On "The Beard That Was Evil" by Stephen Collins ****

This graphic novel is essentially a commentary on the moral and cultural boundaries of society, putting into practice theories of sociologists such as Emile Durkheim. The tale involves a man who lives in a perfectly ordered world who one day, involuntarily, begins to grow a beard. The beard grows to epic proportions, slowly taking over and destroying the town around the man and transforming the town in the process.

Even after the beard event is over, the town feels its effects. Where once the beard was evil, it becomes a thing of legend, and people feel less bound to their "perfect" ways. There is a degree of disorder that previously did not exist. And the beard itself is marketed, capitalized upon. Fear of it begins to dissipate.

The curious thing about the way in which society defines "here" and "there," "us" and "them," is that the boundary between mayhem and order shifts, and arguably, while such boundaries are artificial, they also help define our society and keep it ordered. Too much mayhem and society falls apart and ceases to exist. Too little and the society is oppressive. As Durkheim brings out, though, it is those who are disorderly, those on the edge of order, who in many ways define the society even as they disrupt it and transform it. It's an interesting tension that seems unavoidable--and perhaps a little scary, a little bit like "there" and "them" because where "there" ultimately takes us is to the ocean and oblivion--and as the book brings out: the unknown.

On "God's Man" by Lynd Ward ****

The Library of America's release of Lynd Ward's six graphic novels caused me to pick this one up just because I was curious and because what I saw of Ward's work--all woodcuts--was remarkable (a few samples can be found here). God's Man is the first of Ward's picture books (there are no words), and it is a simplistic and moralistic tale. Still, without words, it takes a little extra attention to know exactly what's going on. I think of it as a different kind of reading, akin to reading stream of consciousness--you're not being told everything that happens. You have to intuit from the pictures what the plot is.

But Ward makes it easy enough to do in this tale. The main character is an artist who essentially sells his soul in order to gain success. Along the way he meets a woman who turns out only to be after money. When things go badly, he escapes to life alone in the mountains and finds a good wife, has a child, and then pays for his early folly when the soul comes to be collected.

I won't go into great detail more. That's already been done and better by others. If you want to know more, for example, there's a great article in Slate on the topic, which you can find here.