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.