100 Comics

Back in September, Rainey Knudson started a project of writing about 100 artworks from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston in short posts of 100 words over the course of 100 days. It was a highly disciplined project with a punishing set of constraints. It reminded me of an OuLiPo project, like Life: A Users Manual. But like the best OuLiPo books, it was not just a formal exercise—it was also very personal. She described the MFAH as “my childhood museum.” I enjoyed the series immensely.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I received Canon in the mail. Canon is a fanzine devoted to a 25-year-old issue of The Comics Journal that featured a list of the 100 best comics of all time. I had contributed to that list, so I was very interested in Canon.

It is a slightly weird coincidence that two very different lists of 100 artworks came my way at approximately the same time. As I sit here a wall full of graphic novels looms over me (see the photos below). Given this, I have decided to modify Rainey Knudson’s idea and write about 100 great comics in my personal collection. I would write about 100 excellent comics in a public museum, library, or archive, but no such institution exists in Houston. Indeed, there are only a handful of such institutions in the world. But all great archives get their start as someone’s personal collection, so my personal collection is the equivalent of what the MFAH was for Knudson.

Knudson’s project was way more constrained than I am willing to attempt. By limiting her posts to 100 words, she had to leave out a lot of stuff that she later described as “unnecessaries”—specifically:

“1. The artist’s biography
2. The artist’s intention
3. Context
4. Technique”

She acknowledged that these facts can add to one’s enjoyment and understanding, but that she had concluded that thinking about them caused critics to “we suppress our own response.” I think a good critic can include her own response along with a description of the artist and an explanation of, for example, how Gustave Courbet employed the technique of scumbling in The Gust of Wind. But in a way, I take her resignation from art writing as a poetic move. She is not going to be writing information any more—just pure feeling.

I however will be including some information in my entries. And I will write more than 100 words for each of my subjects. Nor will I be as disciplined as Knudson—I won’t promise to write one entry a day for the next 100 days. But I do have a goal.

In March of this year, Rice University will be hosting a comics conference/workshop called Comics Sans Frontières, featuring academics, artists, publishers, etc. Houston has had comic book conventions for decades, but the academic side of this makes it a new type of comics event for Houston. One that I am happy to celebrate with a completely unrelated comics project of my own. Maybe I can get a few artsy Houstonians interested enough to check out Comics Sans Frontières.

This will not be a list of the comics that I consider the hundred best—just comics that I have an attachment to for whatever reason. I’ll try to write as many entries as I can before Comics Sans Frontières commences on March 20. Mainly I want to get my mind ready to think hard about comics—to get my brain prepared for Comics Sans Frontières. It’s almost like am studying for a final exam. Welcome aboard!

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