Rev. Crane goes on to tell us how novel reading leads to day-dreaming, “excitement of the passions” and leaves a person “unfit for real life”. At one point he even compares it to an opium addiction.
Unfortunately for the Rev. Jonathan Townley Crane, professional disapprover of fiction, his son Stephen Crane grew up to write “The Red Badge of Courage” which is now considered one of the great American novels. Life can be ironic that way.
I’m celebrating 15 years of Incidental Comics by sharing some of my classic strips. Of the thousand or so pages I’ve drawn, The Nature of Ambition might be my favorite.
Read the full comic and my thoughts on a decade and a half of creating comics at my newsletter:
Gaiman: “ If you really can’t figure out which political party or which politician to vote for, just ask if they’re on the side of libraries. Are they voting to fund their libraries? Are they voting to keep them free? Then vote for those guys. They’re probably the good guys. And by the same token, the book burners, the book banners, they’re probably the bad guys.”
