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.

Derek Skar

Dead Things:
For this comic i though it was really really dark and disturbing in a way however the writing made the characters seem as though they were written as kids. Th respective was really drastic and i liked that because the background played a huge roll in the comic. Another thing i really like were the reoccurring patterns. Maybe because i took the patterns class last year i tend to look for that in artists woork.

Iron Man:

So first of all i had no idea that the Iron Man touched on the issues of alcoholism. I really liked the art and the contrast used. The dramatic perspective did corner iron man in the frame alot. Story wise it fallowed up the first half well. It was sad in a waythe question becomes "How long can a hero be a hero"

Week10

What a tear jerker of a week.

Vignettes was a great read. In terms of a cartoonist biography, I'd have to say it's one of the most expansive ones I've come across. I was fairly impressed that this was all one artist cartooning these comics, his style tends to shift so dramatically throughout what kinds of stories he's telling. for instance Valentino I think made a very wise choice in making the death of his grandmother text dominant. A depiction of the drama in the style of his first narrative, the day at the beach, would have ruined the display of emotion he wanted to convey within the story. I respect this work a lot, because it shows that Valentino has a great understanding of how we perceive the images in comics. His diverse auto-bio comic's are very thoughtful, and know exactly how to look to be understood.

I've read the Anatomy Lesson prior to this class but was once again a pleasure to revisit. In fact I've learned more about the art and writing from reading Alan Moore's writing for comics and from understanding the art process between the penciler and inker. The original inked pages are lavish and all around really professional. I've learned that Stephen Bissette is a very messy penciller, not giving much thought to tiny details that an inker needs to focus on, but pays more attention to lighting and gesture. The original pencils aren't in the least bit traceable into inks. Hoever John Totlebon has an incredible talent at recognizing how to transform Stephen's pencil drawings into stark black ink. Alan Moore Is a incredibly descriptive writer, like Stan lee, he loves to imagine how a sequence of words can roll off the tongue. I don't see the writing of Moore's becoming one with the art, the division I think is apparent between both forms of communication. I see it more like a dance between the two.

Iron Man demon in a bottle I thought was really well written. I think it explored the concept of a heroes mortality to a great depth. Who is a hero but one that fight's against overwhelming odds for some set ideology? What if the only enemy he faces is himself? I found Tony's behavior relating to people such as Jarvis and Shield to be incredibly compassionate. He seemed to not want to blame anyone but himself for the dire predicament he was in. All blame is a waste of time, it won't help you progress at all. I thought it also had an incredibly good climax as well, All blame, even if self inflicted, is a waste of time.

Read Yourself Raw had three incredibly diverse works.

Dead things was interesting. I might even call it cubist given the representation of the characters. The drawings were odd, but as I became used to how surreal the imagery was, the story seemed to flow pretty nicely. Despite how jumpy the plot was.

Andy Griffith terrified me. My Dad and Grandmother like that show a lot and I've seen quite a few of the episodes, so I was lucky enough to be the demographic to get the brunt of the joke. I found the stipling to be done really

Canal Street was a very interesting style as well. It gave the same effect that dead things gave for me because it made me used to the surreal.

Week 10 Reading

Swamp Thing:

The story telling in this comic is absolutely wonderful. I'm really starting to appreciate Alan More as a writer. Yes, I read V for Vendetta and I vaguely know the story of Watchmen from the movie (because I'm sure they are not exactly the same) but wow. The concept of the story was fascinating. I've always thought that plants had their own sort of consciousness, so it was fun reading a story that had that same idea. It was really interesting how the plant "remembered" having certain types of organs so it just tried to make them itself of out the different plant matter even though the organs did not do anything. I know there have been recent experiments done so show that plants retain some sort of memory especially after they have been hurt or neighboring plants have been destroyed. Makes you wonder what kind of memories the swamp creature had aside from what it picked up from the man he thought he was.

I would definitely recommend this reading to people who haven't read anything my Alan More yet. So good.

Iron Man:

Iron Man was a fun read as well. It was nice to see the delicate emotional side of the douche-baggy Tony Stark character. It's only his outer shell that it made of iron. Iron Man in an interesting character because he is not imbued with super powers, unless you count his incredible creativity and wit super powers, but he also does not have the same hell bent fury for revenge like other "normal" superhero characters such as Bat Man or even V. He's a privileged guy who ends up wanting to do good because he know that he can. Sometimes the responsibilities overwhelm him, like it showed in this comic and he was dealing with it in a deconstructive way, like most people would. The superhero needed help from those close to him. We haven't seen much of that from the comics we have been reading in class and I really like that.

Read Yourself Raw:

Dead Things- Really super sad. It seemed like a comic made by a little kid story wise. The art was interesting as well. I wasn't really sure of what to make of the ending. It was just... weird.

Andy Griffinth- Wtf? I'm definitely lost with that one. I'm sure its supposed to be some kind of play on the show, because normally it's such a wholesome show.

Canal Street- Also a very strange comic, but I liked how the string events while this man was getting breakfast led you to feeling as swallowed up by the hubbub as he was.

Week9

The Dark Phoenix Saga was pretty good. The last half was exceptionally well written. I found the narration to be even more lengthy than in the first half, but it pulled off it's narrative amazingly well for the all the time and size constraints of a monthly series. The art I believe also got exceptionally better given the complex and alien subject matter. Given the premise that this series was written around the same time as watergate I could read into this story for numerous metaphors. Like relating this to a kind and gentle superpower (such as America) being corrupted by esteemed business men seeking power for the sake of power.

Will Eisner revolutionized american comics. Not even in terms of artistry, which is obviously breathtakingly spectacular, but in the terms of how the art form was presented. A Contract With God was published as a graphic novel, although not a new concept, it really did lay in the foundation of how comics can be seen as esteemed and high art, and also in terms of high literature. A contract with god is the perfect blend of prose and art in my opinion, Eisner made it his profession to try to replicate the human condition and he displays it with a masterfully acquired grace.

I Saw it! was a real treat to read. I had never read any of barefoot gin, so I wasn't aware that this was based off a comic artist's life, but good lord this man went through a lot. And to still acquire this much skill as a cartoonist? It's really commendable. The inking style and screen tones applied to this story really separate it from the rest of the readings, I also liked it because we're finally able to get into some real manga, that is to say comics published in Japan. It was interesting to read because the narration rarely seemed to hold a constant sad reminiscence. it was always read as what the artist was going to do next in his life after something horrible happened to him. He wasn't just wallowing in sorrow from calamity, after calamity after, calamity. The only point he really seemed to get caught up about was when his mother died. In literary terms, the climax is really well presented despite the constant turmoil Keiji was facing.

Week 9 Reading

X-Men: Dark Pheonix Saga

Getting to the end of this comic made me horribly sad. I found it really sad that there was no hope for Jean Grey being able to control her powers, or find a way to deal with them. The finishing of the story was incredible, and extremely well told. I don't even know what else to add to this because I am still lightly dumbfounded.

I Saw It:

The story was super well told and the art was very descriptive, especially during the macabre like scenes. This comic brought me to tears. The part that made me cry especially was the scene where the mother was not able to save her husband and children under their burning house after the bomb was dropped. I can not fathom what is must have been like to live through the hiroshima bombing, or to be a mother not being able to save her family. Like the author said at the end of the story, his comic is only a tiny part of the entire story. I am further separated from the event by only reading his point of view, not knowing much else history, and making my own connections about the story. Yet this comic moved me in a way that none of the other comic readings have before. The story was horribly sad yet lovely at the same time.

I would say this is must read for those who are able to handle the sad and gruesome story.

Journey

"Course... Some are bigger."

This comic was hilarious. That two page spread where you see Wolverine McCalister running through the prarie, and then soon after being tailed by this gigantic savage bear, made me laugh so hard. The art and facial expressions were great, and the story telling in the southern like speech was great. It was super fun to read. The only part that had me a little confused was the short introduction comic, but I loved the actual chase comic.

That two page spread.... priceless.

eh-eh-eh-eh-X-MEN!

I'm so glad I bought the rise of the dark phoenix book, it really was a good look into all the underlying storytelling that's going on in todays marvel saga. I've got to say though, I think I definitely would have enjoyed the pacing of the story a lot more if I was reading it issue by issue. The fact that it's all compiled into one book I think takes away from a lot of the experience that the writers intended. (Im of course referring to a ton of flashbacks throughout the book) Oh well, but who am I to complain? How else am I going to come across an affordable read of this renowned superhero saga in my lifetime? The characters are incredibly well developed. I didn't even think I would like a character such as colossus but he, and along with nearly every other individual, are suddenly so much more compelling to me. I have a feeling it's because that their is a narrative going on three levels describing each character: the caption box, the thought bubble, and the speech bubble. Each is used to capture the exact emotion and expression that each character goes through. At first I thought it seemed like a dated old superhero fodder with how much description was needed, but it really helps to flesh these guys out when you think about it. But yeah... I had to stop at the end of the required reading... just when things were getting good.

A success story was downright hilarious. I had actually never taken a look at it's artwork compare to other EC titles, and I was pretty impressed. The ink was handled in an incredibly stark and intuitive way, using lighting to enhance the mood and drama to it's peak. I really liked how the people were drawn too for some reason, sometime the gesture was what really creeped me out, like when the artist was hunched over his victim. And what comic artist could not love that detail put into those zombies. Also, it had a great juxtaposition of complementing text and image! This was a fantastic little read, and hopefully my future career will not follow suite.

Oh god Batman never brought me so close to tears as the crime ally story did. I've seen the first splash page for that story without color and I gotta say I wish I could see the rest. The color doesn't do it much justice, but the inking in that story is incredible. This was a story that really captured Bruce's character rather than batman, which is something that doesn't happen to often being that Bruce Wayne is a very minor character in comparison to his alter ego. It made me feel much more connected to the individual, and showed a side to batman that isn't seen all too often. I mean really, When's the last time you've seen the guy smile with content?!

Given my time parameters, the most I got out of Sabre was all of Don McGregor's intro to the book. Goddamn that man was passionate about his profession. All I can really get from it is a huge swell of inspiration. I could tell the guy went through a hell of a lot of blood and sweat just to get his stories out into the public like he intended them to be. He seems like a guy who wasn't going to cut any corners. No matter what people thought of his work, he knew what was the right thing to do for his stories. As for the comic, I got about five pages in and had to start working on my paper. But the character sabre; definitely equals a Dirty Harry and Jimmy Hendrix combination. Awesome.

Week 8 Reading;

I was pleasantly surprised by this week. I saw that the readings have been getting longer and longer, but the longest ones were the ones I read through the fasted because I enjoyed them so much.

X-Men: The Phoenix Saga

X-men was definitely the hardest to put down. I found myself to be on page 118 before I realized that I read a little too far ahead. Not that it matters so much, but I thought it was kind of amusing. The art and the story telling was great. I loved every panel of that comic. I had watched the cartoon show as a kid so I was familiar with some of the characters, though I had no idea there was an "old x-men" and a new set of characters. I like that this story keeps evolving with characters leaving, coming back, new ones showing up to fill in gaps and add in a new twist because of different abilities and powers available to the group. It's an interesting dynamic to the way the story is told.

Batman:

Batman was my next favorite and definitely my favorite batman comic so far. I LOVED the art, especially the use of color in and out of the panels. In this strip again, like Robin Dies at Dawn you see an incredibly tender side of Batman that completely balances out the ruthlessness shown to his enemies. He really is a dark knight, showing chivalry and kindness to those who mean a lot to him. I hope there are more stories like this one, art included. I would most definitely recommend this Batman comic to other readers if they haven't yet. The 12 pages goes by way too fast.

Creepy Archives:

This comic has a strange story. The ink work was incredible to say the least. This comic was definitely the classic EC macabre story from the documentary was watched about EC comics in class. The zombie artists' blood-inked picture was definitely a fun gruesome touch added to the end of the story. I wish that bit would have been left in color, or at least red. It made me think about artists I have come across on the web who do use their own blood for their artwork. Maybe that discussion should be saved for later but if there is anyone curious about it I can show you some artwork and ideology about working with blood as a medium you guys might find interesting.

Sabre:

I think I would have enjoyed this comic better if I could understand what was going on. There seemed to be a lot of plot holes in the story. I was able to read about halfway through with out getting a headache, but after that things were still not making sense. I flipped ahead.. and there were no clues as to answer my many questions about the story. I'll have to go back and re-read that just out of curiosity. I liked that the story took place in a V for Vendetta/ 1984-esque america. The fact that Melissa was a test tube baby brought up some interesting ideas about what it really means to be born with that kind of connection to your mother, not to mention Brave New World scenarios.

I liked both Sabre and Melissa as characters. I can't say why I was drawn to either of them, but from what I could put together from the reading, they were instantly likable, but strange. That is definitely not the most eloquent way of saying it, but this comic leaves me a little lost.

week7

So this week had some incredibly surreal stories. The Aliens surprised me in terms of how interesting the story got after the beginning. Sure it was dated and a lot of their ploys didn't seem to make sense given the technology they had, but it was still able to draw my attention with the looming motiff of accepting the unknown. That being said the art fit the narrative well: bizarre and eerie. What I noticed most was the overwhelming experimentation of color in the comic. Especially when the humans on the alien ship went through that hypatomic field thingy. I find it pretty commendable that this comic was written and drawn by Russ Manning. I'd suggest that people look up this guy and check to see just how successful of a comic artist he was.

The green lantern story also had an eye for peculiar adventure. I really haven't read a silver age green lantern comic before. I've known about him with my understanding of the justice league, but I think this comic really opened my eyes as to how weird his solo adventures were.

Blind man's bluff had a very abrasive art style, which turned me away from it at first. But as I got further into the story, I believe it really helped to convey the mood of tension and suspense throughout the story. It was a psychological thriller, and brought up an intriguing topic. The fact that the artist's newfound perceptions wasn't explained thoroughly enough upsets me initially. I can't decide if that's good writing or not. either way it was a freaky, intriguing, and, unbelievable story.

The disney comics were once again a pleasure to read. However the story featuring fethry was downright terrifying. Ducks hunting ducks? I mean come on even if they are domesticated? The character himself freaked me out enough. I definitely thought the story including goofy and the crow character was the most complex story out of the whole bunch.

Modesty Blaise is a comic that I highly suggest to be on the required textbooks next year. I can find no loose end to this comic that doesn't immediately fascinate me. I left a really longwinded review of why I found it so remarkable on the blackboard discussion, so I hope no one's too upset that I don't repeat myself or use copy paste. The best way I can put it is that I found it to be a landmark for comics. It proved that the medium can engross a wide enough amount of audiences as film can.

week 7

The Aliens No. 1
I found this book to be fairly interesting. I was intrigued by the peaceful solution the aliens and the humans had to split up their crews and head back to their respective planets. I was immediately thinking of possible betrayal situations etc. The art didn't necessarily blow me away, but I did find several panels to be very interesting I.E. the panel where the fanatic aliens try to gas the human visitors in "An Alien Welcome" or the few pages where the crew is stuck in hypatomic vibration and everything turns in to color blobs in "A Case of Nerves". I totally agree with what Lindsay said below about the character design and the space gumby comment. I like how the story makes you realize how primitive our instincts can be sometimes when we feel threatened.

Green Lantern
This book seemed to flow nicely while having very interesting and complicated artwork. While I had to get over my personal feeling that the green lantern is the dorkiest hero of all time (the dude carries around a battery to recharge off of? wtf?) I thought the story was very interesting. I literally laughed out loud when he took control of the sea beast and it grew wings and flew off into the sky. I tend to root for the underdog so I enjoyed the battle between Thraxton and himself, while the green lantern chose to rely on his brute strength instead of the ring's powers.

Week 7 reading:

The Aliens # 1:

I absolutely loved the art for this comic. The story telling was great and easy to follow *coughunlikekonacough* Half of the time I was expecting the aliens to turn around and betray the human beings, using them for some plot for planet domination or whatever. It was surprising and made me really happy when the aliens did turn out to be the good guys, except for those two paranoid ones back on the alien's home planet. In a time when comics reflected the fear of the unknown, it was nice to see something peaceful come out of it, unlike Challengers where they just kick the attacking threat's butt. I also really enjoyed the character design for the aliens. Those flat limbs were pretty funky. They reminded me of a space version of Gumby.

Green Lantern:

Wow... I have to say, the art for this comic was incredible. The fight scenes especially. They were very believable because the movement looked awesome and cinematic as well. Who doesn't want a power ring like the green lantern's when it can even conjure food? That would make every college here incredibly happy.

I don't even know what else to say about this comic. Just... Wow.

Best Crime:

This was a very strange crime comic indeed. The part where Teddy and her husband have a psychic connection made me laugh. I didn't quite understand how Teddy could understand what was going on while being def and mute. I did think it was interesting how the artist character was more tortured when he got his sight back again (from a bullet grazing his temple? how does that work?).

Modesty Blaise:

By far, one of my absolutely favorite comics read in class. Oh my goodness do I love the story, the writing, the art, the characters themselves were all stunning. I'm glad this comic wasn't forced to be censored for the general public. This comic was definitely a huge contrast from past readings such as John Carter, Batman or Captain Marvel. I really love Modesty as a character because she reminds me a lot of Wonder Woman, but with a little bit of Batman's vengeance and crime fighting.

Modesty Blaise is definitely my recommended reading for the group. Bad Suki was a heck of a lot of fun to read. I'm sure all her other stories are just as well done and thrilling.

Week Six, Or How I Learned to Love the Camp

(Ooops, typed this out last night but forgot to post it!)

The readings this week were very enjoyable, for various reasons, and also very important for various reasons.

Let's start with MAD. I find it interesting to put these MAD comics in context of the Lawsuit readings from earlier on. Obviously this is not the same thing, but the comparison is interesting. I mean, they are lampooning the TOP DOG comic characters of the time, and perhaps of all time. They made a point many times to assure you this was a lampoon (not a spitoon!), as if that was ever unclear? Apparently there was never any legal issue, as parody is a different ballgame. All that being said, I found them to be pretty funny some of the time, but it was maybe like 1 in 5 jokes that worked for me. I laughed every time BatBoy deftly missed with the lasso.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOOOOWNNNNN!!
So. Challengers of the unknown is super campy. At first I just thought it was really bad. But then! I was won over somewhere in the ULTIVAC story. Maybe it's just that I love stories about living machines, or giant robots? I don't know. I mean, the writing was really bad. Like, really really. I don't think I have seen more plot holes ever. BUT! That's okay, because it is amusing and funny. Further than that though: Why is this reading important? Well, I think that it typifies a certain kind of story popular at the time. Or at least runs along many currents that were a hit back then. In any regard I went from being repulsed by this to finding it very amusing (Probably not for the reasons it was intended.) Also, Jack Kirby is the King of Comics.

Robin Dies at Dawn! This was bizarre. Also, it was interesting in the context of seduction of the innocent. I hope I'm not stretching here? I mean, as far as 'evidence' the Robin/Batman gay thing. I mean, Batman is so broken up by the fact that he could MAYBE cause robins death, he breaks the vow he gave over his dead parents? Instead of just letting Robin not be in harms way at all? And continue crime fighting himself? Also there was the whole tentacle monster thing, and Robin comes to his rescue, just as he had hoped (I hope I'm not reading too much into these.) Regardless, there were also parts of this that were very funny (read: We're gonna kill you by strapping you to a balloon!) At any rate, it was a good story to read as a barometer of the time; It certainly shows off the storytelling trends, wants, and fears of the time just via contrast.

KONA: I may be alone in not finding Kona that enjoyable. I think we all know that it was poorly written, but I may be alone in thinking the visual beauty didn't make up for it. You all seemed pretty stricken. I mean, yeah it's beautiful, but who cares? I have no idea what is going on in this and it seems pretty boneheaded (I don't mean to be rude.) It is similar to CHALLENGERS, in that it has that pseudo science thing going, along with the supermasculine hero who fixes major problems, etc. But! It is written even more poorly. So why bother? Maybe I'm being very harsh. Either way I was not fond of this, but I know it is important because there were many stories like this popular at the time.

War Comics: These were interesting for several reasons. One, they were very down to earth in a way these other stories were not; they're very realistic. Two, there are similarly very much darker than these other stories. People have drawn comparison to the EC stories, in particular with Souvenirs, which I think is fair. Souvenirs tries to teach a moral lesson in the EC way, that is, for an example of the wrong to get it's just desserts. The dogfight comic was different. It was more a commentary, in the end, of the mindlessness of war and the inherent atrocities and, perhaps, the worthlessness of valor. Or at least, it felt that way to me. Also the art on both of these was very good.

I give my vote for WAR COMICS to be the reading other groups have to read.

week6

Challengers of The Unknown was a good read. It obviously borrowed elements from a lot of science fiction at the time, but it translated well into the comic I think. Of course, the plot gets pretty hokey. It was kind of neat that they tried to throw in a lot of science lessons for their readers, especially in the metal man story. Overall, that was probably the most attractive aspect to the stories. A lot of these scientific principles that the challengers face in the comic aren't as developed as they are today, which might be why a lot of us today find it so cheesy and unnecessarily text heavy. But I assume that's what the kids loved back in the day, and I'm sure this resulted in more kids of that generation searching for careers in physics and chemistry rather than art. That being sad, I see the best part of it being Kirby's artwork: dynamic, zany, and extremely stylistic. I really should study the guy's artwork more in some spare time because he has such an unusual take on his figures. all the humans are extremely, dynamic, but I love it when Kirby gets his hands on a robot story. I loved ultivac, it shows how much of a unique understanding Kirby had on mechanical design. But in general, I think Kirby's figures are at their best when they're are made of anything else but flesh.

Personally thought Kona by Sam Glanzman was one of the most intriguing comics on the reading list this week. Partly because his process, rendering with ink over very loose "stick-figure" drawings shows that this guys really understands how the human form and environments work. I find it commendable, because I can relate this to new findings in my own practice of inking. I really respect the pacing of the visual storytelling, and the speed in which he brought the reader through. This is all achieved through very practiced use of design in each one of the pages. I think it's important to mention that of course the plot and writing were not nearly on the same level as the visual storytelling. Overall I thought it was fantastic and visually arresting.

The MAD magazine's didn't attract my attention as much because I'm used to a lot of superhero parodies. So unfortunately it washed over me. But this is good stuff. The the grotesque exaggeration and the flurry of random elements of pop culture make this something pretty extreme for the time. I don't know if I'm getting my facts right but I really do believe there wasn't a more powerful device of parody at the time other than MAD magazine. It went after two of the most iconic and highest grossing figures in the comics business, no wonder it was so popular!

Robin Dies at Dawn was downright hilarious in my opinion. All the creatures he faced while under the testing were very strange, and the gorilla gang really didn't help to elevate the dire situation that Robin faced at the end. However I think the character advancement was the most important element of the story. The imagery really didn't seem to fit it at first but this is some pretty serious subject matter being taken on in the plot. however weird it was I could definitely read this and still understand what Batman was going through at the time.

The two stories from the Best War Comics were alright. I didn't find the dogfighting comic that interesting because there was much more narration going on rather than visual storytelling. It was a decent plot and good art, I just didn't think they were merged together very well. The Story about the thief in the pacific theater used the EC formula for teaching the reading a moral by making a main character learn the hard way, which was fairly enjoyable.

Week 6 Reading

MAD Volume 1 and 2:

These comics were great. I love it when artists can make fun of each other and themselves. The little details in all the panels in both Superduperman and Bat Boy were great. I found that I was staring at each panel just trying to find the differences in the last one. Robin's changing pant patterns and logo was great, especially when Mickey Mouse somehow shows up. The other great thing about these comics, was it seemed a vast knowledge of the characters and story-lines wasn't necessary to understand the jokes. I love how Captain Marvel also made an appearance in the Superduperman comic.

Art in Time: Kona

The art in this comic was nice, but the text/ story was hard to understand. I could get a gist of what was going on but I didn't understand what was going on and why.. if that makes any sense. It was definitely very action packed, with all sorts of groups of creatures going after each other. It somewhat reminded me of that extremely long chase scene from Peter Jackson's King Kong. There was no breathing room for you to put together what was going on. I enjoyed looking at the different mutant creatures. The comic might have made more sense to me if I had read some of the previous comics.

Batman:

This comic was pretty adorable. Batman obviously cares about Robin like his own son. The story telling was great and the art was spotless. I haven't read enough Batman to really support this statement, but it seems that most of the Batman stories have villains with some kind of a mental illness or psychological problem and this was true in the comic we read except there was an interesting twist. Instead of someone attacking Robin, most of the danger was caused by Batman himself and the hallucinations left over from the stress test he was given. It wasn't until the end of the comic that Robin was put into any real danger, but Batman was able to come through and save his sidekick.

War Comics: Love Hawk and Souvenirs

The first comic was really interesting. I liked how the story was historically accurate and the manner that it was told. The imagery was beautiful as well. I can't imagine what it must have been like to fly in a plane all day for the sole purpose of bringing down enemy planes, and then being lucky enough to have a long, successful career and not be a martyr in the process.

This comic seemed to follow the Tales from the Crypt philosophy, where the bad man gets his just rewards in the end. It was one of the solider's greed that ended getting him killed, though it saved the rest of his troupe. It was an interesting twist. That must have been the same fate of the first man the troupe of soldiers found at the beginning of the comic.

Challengers of the Unknown:

The first comics with the metal man was pretty strange (as Jack had forewarned me). A bunch of scientific facts were used to make the technology and story seem more real, but somehow a ball of rolling force ray energy, when collided with the metal man, was able to knock him out with the Challengers being unhurt. What happened there?

The second comic about the mirage world was pretty awesome. It was fun to read. Again, the art and the nature of the story telling was great for both of these comics. I'm liking Challengers more and more, and will most likely end up reading more from the text book when I have some free time. I would gladly lend someone my copy, with the mirage world chapter bookmarked, as recommended reading.

week5

To begin I loved John Carter. I might have at first been distracted by how dated it is, but the premise was just far too intriguing for me to pass up. It's a staple in science fiction fandom of the of the 20th century. Finally, all those painting by Frazetta seem so much more relevant now! This is what I believe to be pure escapism, because almost all the characters seem fabricated out of John Carter's head. Every feat of strength he pulls off seems to magically appease anyone, no matter how hostile they were before. I skipped through the rest of the book after I finished reading the required part, from what it looks like Burroughs gets really psychedelic with his style later on.

The batman story was delightful to read because there are so many reinterpretations of him finally achieving revenge. I finally see how it was originally depicted. Does it make me think less of him? How can I? One of the great thing about super hero comics is that the villains who wrong the hero always seem to find death at their own hands. Superhero comic artists seem to find Divine justice as one of their most attractive motifs. I think that pretty much sums up the EC readings as well! I really haven't read enough of those, so these were pretty rewarding. I find the EC story formula pretty rewarding no matter how many times it's used. I really like their art; the inks and color work very well together to create very convincing emotions and moods for the characters. And they totally nailed the pirate dialogue!

The two comics by Jack Kirby and Frank Frazetta were amusing since that kind of stuff is most definitely not what I associate either of them with. I didn't see any resemblance to the drawing style of Frazetta's comic but there was that specific energy he always seems to channel so well into his characters movements. Kirby's unique inking style can definitely be seen in the Lockjaw character, and although humorously portrayed, each of the character's seemed to be dynamically placed within the composition of the pages.

Wonder Woman was pretty fun to read. It made me chuckle a bit and seemed to give her more character than before for sure. I found her opposition to be humorous, but at the same time rewarding to see her defeat her ignorant and selfish boyfriend.

The Disney comics, Pluto trying to protect the lumber, and the wolf boy trying to help his dad were emotionally endearing and incredibly well written. It's odd to say but I really do think that these disney comics were some of the best written comics around back in their prime. It's difficult to achieve a well written comic, because they don't work the same way a normal book can describe action and imagery. I think the images and the dialogue blend together seamlessly in these comics.

Week 5 Reading

This week seemed to have a lot to do with origin stories and just rewards... or maybe that just happened to be a coincidence...

Wonder Woman:

I loved this comic. I really enjoyed the art style better in this comic than the earlier ones. I hated Steve Trevor for cheating to find Wonder Woman, as flattering as that may seem at first. I still find the whole idea with "hiding under one's nose" to be pretty funny and pathetic on the love interest's part. If Diana is so gorgeous, how could she look that much different with glasses on? I'm sorry.

Batman:

I also liked the later batman comic better than the first one we read. The art and storytelling was much better. In the last comic I couldn't see how Batman was the archetype for a vengeance character (yes, i knew the story line from the movies and such, but I hadn't seen it from the comics) but in this particular story, it was very clear. He wasn't as brutal as I thought he would be. He did try to legally put Chill away, even though he did enjoy a few punches in the process. Eventually, Chill's own decisions lead him to his death and Batman doesn't have to do anything.

Disney Treasures:

Now these comics would be the perfect defense against Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Wertham. They were all adorable, model stories that showed proper behavior. Lil' Wolf rebelled against his dad's bad behavior and reputation by buying the chickens instead of actually stealing them from the Brier Bear. His father got his just reward at the end. Chip, Dale and Pluto had a mini struggle, then worked together to save the construction wood from being stolen and everyone was happy and rewarded in the end. The Grandma Duck found a creative solution to her problem and managed to get her knitting done. There were no bully, bondage or brutal themes present whatsoever. I loved reading them and i thought they were adorable with great attention to the detail of the art.

John Carter:

Definitely blew my mind a little bit. The colors, costumes and characters were all crazy and wacky. I think saying out of this work would be too much of a pun. At first I was turned off by the oddness of it all, but once I got used to it I started to appreciate the comic for what it was and really enjoyed it. I wasn't entirely sure how John Carter got to Mars. It seems to me that he just wakes up in this strange mid-dimention before being sucked onto the planet. My first conclusion was that the gas gave him some kind of a hallucinogenic dream. But he never wakes up at the end like Nemo did in his comics.

Two Fisted Tales:

Both of these comics were pretty brutal and I know the titles slightly forewarn the reader of what they are getting into, I was not expecting this. I think these were the first comics which made me realize how powerful comics are as a story telling medium. It's almost worse than watching a gorey movie because you have the words and pictures to guide you through the scene, but your mind has more of a chance to take over with all the excruciating details that would bother you the most. In the first comic, the end was pretty clever with how the good guys set up the bad soldiers to be shot up by their own men. I was just sad that the most courageous of all the characters was the one sacrificed to save the others. It was the blonde american man that was somehow able to live and tell his story to the soldiers who found him. In the pirates comic, I thought it was great how the amnesiac captain ended up dying in the quicksand he was using to protect his treasure from other people. I started off liking the character, feeling sympathetic for him and his plight. Once I got to the end of the story I was pretty darn happy that he killed himself.

Hucky Duck:

This comic would also be another good example of how not all comics seduce the innocent. It was funny to see the duck's world being turned upside down as he was the one going to be cook for dinner once he was fished. Poor Hucky Duck was allowed to fish in that pond after all after he had his horrible dream. Go figure.

Lockjaw the Alligator:

I thought this was also an interesting comic. It was a little on the rambunctious side because Lockjaw would use violence to get what he wanted, especially in the dentist's office when he wanted to have his teeth checked. This comic had good story telling and it was funny, especially the cute little professor when he realizes it's silly for him to have a tooth ache when he has dentures.

My recommendation for the week would definitely have to be John Carter. It's just weird and awesome and everyone should have at least read a good science fiction comic at least once in their lives.

Week 4 and Recommendation

Hey guys, unfortunately said I've somewhat neglected this weeks's readings and boy did I miss out. I'd say I got through about maybe 2/3's of the way through, but I really think there is some important stuff in here this week concerning what kinds of stories can be told in comics. I'm going on a hunch that a lot of the artist around the late forties began to find influence in early cartoonist of the 1900's. I find an amalgam of cartoonish devices being combined with superhero subject matter, especially in Shazam! and Supersnipe. There's a lot more personality added to the characters in these stories than a lot of the superhero stories before this. I also assume this is the age when batman took on a more kid's friendly look as well. It's a moment in time with a lot of other types of experimentation in what kind of subject matter is being portrayed. Murder Morphine and Me is a shockingly dark and violent story for it's time. We're beginning to see people favoring a lot more crime stories, a genre that will only continue to evolve and expand into the mid 50's. Wonder woman was just as silly as the rest of the superhero comics I've read so far, but once again, the subject matter of these stories is being pushed to many different demographics, only increasing the mediums influence.

As for my recommendation, I have no qualms with making wonder woman the selected reading. Lindsay won me over with her reasoning around that particular story, but a logical second choice for me would be popeye.

week 3

Well I can definitely tell from all the readings last week that comics are beginning to shift their way into becoming the romantic adventures and tales of heroism that post world war two comics have become known for. Obviously at this point in history, the general audience of American Caucasian cartoonists have a lot of skewed perceptions of the surrounding world and different race. But hey, they knew they're audience, and escapism sells! America is becoming more curious as it's dragged into the second world war. Prize comics attempts to treat kids of the time with a buffet of strange, perplexing, and harsh environments that they wouldn't know how to make heads or tails of. Are they using unfair and downright disgraceful stereotypes of real world cultures? Yes, but the kid's don't know that. Prize comics were definitely a humiliating read, but they teach us how far we've come in trying to break down racism in comics. Terry and the pirates seemed to have a few of those elements within it but it wasn't surrounded by horrible stereotypes like that in prize. It was much more classy, vaudevillian, and dynamic. The characters have a lot of personality to them, and caniff's wonderful execution of ink truly helps the stories to seem very theatrical.

The batman stories appeared (like discussed in class) as gothic stories. tales of adventure, the occult, and horror in general. I found it funny that I needed to take a look back after finishing it to figure out just who was a werewolf and who was a vampire. It was interesting to see batman with so little personality, I'll admit that.

The court case was very difficult to understand. I feel like it opened up cold at first and I wasn't exactly sure what they were arguing about. But I understand it's relevance in the sense that the fictional character's like superman suddenly had a lot of monetary value to them. Eventually a lot of other people wanted in on the whole prospect of fantastical escapism in cartoon form, solely on the use of these new archetypes.

Week Three Reading

Unless I am an idiot, this is the posting that is due correct? I got a bit confused....

Anyway. The Batman reading from week three was a strange  experience for me. I am used, as someone born in 1990, to Batman being much different, as a character and as stories. The development of the character and those working on him is now visceral to me; At least the end points are. He is driven solely by vengeance, seemingly. He doesn't seem to have rules or care about scaring the shit out of innocent monocled by-standers. It is interesting to view this from my perspective; My first Batman was Bruce Timm's Batman, so the contrast is very telling.

Another shocking thing was the quality of the comic itself. So different from today's (superhero or otherwise), especially from a storytelling standpoint. I don't want to say its bad, because that is untrue, but I do want to say that it is worlds apart, and hard to enjoy. Also, of course, there is the tinge of early 20th century racism.

Overall I learned a lot just from contrast, or maybe I just noticed things I took for granted more in modern comics? I think thats it.

Recommendations

Okay, so it is had to figure out exactly what you all are voting for, because some of you say "either X or Y". It is also just hard to rifle through all of the posts to find them.

I VOTE: POPEYE, cuz it's awesome and everyone should read it.

I tried to wait for everyone to vote, but it seems like a good time to post this?

That being said: From my count (correct me if I'm wrong), The most votes seem to be on WONDER WOMAN. When I say that, I mean it's the only one every voted on more than once. So, unless I am shitty at counting (possible) Or more people vote, our group's recommendation is the WONDER WOMAN reading.

Week 4

Plastic Man:

Plastic man was definitely a strange comic, though the story telling and slapstick humor was very well done. i thought it was interesting at the very end of the segment how this superhero must somehow capture himself, though not an entirely new super hero dilemma. The difference for plastic man, was that his other identity was a criminal instead of a normal person. It makes me wonder what that kind of scenario means in relation to the horrible story of Jack Cole. Was is some kind of a hint for what the author was going through before he decided to commit suicide, if maybe this comic strip was really the suicide note that the police never found. In the comic, the sculpture very sneakily used Hansel and Gretel book with the pieces of clay as a way for Plastic Man to find him. The artist used his own medium to get send the message HELP, why wouldn't Jack Cole do the same thing?

Shazam!

The captain marvel comics were incredibly cute and imaginative. It almost reminds me of the kind of stories my little brother would make up as a kid when we could be playing with his superhero toys and blocks. There was a kind of innocence with this superhero was you do not find with batman or even superman. I know captain marvel is really an 8 year old kids who turns into a full grown man when the right word is said, but you'd think that his personality and maturity would be influenced by that change as well. Because of this, the introduction of the marvel family kind of confused me. Billy Baton still looks like a young kid when he's supposedly married to Mary, who looks fairly young herself.

Art out of Time: Stardust

I found this comic to be uninteresting and bland. The story wasn't very well written and the art was super flat and static. There were more comics from that same era that had a better sense of depth and interesting angles for the artwork in the panels. The way Stardust decided to punish his foe was pretty brutal, though the enlarging and shrinking of the superfiend seemed somewhat pointless. It was just a way for the comic artists to show that Stardust had more powers.

Supersnipe:

This was by far one of my favorite reads for the week. I thought the comic was absolutely adorable and stayed true to what a little kid his age would be thinking. It reminded me of Dennis the Menace, especially when the policeman was chasing after Supersnipe, grumbling and groaning when he couldn't keep up with the nimble little kid. This comic shows that younger kids were very influenced by the characters they read about in comics or saw in the movies and tv shows. My brother would run around wearing one glove all the time after the first time he saw Star Wars. It didn't help that he was also a blonde, blue eyed boy named Luke. What is important about this is that these kids have such a strong imagination that they live in the characters. They become part of them in a way where these kids like to act it out when they play games or get dressed for the day. I'm sure plenty of us have stories like this in one way or another and I like seeing this played out in a sweet little comic about a boy and his love for comic books.

Wonder Woman:

I have been on overload with this character lately because of the nature of my paper, but I enjoyed being able to read some of the early stories. The story telling and artwork for these comics have been stellar since the series first started. The early comics still had a very square layout, but the artist still manages to play around with the size of the frames and composition for each panel. I find it funny how Wonder Woman seems to be the female counter part of Superman, and how Steve Trevor, the lois lane of this comic, is constantly being saved.

(RECOMMENDATION)

I would suggest anyone to read something of Wonder Woman if they are into comics. While at a comic store trying to find some more "research", I happened to come across a 2007 Wonder Woman comic called Love and Murder. The artwork is lovely and the story is touching and hilariously funny. It makes plenty of references to old wonder woman comics. Batman, Superman, and Black Canary also have their appearances here. It was quite hard to put down.

Week3 readings.

I'm lost as to whether it's blog for this post, or for the discussion board. I'll play it safe and post it on both.. Sorry guys. ^.^;

Week 3 - Prize #3, Batman, Adventure and Court Cases

Starting off with Prize 3 comics, I neither found them enjoyable or interesting solely because they were horribly racist. Maybe thats why we were supposed to read them. I simply found it astonishing that blatant stereotyping was deemed ok, even back in the 1940's. I know the mindset at the time was completely different, but none the less...

In the first comic of Prize#3, the evil emperor and his son were obviously based off the asian stereotype with 1, trying to take over the world, 2, bright yellow skin and 3, they even shrink the prince to "midget" size by jumping into a strange alien pool.

Then in the next adventure comic, which somewhat reminded me of Indiana Jones, all the black characters acted more ape than human and could not speak english very well. The main character was able to frighten one of them off by simply letting the man play with his lighter, as if a black man had never had much experience with fire before. Who knows, I could be reading into this too much and it wasn't meant to be viewed in this manner, but for some reason these comics got my goat as I was reading them.

I did however, find the Batman comic very interesting. I had never seen any of the old artwork before and thought it was funny how actual vampires showed up in the early story lines. I had to read the comic a few times before I fully understood what was going on. The story telling was a bit disjoined because there was nothing in the strip to signify the passage of time. Everything seemed to be happening at once. Other then that, it was enjoyable.

My favorite reading from this week was definitely Terry and the Pirates. From the individual strips, it was easy to get a grasp on who the characters were and their different personalities. I liked the group of them instantly. The strip where two of the characters found a friend of theirs dying after falling out of the back of the truck nearly made me tear up.

Terry and the Pirates is definitely something I would recommend to other comic readers.

The court case was incredibly difficult for me to get through. Ken Quattro's comments and summaries at the end of each posting helped me to understand what was going on. I still don't think I understand entirely was what going on in the case, though I did enjoy how short tempered the judge seemed to be. I'm definitely going to have to print out this case and re-read it again.

Reading Suggestion!

I haven't read many comics before this class, but one thing that a friend of mine did make me read was The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman.

This comic is about a young boy named Timothy Hunter (who strangely looks exactly like Harry Potter) who is approached by 3 mysterious men who tell him that he could be one of the most powerful wizards of all time. Crazy adventures through mythical lands, other dimensions and time pursue.

The story is great, the artwork is incredible, and it's a fun read.

Derek Skar

The tea that made a tiger of him:

Out of all the readings this week I found that this comic to be both confusing and interesting. It also happens to do with the semester long paper topic I have chosen. A hero and the political development of a character. I liked this comic because the concept behind the characters indefinably reflected people of the time that this comic was written. The intro alone explains the subtle hints that the “tea” isn’t quite what it seams. It contains the ability to change and turn even mice into tigers. Not exactly your everyday tea?

The art I found to reflect the story it was not detailed but not lyrical either. The characters developed relations that complement each other well as they try to grow their katnip business. However I find the tea opens some wide doors that turn the story in different directions. I feel that the characters are very well developed as well because in my research I found that as distinct as these characters are in their duologues the writer originally had them as silent characters in his early strips. Some people also would say given the time this was written it was considered innovated and trend setting. So over all I enjoyed reading this comic and I commend Herriman’s and his krazy ways.

5DD5E20F-C9AF-0301-B101-6B1F214701E4

1.03.01

Bengal Brew

            My immediate reaction to ‘Tiger Tea” basically consists of “so is this entire thing about weed?” After reading  others’ reactions, I feel vindicated in this. It’s interesting to read something from so early on that is related to drugs and their cultural and social impacts; In particular, because anything involving that nowadays seems highly biased in one direction or another. It’s also interesting to see this in the form of a humor-based comic strip. In many ways humor can diffuse any controversy, and therefore is a powerful tool for commentary and discussion of things taboo.

            Another things that I was thinking about as I read “Tiger Tea” was the minimal and distinctive art style. I found Herriman’s ability to create a distinctive space and thus a strong sense of place with very few lines very effective.  This goes for distinctive characters as well. His style is very strait forward and simple, perhaps deceptively so (especially considering above alleged political undertones.)

            One thing I found very frustrating was the vernacular/phonetic style of writing dialogue. I am not absolutely opposed to that kind of thing, but I feel at this degree it is a detriment to the reading experience. I feel the same way about Huckleberry Finn. That being said I love, love, LOVE alliteration, so that was a joy to me. Similarly to the dialogue, I think some of the gags where lost in time for me.  Some of the truly bizarre things made me laugh, but I feel many of the jokes where culturally irrelevant to me, which is disappointing.

            Overall it was an enjoyable and baffling experience, with the after taste of  cultural commentary (probably.)

Week 2/3 Reading

Comics before 1945-

Betty:

The first thing that struck me about this comic was how all the male characters still looked somewhat dorky and cartoonish while (mostly) the female characters looked like John Singer Sergent sketches. They were all incredibly elegant, especially Betty herself. A couple of pages back, there was a blurb of femine mystique and how female characters were becoming more prominent in comics. This was due to the rising of feminism and women finally being aloud to vote and have their own paying jobs. It makes me wonder why women weren't featured before in comics in other ways besides the "working gal" and the flapper.

Adventure Strips:

The adventure strips were noticeably different from the other comics that we have read for this class. They obviously had a continuous story line, instead of strips that continued to a continuous story, but could also be understood and enjoyed in one strip with their humor. I loved the more realistic artwork by Hal Foster.

Krazy Kat in Tiger Tea:

I had a hard time understanding what the ulterior message in this comic was. I understood the "tiger tea" as being a marijuana reference. Was the comic a statement about drugs/ drug use? Maybe. There was no proof wether Herriman ever smoked, or make this comic specifically about drugs. Was the comic about human nature? Could have been. It was most definitely funny and entertaining to read even though I had a hard time understanding what Krazy Kat was saying in his broken english.

(If there is someone who could explain the comic to me better, PLEASE HALP.)

He Done Her Wrong:

Again, I love Lynd Ward's work. I love his ability to be able to tell an entire story (and not an incredibly simple one) with practically no words. I liked how this book was a different style from some of the other work that we looked at in Wordless Books. The story was incredibly sweet and I was glad to see that the female character finally got her happy ending while being dragged around by the other characters. The huntsman was very funny. The artwork was fun to look at and made it easy to understand the story line. In some of Ward's other work, he uses a lot of symbolism that makes the reader take a longer time to look at each picture to understand the full meaning. He Done Her Wrong was definitely something more for the funnies, or a fun and quick read.

Week 2 readings

So this week was pretty amazing as well. "He Done Her Wrong" by Milt Gross was my absolute favorite read, almost defining the term cartoon epic. It relates to that erratic and fantastically whimsical form of humor so specific to the 30's, very relevant to the kind that Chaplin personified. I'm sure the entirely wordless aspect of the graphic novel Gross chose, was also inspired by the silent films of the time. The twists and turns of the plot were visually executed with much grace, especially when the protagonist's sweetheart finds the misplaced photograph as they rushed him into the hospital.

Krazy Kat and Ignatz is very interesting for the time. Even though it's debatable, it's pretty apparent that Tiger Tea has some relation to cannabis. I believe this because the many strips of the story that were collected during this time were around 1936-1937. Cannabis was officially declared illegal in the United States in 1937. From reading the introductions, I find it safe to assume that George Herriman liked to add political undertones to Krazy Kat and Ignatz, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Once again, I adore comics around this timeframe that focus on characterization down to the grammar of each individual. It's always a fun experience to actually sound out Krazy's voice while you're reading this book.

From The Comics Before 1945, Nell Brinkley and Hal Foster definitely use the most illustrative styles I've seen yet out of the readings. When reading Foster's work containing strong alpha male characters and elements of fantasy, I think it's reasonable to see him as one of Frank Frazetta's Key influences. I love that stuff. Nell Brinkley has a style that is incredibly vogue and attractive. I found out during 1916 she also did some world war one drawings. One of which called The Three Graces that personified suffrage preparedness and americanism as three very chic and powerful looking women.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAWbrinkley.htm

Hey hey this is Derek! Anything we need to post on specifically besides the reading?

TESTING

TESTING TESTING, HELLO!

Okay, I've invited everyone in this group, hopefully. When you sign in (if you can) just do a quick post to confirm all the publishing rights are in order. If you have an issue you can email me.

Thanks everybody!