Week13

Vertigo, First offenses was really fun. I love a lot of vertigo titles and this book was a good way to familiarize myself with the ones that vertigo find to be the most significant. I was already familiar with Lucifer, Fables, and Preacher. All really fantastic genre beakers. Vertigo I find interesting because they can take any genre out of fantastical fiction and twist it in a new way you wouldn't expect. So many of these stories are based on a protagonist with unimaginable power, and yet most of them are all about them trying to find their place in the world. I find it interesting how none of them choose to create a new world and instead blend in with the powers at be.

Corto Maltese had a wonderful style, the gestures and the characterization are really eye-catching. The comic had a ton of line work in it, and used a very sparse amount of black spotting. In terms of viewing scenes with characters and scenery, it gave the work a look that appeared architectural. The writing was really engrossing, the protagonist appears to be that of a james bond archetype and it made me interested in pursuing the series.

Cerberus was fun to read because it forced me to continue the series from the first volume I read, because I do respect it as Dave Sim's Lifework. I was pleased to read how much the character Cerberus had progressed from a barbarian to a politician. The juxtaposition between the text, images, and panel placement was spectacular. It was new and innovative, and it made the story flow like water. Wonderful sense of inking too.

I am so glad I read Scrooge McDuck! I never realized how intricate and complex the stories could be for a disney comic, and I already respected "treasures" enough already. No wonder it's one of the most popular comics in the world. It appears Don Rosa really cares about the work given the amount of cultural research that would go into these stories. All the extra characters other than the protagonists were really well written as well, and seemed to make the funny animal comic surprisingly believable.

Unfortunately I was not able to read the spirit story because the page numbers on the smithsonian comics book lead me to terry and the pirates, and after Scrooge McDuck and Corto Maltese, I really was tired of the idea of conquesting westerners. So I decided to read Jerry Lewis meets Wonder Woman, which was surprisingly enlightening. Overall I didn't really enjoy the comic all too much, it was filled with far too much dopey humor for my taste. I could say that I believed that the women's reaction to Jerry coming to the island wasn't really fitting, however no one was all that smart in the comic. However, it was the first comic I've read in which Wonder Woman is being written as a very different character for the 70's. I'm not sure if they re imagined her to try to obtain the feminist demographic, but I do remember hearing from a documentary about how that actually caused some upset with the public because they took away her powers.

Final Blog post- for comics homework that is.

Week 13

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.

A little something I found

I happened to stumble upon this website while I was typing my research paper and I figured it wouldn't hurt to pass it on to all of you.

The website is

http://www.comicoo.com/index.html

It is a small comic database featuring some decent stuff such as

Daredevil v2
Sandman
spawn
star wars republic
street fighter
witchblade

I was mostly surprised by the size of the images

A sample from street fighter and spawn (click)

Week 12

Christian Archer

MAD: Superduperman
I really got a kick out of this book. While it was mostly playful and stupid humor, it was an easy read that kept a fast pace. I enjoyed the kind-of slapstick style of comedy that the writing and story uses, especially when superduperman gets captain marbles to punch himself in the face to end the fight. I also enjoyed the toony exaggerated artwork which helped keep each page interesting.

Bone vol 1
This was a rather fun read. 25 pages went by super fast. I couldn't help but notice that Jeff Smith really likes to draw beads of sweat. I counted 10 frames of it on the firs two pages. I think the overly simple characters give you more time to think about the actual story rather than focusing on the artwork in each frame. This was sort of like a breath of fresh air, good artwork is great, but It's not always necessary. I didn't really think much of the actual story line, but the cute characters and the silly humor made it enjoyable regardless.

Starman
I found this book to be slightly harder to get into. I thought the framing was kind-of weird in that I'd get lost while reading and have to try to decide which way it was going. I felt like there was too much writing at times and I ended up getting bored. The artwork on the other had is a completely different story. Very dynamic drawings with interesting characters. I enjoyed "A knight at the circus II" the most as there is one full page spread of him fighting off the circus creatures. There are a lot of single frame pages that allow you to slow down and enjoy the artwork. I enjoyed how the character changes throughout the stories as well. The first few books were extremely slow to get through, but I found at 5 and 6 it picks up a bit.

Sandman:

Week12

Oh man.

For quite awhile I was sure that Bone was my favorite comic at the age of 16. Then I realized I couldn't play favorites. Jeff Smith is just a downright fantastic cartoonist, he has a wonderful flare for believable dialogue and is exceptionally deft with the brush. Jeff also has an amazing understanding of comic's and cartooning given the fact that he combines character's that seem so different in style: his humans, the bone's, and the monsters showed off his wide understanding of character design. I'm not that familiar with pogo besides the swamp thing comic we've read in class, But I believe Jeff Smith had a strong care for the medium when developing his style from other comics such as pogo. Just like Chris Ware who studied Gasoline Alley

I own the absolute sandman in fact! rereading the stories were incredibly rewarding. And the art really began to pick up good at this point in the series too. Both stories, the collector and hob, are incredibly text heavy, but I believe Neil Gaiman understands exactly how to not distance the text from the artwork. The juxtaposition is very well achieved. Gaiman is a really good comics writer, and he knows exactly how the medium works with and without text. He cares about the culture of the DC universe as well. He always likes to elude to other DC characters within his stories, and manages to put them in a peculiar new light. You can notice Johanna Constantine in the story of Hob, a relative of John Constantine.

Starman was mildly entertaining. I found the art to be interesting but not necessarily in my taste. I don't really feel as if I got the best out of it though, from what I read the art seemed fairly distant from the story. I'm interested more in the development of the characters and the origin of how Knight senior was able to develop the cosmic rod. It was definitely something different though I'm sure. The writers describe the action in such an enticing and profound way. But that's what kind of sets me away from Starman though. I'm more interested in the writing and not so much with the art, because it feels much more like the images are used as a means for an end. That's not to say I don't think the art is bad, I just don't think they work well together. But that's just what i read within the first fourteen pages, I'm definitely still interested to see how it picks up, because I've heard some really good things about it.

The Court was frankly, just really weird. I felt like nothing happened in the plot. We were familiarized with the characters, but there was no twist, no payoff, it just kind of happened. Maybe Gaiman just wanted to write a story that felt like real life? which was interesting given the usually unusual ranges of subject matter comic generally write. But I finished and I just didn't get much from it. The art was exceptional, no doubt. All the scenes and monologuing. and imagery showed a good understanding of the medium. It's just that the plot took me by surprise in a very mundane way. Ha ha.

week 12 Reading

Sandman:

By far one of my favorite comics we have read all class. I've always been a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, so his story telling mixed with amazing artwork is just incredible. I like how the stories are not entirely episodal. It seems to focus more on different events that the characters have in common. I'm not sure if the series skips through time at all. I've only read a couple other chapters than the stories we were to read for class.

The collectors was an absolutely terrifying and wonderful story. I wasn't entirely sure what to think about it after I first read it and wandered around the dorm not doing much. On the other hand, the story with Hobb was incredibly sweet at the end. I hope I continue to see that character when I keep on reading this comic. I know I plan to.

Starman Omnimbus:

This was a well written comic. I thought it was interesting how the main character Jack was forced to take on the responsibility of being a superhero when for the longest time he didn't want to. He didn't take it seriously and poked fun at his father and brother who were both so gung-ho about it. I've never seen a hero before who was so reluctant to take on the role at first. It was hard to stop after only 14 pages. I wanted to read further to see how his character would develop as he started to accept his new role in society, even though it seemed he would be more of an anti-hero rather than a traditional super hero. The art for this comic was lovely. This would definitely be another comic I would recommend to other comic readers or someone who's never picked up the medium before.

Bone:

This was an absolutely adorable comic with a wonderful plot. I loved the character designs for the monsters and dragon. Ted and his brother were awesome as well. At the end of the 30 pages the part where the snow fell to the ground in one large blanket made me giggle. It reminded me of what its like to live through winter here in Minnesota. This comic would definitely be a must read.

Crime Stories: The Court

I was starting to like this story when the end kind of flopped. It seemed awkward. I didn't care so much for the art. There wasn't much character development. Sure, it was a short comic. That would be hard to do, but there wasn't something specific about any of the characters that grabbed your attention. Normally I love Gaiman's work but I wasn't entirely sure about this one.

Week 10

Chris Archer

Vignettes:

Swamp thing:

I Saw it:
I talked a lot about I saw it in last weeks discussion board, but I thought this was one of my favorite comics yet. I went into it with a shitty attitude of "oh great another Hiroshima bombing story", and found myself rather stunned by it in the end. The artwork of the melted skin on the victims was what really got to me. I thought about what I was like at that age, and how scared I would have been were I in the writers shoes. It was really hell on earth. I've seen a lot of pictures of the Hiroshima bombing, but for some reason this book made me feel worse. I guess I was wishing it could just be a comic and not real, but knowing it really happened made it hit so much harder.

Raw:
Dead things..... uuh I guess I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. It was short and sweet to say the least. A few of the panels cracked me up, like the one pointing out that he chose to wear his regular old suit after all.

The Andy Griffith Show....Now this I found hilarious. I half expected the real andy griffith, having the nice artwork and all. Then it turns into this racist nightmare lynch mob gone wild.

Iron man:
I really enjoyed this book. The dark battle going on within tony stark is one that I think some of us might be quite familiar with. I found it interesting that instead of putting away the iron man suit he actually abandons his civilian ties, only to fail as well as a superhero. I foresaw that entire train crash/spill situation the second I flipped the page. I greatly enjoyed the artwork in this book as well. The scenes where hes sweating bullets really pull you into his fear. Also the writing is well done. Its dark tone gives his struggle with addiction a sense of a downward spiral.