Faculty Publications & Research

RAW

Michael W. Hancock, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas Volume 3: 1980-1995, RAW

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Abstract

Raw magazine (published from 1980 to 1991) was the premier English-language showcase for avantgarde and international comics in the 1980s and a harbinger of the graphic novel boom of the early 21st century. It was coedited by future New Yorker art editor Francoise Mouly and her husband, veteran underground cartoonist Art Spiegelman, whose seminal graphic novel Maus was first serialized in Raw. Raw promoted the idea of comics as a serious adult literary and artistic form by publishing formally innovative contemporary comics, translating the work of established international cartoonists, and reprinting works by early 20th-century artists. Its wide-ranging subject matter and styles highlighted the medium's versatility, and its attention to design and printing brought an art-world sensibility to comics. Moreover, through its forays into book publishing, Raw influenced the developing concept of the graphic novel as an artistically and commercially viable form.