World Literature Today: Special Issue on Graphic Literature, Volume 81 Number 2, March - April 2007

86 Pages·2007·23.48 MB·English

by  David Draper Clark (Editor)

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contributors
Gabriel Ba Eddie Campbell Fabio Moon Anders Nilsen
Andrew D. Arnold has been writing about comics for Timem agazinea nd its website for over five years. You can read his past works at
www.time.com/comix. He lives in Brooklyn.
Eddie Campbell is the authoro f TheF ateo f theA rtist( FirstS econd Books)a nd co-author( with Alan Moore)o f FromH ell,p ublished
by Top Shelf Books.
Armando Celayo has been an editoriala ssistanta t WLTs ince 2005.H e also serves as co-editoro f WLT2a nd Windmillt,h e University
of Oklahoma'st wo student-runl iteraryj ournals.
J. Madison Davis is the authoro f several crime novels and nonfictionb ooks, most recentlyT heV anG oghC onspirac(y2 005)a nd Con-
spiracy and the Freemasons:H ow the Secret Society and Their Enemies Shapedt he Modern World (2006). He serves as
regionalv ice presidento f the North Americanb rancho f the InternationaAl ssociationo f CrimeW ritersa nd teaches
novel and film-scriptw riting in the ProfessionalW ritingP rogramo f the GaylordC ollege of Journalism& Mass
Communicationa t the Universityo f Oklahoma.
Nick Flynn has published two books of poetry. His first, SomeE therw, on the PEN/ Joyce OsterweilA ward. His second, Blind
Huberw, as published in 2002.H is most recentb ook is AnotherB ullshitN ighti n SuckC ity,w hich won the PEN/
MarthaA lbrandA ward for the Art of the Memoir.H is work has been published in the New Yorkert,h e ParisR eview,
and many other magazines and journals.N o strarlgert o collaborationF, lynnw as involved in the productiono f
the Academy Award-nominatedD arwin'sN ightmare(2 006).O therc ollaborativee ffortsh ave involved dance, film,
music, and visual arts. He spends one semesterp er year at the Universityo f Houston, where he has co-taughta
course in artisticc ollaboration.
Bunmi Ishola has been interningw ith WLTs ince summer 2006.S he graduatedf rom TexasA &MU niversityw ith a bachelor's
degree in Journalisma nd Englishi n May 2006 and is hoping to startg raduates chool in journalismi n fall 2007.
Chris Lanier is a cartoonist,a nimator,a nd writer.H is comic Combustio(nF antagraphicBs ooks, 1999)i s an homage to the
woodcut novel. He is currentlye arningh is MFA at the Universityo f Californiaa t Davis and working on his latest
graphicn ovel.
Ashley Lin is currentlya n honors student at the Universityo f Oklahoma.S he is seeking a degree in creativew riting.
Ling Chuan-Yao has been an editoriali ntern at WLTs ince summer 2006.A native of Singapore,h e is currentlys eeking a degree in
professionalw riting at the Universityo f Oklahoma.
Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba who are twins, live and work in Sao Paulo, Brazil,w here they began self-publishingi n 1993.F oury ears later they
began drawing their first work that would grab the attentiono f the Brazilianp ublic, 10 Paezinhosw, hich has become
the standardf or independentc omics publishing in Brazil.T heirw ork first appearedi n the United Statesi n 1999,
when they served as illustratorsf or the miniseriesR olandA. t that time, they still hoped to write superheroc omics-
by their own account,t hey were fortunatet o fail miserably.I n 2003 they were published alongside longtime
influenceW ill Eisnera nd several other comic-bookl egends in the DarkH orse collectionA utobiographiaxn, d they
releasedt he novella Ursulai n 2004.D ark Horse published their first widespreadU .S. release,D e:Talesi,n 2006.B oth
Yuyi Morales Rob Vollmar David Shook, Ling Chuan-Yao, and Armando Celayo
twins sometimesi llustratef or U.S. authorsa nd Braziliann ewspapers.B a designed and illustratedt he frontc over
for the currenti ssue.
Yuyi Morales is an author,a rtist,p uppetmaker,f olk dancera nd was the host of her own Spanish-languager adio programf or
children.O therb ooks she has written and/or illustratedi nclude Justa Minute:A TricksteTr alea ndC ountingB ook,
winner of the PuraB elpreM edal;H arvestingH ope:T heS toryo f CesarC haveza, PuraB elpreH onor Book;a nd Los
GatosB lacko n HalloweenS. he has also received the JaneA ddams and ChristopherA wards for her work. Borni n
Veracruz,M exico,M oralesn ow makes her home in the San Franciscoa rea.
Josh Neufeld A native New Yorker,J oshN eufeld's comics about his travel experiencesi n SoutheastA sia and CentralE urope
are told in the XericA ward-winning graphicn ovel A FewP erfectH ours.H e is the creatoro f the comic book The
Vagabondasn d the co-creatoro f Keyholea nd Titanso f FinanceT: rueT aleso f Moneya ndB usinessJ. oshh as been a
longtime artistf or Harvey Pekar'sA mericanS plendoar nd has contributedt o many comics anthologies.H is comics
have also appearedi n ReadyMadteh, e VillageV oice,F ortuneS mallB usinesst, he AustinA merican-Statesmathne,
ChicagoR eadert,h e CommonR eviewa, nd In TheseT imesa nd have been translatedi nto Frencha nd Serbian.J osh
resides in Brooklyn,N ew York,a nd makes a living mixing comics with freelancei llustration.Y ou can find his work
online at joshcomix.com.
Anders Nilsen is the artista nd authoro f Big QuestionsM, onologuefso'r theC omingP lague,D on'tG o WhereI Can'tF ollowa, nd Dogs
and Waterw, hich won an Ignatz Award. His work has been translatedi nto several languagesa nd has been featured
in BestA mericanN on-requireRde adingB, estA mericanC omicsK, ramer'Es rgot,a nd Momea long with other publications
and anthologies.B orni n northernN ew Hampshirei n 1973,A nders grew up there and in Minneapolisa nd went
to school in New Mexico to study painting and installationb efore eventuallym oving to Chicagot o go to graduate
school at the School of the Art Institute.H e dropped out aftera year to devote his time and energy to drawing
comics and other artwork.H e currentlyl ives and works in Chicago.
Elif Shafak is the authoro f five previous novels and a collectiono f essays, including,m ost recently,T heG azea nd TheS ainto f
IncipienIt nsanitiesh, er first novel written in English.I n Turkeys he has won the MevlanaP rize for literaturea s well
as the TurkishN ovel Award; TheB astardo f Istanbuwl as a best-sellert here.S he splits her time between Istanbul
and Tucson,A rizona,w here she is an assistantp rofessoro f Near EasternS tudies at the Universityo f Arizona.H er
op-ed pieces have run in the WashingtoPn ost,t he LosA ngelesT imes,a nd the WallS treetJ ournala, nd she has been
featuredo n National PublicR adio.H er essay on soft power and the role of Turkishi ntellectualsa ppearedi n the
January2 006 issue of WLT.
David Shook has been an editoriali ntern at WLTs ince spring 2006.
Stephen E. Tabachnick is chairo f the Englishd epartmenta t the Universityo f Memphisa nd the author,m ost recently,o f FiercerT han
Tigers:T heL ifea nd Workso f Rex Warner(2 002)a nd Lawrencoef ArabiaA: n Encyclopedi(a2 004).H e is currentlye diting
Teachingth e GraphiNc ovel,a collectiono f originale ssays, for the ModernL anguageA ssociation.
Rob Vollmar is a writer of and about comics from Norman,O klahoma.H is second graphicn ovel with artistP abloG . Callejo,
Bluesmani,s due for release in its collectedf orm in summer 2007 from NBM Publishing.
4sDtens
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March-April 2007 Volume 81, Number 2
EXECUTIVED IRECTOR& NEUSTADT PROFESSOR Robert Con Davis-Undiano
EDITOR IN CHIEF David Draper Clark
MANAGING EDITOR Daniel Simon
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Maria Johnson
CIRCULATIONM ANAGER Victoria Vaughn
MARKETING DIRECTOR Terri D. Stubblefield
ART DIRECTOR Merleyn Ruth Bell
ASSISTANT EDITOR Michelle Johnson
ACCOUNTS SPECIALIST Kay Blunck
EDITORIALB OARD CONTRIBUTING EDITORS STUDENT INTERNS BOARD OF VISITORS
Roger Allen Pamela Genova Tyler Allen Molly Shi Boren
Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda Emily Johnson Sydneyann Binion S. Ross Clarke
Manuel Duran Rainer Schulte Amy Dawn Bourlon Cheryl Foote Groenendyke
Howard Goldblatt Alexis Caldwell Sarah C. Hogan
George Gomori ASSOCIATE Armando Celayo Judy Zarrow Kishner
Talat S. Halman CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Josh Davis Mary D. Nichols
Alamgir Hashmi Darlene Dillon Susan Neustadt Schwartz
Vasa D. Mihailovich Mohammad Alhawary Olubunmi Ishola George A. Singer
Tanure Ojaide Jose Juan Colin Lisa K. Janssen Jeanne Hoffman Smith
Rimvydas Silbajoris J. Madison Davis Amanda Kehrberg Lela Sullivan
Han Stavans Yoshiko Fukushima Elizabeth Lewis James R. Tolbert III,C hair
Theodore Ziolkowski Mary Margaret Holt Ashley Lin Lew 0. Ward
Andrew Horton Ling Chuan-Yao Martha Griffin White
Jason Houston Patrick Maddox Penny Williams
Dustin Howard Allison Meier
Michael Lee Jeanetta Calhoun Mis
Jonathan Stalling Will O'Donnell
Jennifer Sanders
David Shook
Charlie Swanson
Amanda Theaker
Jessica Walker
Marie Zelaya
www.worldliteraturetoday.com
World Literature Today is published bimonthly at the Universityo f Oklahoma / 630 ParringtonO val, Suite 110 /Norman, Oklahoma 73071-4033.
Periodicalsp ostage paid at Norman, Oklahoma 73070. Copyright © 2007 by World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the Universityo f Oklahoma.
Advertising and subscription rates are listed on our website or are available through the editorial office. Ph: 405.325.4531 . Fax:[phone].
6,600 copies of this publication were printed at no cost to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma.
letted
Crisis and Renewal history- / and journeyi s a memo-
ry of what we are to live."
I am pleasedt o see WorldL iterature
We live in fluid times, where
Todayc ontinuet o exploret he signif- cultures migrate, flow across the
icant themes of our times. In your increasinglym eaningless boundar-
July-August 2006 issue, there is so ies, borders,a nd frontierso f nation-
much to comment on- and such a
states, and poets, like all artists,a re
wonid foe rr tahneg feu otfu preoo sfs iobuirli ptileasnt oe t-r eftlheactt iann de xaitle h eovmerey nwohwehree raen adn ndo ewvheerrye-
I could have chosen at will from the
where. Aesthetics reflects this flu-
various essays, interviews, and lit- idity, also, in Maria Benitez's fla-
erarye xamples.I nstead,I will focus menco that returnst o Spain and to
on the contrastb etween hope and the world her highly personali nter-
despair exemplified in some of the pretation of the music and dance
selections. On the one hand, there
of Andalucia. To add one more
is the grim world of despair for the note: this triumph of a commit-
women in Algiers as portrayed in ted aestheticso ver shallower,m ore therei s nothing like a literaryb ook-
Assia Djebar's work, and it may limited, more denigrating,a nd less store. Lamentablyt, he independent
well serve as a symbol of a more imaginative views of the human bookshop must struggle to sur-
general crisis in Western civiliza- conditioni s convincinglyi llustrated vive because chains can purchase
tion:H ow do we" a s Westerners" get in the interview with Yo-Yo Ma. material at such steep discounts
inside the heads of people of other The Silk Road Project's aim "to that smaller stores cannot compete
cultures sufficiently to see them explorea rtistice xchangesa nd inter- financially;a dditionally, one must
with a combinationo f compassion national collaborations"i s breath- travel considerablyf arthert han the
and a willingness to assist them but takingly refreshing. It points the local mall in ordert o visit, for exam-
always, and only, from their point way to the kinds of international ple, the now defunctS hakespeare&
of view, from their perspectiveo ut- artisticc ollaborationst hat could set Co. And yet a purposefult rip to the
side of Westernc ulture,a nd not try an example for all areas of human Gotham Bookmarti n New York or
to make them become like us? At endeavor. Or is that too much to Cody's in Berkeley( currentlyl imit-
the same time as our planet contin- hope for?I hope not. ed to one location)i s very different
ues its mysterioust rek through the E. A. Mares than a quick purchaseo f Needlecraft
cosmos, there is always hope for at Albuquerque,N ew Mexico for Dummiesa t Waldenbooks.I n the
least a better understandingo f this distant past, one could spot Ten-
world, here and now, a quiet hope, nessee Williams wrapping books
as in the last lines of "My Favorite On Poetry and Bookstores (unsuccessfully,w hich led to his fir-
Kingdom/7b y Li-Y oung Lee: "And Therei s nothing wrong with Barnes ing) at the Gothamo r, more recent-
the birds go there / bearing the & Noble, Borders,o r even Amazon, ly, FrancisS teloff,t he founder,h ard
weight of every sky." Or, as Kwa- but for readers, scholars, and bib- at work at her desk, although she
me Dawes puts it in "Islanders": liophiles who care more about the was one hundredy ears old. Eudora
"the notion of family, the smell of book than bargainso r convenience, Welty or Jorge Luis Borges would
March -April 2007 1 3
A very colorful note
from Zia Matoori, one
cTi of our subscribers in
Columbia, Missouri.
stop by, and anyone could locate treasuresb uried away in the
basement( e.g.,m ultiplec opies of firste ditions that Henry Miller
and his peers had sent along forty or fifty years earlier).
It is thereforea stonishingt hat the ElectronicP oetry Center
(epc) lists twelve stores that specialize in verse, two of which
deal exclusively in poetry: the Grolier Book Shop in Cam-
bridge, Massachusettsa, nd Open Books in Seattle,w hich Laura
Wideburgp rofiles so lovingly in your July-August 2006 issue
("Outposts,"p age 80). The Grolier,w hich has purveyed poetry
for almost eighty years and stocks fifteen thousand titles, is not Letters to the editor are welcome and may be e-mailed
to [email protected] or sent care of:
a direct competitoro f Open Books, since it lies three thousand
miles away. Instead,t hese two shops balancet he country,d raw- WLT Letters
ing poetry aficionados from various distant locations to their 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110
University of Oklahoma
doors. "Poetryi s strong medicine,"i nsists TerryH auptman.I t Norman, OK 73019-4033 USA
can be found in abundancei n the specialtyb ookshops.
Not all correspondence can be printed, and those letters
RobertH auptman chosen may be edited for clarity and space as needed.
St. Cloud State University The editors and publishers assume no responsibility for
contributors' opinions.
Poncia Vicencio
by Concei^aO EvariSto/ translatedb y PalomaM artinez-Cruz
Poncia.V icencio, the debut novel by Afro-Braziliana uthor Conceicao
Evanst o, is the story of a young Afro-Brazilianw oman'sj ourneyf rom
the land of her enslaved ancestors to the emptiness of urban life.
However,t he generationso f creativityv, iolence and familyc annotb e so
easilyl eft behind as Ponciai s heir to a mysteriousp sychicg ift from her
grandfatherD. oes tins gift have the powert o bringP onciab ackf rom the
emotionalv acuum and absolute solitude that has overtakenh er in the
city?
Do the elementalf orces of earth,a ir,f ire andw aterm eana nythingin the
barrenu rbanl andscape?T ins mysticals tory of family,d reamsa nd hope
by the incomparableE vansto, illuminatesa spects of urban and rural
Afro-Brazilianco nditionsw ith poetic eloquencea nd rawu rgency.
9~8-O-924O4~-33-6 - $20.00 hardcover
9~8-O-924O4~-34-3 - S 12.0 0 softcover
5 ' ' x 8 ' "' 14 0 page^
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4 I World Literature Today
ddESoif
§ DHoSi
As the editors of WorldL iteraturTe odays trive to offer extensive coverage of con-
temporaryw riting from throughoutt he world, we realizet hatw ith rapidlyc hang-
ing global technology- especiallyw ith regardt o the electronics creen (e.g., video
games, the Internet,c able television)- the medium of the book has often taken
on hybrid elements in terms of formata nd visual presentation.
With that in mind, the current issue of WLTf ocuses on graphic literature,
which is read by millions of readers throughout the globe stretchingf rom
Belgium,G ermany,I ran,a nd India to Japan,C uba,M exico,a nd the United States.
Many authors in the West who had traditionallyb een representedb y theirt exts
alone have occasionally incorporatedg raphic elements in their work similar to
those identified with comic books. Julio Cortazar( Argentina;1 914-84)p rovided
one such example with the publicationo f his Fantomacso ntral os vampiroms ultina-
cionales( 1977),a nd, more recently,P aul Auster (usa) with City of Glass( 1985)a s
well as LauraE squivel (Mexico)w ith La ley del amor( 1995;E ng. TheL awo f Love,
1996;r eplete with a cd). Clearere xamples of the rise in popularityo f the graphic
novel are evidencedb y such full-timep ractitionerso f the genre as FabioM oon and
GabrielB a (Brazil),M arjaneS atrapi( Iran),a nd Rob Vollmar( usa).
Eddie Campbell{ seep age1 3) readily acknowledgest he confusionr epresented
by the deceptively simple phrase graphicn ovelb y defining its layeredm eanings
and connotations.F or some, graphic novels are synonymous with comic books,
yet they can also representc omics that are presented in hard- or softbound for-
mats like books rather than as the stapled sheets we've come to associate with
most traditional comics and many magazines. Campbell further explains that
graphicn ovels also present comic-bookn arrativest hat are equivalenti n form and
dimension to those of the prose novel. And finally, graphicn ovels have come to
assume a form that looks like comic books but is more ambitiousa nd substantive
in their scope.
We have attempted to present various perspectiveso n and examples of the
genre in light of the growing confluenceo f word, picture,a nd typographyt hat is
becoming increasinglyp revalenti n publishing.T he genre's importancei s undeni-
able as it continues to reach a wider audience worldwide and as the visual arts
continue to occupy a commandingp resencei n our lives.
The currenti ssue marks somewhat of a departuref rom our regularf are but
is consistentw ith our desire to keep abreasto f new literaturea nd literaryf orms,
wherever and whenever they occur. In addition to the expertisep rovided by our
individualc ontributorsli sted on the tableo f contents,o ur specials ectiono n graph-
ic literaturei s due in large part to the vision and hard work of WLTi nternsD avid
Shook, Ling Chuan-Yao,A rmando Celayo, Olubunmi Ishola, and Ashley Lin,
along with our staff membersM ariaJ ohnson,M ichelleJ ohnson,V ictoriaV aughn,
and Terri Stubblefield.S pecial thanks are also due WLT'sa rt director,M erleyn
Bell, and managing editor, Daniel Simon, who helped coordinatep roduction of
the project,a nd, finally,t o our executived irector,R obertC on Davis-Undiano,w ho
works tirelesslyt o diversify our coverage.
c^y^^^c <X?l^y^ us f^^a^\^4^
March-April 2007 15
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HIS
"CUSTOMERSW" ERET HE JURY
MICKEYS PILLANE(1 918-2006)
STUDENTO F MINE SOme
years ago told me
how he had taken a
summer job in the
Charleston, South
Carolina, area as a house painter
and was told to go to the Morrison
house at Murrells Inlet. Usually,
homeownersc an't wait to get away
fromt he mess and the smell,b ut Mr.
Morrison (so they thought) hung
around, chatting without barking
orders, bringing them cool drinks.
He was charming and funny, but
they were getting a little tired of
his persistence. They asked him
from what business he had retired.
"I'mn ot retired/' he laughed. "I'm
a writer/' Suddenly, then, they
knew why he had seemed familiar.
"FrankM orrison"w as FrankM or-
rison Spillane: "Mickey Spillane,"
perhaps the only living novelist
recognizable enough to appear in
one hundred Miller Lite beer com-
mercials.
Over the next few days, they
asked Spillane many of the usual
questionsn onwritersa sk published
writers. Where do you get your
ideas? How many hours a day do
you write? How long does it take
you to write a book? His answers gaskets. Once, he said, desperate Mike Hammern ovel since 1970, to
seemed flippant, like jokes he had for money, he had written a novel pay for repairs. According to leg-
repeated many times. He didn't on a weekend. In September 1989 end, he wrote his first novel I, the ozX
get ideas; he just started.H e wrote HurricaneH ugo crashedi nto South Jury (1947) in nine days, in order <
however many hours he needed to Carolina,d estroyingh is house, and to get $1,000 for a piece of land. D< C
get finished. How long it took to it was only a mattero f weeks before Once, he told the house painters, oz
write a book depended on alimony, Spillane was on the TonightS how he had been taking a manuscriptt o <
when the rent was due, and blown promoting TheK illingM an,h is first the publishera nd lost it. That must 3
6 World Literature Today