WHAT IS THE NINTH ART?

With the Lagos Comic Convention coming up this September, it seems to be a perfect time for us to look at this art form in proper perspective. For many fans and practitioners of the art, how much do we know about it? Where does it coming from? Does this matter? Are there various schools, various approaches to the art and how did they all come about? Each continent seems to have their own style fashioned over years of experience and influences. Does Africa have its own or are there many styles? What are the challenges with developing a common philosophy? Is it necessary? Well, knowledge as they say is power… and informed opinion.

For centuries, only eight forms of The Arts were known and practiced. These were divided into three groups- visual, literary, and performing arts. The ninth art arrived sometime in the late 18th century as another form of expression but it was not quite recognized as one at the time. It was still embryonic. Speech balloons on drawings were rare and a novelty.

So Comics is called the Ninth Art. It is the only art form that adopts two other forms in order to exist i.e. visual and literary arts. Hence the optional tag used mostly in non-European countries: “graphic novel”. But it all started in Europe so that’s where we’ll go…

THE RISE OF THE COMIC STRIP

The Ninth Art was originally coined by Franco-Belgian comics enthusiast, Claude Beylie, in 1964 and subsequently popularized by others.  In mainland Europe, particularly France and Belgium, it was also called bande-desinee (BD) or, in English, ‘drawn strips’-what we call comic/cartoon strips these days.

From the word ‘strip’ or ‘band’ we understand that these are illustrated stories presented in traditionally horizontal panels. It is usually drawn to capture a brief, sometimes humorous, story that starts and ends on that magazine page. However, the strip can also be serialized so the story or adventure continues in subsequent magazine editions. Many comic strips became so popular that journals across the globe acquired the rights to feature them to grow readership. This was called ‘syndication’. Syndicated strips like Garfield, Peanuts, and Calvin & Hobbes meant more profit for their creators and became the goal. 

The comic strip was the genesis of the 9th Art and the precursor of the comic book as we know it.

FROM STRIP TO ALBUM

Serialized comic strips grew so popular that fans/readers began making albums from their personal collections. As the popularity of these comic albums grew, magazine publishers started printing their own albums for sale, giving rise to what we now know as comic books or comics. Many well-known comics today started as serialized comic strips. The Adventures of Tintin (Hergé), Asterix (Goscinny and Uderzo), Lucky Luke (Morris & Uderzo), Gaston (Franquin), and The Smurfs (Peyo) come to mind.

The first Tintin comic strip, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, was first featured in a Belgian magazine called  Le Petit Vingtième back in 1929 and, due to its massive readership, was compiled into the first-ever critically acclaimed comic book. Subsequently, Tintin moved away from the strip to become a popular comic book under the publisher Casterman, selling over 270 million copies till date and translated into 110 languages. Comic books became the rave. Speech balloons took over from texts.

FROM BOOK TO ANIMATION, TOYS, INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

The popularity of comic strips took a knock with the choice of electronic/digital media over print. Many strips ended as a result while others became digitized in response to the changing times. Some strips progressed from comics to their own animated/live-action feature movies, toys, amusement parks, etc. They became international brands.  Nevertheless, the comic strip remained a great medium for laughs and light-hearted humour, especially for editorial and political cartoonists (one of whom was recently featured on Teambooktu).

THE EUROPEAN MOVEMENT

While comics in the US were considered the preoccupation of children, Europe, especially the Franco-Belgian and Dutch community, was taking it seriously and had engrained it in their culture with various schools of thought like architecture, music, and drama. More on US comic development in the next installment.

HERGE & BELGIAN COMICS

The legendary cartoonist, Hergé, pioneered the ligne claire (clear line) style of BD- a style he used for Tintin and Jo, Zette & Jocko. The name was coined by Dutch cartoonist, Joost Swarte, in 1977- a late member of this school. The drawing technique here is quite detailed in its execution. Ligne claire uses clear, strong lines- sometimes of varied width and no hatching. Contrast is downplayed and cast shadows are often illuminated. It often features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a very realistic background. The honesty and simplicity of these lines were its beauty. Ligne claire was also influenced by Japan’s shin-hanga style as part of the Japonisme movement that swept Europe in the 19th century. (We will talk manga development in an upcoming post.)

HERGE

Hergé (real name Georges Remi) was a stickler for detail. He travelled to various locations to take shots of scenes that would be used in his works. His scrapbooks of photos and sketches are legendary. Most early proponents of ligne claire worked with Hergé in Tintin Magazine and formed part of the Brussels School. Hergé and Tintin have also had a lot of influence on other artists outside the circle of comics authors, like pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. It is still one of Belgium’s greatest products.

GOSCINNY AND UDERZO & FRENCH COMICS

Ligne claire was the trend in the 1950s but began to wane in the 60s, paving the way for the French. Many of its proponents worked for studios and magazines in Belgium. Most prominent of them all being René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Their drawing style was different from Hergé’s in terms of strokes and human features which were more humorously caricatured à la MAD comics style. Goscinny had met Harvey Kurtzman (co-creator of MAD comics) back in the US and worked for his studio for a couple of years before moving back to Europe to start his own. So you could say Asterix art was influenced by Hergé, Walt Disney & MAD comics. The Asterix duo in turn influenced many cartoonists who worked for them in Pilote-like Claire Bretécher and Gotlib. Also, there was Peyo of The Smurfs fame and more direct influences like the Polish creator, Janusz Christa.

BD CINEMATOGRAPHY & PANORAMA

Following the major success of Snow White (1937), Hergé marketed Tintin to Walt Disney for a full-length cartoon. This never happened. Uderzo always wanted to be an animator like Disney. So we see this reflected in the cinematography of their panels- their movie reel fluidity. Hergé, a master of comic cinematography, makes you appreciate transitional panels and action sequences in a way now lost to modern comics. While motion sequences are now captured on a single panel, both Hergé and Uderzo spread them over a series of panels like the still frames of a cartoon. They were all keen on American endorsement though neither party ever fully achieved it.

They were also well-known for their detailed panoramic panels. A challenging skill that left many a comic artist in awe and envy. It required a certain level of patience and meticulousness to achieve.

BD COMIC SIZE

The most common format for Franco-Belgian comics is called the “album”. The typical album is printed in large format, generally with high-quality paper and colouring, commonly 24×32 cm (9.4×12.6 in), with around 48–60 pages.

COMIC ARTIST v COMIC WRITER

In the old days, writers were seldom credited for comics- only artists. Artists were usually the sole creators of comics and often penned the stories, so they hardly shared credits with other writers. So comic writers were mostly ghostwriters- their contributions took a while to be recognized until Goscinny stepped up.

Asterix writer and co-creator, René Goscinny, was known for his works on other people’s creations such as Lucky Luke (Morris) and Iznogoud (Jean Tabary). His time on them was considered the golden age of these characters. He wrote Lucky Luke anonymously for many years, only getting writing credits much later. René was not only a cartoonist but a brilliant writer. He was at the forefront of the campaign for comic writers to get equal credit and compensation. This got him fired from World Press, a Belgian company, so he formed EdiFrance/Pilote magazine with Uderzo, spearheading the acknowledgment of comic scriptwriters in the industry. This became part of his legacy.

The battle between writer and artist for greater credit or recognition is age-old. Who should have more? In the US, the legendary, decades-long disagreement between two late greats, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, over credit for the creation of some Marvel Comics characters comes to mind. in this case, Stan Lee was the writer and Jack Kirby the artist.

EUROPE’S CONTRIBUTION

Bande Dessinee has a rich, colourful history and is still recognized as Europe’s greatest contribution to the Ninth Art. I have only cited a few of the contributions. It still plays a major role in the comic industry which it started. French newspapers like the controversial Charlie Hebdo are still famous for political satire and social commentary using BD.

Starting with Tintin, Franco-Belgian style of comics are vintage and still relevant today-not only for their unique cartoonish, visual style but their deep, diverse literary content and humour. It still influences styles of comic books outside Europe. Superhero comics were left to the Americans.

MORE ON THAT IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT– THE US MARKET