week 16

I know that I should pick something that I haven't read but I've been looking for a reason to read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac again. I first came across JTHM in middle school and fell in love with the stories' violent craziness and I do believe that it's the only graphic novel that I've actually read through fully multiple times.  That and I love the style and how it's so angular, dark and scribbly, I could believe that there's nothing else like it out there. But for something I haven't read I decided to venture into webcomics and read some Electric Sheep. Although I've never actually read any web comics, I've seen what some look like and this comic has pretty much the same model as all the others with random collections of shorter stories and the style also happens to be close to the other web comics.

week 15

For this week I finally got to read two novels that I've heard of and been wanting to read (so that when I'm with my friends I can be apart of the conversation), Watchmen and Sandman. First of all the story of Watchmen was, well, interesting and strange to say the least and although I liked it I'm not to sure what to say about it other than now I know what my friends are talking about and that if I decide to sit down and watch the movie that I'll probably have a better understanding of it. Sandman however was to me viciously spooky, something that would give a child nightmares for a good week I'd say. But the images also has a grungy horror fantasy style too it. Due to Sandman's erie-ness it's something that I would read again.

week 14

This weeks reading I chose Scooter Girl and Grey Horses. I would have to say that although I found the story for Scooter Girl some what boring I would like to balance it out with the fact that I love the chic/mod vintage style it was done in. I just wish that something that was that visually pleasing to me would've had a better story to it.  Grey Horses however was an adorable novel all together. Not only did I find the story sweetly addicting like candy but the images were so cute and adorable that I had to read so I could see each image and maybe it also has to do with that certain type of innocence that happens when a girl is still a girl but almost a woman. In all honesty if I didn't know any better I'd say that this novel belongs in a cafe that serves tea and cake.

week 13

I guess that you could say that I failed with my first choice this week, Diary of a Teenage Girl was so uninteresting to that I stopped reading with in the first few pages. But on a better note, to finish it I just flipped through it and I did find the illustrations quite charming in a distorted type of way. Luckily my second read was much more interesting. Swallow Me Whole interested me in that erie-disturbing-horror movie kind of way as I enjoy horror stories that involve people who have creepy visions that only they can see and get worse as time goes on. Although the style of the images (which was also creepy) reminded me of the novel Blankets and the style that was used there. The good news is that I was able to get through it with out becoming uninterested plus it also helped that the story and images complimented each other nicely.

week 12

Well after finding out in class that one of my favorite films (Immortal) was based off of a graphic novel, I decided that would be my first reading that I would chose. Of course after reading this first part of The Nikopol Trilogy I noticed the story was almost completely different from the film (no surprise there). The style was also a complete 180% as I thought that it seemed more lighter and colorful despite the chaos that is going on in the plot. The other reading that I chose was Rumble Strip which for me had a strong sense of sarcastic British humor and I also thought that the straight just black and just white for all the images worked perfectly with the nonchalant sense of humor.

week 11

First off almost all of the mangas that I have heard of are newer ones dating back to when I was in middle school so I decided to start off with some thing older. So my first choice was Black Jack and the first thing that I noticed was of course his style which is very curvy and organic like the rest of his works. Although the story isn't like most mangas and I kind of like that, it's just about a doctor that does good with really no superpowers. But the second manga that I read was more of the opposite and was more about the main character and his superpowers. For a second read I picked Mushishi which is another manga that I've never heard of and to be honest one of the main reasons that I picked it was because the style of it looked very elegant and visually pleasing to me.

response #8

For this week I was able to get through American Born Chinese and Stuck Rubber Baby.  In American Born Chinese, the characters definitely portrayed what we think of as the typical Chinese/Asian stereotype. Anywhere from dress, culture the text and was that the characters talked.  Even the style of the novel itself had an asian quality to it with its bold colors and shapes, as it seemed to have a more simple cartoon like feel. I also thought that the three different stories that are suppose to intertwine in this novel worked well also. As for Stuck Rubber Baby it deals with more racial stereotypes due to the fact that it's set during the Black Civil Rights movement and on top of that you have the main character who's trying to deal with his homosexuality.  But although this novel has humor I feel that it's on a more serious level due to the time setting.  I think the style of the images also reflects in the time due to the darkness of it, as the images are cartoon-ish they have quite a bit of detail and line hatching.

response #7

After reading Maus by Art Spiegelman I found out that it was done to be a biography on his father who survived the Holocaust. Being that it was based on his father's experience and a lot of history, I'd say that it's spot on as to the feel of the story. To make it more interesting he used all animals for the characters and he specifically chose certain animals to represent certain people.  So even with animals as characters I still think that this novel is very realistic due to how he portrays the experience and the historical content, as it still tells the whole story and still has somewhat graphic images and isn't censored too much for the theme. So you can tell that this person wants this story told and told correctly.  As for the artistic style it's very cartoon-like but due to the subject and the ways he uses his lines it has that dark and eery feel to it. The icons and symbolism used throughout this novel are used to their full potential and captures the true horror of the event.

response #6

As for adult comics, I've never read one until now. When I read some Zap and Mr. Natural I noticed that as adult comics that censorship has gone out the window and that it seems like whatever goes, goes with these comics. The story lines,text and images are very random but involve almost every adult theme that you could possibly think of. The style also varies, I've noticed that the images can be very simple and cartoon-like to very detailed and surreal, the color pallet also seems quite random. On the other hand, Air Pirates Funnies, which seems to parody Disney and it's characters. This comic also uses a Disney-like style to make it look more convincing along with it's color pallet. But of course, sticking with other adult comics it replaces what we think Disney characters would say and do with all adult themes and text. I also noticed that they tried to the style and characters still innocent looking as we would normally think so.  Lastly all these comics are filled with adult humor to top it all off.

response #5

I've only heard of Will Eisner due to The Spirit, and not by the more recent film based off of that particular graphic novel, but I've never ever heard of his other work such as A Contract with God. The first difference of his work from others is that his comics are longer as they are graphic novels, the second, unlike most comics, would be that the subject and theme of the novel is somewhat auto-biographical and based off of experiences the Eisner has had. The style from much older detailed comics is much cleaner when it comes to color and line work. Although I think that A Contract with God has more of a scratchy-sketchy, more unfinished look and style to it. I also see that he sticks to the same censorship and age group of young adult to adult as most other comics during the time. Then as for Craig Thompson and his graphic novel Blankets, I'd have to say that I've never heard of him until now. Blankets is almost like Eisner's A Contract with God, but is more biographical due to the fact that this graphic novel has to do with Thompson's childhood and young adulthood and has Craig himself as the main character. The style, I think, is much different than most comics and novels during this time, in that it seems to be like more storybook illustration. I think this also makes the characters more innocent looking as the story is being told. I also noticed that for color pallet it's just true black and true white and there are really no grays, and the line work is very thick and more simple than most around this time.

response #4

Well the only EC comic that I've known of as a kid is Tales from the Crypt, and even as a child I remember the images being somewhat disturbing for the time. But after looking at a few others such as Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales, Crime/Shock SuspenStories and Frontline Combat, I've noticed that they all look the same.  They all have the same old American comic book look and line style to them and the same color pallet, along with the more strange and disturbing imagery.  So I would also think that these comics were for young adults to older adults based on the imagery and themes discussed in the text. I don't think that they are completely for adults due that they still seem censored a little, these aren't comics that  I would give to a ten-year-old, but maybe to a teenager who is around sixteen.  I think that it was also because of the disturbing and graphic images as to why I was attracted to the comics in the first place, and because I was about twelve or thirteen and still somewhat sheltered when I first discovered Tales from the Crypt these images were new to me and somewhat horrifying and I wanted to know what it was about.

Response #3

I've never been a fan of Calvin and Hobbes, but if anything the style reminds me of the Peanuts simple, bold and colorful, only that it  seems to be a little more detailed than the Peanuts. It also has the same idea as Little Nemo, just instead of dreams, Calvin has a stuffed tiger named Hobbes who he pretends is real. Although I think the text in Calvin and Hobbes is a little bit less censored, along with the themes, being that Calvin an Hobbes always tend to get into some type of trouble. As for all the different Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks, the style reminds me of everything else that is Disney-like, from the color to the lines. Like Calvin and Hobbes the comics of Donald Duck also take it a step above as to the censorship of the themes and text, as I noticed when I was reading that there were hints here and there of humor and ideas that are somewhat suited for adult as also for young people.

Response #2

I decided to take a look at Little Nemo and Peanuts, mostly because I'm a little bit more familiar with them. First of all as for Little Nemo, I've never and of the comics or anything but I know of it from the cartoon, as it was one of my favorites as a kid.  But the comics still had the child-like innocence to them as they should, along with the simple child-like text.  If anything one of my favorite panels were of the walking bed, mostly because I believe that dreams are suppose to be surreal, and for me I think it's the most surreal scene. The style also works well because it makes it look like an old antique children's story book and I think the light pastel colors help it be more dream-like. As for the Peanuts, I used to read them in the newspaper, but to be honest I can't remember the last time I picked up a newspaper.  The Peanuts however, while still having that child-like innocence in them, are much more humorous. But I think that comes from that it seems that there is actual child steriotypes being used, which also helps out the type of text that is being used.  The style also seems to be a bit more sketch-like and modern, as there are usage of simple, solid, bold lines, along with solid, bright colors. But of course, as for both of these, they're both for a younger crowd of people so of course they are censored.

The Arrival

After reading The Arrival it gave me a new insight to wordless comics and to comics in general.  To be honest I can't even remember the last time I even read a comic or even looked at one, although when I do pick up a comic I rarely read it and I only just look at the pretty pictures.  So I guess you could say that The Arrival is my type of comic due to the fact that there's no text that I have to read, plus after reading it and noticing the beautiful illustrations, I think that having text would just ruin it.  Each illustration was so detailed and explained what was going on so clearly that if it did have text I don't think the viewer would need it due to the detail of the images.  Due to the fact that this was one of the first comics/wordless comics I would like to comment on the style of the images and say that besides their illustrative quality, that they also have a very delicate, fine art quality about them. The detail also shows me that each image can function on it's own if that was the case.