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Comics versus Art
Bart Beaty
Gabriel Tremblay-Gaudette
Bart Beaty, Comics versus Art
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, 288 pp.
ISBN: 9781442643512
ISBN: 9781442612044
ISBN: 9781442696273
What is the status of contemporary comics? Most would agree that the current quality, diversity and
visibility of comics is unprecedented within the history of the form, but it is not quite as clear whether
the medium has gained any additional recognition in the public eye and in the art world. On the one
hand, comics advocates like Scott McCloud describe the current situation with unbridled optimism.
On the other hand, specialists active in the academic and institutional feld take up a far more critical
position, as in for example Thierry Groensteens book Un Objet Culturel Non Identif (2006) which is
primarily concerned with the setbacks and the barriers still prevalent in todays acceptance of comics as
an art form.
Bart Beatys most recent monograph Comics versus Art (University of Toronto Press, 2012)
addresses this question through a series of examinations on topics pertaining to comics inscription
into the art world paradigm. With the notable exception of his brilliant analysis of a painting by Lucy
McKenzie which features a comics panel taken from Milo Manaras iconic work Il gioco (1983, translated
into English as Click!), Beaty does not delve into close readings in Comics vs. Art. Instead, his focus
is centered on general topics such as the place of comics in museums, the legacy of the appropriation
of comics aesthetics by Pop Art, the reifcation of comics as high-end toys (which could be more aptly
described as small mass-produced sculptures), the economics of comics as collectables, and the
sanctifcation of major comics artists such as Jack Kirby, George Herriman and Charles Schultz who
are increasingly represented as struggling, depressed and/or misunderstood geniuses. As can be expected
from Beaty, his book is well-researched. In chapter 7, On Junk, Investments, and Junk Investments:
The Evolution of Comic Book Collectables, for example, we fnd a detailed overview of the raging
(fan) debates surrounding the question of what sort of material constitutes the ideal material to make
comic book bags out of (comic book bags are clear bags used to protect the ephemeral comic book from
the wear and tear that accompanies the passage of time).
Beatys large scope of consideration, his macroscopic perspective, constitutes a productive
approach to measuring the appreciation which comics enjoys within the larger realm of the art world, a
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concept which Beaty theorises with the help of Howard S. Becker. Beaty both asserts that the postmodern
turn has diminished what was one a rigid separation between high-brow and low-brow art and observes
that the distinction between elite and popular art still has some traction today. This leads to thoughtful
insights for example, Beaty cleverly points out that the visual aspect of comics is the main focus of the
mediums presence in museums and of its life as a collectible item (with the splash pages functioning
as the blue chips of speculation on the market for original art) whereas the academic study of comics,
which is mostly undertaken by departments of literary studies and cultural studies, tends to concentrate
on the analysis of narratives and texts. An abundance of citations by 1950s New York intellectuals which
criticise comics poor artistic value and craftsmanship and denigrate the medium for its association with
uneducated readership are used by Beaty to underline how early critics of the medium unleashed their
scorn from an outsider perspective that was not very well-attuned to the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of
the comic book. An important section of chapter 2, What If Comics Were Art? Defning a Comics Art
World, is devoted to an analysis of a number of defnitions of comics so as to provide us with a better
understanding of what these defnitions mean (perform) and reveal in terms of comics position within
the art hierarchy. Among others things, Beaty notices that non-medium specifc defnitions of comics
tend to establish a direct historical link between comics on the one hand and traditions of sequential
images in the realm of visual arts such as murals, bas-reliefs and tapestries on the other hand. The
examination of defnitions of comics in terms of their objectives pertaining to artistic validation rather
than in terms of their formal operability and exactitude constitutes an interesting and revealing move
on the part of Beaty, and he is correct in arguing that, for example, McClouds [broad] defnition tends
to minimize the conception of comics as art (p. 35) exactly because too wide and all-encompassing
defnitions of the medium diminish its specifcity.
In his macroscopic mode Beaty also sheds light on certain aspects of the mythologizing process
which some great cartoonist have undergone and the intricacies of which have too often been ignored
by fans and scholars alike. Chapter Four, Searching for Artists in the Entertainment Empire, revisits
some common (mis)conceptions surrounding Carl Banks, Jack Kirby and Charles Schultz in order to
demonstrate how these artists, now considered heroes of the comics world, have continuously been
viewed through a very narrow lens which effectively turned them into misunderstood geniuses. For me,
the most thought-provoking observation delivered by Beaty lies in his analysis of the process which he
calls the anointment of the King of Comics and in which he explains how Kirbys work has come to
be considered as visionary, exemplary and stemming from a uniquely creative subjectivity; in order to
crown the king, biographical discourses about Kirby minimise the collaborative aspect of his career.
Beaty drives this point home by reminding the reader of a seldom-mentioned part of Kirbys professional
trajectory: his switch-over from Marvel to DC Comics, where he was granted more artistic control over
his work. This increase in artistic control resulted in disappointment from fans, however, and most of
the series he was working on during this period ended up being cancelled due to declining readership.
Although most of the critical discourse surrounding Kirbys career tends to downplay the role of certain
important collaborators, such as Stan Lee as a writer and Vince Cotella as an inker, in order to glorify
him as the sole creative force behind his success, the DC period could serve as a counterargument to
this line of thinking.
I only had one very minor quibble with one point raised by Beaty. In Chapter Three, Roy
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Lichtensteins Tears: Ressentiment and Exclusion in the World of Pop Art, and occasionally in the
following chapters, Beaty follows the line of thinking of critics such as Michael Lobel and Ccile
Whiting, who establish a gendered conception of the highbrow-lowbrow dichotomy the masculine
being linked to high-end, legitimised art and the feminine to consumerist popular cultural productions.
Both the issues of fuctuating hierarchies in the art world and of sexual identity are highly complex,
however, and a blunt superposition of the two polarities of these respective issues seems like a gross
oversimplifcation. While this conceptual comparison is in the end only a minor idea raised by Beaty, it
is still a contentious one.
In the opening pages of his book, Beaty expresses his goal of producing a State of contemporary
comics in the art world (we should note that Beatys work never turns into a comics apologia), and
by the end of his intellectual enterprise, he delivers on his promise. His assessment of comics current
situation is not as defeatist as the one we fnd in Groensteens aforementioned monograph, but it is
still lukewarm at best; as Beaty eloquently demonstrates through a wide range of case studies, some
signifcant gains have been made on that front, but comics acceptance in the academic and institutional
world generally still occurs on a partial and biased basis.
Gabriel Tremblay-Gaudette is a PhD student in semiotics at the Universit du Qubec Montral. His
research focuses on iconotextuality, comic art, popular culture, hermeneutics and hypermedia art.
E-mail address: gabrielgaudette@gmail.com