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July 12, 2004
NYT on graphic novels, but...
From BoingBoing: The New York Times is running an impressive piece on graphic novels that seems to take the comic medium seriously.
What gives me pause (other than the typo on the second page in which Understanding Comics author Scott McCloud becomes Scott McLoud) is that author Charles McGrath dismisses Japanese comics out of hand at the beginning of the article. He defines manga as "those Japanese comic books that feature slender, wide-eyed teenage girls who seem to have a special fondness for sailor suits," leading me to wonder if he ever read any manga before making such a boldly sweeping and utterly unfounded statement.
Of course, this is the same paper that in 2002 printed an article containing the erroneous statement "Comic books account for 60 percent of printed publications in Japan, a reflection of low literacy rates due to the difficulty of learning Japanese characters." (In fact, Japan has close to a 99% literacy rate. The Times later issued a correction.)
Posted by brianruh at July 12, 2004 02:11 PM