Monday, May 15, 2017

Yet Another Ridiculous List - I Give Up, I Guess!...

Imagine yourself being a managing editor of a newspaper or a general interest magazine (if you are one you may leave your imagination alone). Imagine also that you want to publish an article about comics. Who do you invite to write it? A comics critic, obviously.,,

Is there such an animal though? There is, there is, but... Where do these animals come from? Where is their habitat? In what pastures do they eat?

 Through word of mouth our putative managing editor may find him/herself in front of the following "comics critic":

1) He, it's usually a he, read and liked comics since infancy.
2) He has no paying job related to the arts or literature or that branch of philosophy called aesthetics (curiously enough such trifle details as an aesthetic education is not deemed important to write about comics).
3) So, he may come from all walks of life, but what is his diet? Well, mainstream comics obviously.

And so, our vignette ends up here. If you don't read Spanish allow me to translate:15 essential comics to those who never opened a comic. The ridiculous list (two or three books excepted) is as follows:

Watchmen
Sandman
Maus
All-Star Superman
V For Vendetta
A Contract With God 
Akira
Daredevil: Born Again
From Hell
Los surcos del azar [the grooves of chance]
Marvels
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
13 rue del Percebe [13, Barnacle street]
The Incal
Understanding Comics

This is one of the most ridiculous things that I had the misfortune of seeing, ever! I would understand such an inane list if the article's title was 15 essential comics for fanboys or 15 essential books to prevent laypersons from reading a comic ever again. But not this... in a national newspaper!

Another Spaniard says here something like: we, comics readers, stick to criteria marked by 11 year olds. How true!

2 comments:

  1. Olá Daniel: os espanhóis são muito virados para os américas, mas há um livro intitulado, precisamente, El canon de los comics (de Ramon de España e Vidal-Folch) que, pelo contrário, é todo virado para a Europa com Hergé e companhia. Se calhar é uma coisa geracional, mas acho que o facto de nós dizermos "banda desenhada" e eles "comics" quer dizer alguma coisa.

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