How Comics Are Becoming Jazz

[CBR News]

One fan of two American art forms shares with CBR his take on why comics are becoming jazz from the "standards" of Superman and Batman to the idea of creators as musicians.


Full article here.

[jamal Igle]

One fan of two American art forms shares with CBR his take on why comics are becoming jazz from the "standards" of Superman and Batman to the idea of creators as musicians.


Full article here.

i've been saying this for six years.

[Captain Clarkie]

I don't get his opening premise, he says fans are either devotees of music OR comics, rarely both. He clearly hasn't spent a lot of time in RITA's.

[CTpitch]

good representation on both comics and Jazz I'm a fan of both

[jesse_custer]

While I can see the general validity of this idea, sentences like "If anyone reading this wishes the first great Miles Davis Quintet had recorded more albums, read Scott Snyder's American Vampire, line art by Rafael Albuquerque." are ridiculous.

I also think jazz is a lot more than standards and interpretation, as Davis proved when he rejected all tradition.

I don't get his opening premise, he says fans are either devotees of music OR comics, rarely both. He clearly hasn't spent a lot of time in RITA's.

Very good point. It's pretentious for the author to assume that his audience is "pretty much no one."

[pogofan]

There are definitely some interesting parallels, but ...

...what he says about comics has been true for decades, so it's silly to say that comics are "becoming" jazz. You might as well say that jazz is becoming comics.

...he ignores one crucial distinction: anybody can pay for the rights to issue a new recording of "'Round Midnight." DC is in complete control of allowing people to issue a new Batman comic book.

p.s. What is/are RITAs?

[Captain Clarkie]

p.s. What is/are RITAs?

A thread on this very forum. But I might as well have said - "His assertion that most fans of comics are not fans of music, and vice versa, isn't true."

Edit - Or he could just go to the WHOLE MUSIC SUB-FORUM to be proved wrong.

[J. Robb]

Edit - Or he could just go to the WHOLE MUSIC SUB-FORUM to be proved wrong.

That wouldn't prove much, it doesn't get a lot of traffic.

[Captain Clarkie]

That wouldn't prove much, it doesn't get a lot of traffic.

Seems to update most days. As a percentage, it's probably not "very little". Also volume of traffic does not mean there not quite a few "devotees"

[CSPDX]

I wasn't going to comment, but I'd hate for this thread to devolve into nothing but nit pick about semantics.

Interesting idea, and I appreciate that the author comes at the subject from a unique angle. The idea that comics and jazz have been the two greatest cultural gifts to the world has been out there and around for a while, but I haven't seen much discussion about how the interrelate. I personally might have taken a tact to their historical paralells as outsider/minority artwork that was originally viewed as junk culture, and eventually trancended to become legitimate. I'm glad CBR is publishing things like this and I enjoyed seeing these musings from someone invested in both sides.

For those complaining that the author was saying that tha audiences didn't mix much, I took it as a personal observation, not a generalization of the two fandoms.

[Kees_L]

One fan of two American art forms shares with CBR his take on why comics are becoming jazz from the "standards" of Superman and Batman to the idea of creators as musicians.


Full article here.

I'd say the validity or either non-validity to what this piece or thesis proposes is that it doesn't so much constitutes to what things would be but instead it focuses on perspectives to take (or miss).
As much as comics or jazz will be what they are, how people might feel to generally perceive might differ. Or in other words: acknowledging things realistically may not be what general perception would be strifing for.
And "realistically" will creators be creators or artists artists, whatever that would mean. Whereas audiences would be audiences. Within the US, BOTH as outside of the US.

To me the real validity is that Jazz (or Hip-Hop, or Classical, redneck bluegrass or frickin' gospel) may excel as examples of how auxhilirating or real music may amount to being.
Whereas even the cheapest or poshest comics may excel as examples of what art or story may amount to being as much as if not better than Rembrandt or Picasso or Shakespeare.
Are comics "exactly the same" as high arts or Shakespeare? In some respects to some people, why not.
But any such would hinge on being but perspectives.

It isn't bad that how people perceive either Jazz or comics would be to vary. That's the fuckin' point. Art is subjective, opinions MAY vary. Or else they wouldn't matter as much, not arts nor either what opinions to have.

[whippis]

I see the parallel- only creepy whites guys who go to speciality stores and drive cabs like either thing.

[Captain Clarkie]

Alright, I now want Auxhilirating to be an actual word.

[Kees_L]

Alright, I now want Auxhilirating to be an actual word.

My apologies. No harm intended. I'm Dutch. I only have cheese and harsh consonants and all that jazz, but only moves way outta my league...

At least I didn't disrespect 'cab drivers', 'specialty stores' or 'creepy whites guys'. I'm not no moron .

[Jude]

I'm a writer and a musician who plays and writes jazz (among other styles), and I find Phillip Kennedy Johnson's comparison between jazz and comics rather strained. Jazz developed because black musicians wanted a music the white bands couldn't steal from them, and it developed by pushing beyond stylistic boundaries. Comics developed by stealing from other genres and by employing generally low standards of writing and illustration. Jazz makes its point through nuance. Comics tend to use big boobs, broad humour and smackdown. An appreciation of jazz tends to develop as one matures. The golden age of comics is twelve.