- Original Message -
On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:15:39 -0400, Stephen Black wrote:
I am glad that you were not impulsive and took your time in
replying to my post. I am sure you took the time to work on
addressing the points I made about 12 days ago.
On 28 Sep 2009 at 9:20, Mike Palij wrote:
There is an interesting book review in the NY Times which
is titled Algorithm and Blues. The book it reviews is a comic
book or, as the cool kids might call it, graphic novel
snip
Can psychologists expect similar treatment in the sequential art form?
The answer is yes, but subject to the qualification that the
individual so memorialized is actually a psychologist, which
some would question. Inevitably, it's a comic book about Freud.
The book is:
Introducing Freud: A graphic guide to the father of
psychoanalysis (2007) by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar
Zarate
You can check it out using Amazon.com's look inside feature.
A few points:
(1) It is a stretch to call Freud a psychologist, especially as
we understand the term today. If one were to do so, one would
probably have to include other psychoanalysts, such as Jung,
in which case you forgot to suggest this book which is available
on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/yjkfsef
(2) There is a big difference between a graphic guide which
provides images as in a story book and a comic book/graphic
novel. I don't know how familiar you are with the distinction
but if you have not read many comic books/graphic novels and
are not familiar with the concept of sequential art, I would
suggest the folloing book by comic book great Will Eisner
(most famous for the Spirit character and his role in the business
of the comics from the 1940s onward):
http://tinyurl.com/ylm8alt
(There is page on Amazon devoted to books by Eisner, see:
http://www.amazon.com/Will-Eisner/e/B000APEOIE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
and Eisner wrote a graphic novel explaining the plot to promote
the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion against the Jews:
http://www.amazon.com/Plot-Secret-Story-Protocols-Elders/dp/0393328600/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_8
)
The crtieria you seem to be using to define a graphic novel would
seem to include things like The Cartoon Guide to Statistics; see
http://tinyurl.com/ygwx9yl
or The Magna Guide to Statistics; see:
http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Statistics-Shin-Takahashi/dp/1593271891/ref=pd_cp_b_3
Neither of which would really satisfy a fanboy's definition of graphic
novel.
To make the difference clearer, compare the book you suggested
to a comic book version of Nicholas Meyer's The 7 Percent
Solution which features both Freud and Sherlock Holmes (who
has a huge cocaine jones); see
http://tinyurl.com/ygwpbha
Unfortunately, The 7 Percent Solution was never made into a
comic book/graphic novel but it was made into a movie which
may give you an idea of what a graphic novel might have looked
like (well, maybe the magna version but I haven't examined its
contents while I own a copy of Gopnik's cartoon guide to stats)..
So, if you take a look at the books Watchmen, Sin City,
V for Vendetta, The Dark Knight and others (last I checked,
Barnes Noble had a section devoted to graphic novels; I assume
other bookseller may have the same), you will get a better appreciation
of the art form. I strongly recommend Watchmen but that's only
because I'm a long time fan.
(3) If we were to allow psychoanalysts/psychiatrists in comics books
to represent psychology, then a better claim is made by EC comics.
For background on EC comics, see the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertaining_Comics
EC comics was an innovative comic book company which produced
a number of very interesting comics (both topically and visually; a number
of Ray Bradbury stories were made into comics) and produced such
comics as Tales from the Crypt, Mad, Weird Science and Weird
Fantasy among others. However, Fredric Wertham's campaign against
violence and horror in comics and the subsequent U.S. congressional
hearings on juvenile delinquincy, forced many comic book publishers to
police themselves with the creation of the Comics Code Authority
which would limit what could be shown in comic books. For EC comics,
this meant that they had to drop most of their existing titles and to produce
new titles.
Although innovative, these new titles did poorly in sales. Among these
new comics was one with the curious title Psychoanalysis. A
description of this limited run (only 4 issues) series plus the cover of the
first issue is provided at:
http://www.politedissent.com/archives/855
The artist Jack Kamen provided many covers to EC titles including
Psychoanalysis and a sample of his work, including issue #3 of
Psychoanalysis (with Comics Code Authority stamp!) is provided
here:
http://www.sci.fi/~karielk/kamehome.htm
In an attempt to stay in business, EC started to publish magazines
(even turning Mad from comic format to magazine format) with
lurid titles. One is
