Week Fourteen: 21st Century Comics

For this last week I chose to read a few of the short web comics. I very much enjoyed the simplicity of them. They either had a joke or a pun or left you thinking of what could happen, leaving you to make your own conclusion. The first one I read was ache wood and I thought it was simple and funny by adding explanations to what each panel was really talking about. The next one I read was white ninja which I found each to have a funny ending starting off kind of serious I also thought the character soopah worked well. Then I ran into bluesy Face which had no text but it was clear to understand the connection between panels from the artwork alone. The last one I read was the meek and upon seeing the cover I knew it would be something I liked just because of the artwork. The compositions and color use were very entertaining and grabbed my attention. It reminded me of anime cartoons I would watch growing up, they were comical and adventurous.      

Week Thirteen: Reconsidering the Superhero

For this week I chose to read Authority Vol1, the seriousness and tone of the story kept me intrigued as if I was watching a tv show also the bright use of colors and perspective of some the panels were very interesting to look at. The superhero team reminded me much of the avengers from marvel or the justice league of dc that take on worldly threats and seek justice by any means. Although the Authority is published by DC as well I believe they bring something new to the table that other teams don’t. It’s nice to see humans without any powers being of some assistance to the super hero’s and both bringing something forth that is in some way needed. Many of the characters features reminded me of some of my favorite popular comic book hero’s, and also involving different parts of the world made it seem diverse.

Week Twelve: Women’s Comics

For this week I chose to read “This one summer” by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki. Although the story was being told by a females perspective and her female friend I felt like I could still relate in some cases with them, such as interactions with her parents or other teens. I enjoyed the seriousness of some of the topics and could relate to situations I’ve been put in as a teenager/young adult. Although I had never been to the same place consistently every summer with my parents we did take trips and it reminded me of times in my youth, which I thought was well written by the authors, it made it easy to read and interesting to see some ones similar encounter with others/parents at that age from an outer perspective. I also enjoyed the stylization of the story again the lack of color and use of black and white was appealing to me, the simplicity used on the characters as well. 

Week Eleven: Comics as Contemporary Literature

For this week I chose to read Eight ball like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes from the moment I looked at the comic I enjoyed the art direction the use of ink line work and no color was an attraction for me. Also the clean lines and drawing stylization of the characters. Although I was kind of lost with the story I read I wasn’t too sure what was going on. It seemed as though the main character himself was lost as well and was dealing with his own troubles. Also the scene with the cops was a bit much and unexpected for my taste. The comic is definitely intended for a mature audience. The other stories as well seemed a bit dark for my taste and didn’t hold my interest, I can definitely say the patterns used and the black and white contrast of the images did hold my interest.

Week Nine: Wide World Of Comics

For this week I chose to read Black sad – A Silent Hell. I was introduced to this comic by a friend a few years ago but never looked into it until now. I remember glimpsing through and enjoying the artwork as well as the characters. After reading it now I realized I enjoyed the use of animals put into real life situations versus them being human. And even though they are using animals as main characters it doesn’t have a childish feel to the comic on the contrary it has a very serious tone to it. I thought the contents of the comic were very real and dark; they illustrate problems such as racism, drug use, prostitution and temptation. Problems that we may not want to accept about ourselves or people we know/love, problems that are sometimes difficult to speak about. So putting characters we couldn’t relate to physically I thought was a clever idea, while still keeping it about the subject at hand and less about the animals.

Week Six: Underground Comics

For this week I chose to look at some of Vaughn Bodes Cheech Wizard, growing up I was very much into street art and graffiti. The main character would always be used in some way whether it was on trains the street or murals. I always thought it was a made up character by a street artist or something and never looked into it. Years later I found out it was a comic book character and it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I found it difficult to read with all of the use of slang, I also found it disappointing to find out the comic was mostly about drug use, profanity and sex. I guess it was because I had a different picture of what I thought he was and was about. I also felt like the use of so much text was overwhelming and overpowered the images shown. I think when color was introduced it helped to better separate the two making it much easier to understand. Nonetheless I think that Vaughn Bode created a distinct unique set of characters and storyline. It just isn’t my cup of tea, and my appreciation for the character/characters will always be there but I don’t much care for the stories told, it just isn’t my type of comic.

Week Four: The Comic Book

For the fourth week I decided to read some of Ec comics Tales from the Crypt. Growing up in a household where my mother was a major fan of anything to do with horror/scary genres and me being born October 30^th, sooner or later it would creep its way into my life. I remember growing up and watching Tales from the Crypt with the iconic Crypt-Keeper, and never knowing it was a comic book until now. I remember always enjoying the dark topics/stories of the show and while being scared still staying interested until the end. I very much enjoyed the fact that it was a series of different stories being told by a narrator which made me remember being told stories as a kid by a family member. In addition I enjoy how the crypt-keeper/ narrator comes in and out of the comic like a voice within the characters head, almost foretelling us of what is to come. The Maestros hand was one of the stories I read and I liked the twist at the end of the story, also how there was a sort of life lesson karma involved. I believe the drawing style used adds to the dark scary stories being told, the use of a lot of shadows and black helps to set the environment of a scary situation.

Week Three: Understanding Comics

For the third week I decided to read some of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. Growing up in the 90s I remember watching the cartoon and not knowing they were a comic strip until looking further into the story. The Peanuts personally brings back childhood memories for me even though I can’t recall being a huge fan, it was definitely something I remember enjoying watching/reading growing up. For me the childlike humor throughout the comic strips brings a special quality to the comics, as well as their iconic characters and quotes. I also very much enjoy the simplistic drawing style approach to the comics, as well as the slight change of the look of the characters its interesting to see what they originally looked like and what they look like now. An interesting factor is that the comic strip is revolved around a society of kids and adults rarely if ever make an appearance. Also for this week I decided to take a look at Calvin and Hobbes, which I remember seeing as a kid growing up but can’t remember reading. Similar to the Peanuts comic strips I enjoy the simplistic artistic approach as well as the childlike humor and adventure. I think growing up we have all had a special stuffed animal or toy we played with and the creator of Calvin and Hobbes does a great job of taking us back to our childhood and remembering those times. I also enjoy how Hobbes goes from being a stuffed animal into a live tiger when in the perspective of Calvin. 

Week two: Understanding Comics

I found Scott Mccloud's book of Understanding Comics, entertaining and easy to read. It provided a lot of useful information about how to properly read comics, what a comic book consist of and things to look out for when reading comics. It was interesting to find out how involved comics can become and how they affect us. Also having the consistent character/narrator made it more enjoyable to read vs just having words without images. The book provides an in depth look into comics and proves that comics can be a great option when deciding to write a story, the medium offers freedom that no other media can. I also found it interesting that a comic doesn't need to have words in order to tell a story or convey a message; images can be just as powerful as words when trying to understand a story. Mccloud clearly has a vast understanding of comic books and makes it enjoyable for anyone seeking to learn about them easy to do. Lastly I found that the relationship between how we interpret certain things and how closely related they were to comic books was interesting and eye opening, a lot of thought process goes into making a comic in order to make it relatable and easy for us as readers to understand.