Broken Frontier

If you agree with my definition of Good Literature from part one, it is probably clear to you that certain superhero comic books fit, quite snugly, on that highly vaunted shelf provided for the Canon of Good Literature.  

Before going any further though, I must iterate that the previously mentioned definition is more of a principle than a solid, unarguable fact—a beginning if you will. And for every ending, there are several beginnings.  Furthermore, though we are studying superhero comic books, I am, for the most part, intentionally avoiding any discussion on the art. 

Yes, the art does separate comic books from other strictly prose examples of Good Literature, but for the purposes of this journey, we are mostly studying the words, not the pictures. Otherwise it would be far longer and we would have to incorporate the film medium into our discussion, which also incorporates images into the category of literature.  That would only make the test at the end of our lesson bigger.  Nobody wants that.  

Finally, when I say superhero comic books are Good Literature, I do not mean all of them.  There is stuff out there that would make your stomach turn, stuff that I am not going to remotely get into (stuff that, in some instances, I wrote).  

Don’t forget though, this is the same in the literary world.  When you go into a bookstore or library, there are thousands, maybe even millions, of books to choose from.  How many of them, really, fit into our definition?  After all, it isn’t the label of “literature” on the shelf where the book sits that makes it Good Literature; it is what goes on between the pages that truly matters.  As Las Vegas writer and artist of my upcoming novel, The ABCs of Dinkology, Chris Smith, so eloquently puts it: “. . . just because there is a troll running around in your story—or superheroes—doesn’t mean that it can’t be taken seriously as literature.  The EXECUTION DICTATES THE SUCCESS.”  

If I may be so bold as to interpret, what Smith is saying is that Good Literature can be found anywhere.  If the writing is executed well, then Good Literature can turn up under what some might consider the dingiest of rocks: your local comic book shop, not necessarily in the shiniest bookstore.  Speaking of execution, where were we?

Oh yes!  Superheroes!  Next week we will begin our discussion of superhero comic books as Good Literature in earnest with the first part of an exploration into one of modern day’s most prominent literary comic book writers: Alan Moore, and the book that some consider his greatest work: Watchmen.

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AE Stueve is a former regular contributor to Broken Frontier.  His first novel, The ABCs of DInkology is due out this fall from WSC Press and The Wave, a line of comic books he is editing, is also due out this fall.