Batman Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth

This was my week!

Batman has got to be my all time favorite comic book character ever since my love began after seeing the first Tim Burton film when I was a toddler, my mom made me a costume and I would proclaim "I'm Ba-man." After growing up seeing all the other movies and watching the animated series while simultaneously becoming more interested in art, I eventually realized that the two intersected in the comics and I knew that's what I wanted to do. As I eventually got more into traditional drawing and painting I sort of lost interest in the overly clean and shiny digital art of much of mainstream comics. Once I discovered comics like Arkham Asylum could be works of art, I once again realized my two worlds could come together.

I don't think these types of art-focused comics should replace the need for words altogether but I do think they are valuable to have. I don't think the art detracts from this story or even that it is making up for a lacking story but is in fact very appropriate for this story. From What I've seen Grant Morrison is really good at giving some of the reigns to the artists he works with. I think the choice to give McKean a lot of control was appropriate for this comic since it gives the reader a different kind of psychological experience not having text to rely on for information in some portions but rather being more dependent on the surreal visuals with a few bits of dialogue which I feel puts the reader in sort of lost and confused state appropriate for a story about madness and insanity.

I also think this story shows very interesting takes on some of the characters like Batman, Joker, and Two Face. Joker tells Batman that he just as crazy as the rest of them, he is really depicted as being vulnerable and still tortured about the loss of his parents. Joker is described as not being insane but rather "super sane" reinventing his personality everyday. Two Face is shown as being completely lost and incapable of making simple decisions like going to the bathroom without his coin.

Asterios Polyp

This is another one I haven't finished yet but I can already see some of the amazing things it's doing. Even though I haven't finished I can see that this comic is brilliantly designed with not only every aspect of it's visuals but also with the arrangement of the narrative as well. This is really an example one of works that comes along an pushes the boundaries of this medium and others by exploring all that is possible and delves into what wasn't even known to be possible, implementing new techniques and bringing about new thoughts and ideas for the reader as well as other current and upcoming creators.

In this Graphic Novel everything including the design of the pages, characters, and even speech bubbles are reflections of Asterios and the people and world around him. This comic would not be the same at all if it was trying to be more representational. I especially like the portions where every person in a panel has a unique visual representation that reveals their inner-character and the way they think.

This is really a great example that comics can get people thinking as much as anything else can. I'm really looking forward to getting through the rest of  it.

Moebius

So I couldn't pick just one story to write about because this guy is too awesome!

When I happened upon Jean Giraud Moebius' work in Heavy Metal magazine and Lieutenant Blueberry, I was blown away and found myself overwhelmed looking at his intensely beautiful images. Even my friend who says he always reads through an entire comic without peaking ahead to see the pictures like myself, yet he couldn't help but flip through and study every page when he read an issue of Blueberry.

Each panel of his comics could stand on there own as great illustrations yet they join together to  bombard the senses. Moebius displays a masterful handling of everything he does in his comics, with his unique rippling lines that flow around forms, his wide spectrum of unpredictable color choices using warms and cools to draw emphasis where he wants the reader to look. His compassions are also enjoyable often showing a figure in an immense environment of living structures, his panels and page layouts also assist his compositions with many large, long, and tall panels to show off his beautiful imaginative world that flow through the pages. Even though the art is stunning and commands a lot of attention I still felt engaged in the stories.

Also I just want to quickly finish off by saying that I know Blueberry may be full of stereotypes but I don't think it was the goal to be historically accurate, just like many classic Spaghetti Westerns as well as Samurai and noir films that are often unrealistic and full of stereotypes, I think these are more about style and  emotional feeling. Also I thinks it's funny that forigners seem to make some of the best movies about the american west which are also sometimes based of samurai film.

Akira

I had't seen the Akira movie until this year and loved it so I was excited when I got this opportunity to to read the manga as well.

The drawings of Akira are beautifully done and hold there own without the use of color to lean on. The compositions and panels are very dynamically designed and laid out. The slow portions are open and airy with minimal visuals to emphasis important things and a sense calmness then often there are sudden explosions of fast-paised action with a lot of visual noise and activity to create meaningful energy and drama. The compositions reflect both speeds with simpler squares and long rectangles for the calm portions and more tight angular panels creating tension and discomfort. I can see that this method of pacing is a style also used in classic Japanese film.

Something interesting that I noticed after seeing both the manga and film is that even though they were both made by Katsuhiro Otomo, they are each arranged differently to accommodate for the differing strengths and weaknesses of each medium. I think this shows a lot of strength on Otomo's part to be able to translate his story into both the seperate languages of comics and film. To me it feels like the film flows nice and logically without giving away that it was cut down and condensed from the original manga.

Fun Home

So, I got some blog posts to get done. Lets jump right in shall we?

Some early reactions: I can see that Alison Bechdel really knew what she was doing with this, image and art that say just enough each, unlike many who you can tell are more of a writer or illustrator, she marries the two well.
Something I didn't expect was that it didn't take long to get to the depressing stuff without much build up, which I guess is effective to let the reader know what they're getting into.

Personal connections: So I didn't get super far into the story but it didn't take me long to feel a familiarity between this story and stories my mom tells me about her childhood. Similar to this story, my mom had an abusive step-father who would beat her and her sister if the house wasn't cleaned exactly the way he wanted it. Even though her step dad treated her horrible most of the time, my mom still think back to glimmers of good times she had with him and also she doesn't hold a grudge for him since his death.
Some other interesting connections I noticed  include My dad looking exactly like the dad in the story with everything including the glasses, big nose, shaggy hair, wrinkles along his mouth and in between his eyebrows, his jawline, and even the hairy legs under short shorts he wears when he works around the house. Another thing that I thought was interesting that is like when the protagonist talks about the image she gets of the mail man as a milk man in her grandmother's story, is when ever my mom tells the stories about cleaning the house for her step dad I always imagine her natural dad's big old house that looks a lot like the one in the story.

So I definitely hope to finish Fun Home and maybe even try to get my mom to read it at some point too.

Maus

I feel that Art Spiegelman handled the delivery of this story very well. His choice to use anthropomorphized characters was very smart, it helped him avoid depending on the usual stereotypes that would conflict with his message. Using animals allowed Spiegelman to also apply symbolism like the overall Game of cat and mouse since the jews were constantly on the run from the Nazis, also how each group was viewed, the Jews were seen as vermin that needed to be exterminated, the Nazi Germans were the predators and there to clear out the vermin, the Americans were the dogs that got rid of the cats, and the Poles were Pigs. Another benefit of him using animal characters is that it helps to get past many peoples
auto-response to avoid anything that looks depressing, getting the message to more poeple.

Spiegleman made affective use of the graphic novel medium. His use of diagrams laying out locations and the construction of secret bunkers was helpful for me to get a better picture in addition to getting across that Vladek is explaining and drawing these things out for Artie. I also liked how he used the pig masks to represent when the Jews were pretending to be polish.

It was interesting to see how Artie tries to keep the underground comic mentality of writing objectively, yet he is dependent on his father's biased and filtered version of things, also since his mother's journals were destroyed.

Maus  has a whole different level of complexity since it not only about Vladek's experience going through the Holocaust but also about Artie making the comic, the two of them connecting, and trying to figure out why his mother Anja committed suicide.

It is really horrifying to see and hear about the thing that were done to all the victims of the Holocaust, I had to keep reminding myself while reading that it all really happened. It's also unbelievable how clever these people had to constantly be just to survive. It's really sad though that even after going through all of that racial persecution that some people like Vladek still don't learn and continue to hold onto racism.

Underground Comics

I really appreciate the full artistic expression that underground comics made possible for artists of that time. I find it really interesting how such powerful works of art are often produced at times of the most artistic oppression, these comics are perfect example of this since they were born at the time when mainstream comics were under the Comics Code with strict rules and guidelines enforced.

My friend saw the Underground Comics section on the course resource page and was ecstatic when he saw The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers since he saw it as a child and forgotten what it was called. He found it stashed somewhere in his house and like any little boy, was amazed to see bad words and naked ladies in a comic book. He didn't tell anyone about this until seeing it again with me.

I think it's really neat how just like when the Pulp magazines were fazed out and brought about the birth of comics, the dying off of Underground comics was then followed by Graphic novels coming into being. They helped pave the way and shaped the following generation of graphic novel creators and readers by demonstrating unhindered self expression with artistic experimentation as well  as showing that any topic and subject Whether it be humorous or serious is fair game.

Blankets

To start, Craig Thompson's art in this story is not only well drawn but also complements the storytelling. His lively sweeping lines wisp me into his dreams and feelings of love. What I was most impressed with in Blankets were Thompson's visual transitions and transformations. Some transitions are simple, like on page 235 where it goes from TV static, to face stubbles being shaved off, or even on page 233 when I can see Craig's ears go from being filled with the gentle sound of Raina's whispers, to the jarring sound of cereal hitting a bowl. Many of the transitions were also when Craig would drift between thoughts and dreams to reality, a great example of this that also symbolizes what he is feeling, is when he thinks of the drawing of the naked woman that he felt guilty about, then it transforms into Raina when she comes in the room. These are all great examples of how Thompson took full advantage of the graphic novel medium, ideas that just couldn't be expressed quite the same way in a novel or movie.

In the story I think Craig Thompson does a good job of getting across what it's like to struggle with growing up, first love, being an outcast, and questioning things like religion. Though some of it may seem over dramatic, I don't think that makes the story any less valid in showing what he and I'm sure many others similarly went through. Thompson did such a good job getting readers to connect and relate with his character as a boy with his brother and teen with his girl friend and of course transition beautifully between them but I just wish he would have resolved more of what happened with his brother.

A quick word

I just want to say that I am grateful to have been pushed in this class to take the time and read many comics that I normally would put back on the shelf since the art "isn't really my style," art being my primary focus of interest and story being a secondary concern since I hope to pursue comic illustration. However, reading these stories with deeper themes and art that may seem simple and not like how I think I want to draw comics at first glance but in fact have really well thought out page/panel designs and visual story telling techniques that I have learn from. I do feel like I have learned and grown, my tastes and ideas of what good comics are have in turn evolved as well. I am now even more excited to participate in the industry, not with the idea that it will be super profitable because I know it's pretty rough and competitive, but rather I can not pass up how powerful and great an artistic medium I have seen it to be.

Will Eisner: A Contract With God

I think works like this really show that comics and graphic narrative is something that can be for older readers and can express serious subjects and themes.

I like Denny O'Neil's intro when he talks about some people complaining about Eisner's "cartoony" style for the characters in incomplete environments; he attributes this to the stories being told from Eisner's memory and that we don't remember people and places as the way they actually are but rather as archetypes, caricatures or certain land marks and key elements in the case of the locations. Even the pages are designed in a way that makes them feel like memories; many images flow into one another with floating vignettes and overlapping panels like thoughts running together. One example of this flowing dream feel is on page. 111 when the Super is drinking and thinking about sex, I can feel him slipping into his thoughts with each drawing of him overlapping and melding into the next until I can literally see the thoughts in his head through his eyes.

Eisner's non confinement to comic panels is one way that he broke from the typical comic mold with this  book. Another thing that separates A Contract With God from many other comics before it is that there are no clear distinctions between good guys and bad guys, he shows everyone as flawed humans with struggles and hardships of their own. Will Eisner really had a good ability to draw a characters feelings and emotions expressed with more than just their face. Many other comic illustrators would make their characters theatrically expressive in the face, thinking the whole face needed to make the emotion clear, however Eisner knew  how to have characters express emotions more subtly with the body first, then eyes, and finally everything else depending on what range was needed. Another way this book was different from others was that even though dialog is still in speech bubbles, the narration is not confined to boxes but rather Eisner's beautifully hand-done words flow into the environments and become part of the images. Since he was so good at telling the story through characters and scenes, there are portions where the words are not needed.

EC Comics

Of the EC comics, I read from Crime Illustrated and it was a really  interesting experience looking at what appears to be a product of the period during the transition from pulp magazine stories to comics. I can see that "comic book" was not even a widely established category term because EC advertised on the covers that it was a "new form of adult entertainment" known as "Picto-Fiction".

I can also see that there weren't yet any preconceived ideas as to what a comic book was supposed to look like, EC's Illustrated stories are a good example of this. In Crime Illustrated for example it has an interesting format, It seems more akin to that of an illustrated story book with pictures and words separated into narrated captions and a wordless picture for each.

There seems to be a lot of experimentation and learning that took place, which is prevalent with the illustrations in The Fall Guy For Murder story for example since they appear to be emulating the work of other illustrators like Charles Dana Gibson in certain shots and in fact do a decent job in some but in other portions are weaker. However the artist seems to get more comfortable as the images improve throughout that story as well as others.

Though it may sound like otherwise, I do in fact like these stories however for their story-telling and unusual format.

Winsor McCay: Little Nemo

First off, I was very excited to finally have an opportunity to read the Little Nemo comics since I grew up watching the movie adaptation.

This comic is beautiful with it's well designed panels, flowing visual story, and of course McCay's imaginative people, places and scenarios. McCay uses a simple uniform distant side view throughout the comic, some might consider this boring and not "dynamic" enough by todays standards of comics but I it's perfect to show the animation-like progression from Nemo's bed through Slumberland and right back to his bed with a lot of forward momentum. I think this uniform view also allowed McCay to worry less about camera placement and focus more on the story and visuals.

McCay seems to have had a really good ability to make older readers remember what it feels like to be a kid, showing Nemo's initial curiosity and mischievousness until something goes wrong and he begins calling for his mom to save him.

One thing that I think takes away from the comic some is the text, much of it doesn't seem to have been thought out as much as the art and appears to have been thrown in at the last minute. Especially in the early issues of the comic, captions are crammed in the gutters and the sentences don't stop in each panel to allow the reader to pause and look at the pictures and dialog but run on from panel to panel. This slows down the flow since both the images and the captions move continuously parallel from one another, causing the reader to either read all the way through one at a time or consciously force them self to  stop at each panel to look at the image and dialog then read the corresponding caption. Even though speech bubbles remained sloppy, the captions progressively cleaned up through the issues until the disappeared, which I'm guessing is because McCay realized his images with a little dialog was enough to tell the story.

For me, even though I wasn't exposed to the Nemo comics until I was older, I think they still had an effect on my early creative development since I watched the animated movie at a young age. I can see elements of Nemo come through in my art, the overall common theme of my work being a shining positive light (the protagonist) in dream-like mysterious situations with a dark eery vibe.

Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics

    First of all, this book was especially relevant and eye-opening to me since I hope to pursue making comics/graphic novels, it really helped me get a deeper understanding of what really goes into a good comic and the psychology rather than many other instructional guides that only talk about stylistic methods and techniques.
    Reading about applying some of the understanding of how our brains work into comics was really intriguing; one part in particular was about the tendency for viewers to identify more with stylized/iconic characters. I definitely agree with that idea and also that when artists try to go too photo realistic it can start to get a bit stiff and lifeless. I couldn't help feeling however that McCloud was a little too bias towards fully stylized cartoons and that the closer a character moves to realism the less effective it will be at staying memorable/recognizable and allow the viewer to connect with the character and story. Maybe I'm misunderstanding or maybe it's my own bias coming through but personally I feel that it's possible to be closer to realism and retain those qualities by presenting the iconic look through things like body features, clothing, hair style, accessories and even more subtle things like body language and attitude; this can even be shown in video games and some animated films that are clearly striving for realism yet manage to keep the characters striking and memorable.
    The final portion that really struck me was the section about surface, craft, structure, idiom, form, and idea. I thought it was really interesting the way McCloud wrote about the different levels of comic illustrators that either settle on what they're good at or decide to strive for greater things. Many artists get caught up with making a comic pretty on the surface but often end up hallow and unmemorable but the artists who begin to dive deeper towards good form and ideas are the ones who obtain recognition and last through time.

A Week of Kindness

Panel - There is a poor-looking woman throwing up her arms. The fabric of her dress is flowing behind with the motion of her arms. A rooster sits atop a sphere in the bottom left corner. there are what look to be eggs in front of the woman and a body lying behind her.

Panel 2- A women (possibly from the first panel) is lying dead or unconscious on an operating table. there is person standing above the woman with some sort of tool. they are in a lab or study. the rooster is still at the bottom.

Panel 3- There is some kind of ritual burying of a women. there are two rooster-looking men standing on either side of the grave and a naked woman dancing with fabric at the end of the grave.

Panel 4- Further ritual seems to be taking place with two rooster men that seem to be discussing something and two bodies. there is ventricle or tree sprouting from the grave.

Panel 5- The ritual killing seems to have gone aery. Two roosters appear to have murdered a woman in her room and a rooster man is very upset to see this.

Panel 6- Two women are standing in a fire-lit room, one woman is either dancing or pushing against a dresser/wardrobe that is blocking a door that a rooster man is trying to get through.

The Arrival

My first impression of this story is that it is beautifully illustrated, designed, and composed. I found it to be a very immersive reading experience, emotionally grabbing me and guiding me smoothly between panels.

I can see that Shaun Tan put a lot of care into not only showing what it was like to be an immigrant but also using tools to pull every reader into the protagonist's shoes and making them feel what it's like to be in a completely foreign world. His tools of no dialog, alien symbols, and fantasy environments and creatures worked to convey that idea in addition to making it more accessible to anyone of any age. Once the viewers are drawn in, Tan was then able to use the fantasy elements to represent a lot of serious tones and ideas without being off-putting.

Shaun Tan certainly achieved a lot by expressing a whole story without words, just as when a writer conveys mental images without the use of illustrations. However I hope that people don't get the impression that things like  The Arrival are meant to eliminate the need for writers altogether because writing and illustrations have so many unique qualities and capabilities and neither could singlehandedly do all that the other can. This is why I believe that comics and graphic novels are such a great medium for story-telling because they can both come together to create a fully immersive experience in made up worlds.