I have to admit that before I met English Professor Michael Chaney, I was skeptical of the validity of the graphic novel (or comic book, the terms are essentially interchangable) and oblivious to its role in literature. Let's be honest, when we think of comics, the mind generally conjures images of men in tights, some kind of boyhood action fantasy for the playground and school buses. But after talking with Chaney, who is working on his own graphic novel, I quickly saw that many graphic novels are not only for an educated adult audience, but are a harmony of art and literature in a way attained by perhaps no other medium.
For Chaney, his experience with the graphic novel started as many young men's do -- with superhero comic books.
"My friends would read the same comic and walk away with a very episodic understanding," Chaney said. "I would walk away interested in the word 'sibilant.' I still remember when I saw that word in a comic book. It was something like, 'the creature expired in a hiss of sibilance.' It drove me right to the dictionary."
Chaney also enjoyed the illustrative aspect of the comic book.
"I was interested in learning how to draw by copying comics and drawing my own in the same style," Chaney said.
Yet despite a penchant for both the writing and drawing aspects of comic books, Chaney "abandoned comic books all together" between the ages of 12 and 22. While Chaney pushed aside the comic book, however, its role was drastically altered and broadened in scope.
"Something happened in the interim," Chaney said, "The popular comics had grown up and there was now a whole new wave of comics targeting an educated adult audience. I was intrigued by the new form that was not superhero comics, but rather autobiography and psychological states expressed in dialogue between words and illustrations."
According to Chaney, there was one graphic novel in particular that led this change, Art Spiegelman's now famous "Maus."
"The single graphic novel that helped to legitimize graphic novels was 'Maus,' the memoir of a Holocaust experience," Chaney said.
It was with this new form of the graphic novel that Chaney once again became intimately involved with the medium and made connections between the graphic novel and his primary field of interest, 19th century African American literature.
"I began to notice very broad associations in the memoir boom in American literature in the 1990's. Comics suddenly became a repository for reflection including rape narratives, [narratives of] the holocaust and people growing up mixed-race."
Chaney, who is himself mixed-race, took great interest in such narratives. One way for Chaney to represent himself was through the use of the graphic novel, deriving a unique meaning through its blend of illustrations and words.
"Graphic novels are a way for me to think creatively and critically about the way words and pictures work together ... to express things that words and pictures can't express by themselves," Chaney said.
The layout of Chaney's office easily showcases this blend of artistry and literature. On one side of the room are three large, full bookshelves and on the opposite wall hangs three vibrant oil paintings.
Chaney is currently working on his own graphic novel, but he is hesitant to give too many details.
"It is kind of like a critical memoir that involves growing up in a mixed-race, immigrant and working-class western environment and involves the kind of sentimental registers that were popular during the mid 1990s boom," Chaney said.
Chaney's says his process for working on the graphic novel is similar to when he paints, a process his mother passed down to him and his brother.
"I have a process of intense editing and omitting," Chaney said, "You learn you can say a lot more by omission. I put a lot of paint on to the canvas. Then I'll work with it, omit and take away."
Similarly when Chaney has ideas for the panels of a graphic novel page he first sketches ideas with pencil on a sketch pad and then makes use of his eraser.
In the pencil stage Chaney is more interested in "rough broad relationships." Once he has established these relationships Chaney then etches them into thick Bristol paper.
The overall process for graphic novels is much more complicated than penciling and sketching, however. According to Chaney, "comic books and graphic novels are very collaborative. Usually graphic novels involve someone who pencils in everything, someone who inks things in, and then someone who letters all of the words."
While Chaney is currently performing all of these functions himself he is very interested in the collaborative possibilities. Chaney also wants to get some of his family members involved with the novel.
"I'm thinking of having my brother produce some sections," he said.
As far as Dartmouth is concerned, Chaney feels that there is a "phenomenal, uncontained student interest in the graphic novel that exceeds the protocols for funding."
Currently, Chaney is pushing for funds for Dartmouth students to work at the The Center for Cartoon Studies. Dave Basset, one of the illustrators for the famous graphic novel, "Watchmen," (which was written by Alan Moore of "V for Vendetta" fame) now works at the Center of Cartoon Studies and would be a valuable resource for Dartmouth students interested in this genre.
"I think it is only a matter of time before the College develops a relationship with The Center For Cartoon Studies," Chaney said.
Near the end of our interview, after Chaney showed me many different graphic novels from his bookshelves, I recognized the beautiful artistic detail and precise dialogue that makes up the art form that is the graphic novel. I started thinking maybe I should have read some comics when I was kid.
Chaney points to a lesson from the French in graphic novel appreciation.
"The French call comics 'the ninth art' and have never seen comics as juvenile," he explained.
