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.