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Such networks, which blend the dynamics of a friendship and work groups, have played a vital role in building artistic movements throughout the history of modern art such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Photorealism, etc., as well as the history of comics, most famously San Francisco’s Underground Comics. This collaboration/network/community could be realized in various modes: peer-centered group, a mentor-mentee relationship, even a social media following, etc. An artist is often part of a network/community of artists that share artistic vision, knowledge, and know-how provide continuous and constructive feedback to one another as artists and audiences and offer artistic as well as social and emotional support. We need to ask who gets to write the history of comics.Īny artwork is the result of collaboration between the artists and mediators, as well as among artists, even when such collaborations are not explicitly acknowledged or realized. Mediators assert their authority as tastemakers by consecrating and canonizing certain works, despite the innate subjectivity of any “artistic criteria”. In a small artistic field like independent comics, artists sometimes operate as mediators too. The specific media you gave attention to decided to disseminate the voice of the specific critics.Īt each stage of production and distribution, these mediators serve as subjective filters, shaping the work and its reception according to their own perspectives and biases. You choose the specific work to spend your time with, not other works besides them, maybe because you heard good reviews from critics. Zine/book fairs present tabling artists who are only a portion of applicants because the space and resources are limited. Retailers differentiate the way to display works based on their guesswork of salability. This is why I said, “ Publishing is an act of writing a history.” Retailers and librarians purchase only a small part of such works. Distributors only carry works produced by well-known publishers that have a spine and meet certain page requirements. Artists and artworks need to be chosen by editors at publishing houses with limited resources and their own biased tastes and value systems. Instead, it is the result of many subjective choices and conventions created by mediators involved in its production and distribution. The work in our hands did not magically emerge from a vacuum.

However, just like anyone and anything else in our society, arts and artists are embedded in their society. The romantic myth of the genius, isolated artists, states that they have a special vision to see through the mere norms of our society, and therefore, cannot be bound to live by these norms. When we write the history of the arts, we often focus only on the genius of individual artists and their artworks. Such a social safety net is especially critical for a field like comics, where the material means are scarce.Īnother aspect that deserves attention is the voluntary, grassroots infrastructure of artistic networks/communities including non-artists and institutions such as publishers, retailers, libraries, art schools, and festivals.

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It provides public arts grants, including comics, at federal, provincial, and municipal levels a less expensive post-secondary education system (art schools) via public universities thus less pressure on student loan payment free healthcare not tied to your employment and so on. One of the most obvious reasons is that Canada is simply a better welfare state than the USA. I have always wondered why, as I spend countless time and money at The Beguiling. Towards Critical Histor(iograph)y of Independent ComicsĬanadian independent comics – whatever your definition may be – have managed to maintain their distinctiveness and independence from their Southern counterparts, unlike other art forms like cinema, literature, fine art, or music.