Pictures and Words, European Style

Re Charles Solomon’s “The Comic Book Grows Up,” April 16:

Solomon writes that “graphic novels have been popular for decades . . . in Europe” (which is true), then adds: “In Paris, the rage for these florid fantasies has led book dealers in the swankiest arrondissements . . . to devote large sections to them.

This is simply wrong. It evokes the superficial, shallow judgment of the Ugly American Abroad (“Look, Hon, they have McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysees!”)

I am a Frenchman, and I did not grow up in a “swanky” arrondissement but in a series of unremarkable provincial towns. Yet I’ve always seen “graphic novels” in all bookstores, college or otherwise. They are not, as Mr. Solomon implies, the result of a “rage” limited to rich college kids or yuppies.

Indeed, the first graphic novels published were the “Tintin” books in the 1930s, which gained immediate acceptance for the genre. At first, graphic novels were considered to be primarily for children, but in the ‘60s people began to realize that adults were reading them too. (Gen. De Gaulle once jokingly complained that Tintin was more famous than he!)

Mr. Solomon is also wrong when he describes our graphic novels as “florid fantasies.” If I were to refer to your own “Peanuts” as a “torrid soap opera” or “Calvin & Hobbes” as “thrilling exotic adventure,” you’ll have an idea of how accurate Mr. Solomon’s opinion rings to me.

JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER

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