It’s impossible not to feel passionate about comic books after spending an hour in the presence of Paul Gravett and John Dunning. Their infectious devotion to the artform shone through during their appearance on the penultimate day of the 2014 Edinburgh Book Festival, where they spoke at length about the British Library exhibition they co-curated over the summer, Comics Unmasked: Anarchy in the UK, and the tie-in book that’s been released to accompany it. Gravett and Dunning said that the idea behind the exhibition was to celebrate the outstanding history of great British comics through examining their often seditious nature, looking specifically at how they have tackled themes of sex, violence, race, politics, mental illness and the occult since the Victorian era. It was, said Dunning, a deeply personal show, whose objective had been to “stimulate creative disobedience” in all those who saw it.
There are literally tonnes of comic book history sitting in the underground archives at the British Library (much of which is stored alongside the pornography), but most of it never sees the light of day. Limiting the exhibition to just 200 items was, said Gravett, an extremely difficult undertaking, but they managed to work within the confines of the set-up to create a comic timeline stretching from 15th century religious works to 21st century postmodern creations, via sensationalist Victoriana, propaganda strips, subversive political satire and the controversial horror comics of the 1950s. Comics have often been able to tackle subversive material. he said, because censors have never paid much attention to them (with a couple of notable exceptions – the work of the puritanical Comics Code Authority being one); Dunning recalled that, although all anti-apartheid material was officially banned in the South Africa of his youth. stinging critiques of the regime could be found in the pages of Nemesis the Warlock, because government censors never thought to look for them there!
Both curators said that the exhibition owes its success to the hard work of a great many people, including legendary artist Dave McKean, who served as their artistic director. It had been, they said, a huge endeavour, through which they had aimed to demystify the process of creating comics, bringing this oft-maligned medium to a wider audience so that its many triumphs could be appreciated on a far larger scale. What they have also achieved is an informative celebration of comics’ venerable heritage and their powerful ability to showcase subversive themes and minority viewpoints. If the Comics Unmasked project doesn’t significantly raise the profile and prestige of comics of the UK, then surely nothing will.
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