Week 12: Women in Comics

This week we look at comics written by women. First I clicked on the link to 16 Comics By Women Only and it made me laugh. Art style aside, it touched on topics that can be extremely relatable for most women. Why is it so relatable and accurate? Because, it was created by women, for women, so that women have character who they can relate to.

I also read a bit of This One Summer. I wouldn't say it's easy to tell who it was written by, but its nice to read conversations between characters that sounds a lot more natural for once. Women in comics can often be overlooked or made out to be weak or annoying or unimportant. However, in this comic, two of the main prominent characters are both female and talk about things that just sound very natural.

Week 11: Contemporary

This is typically what i call the weird stuff. I first looked at The Bus by Paul Kirchner which was basically a bunch of short strips all with a 'what in the world is happening' feel to it. You kind of have to look at it sideways a couple of times before you even begin to understand whats happening. It kind of reminds me of political comics where you gotta look at it for a second to understand what it means.

After that I looked at Alice in Sunderland. This is another weird piece. I didn't really read much of this but rather looked at the art. Its a mix of traditional and some sort of odd photo bash.  We live in a creative time where people just create, as I say, 'weird shit' and thats fun!

Week 10: Manga

Anime and Manga mostly come from the East, specifically Japan. These stories are created in various genres and for readers of all ages. They have themes from superheros to romances to high school dramas and everything else in-between and beyond.

I read a bit of Bakuman which I also read a bit of when I was still in highschool. Its about a young artist who meets a friend who wants to start creating comics with him. This story pretty much gets the readers familiar with what the comic book industry is like in Japan.

Manga and anime don't stop here either. I also read a bit of Buddha which highlights the stories of the Buddha as taught through his stories. Ive had classes and done research on Buddha and his teachings and this novel is a great little addition to go along with the stories and provide visual representation.

Week 9: World of Comics

This week we touched more on comics from other parts of the world, more specifically Europe. This week I looked into a Graphic Novel by Anki Bilal called The Dormant Beast. This story takes after the strong themes we've already seen in both underground comics and stories like Maus. It's not really meant for younger audiences, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since it opens the market up to readers of all ages.

This story in particular is beautifully illustrated and doesn't use a lot of text. The story is all in color and shows quite a bit of expression compared to other stories. This allows for the reader to connect on a more visual level and get more of an emotional feel for the story.

Week 8: Stereotypes

Stereotypes can be a bit of a touchy situation. Theres a blurry area between stereotyping and bullying in my mind. Take comedians for example, they base a lot of skits off of making fun of others, but its all in good fun. If someone were to say some of the things said by the comedian in normal conversation, they could easily run into some sort of fight or argument. It's important to handle stereotypes carefully so you don't offend specific parties.

However, I don't necessarily view stereotypes as bad. Stereotypes in the entertainment scene can be very important. It offers consumers someone who is relatable. Someone who is going through the same struggles and battle as them. Personable characters and relatable experiences are important and help validate the lives of many who look to role model examples of what to do in certain situations.

So for comic books, whether is be a stereotype or just a character with normal everyday experiences, I believe its important to have them out there. It helps people feel like they aren't alone and can help validate their choices.

With that being said, I read My Friend Dahmer. It was a great short read as it highlighted the overall story of the killer in his younger years leading up to the crimes he would commit. Dahmer would be considered your stereotypical 'psychopath/sociopath'....I would hope its not something someone would personally relate to, but it gets the point across!

Week 7: Maus

This story was a groundbreaking story. Maus is a story about the time in Germany where the Jews were a target, the Holocaust. One thing I noticed with the story is the abundance of words. It's a comic book style read, but the expression in the drawings are lacking. Unlike a lot of comics up to this point, it's not really considered a 'fun' or 'light' read. It highlights topics that can be considered controversial and is seen as extremely serious. If anything this book can be seen as a teaching tool or aid to conversation on the Holocaust.

One thing I thought about while reading this was why the author chose mice instead of any other kind of depiction. One thought I had was that he was trying to symbolize with a creature that comes in numbers. Where there is one mouse, there's most likely a family or colony of hundreds or more. For more perspective I like to think of maybe 5 mice to every human, so that in fact would be a lot of mice.

This is a nice transition from Underground Comics which were seen as vulgar and inappropriate. Underground comics sort of broke the stereotype that all comics are light easy reads for children. Underground comics paved the way for comics to cater to more than one audience. Maus set the stage for themes that are a bit more serious. Maybe the aren't quite inappropriate but it's meant for a more mature audience.

Week 4: The Comic Book

For this week I read some of the Donald Duck PDF's. Comics started to become popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Soldiers during this time use to really look forward to reading comic books.

The great thing about comic books is not having to wait for the daily paper to come. All of your favorite stories is right in your hand in book form. Having books allowed for the stories to be a little more extended.

Week 6: Underground Comics - Air Pirates

I got super excited when I saw Air Pirates on the list because I've always been a fan of the Mickey Mouse 'messed up' spin offs (that's not a bad thing, right?). I mainly like it because of the art style. It's very close to what the animators at Disney were doing at the same time. Because of this, at a quick glance its easy to mistake these comics for the real thing!  It gives us a character(s) readers are already familiar with and throws them into scenarios and positions that would not be acceptable in the 'real world'. Most, if not all, of the skits are not for younger audiences or the easily offended.

This series of comics was one of many underground comics. It had always been thought that comics were more focus towards children or younger audiences. Underground comics provided adults and more mature audiences with content in the form of a comic book.

I also read a little bit of Fat Freddy's Cat. It just brought things closer in perspective. It's very similar to comics that exist in terms of layout, style, and dialogue. The only major thing that stands out with this one it the nudity and themes of the story. It's practically like watching a movie thats rated R. It's just not meant for younger audiences.

Week 5: Contract With God

One thing I wanted to highlight is the art style of this comic, Contract With God by Will Eisner. It's not really done in a comic strip style or in a comic panel layout. Instead its a series of beautiful illustrations with words (for the most part) interwoven in the scene. This allows for the reader to focus more on the expression of the characters and become more immersed.

Blankets by Craig Thompson was a fun read. It's similar to Contract With God in some ways. In Blankets, the art style is a little more panel heavy.  It reads more like a comic book. However, the way some of the text is worked in and the expression in the illustrations from frame to frame is very similar to what you see in Contract With God.

Eisner and Thompson both had great understanding when it came to conveying emotions and feelings to the reader. It helps create stories that people can relate to and characters that the reader can either feel empathetic or apathetic towards.

Week 11: In Class Discussion

Optic Nerve:
-Not stylized
-First world problems
-Felt like a soap opera

Channel Zero
-A lot of text
-Sharp/sketchy art style
-Slow moving through the pages
-Pictures seem to just provide an interesting visual instead of helping the story move along

Ice Haven
-Sunday comics style but not meant to be funny
-Adult rated issues
-Some variation in style
-Quick short stories

Every Girl Is The End Of The World
-Written kind of like a diary
-Relationships
-Moments of a lot of text

The Fountain
-Paint style

Week 3: The Comic Strip

For this week I read mostly the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips by Bill Watterson. Most of the comics were in strips of four panels and a handful were a little longer. They almost looked like newspaper comics in the sense that a lot of them were in black and white and then others were done in color (Sunday comics) and a little bit longer. The comics seem to all have a "Haha" feel to it if that makes sense. Not really hysterical but not really serious either. They're just easy reads that help pass the time.

The fun thing with Calvin and Hobbes is that we mainly follow the young boy Calvin on his short 4 panel adventures with his stuffed animal tiger, Hobbes, who he imagines is real. You get to sort of just sit there and face palm whenever Calvin does something stupid like a kid would do, but it gives is a sort of cute charm because of this.

Week 2: Understanding Comics

The things that Scott says is really interesting and backs the things I learned in my Writing for Comic Books class. Our brains fill in a lot of information when we are given images. We fill in the seconds of action or movement between shots. Being that our brains are doing this work and practically playing the comic like a movie in your head, it's beneficial to also have as little words as possible from frame to frame. You don't want it to be extremely vague, but too many words can take away from the action thats happening from frame to frame.

Week 1: The Arrival

Shaun Tan's story, The Arrival, is unlike anything I have read before. This story was told completely through illustration with no words. Something like this can be seen as a difficult task, but Tan successfully created a very compelling story.

It helps that his style of drawing isn't too stylized which allows readers to clearly see facial expressions and understand the scenes. The story follows a man/father who leaves his family and travels to a foreign land. You can see the emotions of this father arriving in a new place and not feeling like he belongs which is a feeling that many people are familiar with.

One thing I learned from a previous comic book class I took, is that you want to be able create a comic that uses as little words as possible. There are a lot of different shots and frame set ups you can use to tell a story without using many words. Tan did a great job through actions and moment to moment shots to tell the story.

With that being said, Tan created a very beautiful story that just about anyone can relate to with beautiful illustrations.

Week 1: In Class Exercise

Max Ernst

1^st Panel translation:

There is a lady in the center of the image who appears to be dancing next to a rooster who has laid an egg.

2^nd Panel translation:

A human sized rooster being stands over the woman who is now asleep; tiny rooster is at his side.

3^rd Panel translation:

There is a woman who was dead under the floorboards and now there are two rooster people. Both look down at the revealed woman while a second woman starts to get undressed.

4^th Panel translation:

Rooster men examine the clothing while the two women lay dead.

5^th Panel translation:

Rooster man celebrates a new death of a woman in  a bedroom surrounded by two regular roosters.

6^th Panel translation:

Rooster men takes over the bodies of the dead woman

7^th Panel translation:

They panic at the thought of robbing women of their bodies

8^th Panel translation:

Woman are accompanied by a goose who helps them leave the head rooster