Washington Post Runs Suite of Comics Features

The Sunday, August 24 issue of the Washington Post runs a suite of features focused on comics and graphic novels. The central piece is “Drawing Power” by Bob Thompson, a self-described “lifelong Prose Guy, whose idea of a good time involves a comfortable couch and a book full of nothing but words.” In the piece, Thompson describes his efforts to “explore the rise of what’s sometimes called ’sequential art,’ if I can ever overcome my personal bias toward prose.” Among other research, Thompson visits the March 15, 2008 Splat! symposium, including commentary by keynote speaker Scott McCloud, and interviews librarian Kat Kan, literary agent Bob Mecoy, Françoise Mouly, Diamond Book Distributors’ John Shableski, Mark Siegel and Adrian Tomine, among others.

The feature is accompanied by a series of three comic strips written by Thompson and drawn by Jonathan Bennett, illustrating Thompson’s interviews with Mecoy and Mouly as well as a concluding strip encapsulating Thompson’s sense of the medium’s possibilities.

The Post also runs a piece by Douglas Wolk reviewing several recent books of comics.