Broken Frontier

As all readers of Scott McCloud's “Understanding Comics” know, sometimes what defines a comic gets a little murky. No one would deny the comic nature of, say, “Amazing Spider-Man #1” or “Maus,” but for other artistic creations, such as ancient Aztec accordion books or some illustrated modern fliers, it can become ambiguous.

Which brings us to the stories of Beatrix Potter: “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” “The Tale of Two Bad Mice,” “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck,” and other tales of talking animals getting into all sorts of trouble. These works have been a staple of young children's literature ever since Ms. Potter created them at the dawn of the 20th Century and the synthesis of writing and art within each makes them not unlike comics.

Each story is accompanied by numerous intricate illustrations that depict the various animals going about their business. Each illustration is created with painstaking detail, peculiar images of incredibly realistic animals performing very human actions. Because of the extensive amount of illustrations, a clear sequential story is shown even without the words, and often the pictures reveal things that would not be deduced by the writing alone.

When Jemima Puddle-Duck accepts the hospitality of the “sandy-whiskered gentleman,” it is only the illustrations that reveal the host to be a fox, and thus show the great danger Jemima is in by visiting his home. When Mrs. Tabitha dresses Tom Kitten up in his Sunday best, it is the illustrations that depict just how uncomfortable he is and anticipate his desire to escape from the outfit at the first opportunity. When Ginger and Pickles decide to run a village shop, it is the illustrations that reveal all their customers are the protagonists of Ms. Potters' other animal stories, thus making the stories into a connected cosmology. With just the text, Beatrix Potter's stories are charming, but with the illustrations, they are intricate and full of depth.

One of the great strengths of the comic book medium is that when well-executed, the combination of text and illustration can become greater than the sum of its parts. Working together, they can express an idea or feeling in a better, more intimate way than they could on their own. Beatrix Potter's stories are one of the first and best examples of such a symbiosis occurring in modern literature, and though she was writing more than a hundred years ago, her creations remain just as engrossing today.