By
Leroy Douresseaux
May 25, 2009 - 20:27
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| Syncopated cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com. |
It is impressive that both the publicist for and the editor of the comics anthology, Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays make such an effort to explain in a concise manner the mission statement of this anthology. Apparently, the mission is to introduce the non-comics reading public to comics by giving them non-fiction comics, what many know as comics journalism (or “comics as journalism”) and what editor and cartoonist Brendan Burford calls “picto-essays.”
Syncopated apparently began in 2002 as a series of stand-along anthologies that Brendan Burford, the comics editor for King Features Syndicate, edited and self-published. Burford published three volumes of the first version of Syncopated, and is now editing Villard Book’s re-launch of the series. Both publisher and editor want Syncopated (a jazz music term) to introduce fans of literary prose to comics, but not just any comics. Syncopated isn’t like giving away Green Lantern and Wolverine comic books on Free Comic Book Day. The comics in Syncopated are indeed “picto-essays,” comics as nonfiction, magazine-style journalism. Rather than escapism, these comics encompass biography, first-person reportage, cultural and historical essays, both current and historical journalism, memoirs, profiles, etc.
If one is going to offer comics, even nonfiction comics, to the astute and cultivated literary prose crowd, then, one had better come with some serious graphic narrative game. Keeping with the sports metaphors, the opening story goes right off the baseball bat like a lead off homerun. “How and Why to Bale Hay” by Nick Bertozzi is an enthralling short piece that exemplifies Syncopated’s mission statement. This how-to article is a personal recollection and observation of a bit of Americana, but it is also interesting just as an article about the process of baling hay. This picto-essay is also appealing because Bertozzi personalizes “How and Why to Bale Hay” by putting it in two contexts: how this particular time in his youth shaped him and also how memory shapes our perceptions of the past and what that past now means to us.
It’s probably a shame to focus on only one of these many fine comics shorts. All of them are good, and many are simply outstanding – such as “Like Hell I Will” (Nate Powell) and “West Side Improvements” (Alex Holden). There are even some beautiful sketchbook and portfolio sections, such as Tricia Van den Bergh’s illustrations of New York City’s Washington Square Park, entitled “Portfolio,” and Victor Marchand Kerlow’s jazzy music portraits, “Subway Buskers.”
When Brendan Burford and Villard compare Syncopated to “comics as journalism,” I assume they mean magazines like the Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, Rolling Stone, and especially the New Yorker. Although it covers everything from historical events, politics, and biography to cultural trends, and Americana, Syncopated isn’t moving the comics medium into new territory. Creators of Underground Comics, alternative comics, and art comics have produced comics journalism and non-fiction comics for decade.
With Syncopated, however, Burford and company are producing an entire anthology or journal, if you will, of nonfiction comics. Syncopated comes across as mainstream as any other medium of nonfiction presentation, from television news and short film to nonfiction books and print media. This isn’t just for fans of literary prose. Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays is for anyone who has ever picked up a newspaper or a magazine. Perhaps, some will be open-minded enough to accept in comics form the kind of nonfiction storytelling those newspapers and magazines offer.
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