Blog report: Mouly, etc.

Is there anyone in the cartooning world who is more underrated than Francoise Mouly? She has strong claims to be the most important comics editor of the last 30 years, but I suspect that if you asked your average comics fan or even cartoonists to name influential editors, Mouly wouldn’t come trippingly off their tongues. Part of the problem is that she’s done some of her most important work alongside her husband Art Spiegelman. Mouly is very much her own woman and not one to hide in the shadow of her famous mate; nor is her husband the type to keep his wife away from the limelight; still, it is all too easy for journalists, a habitually lazy lot, to do quick profiles of Spiegelman’s life, touch on his editorship of Raw, and ignore Mouly’s contribution. (God knows, I myself have been guilty of doing that).

However, my worship, I do have some grave concerns about the venue you have chosen for this interrogative feature. I am but a lowly wretch in your magisterial presence, and I do not mean to question your decisions. But I cannot help but notice your majesty bristled at the thought that Vertigo-brand periodicals are published on paper fit for protecting a bird’s cage from its occupant’s leavings. This is a most unseemly way of asking a question, most unfit for the solemn occasion of a question and answer session with the overlord of DC Comics! If I had been present, my grace, I surely would have beaten the impudent whelp within an inch of his life for daring to suggest that any DC-published title should rest anywhere other than a snug mylar bag, nestled safely in an acid-free box, in the most secure part of one’s parents’ basement.