On October 29, the Toronto International Festival of Authors awarded its $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize to Canadian cartoonist Seth for having “substantially contributed to the state of literature and books in Canada.” After starting his comic series Palookaville in the early ’90s, many of Seth’s stories have since been collected and published as novels. He also illustrates for various magazines (such as The New Yorker and The Walrus) and is in the process of designing the packaging of a 25-book collection of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts strips.
In his acceptance speech, the Guelph-based artist argued that comics are a form of art just as much as other media. Seth and the many other artists who write “alternative comics” for adults (R. Crumb, Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes are among the most popular) aim to show the versatility of the medium. They communicate more nebulous narratives when compared to the fantastic elements in cartoons and superhero comics.
Seth’s winning the festival prize is a step toward general recognition that comics are as capable of describing the human condition and what experiences feel like as other art forms are.
Reading Seth’s comics can be a heavy experience. Time plays an important role in Seth’s work, so it’s not surprising that he is often described as a nostalgist. In his novel, It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, Seth returns to the town where he was born to meet family members of a deceased New Yorker cartoonist. He dresses in 1940s fashion, decorates his home with antique knickknacks, and rants to Chester Brown’s character that he believes our culture hit its high-water mark decades ago.
Seth’s early work explores his own identity, such as his decision to change his name from Gregory Gallant in an effort to reinvent his personality. As narrators, Seth’s characters look back on the past, but it is always through selective memory, making an accordingly unreliable narration. Since recollection is often distorted, Seth feels that “nostalgia” doesn’t suit the use of memory. He views “nostalgia” as a pejorative term. In an interview with The Walrus, Seth suggested that though his characters at times dwell on the past, isolation plays a greater role in producing the melancholy of his characters.
Seth argues that the creative skills required to create comics are particularly similar to those employed in other media. For example, comics are easily compared to film because they can visually show you something instead of having to describe it. However, in an interview with Carousel Magazine, Seth mentioned that despite this clear link, he prefers to compare comics to poetry. The carefully thought-out process of arranging panels and writing dialogue is equivalent to choosing line lengths, style, and form. Comics are animated when the reader imagines what happens in the space between panels; the rhythm of the panel’s action and its dialogue convey a weight that amounts to more than merely being a “storyboard.”
It’s exciting to see more cartoonists being invited to participate in literary festivals like the International Festival of Authors. Their inclusion not only shows that the medium is growing in popularity, but that the definition of “author” is also changing. At the ceremony, Seth explained what it was like to witness the transformation. “I recall back in the early ‘90s talking to fellow cartoonist Chester Brown about the future of our medium, and our hopes of its literary acceptance. We weren’t optimistic. Frankly, the idea of winning something like this was not within the realm of possibilities at that time, so it goes without saying that I am deeply honoured.”
