Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Zadie Smith / Why we love graphic novels

Zadie Smith, novelist

Why we love graphic novels

Sunday 5 November 2017

How did you get into graphic novels?

I read a lot of comics as a child, mainly those old Disney ones about Donald Duck and his nephews. Also Asterix and Tintin and that stuff. But the first adult graphic work that had a strong impact on me was Richard Appignanesi and Robert Crumb’s book about Kafka. It’s still one of my favourite books in any genre. Later I shared a flat with Richard’s son, Josh, who had a huge collection of Drawn and Quarterly stuff and manga and I read all that. When I first came to America, 18 years ago, I lived for a bit in Greenpoint, in Brooklyn, back when it was a sort of proto-hipster area and there was a little pop-up book store on the corner that specialised in graphic novels and McSweeney’s issues. That’s where I found Chris Ware in pamphlet form, his Jimmy Corrigan in serialisation. Once I’d read Chris I was obsessed. One of my most treasured possessions is a sketch of Corrigan saying “Ha ha … hi Zadie…”, which I forced Chris to draw for me when I spent a day with him in London around 2000.

From Here by Richard McGuire — An image from Here by Richard McGuire.

What do you love about them?

Everything. To me they’re like opera, or musicals – they provide the satisfaction of multiple media in one space. I can just about imagine writing like Chris Ware but to write like Chris and draw like Chris blows my mind.

Do you have a favourite?

Too many. Corrigan, obviously, and all books by Ware, especially Building Stories. Here by Richard McGuire. All of Charles Burns, especially Big Baby. All of Dan Clowes, especially You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel. The Hernandez brothers, Lynda Barry, Tomine… these are all canonical and the list is endless, but of more recent finds, I am blown away by Walter Scott’s Wendy series, and both Beverly and Sabrinaby Nick Drnaso seem to me to be masterpieces. Joff Winterhart’s Driving Short Distances is extraordinary and also Everything Is Flammable by Gabrielle Bell. I still like finding things before they become books, but that’s harder to do as a middle-aged lady no longer often in comic stores. But on a visit to Los Feliz I found The Fade Out by Brubaker and Breitweiser in the old serial form, issues 1-5 (but missing 4) and fell in love, even with the gap in the tale.

From Jimmy Corrigan, by Chris Ware — A page from Jimmy Corrigan, by Chris Ware.

Where do you buy them?

In LA, at Skylight Books. When in New York, at McNally Jackson or the few comic stores left on St Marks.

Any rituals around reading them?

I just buy them and start reading them walking down the street. I’m usually done an hour after I’ve bought them. I read them with so much undiluted pleasure. I often joke with Mr Ware that what it takes him 10 years to write I can consume in 45 minutes. That’s one of the many reasons I find graphic artists remarkable. They work so hard for our pleasure and we work so little to receive it.

THE GUARDIAN