It’s Comics Artists Week at Sequart!

For no other reason than it needs to be done, all this week Sequart will be publishing content spotlighting comics artists.

Comics criticism tends to focus on writers as the dominant visionaries of comics production. And we all know that comics artists don’t get nearly enough critical attention beyond “This art is awesome!” or “This art stinks!” If a work, by necessity, has to be filed under one creator, it’s usually the writer that’s chosen. People sometimes refer to comics as coming from “the mind of” the writer, ignoring that an artist labored over pages, day after day, bringing a comic’s characters, ideas, and stories to life.

There are lots of reasons for this bias. One is the influence of Stan Lee, Chris Claremont, and the writers of the 1980s “British Invasion”. Another reason is the convenience of discussing collaborative works of art as if they were the product of an auteur, parallel to how movies are thought to be predominantly the expression of their directors. Also, most comics critics come from literary or social criticism, aren’t trained in art history, and / or feel uncomfortable discussing artwork beyond a superficial level.

And we are as guilty as anyone, so Comics Artists Week is an attempt to begin correcting this imbalance at Sequart. Unlike our past themed weeks, Comics Artists Week isn’t occasioned by anything — other than a desire to give more attention to comics artists and their importance in comics history.

Sequart uses themed weeks as a way of celebrating popular subjects, filling holes in comics and pop-culture criticism, and serializing in-depth criticism over a single week instead of many weeks (or even months). You can think of them as miniature conventions or conferences. (And it is our hope that this particular theme takes hold, expands, and is covered by Sequart in perpetuity.)

Comics Artists Week is Sequart’s 10th themed week. Past themed weeks include: