Commentary on international comics

Maybe it was just my choices of comics, but my biggest takeaway from the readings for this week is that I struggled to find much difference between international comics and American ones. The differences that do crop up are most often the cultural differences represented within the story itself, but there’s always this special Something that fascinates me about stories by people from across the globe. It’s not always quantifiable, but there’s often a palpably different approach to subject matter, story, drawing style, pacing, etc. that makes the work feel uniquely like a product of its place and time. Since comics draws a lot from a variety of media it’s affected by a similarly vast variety of local media limitations and histories, leading to different approaches to story and visuals.

Triplets of Belleville is rooted in French cinema, just as American animation is most rooted in American cinema. Because of the differing sets of conventions these countries tend to employ, the execution of the stories can turn out very differently from what we’re used to. I can’t think of a single American movie I’ve seen that so deliberately makes every character so ugly and unappealing; our animation history is dominated by Mickey Mouse’s legacy of appeal, whereas if I’m remembering correctly I believe French art has a rich history of caricature and political cartoons that may have contributed to the almost disgusting appearances of most of the cast of the Triplets of Belleville. Instead of their less-picturesque features being idealized and glossed over, they are highlighted and made into charmingly ugly trademarks, recognizable quirks that make each character— no matter how trivial or temporary— beautifully different from the next. There’s something distinctly un-American about this celebrated presentation of physical flaws, especially among older generations, who are often forgotten in our stories because we don’t find their lives or appearances glamorous enough. Belleville delights in the characters whose glamor has been lost, and this gives the story its unique power. I don’t believe it’s a story that could have been made in America at all.

Unlike Belleville, Daytripper feels familiar to me for a lot of reasons. I had just read the entirety of Umbrella Academy this summer, which was drawn by Gabriel of the Ba brothers, and fell in love with his art style. The art style feels quite similar to others I’ve read, the themes familiar to ones I’ve enjoyed in comics before. It feels very much like it could exist as a spinoff series from Sandman, if the themes of Death and Dreams had been made just a tiny bit more literal. But then, Sandman is not an all-American comic, given that Neil is from England! So maybe part of what makes it difficult for me to verbalize what’s different about international comics is that I’ve consumed comics from international creators all my life.

As our culture becomes increasingly global, we start to draw from a lot of similar sources of inspiration, and comics has the benefit of growing up in this era of globalization so that its influences may be so diverse even as it grows into being recognized as a legitimate form of storytelling. There are still differences to be found, and the greatest value of reading a variety of stories from across the globe is that the reader can perhaps get a slightly expanded view of what’s going on in the world today.

Overall, it may be easier to recognize something about the overarching similarities in human life when you see the same stories played out in places and cultures that are totally new to you.