A man and Cartoons: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review talks to Jonathan Lethem, author of Fortress of Solitude and Men and Cartoons, about relationships, and comic books as a cousin to film:

"The 20th century's greatest innovations are these narrative forms that combine words and images. And cartooning, comic books, graphic novels -- there is no right name for it -- is probably where film was in 1938. There are a few early giants that have emerged, and certainly the vocabulary is there. You've got people who are the equivalent of Howard Hawks or John Ford or (Jean) Renoir in France, already up and running.

"And yet the definition of the medium, the critical comprehension of it, is still kind of retarded. But there's no mistaking that it's going to take its place among the arts, which include a body of masterpieces beginning with R. Crumb and now Art Spiegelman."