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.
The Andy Griffith comic was making fun of their southern values by making them super racist. That’s why they attack a black man for no reason. The artist is saying that’s the kind of action they get as police men, because in the show nothing real exciting ever happens (if I remember correctly). There is usually just one guy in jail who is drunk, and lots of remarks about Aunt Bee’s cooking.
ReplyDeleteThe Swamp Thing:
SUPER AWESOME! I rather like Berni Wrightson so I was rather looking forward to looking at these comics, and I was not disappoint. The layout and coloring is great. The rendering of it is just really, really, beautiful. And as for the story, the first chapter was really great, with it’s horror storyline. It was pretty self contained and worked out really well. I read a bit ahead though, and the second chapter is completely different. There are good horror elements but the new characters get a little confusing to me and seem a bit flat compared to the established ones from the first chapter.
I would also recommend this comic to others.
Vignettes:
Well, this one is sort of a toss up. Some of the stories were better than others.
And some of the art was better then others. Nothing really seemed super awesome.
I guess towards the end, the break up story was nice, I assume he meant he was getting divorced. It was weird on how distant to the actual subject the comic was. There were no images about the woman. I don’t think the kids were even mentioned. I think I prefer it this way, but the comics afterward are then disappointing. Suddenly its all about his comic con friends and nothing about the kids or the woman are mentioned and its just seems like a completely different thing. I would have rather it ended on the break up comic, or for there to be some description in the later ones as to what happened.
Also, who are the people at the comic con thing that he’s friends with? Are they famous? I didn’t recognize any of them, but I am horrible with names.
I SAW IT:
Alright, this one is harder to talk about.
First of all, I saw the main part in the animated version in History of Animation last year, so I don’t think I got the full effect of reading it for the first time. The animated version was a lot more horrific and the narration was clearer and perfect English compared to the translation in the comic.
I also noted some difference in story between them, even though they are suppose to be a recount of it what actually happened. I remember specifically, that in the film, the boy first went back to his house to find his mother and witnessed his dad and siblings stuck under the house and the mother trying to save them. I was also pretty sure that in the film, the mother burned to death because she wouldn’t leave them, but the boy ran away. Maybe I am remembering it incorrectly, but it just seemed odd to me.
As for the comic itself, I wasn’t super impressed. I think the translation had a big effect in the way it is read, in that the dialog is distracting and the composition of the pages felt a little awkward. I didn’t think the art was super impressive, and the story is fantastic but I just couldn’t help but feeling the entire time I read it, that it functioned better in the animated form.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteIron Man:
For once I think I like the movie version of a character, better than the original comic version. I watched both the movie, and I rather liked their version of the character, and so when I read this it felt super hokey, to almost a painful extent. I guess the train bit was nice, where they show what would actually happen if you lifted a heavy thing by a weak part. But for the most part the drama of him becoming sober just was way too overblown and preachy, and this was more so done over by the narrator. Maybe Tony should try AA? Did AA exist when it was written? I have no idea.
Read Yourself Raw:
Dead Things- I was a bit confused. I assume there was some reason or logic somewhere to the story with symbols or something, which I didn’t get. And if there isn’t supposed to be any then well… okay, I don’t really know what to say about it. I didn’t care for it. I think looking at children’s crayon scribbles would probably make the same amount of sense or more, but it just seemed like an ugly waste of time to me.
Andy Griffith- My dad made me sit through many, many shows of it, and so it was kind of amusing to read a comic poking fun at it. The pointillism was crazy awesome too. It did feel a little uncomfortable, because of the racist commentary. The lynching image went a little too far I think, but I guess it does really drive home the point they were trying to make.
Canal Street- To be completely honest, I read this a couple of days ago, and I cannot remember anything about it besides that it was on the last page of the book. Either it was really boring or what is way more likely is that it just got lost between all of this reading, my advertising history reading, and my virtual art reading. Sorry.
Out of our group readings if I had to suggest one for the class to read I would have to go with the Andy Griffith one, because I think it is a good example of the type of crazy lowbrow comics with fantastic art that made up the majority of the underground type of comics that the teacher mentioned.
Iron Man: Once again, this is the first Iron Man comic that I have ever read... along with many other comics. I have no background story on Iron Man besides seeing the movie... which, of course, never puts everything in it. I didn't know that Tony Stark had so many problems with alcohol. It was interesting to see how he handled it and to read the comic in a different perspective... that heroes were people with many more issues than the average man. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThe swamp thing: I liked the creepiness of it. It was a "get what you deserve" comic. Who doesn't like stories about the bad guy getting what was coming to him? The way the ink was used to create the mood was great. It worked really well in the comic.
Vignettes: I read the whole book and I kind of thought the story was dull. It was mainly about this guys life and what he thought was important to him to put in his comic. I think it might have been more beneficial if somebody else or multiple people who knew him told the stories rather than himself. That way, they put what they think would be interesting to a person who was going to buy the book. I was interesting though to see how his art style changed throughout the comic. I wonder if it was all him or if he asked other people to help him make them comic. Over all, it wasn't my favorite comic book but now I know more about the guy.