Broken Frontier

As I’m writing these words, it is the end of May, and with the Memorial Day weekend upon us, summer has finally arrived. In many ways this time of year always represents the end of an era for me, as a school year ends and my students graduate and move on to new things. That feeling of malaise that comes with change is especially true this year, for reasons that shall soon be clear.

The comic class I taught this semester went well, and I think that I managed to turn a few of my students into comic fans. One student in particular seemed very receptive to what we did in class. He had read V for Vendetta for his oral presentation, and he said it changed his life. I had an extra copy of the book in my office, and he was glad to trade me his copy of one of the books we read in class for this spare copy of V for Vendetta so he could reread it. On the day of the final he stopped on his way out the door and said, “Thanks for making me into a comic nerd.”

Another student told me in the final week that he had never read a comic book in his life before he took the course. Though he admitted he had some difficulty reading them at times, he really enjoyed the novels. He especially liked the novel he read for his book report The Crow, and like the aforementioned student, he was very pleased when I offered him my spare copy for trade.

The student that I feel I won over the most was one girl in my course, an international student who hailed from Switzerland. She had read some European comics before, but she really seemed to fall in love with the material in the course, reading a number of graphic novels I had on reserve in the library solely for her pleasure. After seeing a few pages I had on display from Mother, Come Home when Paul Hornschemeier came to speak to my class, she couldn’t wait to purchase the book and talk to him personally. Her report was on Berlin by Jason Lutes, and she fell in love with the novel so much that she decided she wanted to read everything by him. She ended up taking a leftover copy I had of Lutes’ book Jar of Fools off my hands on the last day of class.

I take such particular pleasure in these triumphs, because as I mentioned above, this is a time of change for me. This semester could be the last time I’ll be teaching this comic class for a while. I’m moving to St. Louis soon (actually just twenty-four hours from when I’m writing these words), and I am as of yet unsure of what I’ll be doing there. I hope to find a job teaching, but even if I do, I can’t be sure how receptive that school’s administration will be to a course such as this one.

How this new location and new occupation will affect my advocacy of comics is uncertain. It has already helped it in a few ways, because as I prepared to move, I cleaned out my collection, getting rid of a lot of books that were simply dead weight, things I’d bought as a kid and never read again. Of the six hundred or so books I pulled out of my collection, I did sell a few on Ebay, but over four hundred of those I brought to my office to give to students who dropped by.

When these students had pulled out a few they wanted, there were still over three hundred books. I sorted through these books again and removed any books that might have “adult” content; then I took the rest to the pediatric ward of the local hospital. (This practice is one I would recommend to most comic fans. If you’ve been collecting comics for any amount of time, chances are you’ve got some stuff in your collection that you really don’t want anymore, just gathering dust—or not, if these books are in Mylar sleeves. Why not pass them on to someone who will read them and cherish them much more than you are at present? Plus, it clears out some space for you to put any new comics you buy.)

Some of the books I did keep, however, in order to perform another advocacy exercise I’ve mentioned in this column in the past. I always hate sitting in waiting rooms, since so often the reading material there simply does not appeal to me. So these few comics I kept I have been taking with me for the past month whenever I’ve gotten my hair cut, picked up a friend at the airport or had to get my car fixed. When I left, the comics stayed behind for someone else to find and hopefully use to pass the time more easily.

But more important to think about is how my move will affect this column. You might have noticed that the gap between installments of this column has been a bit larger of late. I’ve been so busy with grading finals, getting things packed and ready to move, finding a new place to live and a new job, that the column has been paid short shrift. Hopefully this trend is at an end, and as I get settled in my new surroundings the column will appear more regularly.

At the same time, I’ve found myself running low on content as my teaching position ends. This change could lead to a dramatic decrease in the occasions I have to try to win over new readers, and having fewer advocacy opportunities might mean less material to fill this column each week. So now, I will be devoting the first column of each month to a special feature that I like to call “The Prerequisites.” It will basically involve me recommending two different graphic novels, one in the superhero genre and one that is not, that represent the best that I feel comics has to offer us. Either you yourself should read these books and broaden your own horizons, or you should use these books in your efforts at comics advocacy, giving them to non-comics readers to turn them onto the potential of the medium.

Also, I’ll be beginning another regular feature soon in this column in which I ask professionals what they think can be done to advocate comics. Not only will we focus on what creators themselves can do to promote their work and the work of their peers, but they will also provide valuable insight on how the fans can better support the medium. I’ve been collecting such responses for a while, and I’ll start printing them regularly here in the column very soon. (If there are any creators out there reading this column now who are willing to voice their opinions on the subject, please feel free to contact me.)

Finally, if any of you loyal readers are interested in receiving updates about my move, I urge you to drop in on my message boards where I’ll be posting new information regularly. Next week I intend to stop waxing so personal and go back to regular topics of comic advocacy, so that this time of change can quickly evolve from an ending into a new beginning.