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David Collier’s Portraits of Life

posted by Matt Knicl at 6:45 pm.

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The first question any writer needs to ask themselves is, “does this story need to be told?” Once that has been evaluated, sometimes answered by “I think it’s cool” or “I need money,” the writer then must decide how the story needs to be told - the best way to convey what the writer wants to convey with the story, be it information, satire, or some other message.

credit: D & Q

Writers can, in abstract theory, choose to make their story a poem, a movie, prose novel, an essay, or even a play. Of course, they can choose the comic book/graphic novel medium as well, to use the juxtaposition of words and pictures as the means to express their tale.

So I asked these questions to David Collier’s Portraits of Life, a collection of comics about historical people (or at least presented as historical), like Grey Owl, Paul Arthur, Ethel Catherwood, and even his own grandfather. From a modern lit stance, yes, these are interesting stories and worth telling.

It’s how these stories are told that one must question. Is there something inherent to the comic book medium that justifies telling these stories as comics? Not really. This does not attack the stories (which I liked), just how they are presented. Other than Paul Arthur’s story (the man who invented several universal symbols - a man whose life revolved around images), none of these people’s stories benefit from being told as comics nor do they make sense to be.

This is a classic example of what a writer could do rather than what he should do. And it is one of those sad truths in comics where the market is saturated with product - stories that don’t need to be told (excess DC and Marvel titles) and ones that don’t need to be comics (more indie Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, and Drawn & Quarterly).

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.