Scrooge Mc Duck:
I loved this comic. I thought it was great to see how this character developed into the cranky uncle I knew as a kid from the show Duck Tales. I know understand where his motivations and his temper come from. The Scrooge from the kids Tv show seems to stay very consistant with the original comic book character, which is really nice to see.
I thought it was hilarious when Scrooge was yelling at the lion when he was down in Africa.
Fables of Venice:
I didn't care much for the art or storytelling, which made me horribly sad because normally I LOVE stories that have to do with occult and mysticism. Somehow everything that the characters were talking about flew over my head and I had a hard time understanding what was going on. I'd have to try and dive back into it again if I really want to appreciate it.
Captain America:
This comic was definitely an interesting read. The story was kind of fun, that normal kitchyness you find in the superhero comics of that era. It's not something I would read on my own time but I could definitely see why people would like to read this comic.
Vertigo, First Offenses:
The Fables and Lucifer stories were my absolute favorites out of the bunch. All the art and the story telling was pretty enjoyable in this book. The only thing that made me disappointed was that each story ended after the very first chapter. I thought it was interesting that every story in this collection didn't have to do with any superheroes. A couple of the stories had a religious story influence, Fables had to do with the traditional Grimm's fairy tales characters, and two of the other stories were just.. strange. I don't know how else to explain those.
Binky Brown:
I thought this comic was an interesting insight to one younger man's experience about learning about sex and women. I know my introduction to the subject was quite different as a girl, though ironically it was a friend telling a dirty joke at a slumber party much like the little boy up in the tree with the main character. It was also interesting seeing the perspective of a boy who went to a very religious school. I couldn't find out whether this story was based on a personal experience of either the writer or the artist.
The Invisibles:
ReplyDeleteThe main kid seemed pretty stereotypical of a smart troubled teen, but the beetle guy that breaks him out seems fairly interesting. I don’t really understand the Lennon stuff or what’s going on with the tarot woman, but I don’t think you are suppose to understand. The artwork could be a little better, but I love the character designs of the stick demon thing and the invisible fighter outfit with the hairy mask. It was something a little more fresh and interesting to see.
Preacher:
I haven’t read the bible so I feel a lot of angel/heaven references were lost on me, and I didn’t quite understand what was going on. Unlike the previous story this confusing was more of an annoying one rather than mysterious though because there seems to be no person or overlaying idea that we learn enough about to be satisfied in any way. It’s just all abstract and looses my attention. The art is good, with very distinct faces and facial expressions. The panel layout, color, and layout of the images inside the panels is pretty awesome. It has a great sense of pace and a good sense of mood.
Fables:
I love fairytales as many people do, so the references make it much more interesting and added a whole new dimension to the story, and so far I think it deals with the fairytale characters fairly well. The art is pretty good. It has a slight illustrative line to it that suits it better then a more even line would but I think it may benefit from a little bit more of a humanistic style, maybe some variation of in the color cels. The muted tones also work well.
Sandman Mystery Theatre:
It was a bit refreshing to see a mystery story set in an older era after all the futuristic superhero/ apocalypse stories. The panels and image layout was super duper awesome, I really love the 3 by 4 paneled pages, and the last two specifically. It’s very eye-catching and dramatic. The dead hanging girl image is also very potent with the layout and color pallet. And the line style fits the era and type of story well.
Lucifer:
This story seemed a little too reminiscent of Preacher. The girl and her brother was fairly interesting but the rest of it seemed be not so much. The art is really beautiful though. The painted style looks just so much more emotional than cell shading.
Beanworld:
ReplyDeleteBeing so abstract set it apart from the other comics very easily. The simple style was very clear and the storyline of saving the gambling heads was fairly interesting. The characters are so simple, but because they are so clearly defined and function so well as symbols for archetypes that it isn’t confusing at all.
I did not get any nostalgic senses from it, but instead felt it was almost painfully logical, like reading computer language. In fact, it sort of felt like the computer language of culture. And the realities seemed to me to be clearly based on the four suits of minor arcane of tarot, or the four elements as they all align.
THUNDER :
These guys seem to be right between the Challangers and the X-men. The plot and speech was super corney, the art style was boring, but the guy who switches bodies seemed mildly interesting. I don’t think his character was utilized well in the comic. There could be lots of moral debates and problems with swapping bodies.
The Spirit:
Gotta love that page layout. The story itself was kind or an EC type of deal, but it worked for the most part. The ambiguity at the beginning of the story was nice but the last words as the victim dies was a little much. It wasn’t something I was expecting, because The Spirit wasn’t in the story very much and he wasn’t the main character.
Melvin Monster:
Cute. It was extremely reminiscent of The Munsters. It got a little annoying with its backwards logic jokes after a while but it had cute moments. The demon reminded me of the Martian guy in the Flinstones, but I rather liked him. The mummy and baddy was clever and cute and the twists with the snatcher was nice as well. The simple style added more reminders of the Munsters and slightly Little Lulu. It’s an odd, sweet comic.
Comics, like many artforms, has many preconceived notions about its title. This mostly consists of newspaper funnies like Garfield and Superheroes like Superman. However there is no neatly drawn line of logic around what a comic is. I personally think that anything with multiple images and words included on one two-dimensional surface makes a comic. Anything including video, or links like in webcomics, makes them a hybrid comic. I do not think comics are just linear narrative stories, like basically everything we’ve read in class. Comics is a way of discerning information.
Superhero, pornlike comics, and furry cute comics have their popular audience, nonlinear, biographical, and idea-rant comics have a place with a more niche markets, and most everything else is in between. There are mature comics for adults like Omaha, and there are comics for kids like Disney comics. There are just as many genres as there are for books or movies. And not all comics have to be made to be sold, some can be made just to be made, and some comics can be used as advertisements to sell other ideas or items.
Sandman: The Wake-
ReplyDeleteIt was slightly predictable but fairly interesting. The choice of the Ren fair and the dark skinned girlfriend was painful in a good way, but it did get annoying after a while. They were like beating you on the head with his guilt and annoyance with the new culture.
I found it fairly interesting that Morpheus dies and Hob lives on. Maybe it's suppose to be symbolic of reality always being there, no matter how long a dream may be, but then Hob isn't what I'd consider as really human anymore, so maybe not.
Sandman: The Wake
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time I have ever read a sandman comic and I have to say that I enjoyed reading it. It was an interest story and what informantion they gave the readers during the stories left it mysterious and vague and up for some interpretation. What I got was that the guy's time to die was upon him but he was allowed to decline for some reason. Also the reason he is so adament about his history was that he was much older than he looked and was there in history when the time happened. Since I have not read other sandmans I really don't know how he was able to do that which also left me wanting to read more to find out.
Vertigo: First Offense
I think I agree with the majority of the people that I have talked to and read about that the best two stories in this book were the Fables and Lucifer story. There was just something that made the story and the artwork connect so well that just made the stories. The way the panels were portrayed and the eeriness of the stories made me love them even more. Some of the others didn't pop out so much because they were harder to follow or just didn't click for me.
Scrooge McDuck:
I loved reading about the adventures that scrooge had. I used to watch the TV episodes when I was a kid and reading the comics brought all that back. It will never fail that scrooge will lose his temper at least once in every story and at the end everything will go back to being normal... or as normal as it gets when you are a cranky duck with a lot of money.
Beanworld:
I guess I didn't really care for the art style or story that Beanworld had to offer. It got boring really fast. For me, It was hard to follow what was happening where they all seem like they are floating in space and there is hardly any background. The story was very simple and the sentences were ... maybe too simple for me. I would have liked it better if it had a more structured panel and the story a little more elaborate.
Herbie:
Herbie was funny. After learning about his unique superpowers of sleeping and eating lollipops in class I knew I had to read a story from Herbie to see him in action. I enjoyed reading about this funny looking superheroe's hilarious adventures.