime cartoons -- edited by Todd and published by Fantagraphics. This two-volume edition is an indispensable trove of both cartooning and military history, and fully as significant as Fantagraphics' Complete Peanuts or the various other comprehensive strip reprint projects that we are so lucky to have now. That the definitive edition of Mauldin's wartime work should come out within weeks of the first substantial biography of the artist is a sweet co-incidence, and cause for celebration.

I hope to post a fuller review of Willie & Joe: The WWII Years soon. For now, suffice to say that it's historically important and beautifully done.

(NOTE that Todd DePastino is also the author of the fascinating Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America, which, like his Mauldin bio, is an example of truly democratic American history-writing. Good companion reading for Frank Santoro's Storeyville!)

Our Eddie: From Hell Redux

Craig here, interrupting our usual weekend silence to note an excellent response to our Eddie Campbell post of April 1:

http://blog.kobek.com/2008/04/02/thoughts-on-the-visual-style-of-from-hell

Go and read, please. Jarett Kobek has some fascinating things to say about From Hell: he compares its visual style to Victorian newspaper engravings, and argues that the book is less a contemporary graphic novel than a "Victorian Novel done graphically," following the storytelling and visual tropes of the era.

Thanks for the smart commentary, Jarett. I'll try to reply in more detail soon, and I encourage everyone else to chime in on the comments thread.

Following Up on Iron Fist

CH here, briefly. This Twosday's Iron Fist discussion (see Craig's opening post and my reply) has become part of an interesting discussion of comics "continuity" going on at Chris Roberson's Interminable Ramble and Siskoid's Blog of Geekery. Thanks, guys, for responding to us Balloonists and serving up plenty of food for thought!

Siskoid's intriguing series of posts about Bubble World Theory in Myth-Building have addressed, among other things, Iron Fist and Swamp Thing. Chris's post in reply, regarding the idea of the "retcon," effectively ties together Siskoid and us here at TB. Then Siskoid has further thoughts on the notion of retconning.

The follow-up comments have been sharp too. It's nice to see this web forming!