CSotD: If you’re so rich, why ain’t you smart?
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Major hat tip today to Mike Lynch for bringing to my attention something that makes my brain hurt so much that I'm bending the rules and featuring something, not because of its excellence, but based on the fact that, as the mission statement says, it made me think.
It made me think that these people had better be smarter at buying stock than they are at commissioning creative work.
(Before I forget, Mike — who not only cartoons well but keeps a must-read blog — will be tabling at the Maine Comic Arts Festival May 19. I plan to go so I can stand at his table talking to him and driving away anyone who might actually want to buy something. If you're within range, it's worth the trip.)
So the deal is, this holding company decided that their annual report was too boring and that they could attract new investors if they packaged it as a comic book, or, as we say, "graphic novel."
Or, as we might say, if it had better graphics and was a novel.
Japan, Inc., is a graphic novel that came out in 1988, so that some of the geopolitical economics involved are understandably out of date today. But it's so brilliantly done that you can still read it, as I did a few weeks ago, both for the entertaining story — that's the part that makes it a "novel" — and for what is now a history lesson, but not without application in the current market.
That's not the same thing as breaking down your boring annual report into small pieces and then have someone draw pictures of a woman reading it aloud. Check it out:
This is a graphic novel:
(Yes, it even came with footnotes. Nothing wrong with that.)
This, on the other hand, is a lecture:
The main difference is that Japan, Inc., wraps its educational intent within a story of two young tyros competing within a troubled industry, so that we're not only hearing about different approaches to the challenges they and their corporate mentors face, but it's couched in the ups and downs of their personal lives: Trying to find love, an aging mother in need of a nursing home, etc.
In other words, Ishinomori gets us involved in a story and makes us care about the characters.
It's the difference between "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and "Schoolhouse Rock." And Schoolhouse Rock at least featured catchy tunes.
Anyway, I'm not gonna hammer this silly thing any more than that. Mike linked to this story about the project, which is a lot kinder than I would be, but still contains this great quote from Art Spiegelman, who knows something about educating through comics:
“Comics are harder, not easier, to do than most things,” says Art
Spiegelman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and creator of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.
“You’re really working with a medium that’s as dumb as some people
think it is, or really brilliant. But really brilliant requires a real
understanding, and this doesn’t display that.” The Loews comic “just
looks dead. And the content is about as interesting as reading the
ingredients on a processed food label.” Skafidas says the company didn’t
aspire to produce work at Spiegelman’s level.
Well, they sure succeeded in not producing work at Spiegelman's level.
Maybe they don't make enough money to afford better creative talent. Given how many really good artists are looking for work, that's not a ringing endorsement of their investment strategy.
And, seriously, Spiegelman is right that the easy-looking stuff is harder to do than the dry stuff. Any hack can puke up the verbiage for an annual report. In fact, you could create an algorithm that would allow you to plug in the new figures every year and have the computer just spit out the necessary prose.
Making it interesting takes talent, or at least the ability to hire talent.
However, I will say this: There are worse things in corporate life than being boring and/or pointless, an opinion which I would like to illustrate with a little story from about the era of "Japan Inc," and don't leave yet, Art, because you'll like this one:
My then-GF was working for a large investment firm as an admin ass't, and, as she was walking through another department on her way back from lunch one day, she saw cartons stacked up, with a couple open and CDs protruding.
"These are the quarterly reports," someone told her. "We put them on CD because most of our investors are using computers now. Cool, huh?"
She picked up one of the CDs and saw on the cover of the jewel case a vintage black-and-white picture of a man in a white T-shirt and military pants and boots, jumping his motorcycle through a flaming hoop while various other military men stood in the background watching. The title on the cover said, "We go through fire for you!"
"These are Nazis," she observed.
"No, they're not," the person who was busily putting the CDs into mailers said.
"They're wearing German WWII uniforms," she said.
"You can't tell that from the picture."
"Yes, you can. Look at the collars on their jackets, in the background."
"Oh. Well, nobody will notice that."
"I did."
"Well, nobody's going to care."
"Do we have any Jewish clients?"
Being a good team player, she joined in that afternoon's activity, which consisted of pulling the little paper inserts from all umpty-thousand jewel cases.
Which, of course, left the question, who would they blame for this? Would it be the highly paid creative genius who designed the piece, the executive who approved it, or the busy-body low-level chick who blew the whistle and made them waste an afternoon throwing it all out?
Ah, I see hands going up …
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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