I am reading The Penguin Book of Prose Poems, an anthology of… well, prose poems. A nicely-sized paperback made out of stacks of typical cheap FSC paper. But my goodness, the book smells good. Almost vanilla-ish, earthy, subtle. And I think, man I wish comics smelled more like prose paperbacks.
Comics smell like ink: heavy, pungent. Like glue in effect. I’d know – the Carpet Merchant came out as a dense giant sandwich of CMYK; nearly every page is covered from corner to corner. Apparently people enjoy that smell. It’s the first thing they would comment on, before they talk about the art or the story. I like watching people plunge their face into my book. It’s funny, but sweet.
Unfortunately I don’t like that smell very much. It’s not my thing. I wish comics smelled more like prose paperbacks. I want vanilla. I want the smell that comes with yellowing pages. I want comics to compliment the atmospheric scent of my studio-bedroom, which is also a library. I want comics to smell like a dusty library. I don’t know. I have memories of reading that’s incongruous to the materials my books are printed with. My entire history is cheap FSC paper and brittle ancient sweet stock. But comics are a different medium, and until they make ink that smells like prose paperbacks (though if we had a choice, I’d prefer peach or brown sugar), comics will have to smell like comics.
i do wonder if it would be feasible for more comics to be printed differently..? archie comics come to my mind- the paper def is thinner(?) – and importantly, doesnt smell like ink (i don’t like the smell either!)
Hm yes, though the concern would be the disposable quality of it. Old Archie comics were printed in really really cheap ink/paper that was standard in those times because those comics then were mass-produced for newspaper racks and grocery stores (which sadly isn’t a thing in the Western market). Now that we’re in the age of artsy thick paper with nice inks it’d be good to discover a compromise…