Subjectivity in the American Protest Novel (review)
he explains: "Watchmen's huge success was due in part to the upheavals in the comics industry in the mid to late 1980s. The nature of distribution was changing, new formats such as prestige editions and graphic novels heralded a wave of comics that garnered critical respect and new readership" (36). Thus, it was the political context coupled with the economic context that led to Moore's success in the US. While Murray devotes a good deal of his article to the somewhat contradictory claim that the British Invasion was led by multiple artists, he does finally conclude that, "Without Moore, it is unlikely there would have been much of a demand for a writer like [Neil] Gaiman in American mainstream comics, but with Moore establishing a market . . . Gaiman flourished as did Scottish writer Grant Morrison" (39). Clearly Moore was the only invader, and it was his success and his political vision, and not politics per se, that enabled the invasion from the second wave. These essays by Weiner, Round, and Murray demonstrate what should be the central focus of this book—to view the rise of the comic book artist through the prism of political economy in order to make clear that this rise was the result of economic, cultural, and technological forces. These changes—along with the international success of comic book movies—have led to a greater awareness of comics and have created a demand for books like The Rise. Unfortunately, most of the contributors are still trying to understand such changes within the outmoded terms of literary improvement.