Katherine Collins on studying comics history

I don't suppose that in fact there really is any prerequisite that you have to know anything at all in order to enjoy, or even create, popular art, as long as you're having fun. But I think it adds to the depth of reader's enjoyment of any reading if he knows the context and traditions from which a work has sprung. Too often, work that is regarded as fresh, innovative and vital, is in fact just a pale rehash of something done originally, and better 40 years before. How is a reader to savor the full resonance of story which follows an archetypal pattern if he doesn't know anything that was published before last year? I believe that it is the ignorance of the general comics readers that is responsible for the generally low standards in today's mainstream comics. They simply don't know any better. And of course, the main reason for this ignorance is that nobody encourages people to study comics or take them seriously...