An author is motivated to write a story because they have a firm belief that they have something worthwhile to write about: they know their story is good. Because they know what harrowing guilt they’d feel in not putting pen to paper, this can lead to a book, or many books. It can also lead to a comic. What’s particularly impressive with the latter is that, while good writing arguably doesn’t come that often, it’s even less common to find it accompanied by visual art. This is no small feat. A writer can write, and an artist can draw. But when someone can do both? They’re a hero – they’ve got a real superpower.
These are the initial thoughts I had after going through the charming stories found in the Malta Libraries and Graphic Novel Library Malta (GNLM) 2024 anthology An Introduction to Comic Book Art. In this anthology, each of Malta’s up-and-coming comic book writers really have something going for them. Each of the five comic stories within the pages is an effective demonstration of what an author-artist can achieve both narratively and artistically. From an unsuspecting femme fatale to a cheeky talking turtle, the anthology incorporates a broad range of settings, while serving as an effective showcase of the these artists’ creativity. All of these works possess solid foundations for longer stories which could be hits if fleshed out further – they left me wanting more after having reached the end of each tale.
Yet as they are, these stories are good. I say this because each managed to keep me turning the pages, and each had a quality that is essential to any good story – these stories are sure of themselves, they know what they want to be. There is no confusion in the creator’s mind as to how the dynamics of their narrative world plays out. In Julian Chircop’s Wiżgħalina u l-Bajda Żvinturata, for example, the haphazard, scribbly way Chircop pens the panels (and what he chooses to pen into those panels) conveys the quirky tone that gives Wiżgħalina’s world a distinct flavour. There is a mastery at play, from the choice of art style to the deliberate stretching and playing with the language which show that the workings of a well-thought-out world. It may go without saying that this applies to the entire anthology.
So, if I liked the story, would you like it too? After all, I’m no comic expert. However, a key strength of comics – as opposed to a more traditional book – is found in its often compressed, almost instantaneous method of delivery, one panel at a time, with (often) five or more panels a page. What I’m getting at is that comics are like a roller-coaster, and An Introduction to Comic Book Art 2024 appears to know and deliver its stories like this!
Yelena Margie Micallef’s Double Life tells me all I need to know about Yae ‘Yeako’ Mito – that, frankly, I can’t really know anything. Mito’s lifestyle is that of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and any facet of her life is as in doubt as her morality.
Maronia Micallef’s Nova amplifies the fluidity and explosive potential of the comic medium by spilling the storm in a teacup. What initially seems to be a light-hearted story quickly devolves into eerie, unforgiving horror as Eden’s love is not matched by Nova.
My favourite scene in the whole anthology, however, has to be the double-take moment in Clifton Azzopardi’s Toko. It’s just that Toko seems like such a sweet turtle. He’s even on the comic’s cover with a little smile and beady little eyes. I mean, this guy wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’d help anyone. But then, no. No. Lukas his bird friend asks him for help, and he says no. And as he said it, that cute little turtle suddenly became drawn in this ominous, shadowy way. It needed a double-take. This moment was, in the words of Peter O’Toole when describing Seven Pillars of Wisdom, ‘literature of the highest order’. That moment in Toko was a flash of genius. It made me smile.
That’s perhaps what you could hope for at the very least in a comic – that it will make you think and it will make you smile (Bonus points if it makes you laugh!).
So, yes, An Introduction to Comic Book Art 2024 is worth the read. Packed with imaginative potential, the stories are hits, and the hits are home runs: their characters matter.
Readers want to feel invested, and it’s easy to care for Zoe Marsh’s Moon Lighters duo Lucia and Alessio for instance, or even Toko, Wiżgħalina, or the other anthropomorphic and/or sentient animals. There is a definite degree of talent within the anthology and I look forward to seeing these comic-strip creators be nurtured, and develop further in the future.
You can find the anthology in libraries across Malta and Gozo Central Public Library
More on the GNLM and their comic making programme.
