Seven Oaks Magazine.

While speaking at a plenary at this past weekend’s Pacific Northwest Labor History Association’s annual labour history conference, Paul Buhle offered the audience a small sketch of the future of his career. Already the pre-eminent academic historian of the American left, Buhle announced he had chosen to move beyond the realm of academic, or even popular, historical writing, and embrace a new format altogether – the graphic novel. The first of Buhle’s intended prodigious output of graphic novels is a collection entitled Wobblies!, that Buhle co-edited with Nicole Schulman. If it is any indication, Buhle’s impressive abilities as a writer will be easily equalled in his new style of work.

Although Buhle co-edits Wobblies!, he only writes one of the stories. Instead the collection -- which is a history of the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW or “Wobblies”) -- employs a broad variety of artists and writers. Some of these artists are recognizable from the high art world, including Sue Coe and Mike Alewitz. And some of the artists have achieved fame within comic books, including Peter Kuper, and the author of American Splendor, Harvey Pekar. Although the work of these recognized names is fantastic, it hardly stands out within a collection that is absolutely breathtaking in its scope and artistic range. While some might doubt the power of mere comic books, the strips that fill these pages are beautiful art, and excellent history besides.

One of the central themes of the book is the attempt to create an accessible political art form, which brings the artistic and political concerns of the work into a tension which results in some of the best pieces. Work like that of Susan Simensky Bietela’s “The Free Speech Fights” connects powerful art – in this case large charcoal drawings – with only a few words to convey a political meaning. In contrast, Mike Konopacki (artist) and Franklin Rosemont’s (writer) “Wobblies in the ‘60s” is simple cartoonish images met with carefully crafted, politically engaged historical content. In both examples, which are very different in appearance, the book’s purpose is realized. Although there are a few efforts where the pressures of politics or art prevent a coherent strip from emerging, there are far more examples like the two above, where the tension between art and politics leads to exciting new ways of telling important stories.

Buhle and Schulman never articulate the book’s main thesis clearly, but a key subtext of the book is that there is a thread of radicalism running through American art, starting with Wobbly comics and the art of The Masses magazine, moving through underground comics of the 60s and 70s, and reappearing in art as diverse as graffiti or the modern graphic novel. They obviously believe this current of artistic rebellion challenges anything anywhere else in the world, both in terms of revolutionary potential and artistic impact. Even if Wobblies! was the only piece of evidence they had to make the case, their point would be worth considering. Because Buhle and Schulman are able in the short written sections to sketch a brief history of the IWW and the evolution of this line of revolutionary art, their case becomes almost undeniable. Wobblies! is politically and artistically powerful, and gives one hope for Buhle’s new direction.

After all of this praise, it may be difficult to imagine that I have a complaint. There is one way in which the book fails however, a fashion which is all the more startling for Buhle’s conception of the linkage between IWW comics and modern-day graphic novels. Wobblies! is not particularly funny, whereas its predecessors were often hilarious. At the core of the political potential of the original wobbly art was its humour – it constantly mocked the injustices of the world, as well as illustrating them.

The most famous Wobbly comic strip, and one of the few to run consistently for an extended period, was the darkly amusing Mr. Block, the story of the trials and tribulations of an American worker who had failed to grasp the wonders of industrial unionism. Although Buhle and Schulman play up the significance of Mr. Block, there is little within the book that captures the same spirit. I think that humour will be absolutely required to keep future books like Wobblies! fresh and interesting. It is a tall order – political comics that are artistic, relevant and funny. But judging from this first collection, Paul Buhle and the cadre of graphic novelists that worked on the book are up to the task.