If the last century saw the state of Mississippi as the cradle of the blues, this century may see the region’s University Press of Mississippi set the course for modern comics scholarship.
Although there is a lot of academic and critical interest from journals such as Comic Art, The Comics Journal and comics-centered blogs, the concept of comics scholarship is still frequently seen as an oxymoron. When UPM entered the field in the late 1980s, then-acquisition editor Seetha Srinivasan had to confront doubts from UPM’s editorial board whose members were not convinced of the academic value of studying comics, but Srinivasan convinced them to take a chance. With the assistance of pop culture and comic studies scholar M. Thomas Inge, Srinivasan began compiling a list of titles that would become the beginning of the comics-focused section of UPM’s current pop culture studies catalog. UPM was on the way to executing its goal of bringing insight and depth to Americans’, and indeed the world’s, understanding of the cultural riches of comics literature.
Today, UPM publishes 4-6 new comics-related titles a year including monographs, edited anthologies and compiled interviews. According to UPM publicist Clint Kimberling, titles can sell anywhere from 1500-2000 copies over two to three years, although the most popular works appear to be those centered on a single artist. Charles Hatfield’s Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature has sold more than 2000 copies since its publication in 2005. However, Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel by Annalisa Di Liddo has sold about 1400 copies since its publication in March this year. UPM expects to generate sales of 1500 to 2000 copies from its Conversations with Comic Artists Series, which collects interviews and profiles on a single cartoonist.
UPM titles are designed to combine scholarship and accessibility. Most of its monographs “tend toward critical biography, history and cultural studies rather than toward theory-driven work,” Kimberling said. However, a notable exception is UPM’s 2007 translation of Thierry Groensteen’s The System of Comics, originally published in France in 1999. Groensteen’s exploration of what fundamental elements actually comprise the idea of what a comic actually is sold out its 1000-copy hardback print issue and has currently sold 120 print-on-demand paperback copies.
Current acquisition editor Walter Biggins, who succeeded Srinivasan when her tenure ended in 2008, said that for the last 20 years, comics studies titles have been “one of the most growing and dynamic parts of our pop culture studies list.”
One of UPM’s latest titles is God of Comics: Osamu Tezukaand the Creation of Post-World War II Manga, by Natsu Onoda Power. Published in May 2009, it is another installment of UPM’s Great Comic Artists series and explores Tezuka’s unique legacy in the role of expanding comics’ genres in Japan as well as his impact on Western artists. Dubbed the “God of Comics” for the breadth and quantity of his work, Tezuka was a wildly prolific artist whose career spanned 40 years and whose oeuvre included comics, animated films, short stories and essays. The topics of his work encompassed a dizzying array of genres including history, drama, culture, and sci fi. Power’s book, said Biggins, “makes people understand not just the breadth of Tezuka’s vision but also the depth [and] how psychologically astute he was.”
Describing Tezuka as a “one in a million figure” who has no counterpart in American comics history, Biggins says Tezuka’s influence can be seen in animated films such as Ponyo and comics such as Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim. “He showed us that comics were capable of high art and of being something that adults can read and not be ashamed of,” Biggins added, crediting Tezuka as one of the influences behind the trend of American comics expanding beyond the emphasis on superheroes.
Another internationally focused UPM title is Komiks: Comic Art in Russia by José Alaniz. Set for publication in February 2010, Komiks focuses on no central figure, but instead provides a broad but detailed overview of Russian comics, comic strips, editorial cartoons and similar works. Using 60 illustrations from Russian artists, Komiks charts the medium’s history from the end of the 19th century, just before the Russian Revolution, to the present, just after communism’s fall. It also compares examples of the modern art, which, Biggins said, reflects a “deeply satirical and political bent,” to the pre-Revolution religious icons that influenced it. Along the way it explores the comics’ varied uses not just as entertainment but also as propaganda, political protest, and frequently acidic social commentary as well as producers’ frequent arrests when their publications ran afoul of government agendas.
Such titles continue advancing UPM’s intent to “get international scholarship engaged in comics,” said Biggins. It also expands people’s conception of what Mississippi scholarship is and what academia is or can be, he added.
