... I think newspapers shouldn't try to compete directly with the Web, and should do what they can do better, which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art, and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper. You know, including a full-color comic section, for example, which of course was standard in newspapers years ago, when you'd have a full broadsheet Winsor McCay comic. So we'll have a big, full-color comic section, and we're also trying to emphasize what younger readers are looking for, what directly appeals to them. It's hard to find papers these days that really do anything to appeal to anyone under 18, and the paper used to do that all the time. I think there will always be -- if not the same audience and not as wide an audience -- a dedicated audience that can keep print journalism alive."
So begins Salon's substantial interview with the author/publisher/literary-activist/teacher. I will say this: still buzzed from Art Spiegelman's outstanding presentation last night at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, I perked up at Eggers' mention of comics and youth-oriented newspaper pages. More than merely a marketing innovation, the space for comics feels radically necessary.
Space, that is, for totemic tales; for narratives with visual architecture (think of the other definition of a "story"); for a movement-based medium that values the visual-ness of text, that boils together what's seen and read; for an art form that cartoons words as much as it does human figures. Frankly, there is a reason that comics--which go in and out of fashion; that alternatively dresses up in highbrow "graphic novels" and inspires public bonfires--retain such immense power.
They deserve daily space. Hell, we deserve it.
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