The Underground Comix

So for this week, I read some of the underground comic and after some of the comic, I can say that this is quite an experience. I don’t even know where to begin. It seems that every elements that are projected in the underground comics seems very different than comics that were distributed in mainstream bookstore.

First off, the art, I realize that each book, there are several artists contributed in the making of this comic.  I realize that each artist has their own style of drawing but in this comic, I feel that there are a lot of varieties in the art style which may make people thrown off at the moment. Some of the drawing goes from a really simple style like Felix the cat’s simplicity to a more complex rendition and some of the story are used a photo as the story telling images.  I’m not really sure how to react because, it might be considered as an art but for me as the general reader, I was thrown off by it. it is because of the uncanny valley effect where the pose seems cartoonist but since the subject use a photograph as the character, everything seems a bit off. And another thing that makes me confused is how some of the artist uses a widely known character in the underground comic. I am under assumption that the underground comics are some sort of Indie Company who tries to publish their own creation. However, using a well-known character like mickey mouse with a a mature theme makes me wonder if they ever got sued because of that. Just to make it clear, I do not hate the style that the artist uses, as a matter of fact; I’m quite enjoying it to be honest. The variety of the art itself really tells me that there is a lot of ways in telling a story and you don’t have to conform to the mainstream style like a marvel drawing style to deliver your stories. Even a big company like Marvel embraces the drawing changes that each new generation brought in.

Another thing that makes the underground comic different than the mainstream comic is the theme. I should have known what to expect when I heard the word underground. The theme must be something that is unusual, and true enough, when I read the comic, some of the recurring theme in this underground comic collections are  sex, drug and political issues. One of the example would be in the air pirates, where mickey says, “ The whole world thinks I’m Cute… so why won’t Minnie F*** me”, when I heard that I was in disbeliefs. Probably because I grew up watching mickey and read the comic book and here as I read this, It reminds me of the past, however, since this is the underground comics and when the artist use my childhood character to say a different context like sex, it threw me of guard.  I guess this is really what makes it an underground comic. The subject matter depicted in the comic book is very adult and that is why the publisher decided to sells it in a selected market and not the mainstream comic book store where the subject matter depicted in the mainstream comics are more targeted towards general audience.

Overall, this is like a roller coaster ride for me. Some of the reading, I was okay with it and the others needs time to chew on it. this is a different experience for me and I guess it is good in a way because I have never being exposed to this kind of material and now I know some part of the history of the comic book, which is fun actually.

Will Eisner and Craig Thompson Graphic Novel

So for this week reading, I decided to read Will Eisner’s most famous graphic novel, Contract with God. Will Eisner is considered to be the one of the earliest cartoonist to work in the American comic book industry. He is also one of the cartoonists who pioneer the term graphic novel. His famous work including the spirit, his early adaptation of comic before he tried the new approach, which is, A contract with God.

This is the first time I read a graphic novel and so far I had a blast. This is like stepping into a new territory for me. Will Eisner really bring a new format of reading novel.  In a way graphic novel for me is like a mix of comic book and novel. You get the novelty, the complexity of a novel; on the other hand you also get the simplicity of the reading from the comic, by explaining it through images, and not just words.

Reading graphic novel from Will Eisner is really such an experience. The clarity of the drawing is what makes it really easy to read. The way he use the ambience to clarify the emotional state of the character is really clear. I guess what makes his work as a graphic novel different than the other comic is the way he use the panel. There is a lot of freedom in each panel that makes his work stands out. I guess the way he draw each panel itself is what makes A contract with God is so much different than a comics. The sentences that explains the story also drawn in such a way, that really enhance the mood of the story. We can see it in the beginning of A contract with god where we can see the main character is walking in the middle of the rain. The sentences “ All day the rain poured down on the Bronx without mercy” are also drawn to look exactly the same with the drawing. This is also what makes it different than comics. In the comics, you can see how the words or dialogue are seems to be drawn just for the sake to clarify what is this picture is all about. Here in this graphic novel, we ca see that the dialogue itself is also used to enhance the drawing itself. It has a similar approach to a story book where the word itself is also part of the art whereas the comic book, the word used is seems to be drawn separately and not further enhance the complexity of the drawing.

After reading Will Eisner’s work, I tried to read another well-known graphic novel artist work, Blankets by Craig Thompson.  Overall, I feel that the format of his graphic novel is no different than Will Eisner. The freedom in using the page to illustrate what is happening and how to make it even more dramatic, The way he use the panel to illustrate the mental stage of the main character. In will Eisner, A contract with God, we can see that he tried to convey the emotion through the environment state. For example in the first story, where the main protagonist was in distress and threw the stone, the environment changed into a blazing thunderstorm as if the nature really understands him.  In Craig thompson’s graphic novel  however, the emotional state of the main character are usually portrait in a very stylized form to give the idea that all of these are only happen in the main character’s mind. Like of the example would be the scene where the little brother was thrown into the extra room that is very stuffy, the room was drawn as if that room is like the monster cave where there lived a big mouthed monster which is only a foldable bed in reality. It is really interesting the way Craig Thompson depicted the mindset of these kids.

Another similar approach that I notice from both Craig Thompson and Will Eisner is also the way they use the background around the character to depict the emotional state of the main character is pretty similar. While in Will Eisner, he use a lot of vertical lines or any other one way lines to give a more dramatic over the emotional state of the main character, Craig Thompson’s approach is broader with the use of the pitch black background  and almost simplified line drawing of the main character, giving a good negative space to see the emotional state of the main character better. He also use the same approach as Will Eisner with the line direction, but I feel that Craig Thompson has evolved the style much further. Maybe it is because as graphic novel evolve over time, the style is also evolved. So here in Craig Thompson, depiction of main character emotional state is also the evolve version of Will Eisner approach. The concept is the same, but the style is really different as Craig Thompson’s work is newer.

Reading these two graphic novels is really a new experience for me. At first, I assume that when I was assign to read graphic novels, I would have to read a long passage, just like a novel. However, as I began reading this graphic novel, my perspective was changed. Who knew that reading graphic novel is fun. This is really different than what I had expected. I hope I can read more graphic novel if I had more time.

MAUS review

So for the comic reading, I decided to read the whole 2 volumes of Maus. It is a true story of a Jewish people  named Vladek who survive the endless nightmare during the Nazi reign. The author and the artist of this book is none other than Vladek’s son, Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist who was born after the world war 2.

The whole book told about the Art’s journey of interviewing his dad past life during the Nazi regime. While he is interviewing his dad, he also tell his own journey while he is interviewing which makes this book really interesting because not only we get to see the horrible tragedy that Vladek had to endure, we also get to see another story from Art’s point of view of his dad who had a bad remarriage with a woman named Mala, who is also another German Nazi survivor. It is interesting because these two stories really what makes this books feels personal  as we get to see both Vladek and Art’s feeling about the situation.

While I was reading the comic, it got me thinking on how can I survived if I was in this position. When I was reading Vlade’s journey, I can’t really imagine how much suffering that he has gone through. However, what makes me really admiring him is how strong he can be during this time. I bet it would traumatized him for life but, he found the strong will to live and with his wits and abundant skills, he could passed by many trials. *spoilers alert* Even when the hope seemed lost, when he was brought into the concentration camp where  Vladek heard that when you were brought into the camp, it is basically a game over for you. However, I find it interesting on how what he learned throughout his life become really useful skill to survive in the harsh environment. It got me thinking about myself on what have I done until now that might be useful in the future. Of course I’m choosing the major that I am interested in but aside from that, is there anything else that is useful.  After reading this, it made me think over my life and got me thinking on what kind of skills can I do to survived.

What really interesting in this comic is also the portrayal of each race or ethnicity with an animal. For Jewish, it’s a mouse. I guess it is to represent that they are the victim here while the German are portrayed as cats, which we know that cat like to hunt mouse and here, the author makes it apparent so that the reader know what is happening and can be sympathize the Jewish people who lived during Nazi reign.  But what really intrigue me is how the artist portrayed polish as a pig. And in one of the story he said that the polish is a capitalist or some sort. So I guess the polish are portrayed as a capitalist pig?? I don’t really know how to react with that.

Other than that., I really like the style that the artist used to draw this comic.  It is very stylized, simple, and clear. Even with the thick line, I can still read it easily. Even the words are not that much which makes it easier to enjoy the drawing and following the stories. However, i was quite surprised when i realized that this book is considered to be a graphic novel. with all of the consistent panel and serious tone, i always treat it as comic. I did not expect this to be graphic novel other than the sophisticated story telling. I mean, i we compared to Craig Thompson's approach for graphic novel, He make sure that the panel itself is an art, even for the sound effect was drawn in a way that it doesnt really distract us from the object, but instead enhance it. however, in Maus, the sound effect was drawn in  a way that it is similar to comics in my opinion. I guess, this is what makes graphic novels different than the comics, i guess it is because the use of language in Maus seems more matured than the one that i always read in comics.

Reading Maus has been a wonderful experience. I always wanted to read this but I didn’t get a chance to. I know the context because my friend recommended this book to me a few years ago. It’s just that I didn’t have time and interest back then because all I care about back then was reading Japanese comic. Now, after being exposed to the world comics and graphic novels, I tried to give this a go and so far, I did not regret it. these books is a wonderful read, it made it easy to learned about the history during the Nazi Reign, maybe not that detailed but I got a better understanding on what is happening. 

Donald Ducks Comic

As the comic strips slowly gains in popularity and evolved their form into a legit comic book, many company and artist tries to explore a new way to make full use of the new format.  Some tries to make a longer story that exceeds 1 comic book. Some make use of the large panel to show more detail of the drawing or because they want the reader to focus on that picture first, or maybe to emphasize on the establishing shot.

I remember one of my favorite comic when I was child was Donald duck by Carl Barks. I really enjoy the simplicity of their story and their adventurous journey on each book. Each story is also really short compared to any other comic books and there are not a lot of words in the comic. That is why it is really easy to read quite fun to read in in the free time. The character also a well-established character as I was grown watching a lot of Disney cartoons.  

It was really a fun read even until now. I still enjoy the journey of the Uncle Scrooge, Donald and the nephew. However, as I was beginning to read more and more comics, I realize that the older comics don’t seems to have a lot of variety in their panel. It was pretty even from the beginning until the end. The only panel that is different than the other usually the beginning of the story where the panel is bigger, but throughout the the story, the panel pretty much stays the same.

 I can understand if maybe during that time they still need time to adjust to the style since the comics was publish during the transitional period between the comic strip and comic book period. However, as I browse through his work until his latest work, it seemed that his panel styles are barely changed a lot. It is pretty similar with Tintin comic by Herge. Their even panel sizes seemed to be their trademark since, just like Carl Barks, the template of Tintin comic barely changed. it makes me wonder, what would happen if they decided to change the style of their comic book, to follow the trend. Take the marvel comic for example. 

As we compared the 2 images of the captain America comic book, We can see that there is a changed in their panel style.  that is why it makes me wonde,if Carl Barks considering changing his styles to cope with the trend, will it make any different in the popularity. We know that Donald duck has been pretty popular across the country. However, it makes me pretty curious whether the changes will make Donald duck gain more fans or lose more fans. However, I don’t think those Ideas will be made possible as the creator itself has passed away and I guess it would be rude if we tried to changed the legacy that he has created for us.

For this week, we are supposed to read a comic strip for the assignment for the week. This is one of the assignments that I really like because I enjoy reading comic strip. I mean generally I really like reading comic, Japanese comic or manga exactly but for some reason I really enjoy reading comic as well, especially after my eyes were open with more comic strip like Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes.  It is simple, short and entertained. I remembered when I was a child I really can’t wait to read Ferd’nand, a comic strip by Henning Dahl Mikkelsen or Mik. It is about a life of a father that revolves around his family. It is short, funny and the most interesting part is that the comic doesn’t really have a balloon speech.  So the whole stories are being told in a pantomime manner which I really appreciate now as I learned to draw properly. It takes a quite an experience to masterfully obtained the skills. Here is one of the examples of his work. It is really interesting on how these four panels tell the whole story and the humor.

 

 

So for this week, I am reading several of the comic strips like the little nemo in the palace of ice, Calvin and Hobbes and the Peanuts. Overall, It is a enjoyable read. I got to see more kind of comic strip than what I have read when I was a kid. What piques my interest is the Little Nemo’s adventure by Winsor Mckay. So far, I only know him as the pioneer of the animation with his story of Little nemo that are supposedly based on his comic strip. However I have never seen his comic style until now. After reading some of his little nemo adventure, I become quite enjoying his comic strip. In a way, his comic strip story is really relatable to my experience every time as I woke up from my sleep. Sometimes I get a pretty whimsical dream that really affect the way I thought every time I woke up, even after waking up, the dream effect still lingers in my head that It will take time to get me into the real world sometimes. The chasing and the fall are really the one that really hit me because I usually had that kind of dream which makes me waking up in the middle of the night.

Not only that it is relatable, I really enjoy his imagination of the dream world. The whimsical world that is different on each short story really what makes me wonder how he got all of his inspiration. With the weekly printing for over than 20 years really leave me in awe. Even the whimsical world even that is related to everyday accident you can find when you woke up, like a blanket falls, or being shocked after something scary happen. 

Overall, I really enjoy the Little Nemo. His whimsical setting really what makes me interesting with the comic. The character might sounds a little bit too neutral when it comes to characteristic compared to other comic strips. However, the setup of the world itself pretty much covers the lack of characteristic and emotion of some of the characters, especially the main character, Nemo. I guess pretty much the reason there is a lack of emotion or characteristic is because the main character is always being dragged on, which is quite makes sense. Overall, I really like this week reading and I can’t really wait what kind of comic am I going to read next week.

Scott McCloud on Understanding comics

When I read the “understanding Comic” by Scott McCloud and his Ted talk, there is one topic that really pique my interest, which is how we often fill the gap in each sequence of the comic in our mind, and how the in between panel within the comic represent time. It didn’t really occur to me at first because I guess I automatically doing it my head and now it become more apparent and I can see how many artist really utilize it to shorten their sequence or even prolonged it.

The genre that really makes full use of this idea is usually action or sports comic. Normally, the artist uses a pretty much even pacing in their comics especially in the dialogue heavy section. However, I realize that in action or sports manga, they really make a full use of the sequence. Some parts really slow and the next, it become faster.one of the example of the faster sequence is in this comic, ace of the Diamond, a baseball comic that is released in 2006

These 8 pages depicted on what happen during the last 2 innings. Though 2 innings seems like a lot of time has passed, the artist drew just the key moments in each panel which makes the timeline becomes really short. In this case, the artist only drew the sequence where the pitcher threw a strike pitches or a very effective pitches and the batter who unable to respond to the ball or fail to give a good hit. He did it with both teams which show how these 2 innings has been an intense innings where the pitchers are very aggressive that made both teams unable to score in baseball match.

However, there is also some artist who tries to play around with the idea of timing and pacing. In the Ted talks, Scott McCloud mentioned that there are several artists who tries to invent a way to read the comics, which is really interesting because they provide a new way to enjoys comics.  However, I believe there are a lot of varieties that the artist can invent to give a new sensation of reading comics. In this example that I have taken from a comic called, One-punch man, the artist experimented on the timing of each panel.

 

In this example above, the artist decided to use experiment on making a sequential drawing each page, which is unheard of in the comic history in my opinion.i guess, it is pretty similar with one of the example that Scott McCloud showed, the Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo, but this artist, Murata Yusuke, make it even more prominent. In a way, the artist tries to reimagine this sequence as if the chapter itself will be published into a cartoon. That is shown in this gif that is taken from forum that got really interested with the artist work. Here you can see that the gif itself moved like it is an animated