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Food for Thought

Pekaresque Adventures

Tim Madigan on aesthetics and identity in American Splendor.

“Comics are words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.” Harvey Pekar

When considering the ontological status of the comic book, it was once natural to think of superheroes battling all-powerful villains; Archie and Jughead battling wits with Principal Weatherbee; or Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig battling Elmer J. Fudd in the forest: in short, the assumption was that comic books were kids’ stuff, and not to be taken seriously by world-weary adults. Much has changed in the last 20 or so years, with the rise of the graphic novel, but many of these – including such seminal works as Frank Miller’s T he Dark Knight, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, and Ed Kramer and Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman – still deal with superheroes, albeit in complex and ethically-shaded ways.

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