Kristy Valenti has a lot to say about comics.  Valenti is currently assistant editor at The Comics Journal, a magazine owned and operated by the major alternative comics publisher Fantagraphics Books.  Founded in 1976, the monthly magazine is one of the most respected publications in the industry, dedicated to covering developments within the comics world, interviewing artists, and reviewing comics from what it terms an “arts-first perspective.”  Valenti also has a weekly column of her own, “Uncharted Territory,” published each Tuesday on the industry website comiXology, in which she profiles creators, reviews works, and explores other issues and ideas of relevance to the medium.

I got a chance to talk to Valenti about the idea of comics as art, the cultural and academic significance of the medium, and current developments that are shaping the industry in new and exciting ways.

Are comics art? Are comics and graphic novels literature?

There are two schools of thoughts on this. The first school is yes and yes (well, some are, anyway). The second school is that it’s something entirely different that requires a different sort of literacy, greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a tendency, especially in academic and book publishing circles, to give the text primacy over the pictures. For example, Mariko Tamaki, the writer, was nominated for an award for the Skim graphic novel, but the artist, Jillian Tamaki, was not.

Here is a write-up on a panel regarding the second school of thought:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=124318

And, if comics are art, or if they are literature, how do you judge or critique their artistic or literary worth? I believe you satirized the act of academically critiquing a comic in your article “The Seven Stages of the Comic Critic”…

You can use academic and critical tools to critique comics, such as close readings, theory, and thorough research. I think, though, that there’s a lot of what I dub “bad academia” going on: people who don’t bother to learn the material and technological history behind how comics were produced (fortunately, there are now excellent sources such as Men of Tomorrow and The Ten Cent Plague for that), so they don’t put comics in the proper context—theory for theory’s sake, divorced from the actual comic; bad comparisons based on lack of breadth of knowledge (Johnny Ryan is like Chris Ware, because they’re both alternative); people who feel guilty or ashamed for liking comics, and so use their academic credentials and training to justify it, or people who have a pet area of study and use comics to justify it (Blackest Night is like Paradise Lost); etc.

Of course, in “Seven Stages,” I’m making fun of myself too. I try to take my work seriously without necessarily taking myself seriously. And, here’s that elitist TCJ snob here, I don’t think that everyone with a blog or an opinion is a critic.

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