Comics as Contemporary Literature: Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp attracted me originally because of the interesting character designs. I'm a huge fan of character designs myself, so I really appreciated the thought put into each character. Mazzucchelli has an interesting sense of design, he has a good eye for straights vs curves and iconic shapes that represent characters. In their normal state, you can see the contrast between Daisy and Asterios in the way their characters are designed. Asterios is very angular, with his nose up high and beady eyes. Daisy is soft and round, with feminine hands, and large almost anime-like eyes.And this contrast is pushed more whenever Daisy and Asterios are pushed farther apart. Daisy begins to become pink and rendered while Asterios becomes a mess of architect-type-blueprint geometry.

The way the author presented contrast within the speech bubbles is something that in comics I had never really experienced. In a way, they were part of the character design process themselves. Asterios, the intelligent reasonable one speaks in square speech bubbles. Daisy/Hana speaks in speech bubbles that are round. 

The art really connected me to the story, but the narrative also did. Asterios really is all about contrast, and we see it again with Daisy and Asterios when we learn their personalities. Asterios is logical, overbearing, strong, the center of attention; Hana, shy, meek, always misses the spotlight.

Arabian Nights

Lilian Chestney's Arabian Nights was quite an interesting read. The stories were intriguing, and reminded me of the films that were based off of these tales. One that stuck out in particular was Sinbad. I guess I just couldn't stop rooting for the guy every time he found himself in a spot of trouble, always knowing his story wouldn't end with his demise. As for the others, Aladdin in particular was funny in that it was interesting to read through and compare how Disney took some story moments and transformed into a film for children.

Style wise I liked the inked drawings but I didn't care much for the colors. I think I would have gotten just as much out of this if it were monochromatic. That being said I did enjoy the way some characters and bubbles exited the panels to create a more interesting composition on the page. It's something that I really enjoy in comics as I feel like they become more like illustrations than story telling tools at that point.

Reconsidering the super hero: Watcmen

I'm not a big fan of hero stories, but this one caught my interest because of the different portrayal of super heroes. I first became interested in this series a few months before the movie was to be released, so I decided to download it and read a bit before I actually saw the film. Having seen the movie and revisiting the comic I can say I really admire the film's director for looking at the comic for shot placement. Some of the shots in the film were directly taken from the panels in the comic, something you don't see in other super hero movies.

As for the story, I really enjoyed the way it evolved, starting with a murder investigation and turning into the prevention of nuclear war. I'm really interested in the WW 2 and cold war era, which I think is what really kept my interest. The characters felt real because they didn't just zip off to save the day and that was it, there were always flaws with the characters that made them feel more relatable.

Web Comics: Portal 2 launch comic

Not having the money to actually buy the game, but still aspiring to enter the universe of the story I decided to read a comic based off of the newly launched sequel to the puzzle game Portal with "Portal 2: Lab Rat part 1" available here: http://comics.ign.com/articles/116/1160605p1.html

Lets just say I wasn't expecting much, and having said that I could state that I got what I had predicted. Portal's story basically revolves around you, a randomly selected test subject who's basically there to test the capacity for learning on the go, in a giant maze of deadly puzzles. While the game was loads of fun, and actually requires intelligent thought, I found this comic to be a mess of styles and thoughts that didn't really tie in to a coherent story. I know that this is the first volume, but I found it to be pretty haphazard in thought and didn't really grab my attention because it was too full of fanservice with the fake techy lingo and memorable moments that occur while playing the game.There were parts that I really admired for the visual style, but what drew me away every now and then was the fact that they changed styles. This wasn't as drastic but it was different enough to take me away from the experience and question why they chose to do so. All in all I feel that it had a few good visuals, a not so easy to jump into story, and I don't wish to continue with this as more volumes are released.

European Comics: Persepolis

Having only read the first book, I can say I would really like to jump into the second part of this story. The imagery and the way Marjane depicts it drew me in immediately. Being a CA major has brought me to see many styles, realism being one I've seen over done for far too long. So you could say I have an appreciation for the graphic, simplistic-shaped, clean panels that were put together for Persepolis. This brings me back to the idea from understanding comics, that no matter how simple you draw a face, even a circle with dots and a line for the mouth could represent a face no matter how long you try to envision something else. The visuals along with the story of a young girl growing up in a war torn nation kept me wanting to read more in my free time. I felt that things Marjane went through were presented in a realistic manner, something that's there to shock you with the violent imagery, or the innocence of her blissful ignorance to what is actually going on around her. This is definitely something I plan to finish over the summer.

Maus

I found this to be a very compelling read, as World War II history fascinates me. Having read much about the Holocaust this separated itself from those other works because of the format of story telling, with the recollections that Vladek has about the war and the concentration camps. It's interesting to see Art piece together his father's stories with interest despite the fact that they don't always get along so well. I felt Prisoner on the Hell Planet was a very extroverted way of dealing with his mother's suicide, something that bothered him so much that he had found more comfort releasing to the public than to his own father. The fact that the characters in the comic were all human when Maus is written as a story with mice and cats makes it more relatable. It's as though art felt uncomfortable telling his biography with humans so he used animals as a sort of mask for his true emotions, which is mirrored in the comic he writes about his mother. This strings into a major theme with guilt that I noticed throughout my readings. Vladek and Art have a horrible relationship, Art is always reluctant to visit his father unless it's to hear more stories to complete his work. He feels guilty for not taking better care of his father the more he hears tales from the past. Vladek feels at fault for Anja's death,  and guilty for being a survivor of the Holocaust because of his wealth.

I felt the style was very clear and graphic, though at times there was a slight use of realism for dramatic impact. Mainly the mice have dot eyes, but for those moments of extreme emotion Art chose to give them pupils, which looks out of place and oddly disturbing to me.

Blankets

Aside from looking away at the more displeasing panels, I found blankets to be a good read. I couldn't relate as much to the pressing religious views, as it only appeared as a tiny sliver in my early childhood which quickly vanished as I discovered my lack of faith. It was interesting to see Craig go through the whole "meeting the girlfriend's family" ordeal, as I could identify with his experiences. It's funny how no matter how old you are, when you visit your significant other's family you're always nervous and cautious of your actions so as to not offend anyone, even the person you're there for. A good example would be when Craig leave's Raina's room, remembers that he left his blanket in her room, hesitates but then decides it's not worth bothering her. He knows that they both feel the same way about each other but because this hasn't been fully expressed he's still afraid of going back and possibly disturbing her.

I really liked some of the panel transitions, a favorite of mine being page 103 when he slumps his head on a pole outside which makes a "ding" leading into the sound of the church bells which leads into the church scene. The flow of the panels was also very fitting with the style. I found it to be an interesting mix of iconic and partially realistic representations of the characters.

Little Nemo

So from the very first panel the first thing that came to mind is, "he's dreaming, he better write all of this down the second he wakes up!" Lately I've been writing my dreams down to see how much I can remember. So far it's been getting easier to get a whole story down, but that's a topic for another time. Slumberland reminds me of all the falling dreams I had as a child, and how much I hated them. The style reminds me of a time when I was interested in the art on tarot cards, and how primitive yet whimsical it was. While it was a bit difficult to read I felt that the choice to keep everything flat was simple enough to communicate yet the art style was more realistic, something that I don't see often when someone uses a style that's more accurate. I felt it was very solid and told a simple story with an ending that is very relatable to any audience.

Understanding Comics

I found McCloud's dissecting of the comic art form to be very interesting. Having read more manga than American comics, I was intrigued by the idea of having simplistic characters on intricate backdrops. This and the different types of panel transition were new to me. I found the information to be well communicated, and quickly caught on to the different techniques that are used to communicate in a comic. One thing that really stuck for me was the gestalt principle, and how it's used on even somewhat realistic characters to simplify and make a character more iconic.


Having not read many comics aside from the few manga and the comics in this class, I felt a bit detached from this reading until McCloud mentions the six steps to comics, and that most artists usually begin working for surface value, later moving to a more meaningful story with unique and relatable characters. I could relate to this as it applies to my own artistic endeavors. I feel that most beginning artists start with an interest in the intricate, tiny details that draw us in to someone's work. Once that interest is established and we begin to make our own works, we start with what we were drawn to initially, the details. So a beginning painter would focus on the single strands of hair and the perfect shading on an arm, until they develop and notice that it's better to work general to specific. To establish the base, or foundation of something first before you move on to the desert of the art world or the "finishing touches".Overall it was an insightful read which gave me some tools to analyze comics more thoroughly.

The Arrival

     Having experienced a small level of exposure to comics, Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" seemed fresh. The idea of telling a story without text wasn't new to me, however I felt that it would be rather difficult to do so in still images without some sort of written information to describe the characters. I quickly re-assessed my opinion as the story was clearly laid out to me with each panel. As things unfolded I noticed the various devices used to tell the story without words, such as a pointing finger, a person scratching their head, and various other obvious gestures which would stand out as cliche in modern cinema but are standard devices for nonverbal communication.

     The panels were very free form and floaty which is well suited for the light valued style of the illustrations. Overall I found this work to be refreshing when compared to the average comics I had glanced at previously.