3rd
I’m trying to collate my problems with Anthony Lane’s review of “Watchmen,” which film I of course have not seen.
The first thing that nags at me: he opens by appraising “The world of the graphic novel” - the few masterworks (he mentions “Maus” and “Persepolis,” both serious-minded memoiristic nonfiction pieces, the politics of which he presumably endorses), and the rest: “cod mythology and rainy dystopias, patrolled by rock-jawed heroes and their melon-breasted sidekicks.” So, genre stuff, specifically superhero work, right?
By the end he’s not talking about “graphic novels” anymore (the serious mode of the artform, which ought to be socially responsible); he writes “‘Watchmen’ marks the final demolition of the comic strip, and it leaves you wondering: where did the comedy go?” He’s conflating comic strips and comic books, but never mind that; anyway, now he’s calling the medium “comics,” almost. And he’s faulting it for not being comic.
You know, like “Maus” and “Persepolis” are comic.
