When Words Collide: Sixteen Steps Toward a Superhero Canon

I've written about comic book canons on this blog a few times, but when Tucker Stone brought up the notion of an exclusively superhero canon, I couldn't help but take up the challenge.

Actually, that's not what happened at all.

Honestly, I wrote a few inventory columns this summer, even before the launch of "When Words Collide," just in case I got behind on any deadlines, and the second inventory column I wrote, way back in June, was "Sixteen Steps Toward a Superhero Canon." Guess what? I didn't have time to write a fresh, of-the-moment column this week, so you finally get to read my thoughts on a superhero canon. Just what Tucker Stone asked for. He could have come over to my house and giggled over it while we were hanging out, watching dvd recommendations from Nathan Rabin. But, I guess this way's easier.

As you'll see from my column, I approached a potential superhero canon as the game it is. And I made up completely arbitrary rules, because that's what I'm all about. And is Defenders Annual #1 canonical? Hell, yeah. In my world it is.

It's also a good thing I did such a weird approach to the canon, because right after my column went live, fellow CBR writer Steven Grant identified the "20 Most Significant Comics." And between us, we have absolutely no overlap. I'm sure we'll have a laugh about that when Tucker and Nina invite us both over for brisket.

Oh, you want a link to my column? Here it is: Sixteen Steps Toward a Superhero Canon!

The Comics Canon, As Built By Democracy

UPDATED FRIDAY EVENING!

Bill Reed, over at Comics Should Be Good challenged readers to come up with 6 to 8 "great" graphic novels which would be suitable for a "Comics as Literature" college-level course. He stipulated "no superheroes" (except Watchmen), but that didn't stop superhero suggestions from rolling in.

HOWEVER, the list, which by my count (at this time) lands at 199 240 graphic novels, makes for an interesting look at what the Canon might look like, if we recognize that Canons are formed over time and not built by one guy with a list. Some of the suggestions are clearly out-of-place, but most of them would make interesting additions to a comics curriculum.

For your convenience, I've alphabetized all of the "great graphic novels" suggested by readers thus far (UPDATE: And because it is becoming a "list of everything ever, including really unbelievably mediocre stuff like Jinx and Cable & Deadpool," I've emboldened the twenty five books that I think would actually be good choices for a non-superhero focused college class on "Comics as Literature"):

100%
52
100 Bullets
99 Ways to Tell a Story
A Small Killing
Abandon the Old in Tokyo
Action Philosophers
Adolf
Age of Bronze
Akira
Alec
Alice in Sunderland
All-Star Superman
American Born Chinese
American Flagg!
American Splendor
American Virgin
Animal Man
Anthology of Graphic Fiction
Arkham Asylum
Asterix
Astonishing X-Men
Astro City
Astronauts in Trouble
Authority, The
Badlands
Ballad of Halo Jones
Ballad of the Salted Sea
Barefoot Gen
Barefoot Serpent, The
Barry Ween
Batman: Child of Dreams
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Long Halloween
Berlin
Big Numbers
Birthday Riots, The
Black Hole
Blankets
Blood Song, Eric Drooker
Blue Pills, Frederik Peeters
Bone
Books of Magic, Neil Gaiman
Boulevand of Broken Dreams
Box Office Poison
Buddha, Osamu Tezuka
Cable and Deadpool
Cages
Calvin and Hobbes
Camelot 3000
Can't Get No
Capote in Kansas
Captain America
Captain Confederacy
Cerebus
Chance in Hell
City of Glass
Clap Apis
Clumsy
Codeflesh
Comics and Sequential Art
Complete Copybook Tales
Complete Lowlife
Conan
Concrete
Contract with God
Corto Maltese
Cowboy Wally Show, The
Coyote
Crecy
Criminal
Daredevil: Born Again
Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born
David Boring
Days Like This
Death of Captain Marvel, The
Death: The High Cost of Living
Deogratias, Jean-Phillipe Stassen
Devil Dinosaur
DMZ
Domu
Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa
Dreamer, The
Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend
Dropsie Avenue
Eagle
Ed the Happy Clown
Electric Girl
Elfquest
Ex Machina
Exit Wounds
Fables
Fantastic Four
Fate of the Artist, The
Fax from Sarajevo
Fell
Filth, The
Flex Mentallo
Flight
Four Women, Sam Keith
Frank Book, The
From Hell
Fun Home
Ganges
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost World
Global Frequency
Goldfish
Golem's Mighty Swing, The
Goodbye, Chunky Rice
Goon, The
Grendel
Hate
Heart of the Storm
Hicksville
History of Violence
Ice Haven
Illustrated 9/11 Commission Report
Immortal Iron Fist
In the Shadow of No Towers
Interman
Invisibles
Irredeemable Ant-Man
It Rhymes with Lust
It's a Bird…
Jar of Fools
Jimmy Corrigan
Jinx
Journey
Kabuki
Kabuki
Kafka
Kamandi
Killer, The
King, Ho Che Anderson
Kingdom Come
Krazy Kat
La Perdida
Le Combat Ordinaire
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Left Bank Gang, The
Lieutenant Blueberry
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
Little Nemo in Slumberland
Locas
Lone Wolf and Cub
Louis Riel
Love and Rockets
Lucky Luke
Master Race, Bernie Krigstein
Maus
Maxx, The
Midnight Sun, Ben Towle
Miracleman
Mom's Cancer
Mouse Guard
MPD-Psycho
Mystery Play
Nightly News
One Hundred Demons
Palestine
Palomar
Peanuts
Pedro and Me
Persepolis
Phoenix
Planetary
Pogo
Poor Sailor, Sammy Harkham
Powers
Preacher
Pride of Baghdad
Promethea
Punisher: Born
Push Man and Other Stories, The, Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Pyongyang
Rabbi's Cat
Rex Mundi
Road to Perdition
Robert Crumb Selection
Rogan Gosh
Runaways
Safe Area: Gorazde
Sandman
Sandwalk Adventures
Scott Pilgrim
Scout
Seven Miles a Second, David Wojnarowicz
Sgt. Rock
Shade the Changing Man
Shock SuspenStories
Shortcomings
Silver Surfer: Parable
Sin City
Sleepwalk
Sparks
Spider-Man
Spirit, The
Starchild
Stardust
Strangers in Paradise
Stray Bullets
Streetwise, Jack Kirby
Stuck Rubber Baby
Summer Blonde
Superman
Supreme
Swamp Thing
Tale of One Bad Rat, The
The One
Three Paradoxes, The
Tintin
Torso
Town of Evening Calm, County of Cherry Blossoms
Transmetropolitan
Treasuy of Victorian Murder
True Story, Swear to God
Two-Fisted Tales
Ultra Gash Inferno
Uncle Sam
Uncle Scrooge
Understanding Comics
Usagi Yojimbo
V for Vendetta
Vampire Loves
Violent Cases
Walking Man, The
Wasteland (Oni)
Watchmen
We3
Whiteout
Why Are You Doing This?, Jason
Why I Hate Saturn
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
Y the Last Man
Yotsuba&!
You Call This Art?!: A Greg Irons Retrospective
Zot!

Some completely silly suggestions in there, I think, but well over a hundred non-superhero comics and graphic novels that would make interesting texts for discussion and analysis. What do you think?

The Canon's Already Under Attack!

Yesterday I posted my declaration of the American Comic Canon, and the comments have been great. I fully expect my Canon to spark debate and discussion, and it already has.

For the record, here's what's been suggested as essential additions to the Canon, followed by my brief rebuttal:

1. Thomas Nast added to Early Comic Strips
--I say yes, although I know very little about Nast. From what I do know, he sounds like an influential pioneer, and that's important to have at the beginning of the Canon, at least for historical perspective. Perhaps he doesn't belong because he doesn't do sequential work, though. What do you think?

2. Teen Titans, Uncanny X-Men, and Squadron Supreme moved from Bronze Age to the Modern Age (and, Squadron Supreme was actually my own suggestion as an addition, but the request to move it to the later era belonged to a reader).
--I say no, because the Titans, X-Men, and Squadron Supreme are the logical conclusion to the promise of the Bronze Age. Squadron Supreme, in particular, takes the O'Neil/Adams formula and projects it onto a larger stage. It, along with the other two titles, are the perfect end point for the Bronze Age. (And, in retrospect, I think I should add Squadron Supreme into that Bronze Age category.)

3. Walt Simonson's Thor added to the Modern Age
--I say no, although Simonson is a wonderful artist. I just don't think this one makes the cut as a singular work, although some of Simonson's page layouts are innovative enough to make it a close call.

4. John Byrne's Fantastic Four added to the Modern Age
--I say no, it's not even close. In many ways, Byrne's FF is a mashup of Silver Age plots with Bronze Age characterizations, and it's not truly representative of the promise of the Modern Era

5. Frank Miller's Ronin added to the Modern Age
--I say no, because Miller is overly represented as it is. Ronin is clearly a transformative work for Miller and you can see him literally progressing to a new style over the course of the book. It's him shedding his Daredevil skin and preparing for Dark Knight Returns, and it's an essential link between the two, but I don't think it stands on its own as canonical.

6. Chester Brown or Seth added to the Modern Age
--I say yes, but I don't know which work(s) I would add. I seriously considered Clyde Fans, by Seth, as an original addition to the list, but it's incomplete. I think he may have a masterpiece that will yet emerge. Chester Brown is important, but what's his major work? I honestly don't know. Suggestions?

7. Cerebus moved from Bronze Age to the Modern Age
--I say yes, definitely. The best, most important Cerebus stuff was during the mid to late 1980s, and it was high Modernist in style and content. I only placed it in the Bronze Age as a kind of bridge between the Undergrounds to the Moderns, but that's not fair to Cerebus.

8. The Authority added to the Modern Age
--I say yes, for two reasons. 1) Even though it's not truly an Image book, it represents the logical outgrowth of the Image approach to super-heroes, and it's worthy of inclusion as a kind of pinnacle of that sub-era, and 2) the comic has influenced other super-hero comics ever since its release.

What do you say? What else did I leave out? What should be removed? How many is too many? Do you love comics as much as I do?

EDITED TO ADD: Abhay has joined the fray HERE.

Aim the Canon

Chris Mautner, at Blog@Newsarama, posted a piece about the existence of critics treating comics thoughtfully and about the existence of a comic book canon. I get distracted by my weekly mainstream super-hero comics and my rants about Brand New Day, but I like to think of myself as one of those serious-minded critics who treats comics the way a literary critic treats novels or a film critic treats cinema. I don't always take myself seriously, but that doesn't mean I'm not serious about my criticism. My entire career as a writer, such as it is, is based on "serious comic book criticism."

As a critic, I'm primarily a structuralist, as a reading of Grant Morrison: The Early Years will indicate. Even my upcoming essay for Teenagers from the Future involves my structuralist reading of Paul Levitz's Legion comics. But I not only enjoy identifying and exploring patterns within the works of a single author--I also like examining historical pattern and tendencies. I think, as Chris Mautner does, that there is a canon of great comics. I think of it as a pattern of influences and developments, moving forward through time. It's the way a literary canon works (although as I commented in response to Mautner's post, the literary canon doesn't exist the way it once did--it has been challenged and deconstructed in recent years, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to establish a comic book canon). In the literary canon (and this is a vast, abbreviated oversimplification, but that doesn't mean it isn't true), Sophocles' Oedipus Rex leads to Shakespeare's King Lear leads to Melville's Moby Dick leads to Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury which leads to McCarthy's Blood Meridian. All five of these works are canonical (arguably, depending on whether or not you think the canon should be full of dead white males), and there is a line of influence connecting one to another.

The same is true for the comic canon, which I believe parallels the literary canon, and looks something like this:

The American Comic Canon
I. Early Comic Strips
Yellow Kid, by Richard Outcault
The Katzenjammer Kids, by Rudolph Dirks
Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Windsor McKay
Krazy Kat, by George Herriman
Flash Gordon, by Alex Raymond
Terry and the Pirates, by Milton Caniff
Popeye, by E.C. Segar
Dick Tracy, by Chester Gould
The Phantom, by Lee Falk

II. The Golden Age
Superman, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Batman, by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson
Wonder Woman, by William Moulton Marsten and H.G. Peter
Captain Marvel, by C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, and Otto Binder
The Spirit, by Will Eisner
Captain America, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Powerhouse Pepper, by Basil Wolverton
Plastic Man, by Jack Cole
Archie, by Bob Montana
Donald Duck, by Carl Barks
Gasoline Alley, by Frank King

These first two categories, in the American Comic Canon, are the equivalent of the ancient Greek plays in the literary canon. They establish the basic rules of the form, but they are no longer widely read. Only students and scholars of the medium read these works with any regularity, but like the ancient Greek plays, much pleasure can be gained by those who attempt to read them.

III. The EC Era
Representative stories by...
Johnny Craig
Wallace Wood
Jack Davis
Reed Crandall
Bernie Kriegstein
Harvey Kurtzman

The EC Era is the equivalent of the early American Renaissance in the literary canon. The EC creators take the place of someone like Poe or Hawthorne.

IV. The Silver Age
Peanuts, by Charles Shulz
Flash, by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino
Green Lantern, by John Broome and Gil Kane
Superman, by Jerry Siegel, Edmund Hamilton, Wayne Boring, and Curt Swan
Batman, by Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, and Carmine Infantino
The Justice League of America, by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowski
Sgt. Rock, by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert
Enemy Ace, by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert
Challengers of the Unknown, by Jack Kirby
The Doom Patrol, by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani
Fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The Incredible Hulk, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The Amazing Spider-Man, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Dr. Strange, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

The Silver Age is the equivalent of the explosion of American literature in the 19th century. Much of it is still read with fondness, but the language is more stilted than we're used to, and the concern too simplistic at times.

V. Underground Comix
Zap Comix, by Robert Crumb
Selected works by...
S. Clay Wilson
Rick Griffin
Spain Rodriguez
Greg Irons
Skip Williamson
Art Spiegelman
Trina Robbins
Vaughn Bode
Jack Jackson

The Underground Comix era shows the first important divergent thread, much like the poetry of Walt Whitman, which took influence from what came before but headed in a bold, new direction.

VI. The Bronze Age
The Fourth World Saga, by Jack Kirby
Wonder Woman, by Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky
Batman, by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams
Green Lantern/Green Arrow, by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams
The Amazing Spider-Man (non-code issues), by Stan Lee and Gil Kane
Daredevil, by Frank Miller
Warlock, by Jim Starlin
The Death of Captain Marvel, by Jim Starlin
Cerebus, by Dave Sim
Moon Knight, by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz
The Uncanny X-Men, by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne
The New Teen Titans, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez

Like the post-Civil War rise of Realism in American literature, the post Vietnam Bronze Age shifted comics toward a more "relevant" direction. Even outlandish super-hero operas like the Fourth World and the X-Men were grounded in contemporary youth culture and attempted cultural diversity.

VII. The Modern Age
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Swamp Thing, by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch
Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez
Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller
Batman: Year One, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
Daredevil: Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli
Love and Rockets, by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez
Nexus, by Mike Baron and Steve Rude
American Flagg!, by Howard Chaykin
Grendel, by Matt Wagner
Elektra: Assassin, by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkieweicz
The Question, by Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan
"Here," by Richard McGuire
The One, by Rick Veitch
Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
Animal Man, by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog
Arkham Asylum, by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
Sin City, by Frank Miller
Stuck Rubber Baby, by Howard Cruse
Sandman, by Neil Gaiman and others
Bone, by Jeff Smith
Jimmy Corrigan, by Chris Ware
Eightball, by Daniel Clowes
100%, by Paul Pope
Scott Pilgrim, by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel
Casanova, by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon

An age of disillusionment and formal experimentation, the Modern Age in American literature produced creators as diverse (and divisive) as Hemingway, Faulkner, Joseph Heller, and T.S. Eliot. The Moderns chewed up the past (in both style and content) and spit it out in their own, vigorous way. The same is true for the Modern comic book creators as well. The era is marked by an ironic exploration of past icons, and it has possibly shifted into a Postmodern Age somewhere around the late 1980s. Of all the eras, this is the one most open for debate, as it should be.

That's the American Comic Canon as I see it. Challenge it.