Cartoons and animation in the West are predominantly seen as being “you know … for kids”, to steal from Hudsucker Proxy. In reality, they are just another vehicle for writers and filmmakers to get their story across. But there’s this constant, almost sneering attitude at the animated and “graphic” genres, as if they automatically have less depth or content than the written word.
Open-minded geeks and literature fans, however, realise that this is just symptomatic of standard, colonial, middle-class pseudo-snobbish bollocks in action, to put it nicely.
Let’s dive into some examples of high-grade literature, disguised as cartoons, and point you towards Alan Moore’s The Watchmen. Here’s a useful introductory article, from Salon, titled We Need Another Hero. Then, for Wikipedia’s take, read The Watchmen.
Remember the recent Jack Ripper film From Hell? That also came from the mind of Alan Moore. Read another Salon article.
I was lucky enough to stumble across Moore’s work way back, when he took over and recreated a comic-book creation that went conceptually beyond what comics were “supposed” to be about. Read this scarily in-depth background history to the creature that Moore made all his own — Swamp Thing. And to show the depths of geeky fandom, here’s a page filled with Swamp Thing Info and References.
Another writer who initially used the graphic genre to good effect, creating art in the most unexpected of modern forms, is Neil Gaiman. The comic-book fans ran into him with the beautifully created comic series The Sandman — read the Introduction and then browse at Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.
If you want a good taste of this writer’s work, his story about ancient gods trying to get by in modern urban America, called American Gods, is around in local bookshops. Read about this and more at The Dreaming.
Here is a wide range of Sandman and Gaiman links and Moore links.
Now, you need to get over your prejudices about what seems to be an infinitely large pantheon of generally big-eyed and cutesy-looking cartoon characters, locally most often seen in arbitrary kids’ TV shows. But judging the genre itself by product designed for kids is like making value judgements on English literature by looking at Enid Blyton books — same words, but different quality and target-market focus. This genre is generally called manga or anime.
Here’s a short (and very stiff upper lip) background to the whole concept, according to the UK Times Online. Then, to get closer to comprehending this initially bewilderingly diverse subject, read this very useful Introduction to Manga.
As an example of just how large the genre is, here’s a partial list of just Anime Television Series.
One of my favourite manga TV series, which I was hesitant about at first, is a strangely addictive one that combines old-style 1950s film noir and 1970s campy TV. It is set in something like a Blade Runner future reality and called Cowboy Bebop. Read this introduction and see if makes you curious as hell; perhaps you will decide to amble over to the manga section at your video shop without shame. Try An Introduction to Cowboy Bebop. Then click around at Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heavens Door.
From a cinematic point of view, I’m the first to say that there’s a lot of rubbish out there that doesn’t convey the serious quality that the manga/anime genre has to offer, but there are a number of notable exceptions, which are available locally on DVD for the film geeks to try out, and see that there’s life beyond The Triplets of Belleville. Naturally, the cyber-punk
granddaddy of them all is the still fascinating (if you can find an original language, non-irritatingly American voice-dubbed version) Akira. Read the plot-line intro.
Then, for something in cartoon form that’s really interesting, in a Hitchcock and Cronenberg way, see Perfect Blue. Another one that has yet to make it here in the cinemas is the two-Kleenex-tissue but wonderful Tokyo Godfathers.
Finally, to get you some free goodies to tart up your PC and introduce you to a number of quirky digital manga goodies: learn about and download your own “paper dolls” to play with, instead of that damn Solitaire. Read An Introduction to Kiss Dolls. To see what’s available, browse Kiss Dolls. And for a range of Kiss-doll sites (no registration required), try Kiss Webring.
If you want your own cute manga mascot to sit on your PC windows and look … well … cute, go see what’s available at this German site under Window Sitters. To get an example of some window sitters in action, here’s a 400k zip-file download of Assorted Window Sitters.
Until the next time, unless people who don’t understand cartoons get me.