Noted academic journal The Kansas City InfoZine has an interesting article about a comics conference at the Library of Congress. Here’s an anecdote from Steve Ridgley, who studies violence in fiction and in particular, the effect of boxing manga on Japanese society:
One manga story of two fictional boxers, in which one killed the other, brought 700 people to a Buddhist funeral for the fictional character in the 1960s. Most who attended the funeral, complete with photos of the deceased, were college men and school-aged boys.
And Kukhee Choo, of the University of Tokyo, is studying how the Japanese government uses manga to market itself.
She said that comics are an estimated $200 billion industry in Japan, which makes it a government interest.
“Today, what I noticed in America, is the manga, or comic books, are still a sub-culture,” Choo said.
Choo said she would like to see Western and Asian cultures study comic art at universities in the same way they study classic art or English.
In fact, the article reveals that the Library of Congress owns 120,000 comics and is spending serious money to preserve them. But don’t think you can just head down there for the latest issue of Naruto:
Researchers may view the Library of Congress’ comic collection, but must first show serious collection intent or proof of study.
This debate about the artistic status of comics is as old as the hills! Gilbert Seldes wrote a wonderful book in 1923 called “The Seven Lively Arts” in which he related comic strips, jazz, and silent movies to older forms of high art (i.e. opera). The book is still in print and availble from Dover Editions, I believe. Definitely worth a read.
Speaking as someone who is finishing a PhD in the humanities, I have mixed feelings about studying comics within the academy. Done right, a course or book about the subject could serve as a fascinating window into all sorts of topics. Done wrong, a book about comics could seem like the worst kind of academic opportunism: Derrida with pows!, gyaaaas! and squeeeees! Looking at the field of popular music studies, the opportunities and pitfalls become clearer. For every excellent book or article discussing, say, representations of black masculinity in rap, there are ten with titles like “The Implications of Light Music for a Group of Apprentices in Bucharest” or “The Kids Really Fit: Rock Text and Rock Practice in Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock.'” Gyaaaaa!
I agree. Academics can squeeze the life out of anything. But I still think there’s a lot to be learned from looking critically at comics. The boxing guy is a good example. After reading Judas, I think there’s a thesis waiting to be written about Christian imagery in Japanese manga, for instance, and I’d like to see someone compare the social structure of a manga school to a real school. And the most interesting research of all, to me, is the professor at Chico State who is looking at how manga change the way children draw, which means it’s altering the way they frame the world. How cool is that!
Those are some great ideas for manga-related research… they all sound like a lot more fun to write than my own thesis!
I actually attended this event (right before the SPX, and I am still trying to find a way to work it into my columns) and it was interesting, because historically this event (ICAF) has focused on European comics. I actually talked to people on this panel during the lunch period (which was right after the group presentation) and while some of them focused the analysis and history of manga, several of them do seem to be interested in the direction that manga is moving in.