Neil Gaiman: Raconteur and Comics Champion

Seeing as how Halloween's all but over, I guess it's just about too late to mention that Neil Gaiman, comics scribe and best-selling novelist, has a column about Halloween and ghost stories in this morning's New York Times.

That column also gives me an opportunity to catch up on something that's been churning up the comics blogging community for the few days. In mid-October, finalists for the National Book Awards were announced, and they included the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (the publisher's link for the book is broken as I write this--I'll add it later if I can). Late last week, Wired News copy chief Tony Long took objection to that fact in his bi-weekly "Luddite" column. Given that the column is entitled "The Luddite," we know that his shtick is to complain about new stuff, and he does that quite well (this same column also criticizes those who keep tens of thousands of songs in their iTunes library). But he hits comics fans where they live by stating that, although he hasn't read this particular book, he knows that no comic book "or graphic novel, or whatever you want to call it" can possibly be good enough to deserve a National Book Award. But Gaiman, alerted by an e-mail someone sent him, provided one of the earliest responses to Long that I've seen. His was such a succinct, complete answer that many of the responses that followed it did little more than quote Gaiman. That's what I'm going to do, too.

I suppose if he builds a time machine he could do something about Maus's 1992 Pulitzer, or Sandman's 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, or Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan winning the 2001 Guardian First Book Award, or even Watchmen's appearance on Time's Hundred Best Novels of the 20th Century list. Lacking a Time Machine, it seems a rather silly and antiquated argument, like hearing someone complain that women have the vote or that be-bop music and crooners are turning up in the pop charts.

I like the bit where he says that he hasn't read the comic in question, but he just knows what things like that are like. It's always best to be offended by things you haven't read. That way you keep your mind uncluttered by things that might change it.

Like Long, I haven't read American Born Chinese, either, but a National Book Award nom sure makes a good recommendation.