I see what you mean about U.S. as opposed to European or Japanese comics (or Canadian, really, which adhere more closely to the European model). But I kind of want to say that it _has_ always been this way with U.S. comics. The works you mention -- Krazy Kat, Pogo, Prince Valiant, etc. -- were newspaper strips, which, it's true, historically have been and sometimes remain a medium in which a single author/artist can express his vision. (Recent examples: Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, Doonesbury... hmm, For Better or for Worse; The Far Side, perhaps?)
But American comic _books_ have been a committee-done deal pretty much ever since they appeared in the late 1930s. And that modus operandi evolved with the storytelling mechanisms of superhero comics (which, themselves, are a wacky defining feature of American comic books for the last century).
It sort of feels like only really recently, actually, that we have had the possibility of independent American comic artists producing their individual works for a wide audience. Up until, like, the early 90s, pretty much the only way to do that was to self-publish for a small but loyal market (e.g. Dave Sim with Cerebus), or get Fantagraphics to do you, like Los Bros. Hernandez did. (Or be European or Canadian, of course. ;) So this, I think, is why it is simultaneously surprising to someone familiar with European or Japanese comics that learn that comics can be done by committee; but also really surprising and confusing to many Americans to learn that they can be done any other way.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-06-05 02:50 am (UTC)But American comic _books_ have been a committee-done deal pretty much ever since they appeared in the late 1930s. And that modus operandi evolved with the storytelling mechanisms of superhero comics (which, themselves, are a wacky defining feature of American comic books for the last century).
It sort of feels like only really recently, actually, that we have had the possibility of independent American comic artists producing their individual works for a wide audience. Up until, like, the early 90s, pretty much the only way to do that was to self-publish for a small but loyal market (e.g. Dave Sim with Cerebus), or get Fantagraphics to do you, like Los Bros. Hernandez did. (Or be European or Canadian, of course. ;) So this, I think, is why it is simultaneously surprising to someone familiar with European or Japanese comics that learn that comics can be done by committee; but also really surprising and confusing to many Americans to learn that they can be done any other way.
ANNNNYway. So! Is that a disturbed version of Astérix in your icon?