Pulitzer 2014 — Page 3

Oh AfterEight, you truly are a treasure. I actually am still fascinated by you, and not at al in the patronizing way that you have assumed. You've inspired me to do some writing ....maybe that will be a horror inflicted in the near future! Like a hybrid of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, WHATEVER HAPPENEDTO BABY JANE, and that animated sitcom, THE CRITIC. I smell a Pulitzer!

It's obviously a personal thing, and I won't force the subject (too much) especially in this thread, but strongly disagree. The best comic books (for lack of making sure to use the right term--I'll just lump them together) know how to create the story through what the pictures can tell or convey with, or without the text--and aren't just illustrations of the story (the same way I'd never say that someone should read the script of a film or play instead of seeing a production because if they see a production they are all going to have the same identical experience.) Of course people are going to, mostly, think of characters looking as how they're drawn and not how they imagine, so I suppose you're right there, but the way the mix of the two mediums can be used to affect so much else of the reading experience, when skillfully done, truly is a unique and personal experience.

At least that's how I feel. And I genuinely think the film/play comparison is completely apt. Of course there are many, IMHO, bad comics out there (just like there's bad movies or books) where they simply illustrate the text--thankfully Bechdel certainly doesn't do that. In fact much of the power of her work in both memoirs is the interplay between the two, and how that creates an instant reaction that simply really good prose writing couldn't do in the same way.

I hope I gave enough IMHO and "I thinks" in this post in case After8 is reading

After Eight, just because you hadn't heard a term before doesn't make it stupid. It simply makes you uninformed. Perhaps you aren't the all-knowing being you presume yourself to be.

I've read some wonderful graphic novels/series and they have moved me to tears as well as caused uncontrollable laughter. When done well it can be a genre that rends the highest art. I can give you some suggestions of ones to try out if you're interested! :)

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Ha! I wasn't prepared for such a big laugh this early in the morning.

Honestly though I have had "Changing My Major To Joan" on repeat since I got the Fun Home recording and think it is just a lovely song. It captures feeling of first sexual experience and subsequent yearnings so perfectly. I could have sung this song about a guy I was sleeping with in college. I basically did change my major to him and this song recalls all the giddiness and euphoria I felt for a few months. Tesori's melody is idiosyncratic and bounces along like a giggle Alison is attempting to stifle. Kron's words ripple along the line like someone spreading buttercream frosting on a cake until the song is a perfectly marvelous confection.

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Updated On: 3/25/14 at 08:39 AM

I was wondering if any graphic novels had won the Pulitzer Prize, and now I see that only Art Spiegelman's Maus has. (Non-Fiction, 1992)

I've only read a handful of graphic novels (Fun Home and four of Marjane Satrapi's books), but I find them so beautiful and engaging that I think people who dismiss them are really missing out.

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I wouldn't count out Fun Home due to the adaptation nature. Clybourne Park won the Pulitzer.

I sometimes get annoyed about the use of the term graphic novel (or memoir) simply because, at least initially it was used to imply that this was not a comic book, it was something of substance and art. Which simply meant, especially after the huge success of Maus, that certain works would get slapped with that term by certain publishers so that they would be taken seriously as literature--whether they deserved to be or not. I've certainly read bad "graphic novels," great "comics," and a whole spectrum in quality of "manga." But it has helped to point out that the comic book format is not really a genre but rather a medium to tell stories, the way theatre or film is.

After8, I appreciate your concern for my friend, but I don't think she would.

And, agreed completely with everyone (but A about "Changing my major to Joan" (which is a song that does come from lines in the book.)

I might be mistaken, but I believe that the great Will Eisner coined the term "graphic novel" for his book "A Contract With God," the first of many Eisner books about Jewish tenement life. He committed most of his later career to documenting the types of real characters and stories that surrounded him as a child. Eisner was an extremely well-known cartoonist (creator of the often-brilliant The Spirit) and this new work required a new label for the sake of distance and serious consideration. I also find the term a bit precious as it is used now; it's an awfully poker-faced defense against pearl-clutching idiots who might write off an entire art form such as comics simply because they can't be bothered to understand it. Cough.

There must be many people who have a really warped idea of what a graphic designer is, then.

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Also: who is the "we"/"us" After Eight always refers to? Is After Eight a hive mind?

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I'll just keep repeating it until it happens. The mods are on top of EVERYTHING even remotely inappropriate on here and it's time to either block or suspend After Eight from these boards. He is no different than any other troll that comes through here. It's absurd.

And back on topic (sorta) does anyone know what the status of that rumored transfer of last years winner, DISGRACED, is? I liked it quite a bit and was hoping it would have a future after winning the big prize.

What time of day do the usually announce? Any minute?

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"Which will win? Well, that's a toughie. I have a feeling it will be the most wretched of the three. I mean, what could top a little girl miauling her passion for a delivery woman in jeans?"

You are a truly hateful person.