Author Explores the Art of Comics at Boswell Books

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Lost Literacies by Alex Beringer

“Like a lot of 1980s kids, I read the Sunday funnies every week, things like ‘Fox Trot,’ ‘Outland,’ ‘Calvin & Hobbes.’ I also loved collecting superhero comics as a teenager,” recalls university of Montevallo English professor and author Alex Beringer. 

It was another artform’s combination of words and pictures that reintroduced Beringer to the medium’s storytelling potency. “I drifted away from comics as an adult until I was introduced to the graphic novels,” he shares. But there was a time when newspaper comics were at about as free from the constraints of standardized format as today's graphic novels. 

Beringer explores the origins and history of newspaper funnies and freedom to challenge readers' visual and literary sensibilities in Lost Literacies: Experiments in the 19th Century US Comic Strip (Ohio State University Press). He will be discussing his work at a free event at Boswell Books, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, for which free pre-registration is required. 

Incredible Experimental

The experimental nature of newspaper funnies arrived at a time before newspapers weren’t as big a business as they would become. Of the kind of envelope-pushing comics artists were allowed in the era Beringer covers, he says. “The 1850s-‘70s were this incredible, experimental period for comic strips. Some of this was due the fact that the medium of comics was so new. There weren’t any hard and fast rules for how one would go about making a comic. No one was there to tell artists to use speech bubbles or panel grades. So, they were free to make things up as they went along. 

“As a result,” Beringer continues, “we see a ton of fascinating approaches, many of which now read as one-offs or failed experiments. Artists organized strips around wordplay, puns, and musical notation; they encouraged readers to flip physical pages to suggest movement between scenes; and they experimented with panel layouts to simulate the visual illusions created early cinematic technologies like the zoetrope and stereoscope. They also played with subgenres like travelogues and adaptations of theatrical productions.” Today's funnies aficionados can thank, or blame, much of the corralling in of cartoonists wilder creative impulses to the more profitable and prolific medium newspaper became. 

The Hearst Template

One particular publishing magnate set the template for others to follow. “The Hearst edict refers to a moment in the spring of 1901 when all the comics appearing in newspapers owned by the tycoon William Randolph Hearst suddenly began using speech balloons,” Beringer relates. “Within a year, nearly all other newspapers in the U.S. followed suit. I tend to think of it as a mass extinction event for 19th century comics because it sweeps away much of the extraordinary variety that existed in comics.” 

Though the reason for the Hearst's directive remains a mystery, Beringer theorizes as to why it was decreed. “My best guess is that the editors demanded a more predictable format to help readers slip more easily into a routine of reading comics every week as they returned to something like “The Katzenjammer Kids.” Newspapers were becoming big business, and comics were an important part of this because they attracted readers. Hearst's comics editor, Rudolph Block must surely have been under intense pressure to keep those readers coming back week after week." 

Though the Hearst edict didn't necessarily hinder their subject matter newspaper, countercultural provocateurs entered the ranks of cartoonists when the funnies were freer in their formats. “It’s true that the artists often themselves were part of a vibrant counterculture in New York similar to Andy Warhol’s Factory in the late 1960s,” Beringer recollects, adding, “The famous poet Walt Whitman ran in the same crowd. And this influence shows up in certain magazines where jokes about bar fights, men smoking hashish, and free love were commonplace. These Bohemian-leaning magazines would have almost certainly been limited to male readerships.” Conversely, “The same artists also worked on publications geared towards families and children. ‘Leslie’s Budget of Fun,’ for instance, announced their rejection for 'even the mildest kind of profanity.'

Per the title of Beringer’s book and the literacies comics readers lost as the funnies became more regimented, Beringer observes, “I think we lost a certain type of flexibility in our approach to reading comic strips after the format became standardized. Nineteenth century readers of comics took pleasure in novelty. Each time they opened they pages of a magazine or graphic album (a predecessor to today's graphic novels that also predate newspaper comics), they knew they would need to adjust to a new format. It was as if they needed to learn how to read comics all over again. Readers, by and large, seemed to love this challenge because it meant that each comic could show them a slightly different way of experiencing visual storytelling.” 

Graphic Novels, Web Comics

To Beringer's reckoning, both graphic novels and web comics have restored more avant-garde intuitions. In these forms, he declares, “Artists seem squarely interested in pushing their readers to break down everything they know about the comics medium and become accustomed to a new way of reading, and thus a new way of thinking about the human experience.” 

 And, even in light of that mass extinction of comic strip creativity a century ago and general lack of news newspaper readers to replace and increase those who die, Beringer is hopeful for the artform he enjoyed in his childhood. 

“Certainly, the number of people reading comics in a physical newspaper has become vanishingly small and only seems likely to decrease in coming years,” he notes. “This does seem worrying for a subset of excellent legacy strips tied to this older model. At the same time, many of the older strips have been rejuvenated through a combination of online audiences and writer/artists who bring a fresh perspective. Here, I’m thinking especially of Peter Gallagher’s ‘Heathcliff.’ I teach college and was astounded to find that a large amount of my students are regular readers of ‘Heathcliff,’ a comic that I thought had peaked in the late 1980s.

“But I can see why. Gallagher, nephew of Heathcliff creator George Gately, has infused the comic with a totally offbeat sensibility involving inside jokes like the ‘ham helmet’ and ‘garbage ape.’ Another one along these lines is Olivia Jaimes’ new take on Ernie Bushmiller’s ‘Nancy.’ Seeing the success of these comics makes me think that it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing a more robust reinvention of legacy newspaper strips. It’s such a rich source of material. I can’t imagine that it will just go away.”

Anyone wanting a further head start on Beringer's forthcoming talk at Boswell my do well to check out this interview with him from The Clements Bookworm, originating from the Clements Library at the University of Michigan...

Get Lost Literacies at Amazon here.

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