A truly American art form

March 18, 7:56 PMPhiladelphia Fine Arts ExaminerMatt Young

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I'll be honest; I'm having quite a bit of fun exploring the perameters of "fine art". I was talking with a friend the other day (hi, Mike) and he asked me if I thought comic books belonged in this highly selective group. After about thirty seconds of deep reflection, the answer seemed pretty obvious. Yes, I do!

Like any well crafted piece of art, a good comic book has the power to captivate an audience. In fact, an argument could be made to say that comics are the oldest art form known to man. After all, what do you call the stuff the ancient Egyptians drew on the walls of the pyramids? (Well, the word is heiroglyphics, but I think that's just fancy-talk for comic strips.) In the 1940's, comic books secured their place in American history. It was during that era when the super-hero was born. You may have even heard of some of them: Superman, Batman, Captain America.

Now, if you believe value to be a criteria for art, this one'll slap you right across the face. On March 13th, this copy of Superman, #1 sold at auction for $317,200. Oh, and by the way, that still isn't the most ever paid for a comic book! Now, that's what I call value. I couldn't afford to pay that much for a house.

What was that, did you ask about prestige? Oh, I get it, you think comics have to be considered prestigious to be "real" art. I guess you didn't know that the graphic novel adaptation of The Watchmen recieved the Hugo Award in 1988. That's prestigious, right? Come on now, I'm a published author, and all I have is a high school diploma. I don't write a lot of science-fiction, but I certainly wouldn't turn down a Hugo!

So check out your local comic shop, and expand your artistic boundaries. I'll even recommend a couple. Brave New Worlds has two locations in the Philadelphia area. May 2nd. is free comic day. (If you stop by, you can meet Supergirl and Iron Man.) If you're on the Devil side of the bridge, check out Ron's Comic World. That place's store-front might just be the coolest thing I've ever seen. So my friends, in closing I say this: it is neither a bird, nor a plane...its art at its finest.