In the 1980s, a collection of comic strips by New York artist Art Spiegelman was published in a small book format to rave reviews. “Maus,” a harrowing account of Spiegelman’s father’s ordeal during the Holocaust, was followed by a second book, “And Here My Troubles Began,” and Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for the two volumes — the first and only graphic novel to win that coveted prize.
But fast forward 25 years and the graphic novel has won serious recognition as both an art form and a valid form of literature, one that a growing number of writers and artists have used to delve into forgotten chapters of history, in particular to tell the stories of marginalized people or to challenge conventional narratives.
At Herter Galley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, some of that work is now on display. “Direct Action Comics: Politically Engaged Graphic Novels,” organizers say, is the first exhibit to focus exclusively on “activist, radical, and socially-aware works in the graphic novel and comic art medium.”
From “Maus” itself, to stories that examine protest movements and the lives of U.S. labor leaders and social activists, to the tale of seven people whose lives are upended by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, the exhibit offers 50 graphic novels and other comic works and related art.
N.C. Christopher Couch, the show’s lead curator, teaches comparative literature at UMass, where he’s led a class on international graphic novels since 1997. Couch also has deep roots in the art world, having written on subjects as varied as Latin American art and comic art, and he was senior editor at the former Kitchen Sink Press, the noted underground comic publisher that was located in Northampton in the 1990s.
With the Herter exhibit, which opens Feb. 2 and runs through Feb. 22, Couch says he’s tapping into both his own passion for the subject and that of Five College students and other college staff — and readers in general — in the area.
“I can tell you this is a topic that cuts through just about every discipline,” he said during an interview at Herter in late January, where several of his students were helping him prepare the exhibit, along with Trevor Richardson, the gallery director.
“I have students in my classes from very different fields,” added Couch. “I think what brings them together is this interest in an art form that combines words and text in a unique way.”
As Couch and other fans of the genre see it, graphic novels — a term that generally refers to longer and more complex forms of comic art — offer a vibrant and fluid way to tell a story, with the artwork providing a sense of immediacy and pacing that gives the format “a lot of flexibility,” said Couch. “It’s a really versatile medium.”
The Herter exhibit, which features the graphic novels themselves (they’re available for reading) and selected art from them, is divided into six sections based on different themes, such as genocide and memory, women’s issues and racial conflict. The show includes related material such as posters, underground comics from the 1960s, and papers from the W.E.D. DuBois Library Special Collections and Archives.
Part of the history in the show is the work of the late Will Eisner, a New York cartoonist and writer sometimes called the “Father of the Graphic Novel” for his 1978 book “A Contract with God,” his story about poor Jews living in a tenement apartment in New York in the 1930s.
Among Eisner’s books in the exhibit is “Fagin the Jew,” in which Eisner countered the stereotype of the grasping, greedy figure from Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” with a fuller portrait. Fagin emerges as a more complex character who’s endured a lifetime of anti-semitism in 19th-century England.
In “Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist’s Encounter with Margaret Sanger,” writer/artist Sabrina Jones contrasts the story of the early 20th century birth control advocate and feminist with the author’s own sexual coming of age in the 1970s. And in “Race to Incarcerate,” Jones illustrates a graphic novel by Marc Mauer on the staggering number of people in U.S. prisons.
Humor is certainly a component of some of these works, such as Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” a memoir by the author (at one time a Valley resident) of growing up gay in a dysfunctional family. Bechdel’s graphic novel, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, was also the basis for an award-winning Broadway musical in 2015.
The overall tone of the Herter show, however, is more serious. In “The Harlem Hellfighters,” a 2014 book by Max Brooks that’s illustrated by Caanan White, Brooks recalls the story of an African-American army unit, the 369th Infantry Regiment, that consistently distinguished itself in battle during World War One; the Germans dubbed the men “hellfighters” for their ferocity.
White’s illustrations have a stark, brutal quality that not only evokes the horror of trench warfare and the shattered landscapes of northern France, but which also seems to embody the fury of men who faced prejudice in the U.S. before and after the war; the unit’s accomplishments were ignored by white America.
“A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge” covers a more recent event, the catastrophic hurricane that battered New Orleans in late summmer 2005. Author and artist Josh Neufeld chronicles seven real people from the flooded city who had to decide to stay or go during the crisis.
It makes for real drama as the hurricane pummels the city; one character, Denise wakes in terror to find the floor shifting beneath her bed, rainwater pouring through broken windows and the ceiling in one room in her apartment collapsing.
In another section, storeowner Abbas and his friend Darnell wade through deserted, flooded streets; at one point, the only life visible is a cluster of rats, which have taken refuge in a tree. Bodies and debris float by, and the two men are forced to sleep on the roof of Abbas’ store, where they’re eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Couch, who once worked in the New York comic art scene and knows some of the contributing artists personally, notes that the Herter show will also examine some of the “Underground Comix” of the 1960s, which in tackling more serious themes layed the groundwork for the modern graphic novel.
In the end, says Couch, graphic novels have become a great forum “for artists and [adult] readers who love comics but were too ashamed to admit that.”
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
“Direct Action Comics: Politically Engaged Graphic Novels” runs through Feb. 22 at Herter Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. There will be an opening reception Feb. 2 from 4-6 p.m., and the gallery will remain open until 8 p.m. Gallery admission is free. Normal visiting hours are Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.