web comics

for web comics i read octopuspie and oglaf which are two totally different stories in the sense in how they are written but i picked these two because there where web comics that had a nice layout that allowed me to access older material and felt systematic in the way they where laid out on the web. some of the other felt very clumsy and awkward on how they displayed there comic and it really threw me off. octopuspie was really wonderful and had a great story line i really liked that it was like a traditional comic strip but they would throw in animated giffs of like every once in awhile which i thought gave it a nice twisted and gave it something traditional media couldn't offer yet still had elements that made it familiar. oglaf was pretty funny and what made me right off the bat was the little press if you are 18 i thought it was funny that it said if you are not 18 have your parent press the button to allow you to look at the content and that made me want to read it because it has a humor in all details thought it was very much a sex fantasy comic it never felt that sexual even when the content was just because to me the writing and the play on old stories with this sex humor twist kinda made it shine like the very much a mainly barbarians being gay and another man giving birth to a girl and him being mad about it just kinda made me laugh in because it was just so odd and throwout every notion you have of barbarians. or the sperm who would let the his teacher know every tie he was masturbating was just funny and really well thought out.

Promethea

Promethea had to be one of my favorite comics i have read this far it is wonderful from the the art style to making fun of other super heros like the five swell guys who are like the fantastic five but these are normal people and are dealing with personal issues when they run into sophie  before she is turned into promethea which is kinda funny the true super heros are not the super heros and the people that shouldn't be the super heros turn into them which is something i love alan moore. i really love the use of mythology in this serious from what i have read it adds a lot to the story and keeps me wanting more also these dream like states and flash backs which give you are more in-depth look into the story and add a lot to the story from her doing back into a dream the rescue her friend who is stuck in the woods being guilty a gorilla why pets die. its just an all around interesting take on the super heros in general and makes you rethink super heros and is just interesting and i don't think this books could never be told as well in a movie a comic book is perfect for this story.

Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp was a great read for being an artiest and being a graphic designer the use of type in this book was wonderful the text bubbles are made fit the characters persanilities perfectly from asterios having geometric straight lines text bubbles because he is very ridged and geometric and pretty much a stiff who is a man how has own awards for his architecture yet none of the things he has designer have ever been made. his wife's text bubbles are very organic and free flowing like her art and personality she is the total opposite of who he is and this books has a great way of showing this through the art style there is always a contrast of organic and inorganic shapes which seems to clash and combined together. and though the art style is wonderful and tells a great story in itself i think the writing of the books is wonderful and kinda shines light that we need to leave are attitudes at the door even if we are good at something on paper you have to be able to show it no matter what you are doing in life.

Black Sad

The most striking thing about Black Sad is how amazing detailed the illustrations are they are drop dead gorgeous even the panel transitions are done extremely well. though the story is generic crime story it is pretty graphic in showing in full detail in the murders in what it shows. also to a big thing is all the characters in the story are animals yet you truly don't feel like they are. they are humanistic in the waY they behavior and in the story and world they are told and the novel pulls of having a black panther in a suite yet making him feel like a man that is kinda crazy i think its do to the amazing detail the work is in because if it was drawn in anything less then realistic you wouldn't think of the characters the same and you would be put out of the story. it also wouldn't do the story justice because it would make it feel unreal and if it was a human you wouldn't put yourself in black sads shoes while he is trying to find the killer and killing bad guys.

Battle Angel Alita "Last Order" Vol 1 #1-#6

Battle Angel Alita was really my first look ever at manga its been something for some reason i have put off looking at for reasons i dont know why probably my preconceived wrong notions of what manga is truly about. but i am happy a read Battle Angel Alita which changed those notions it was a wonderful story about something i think all young people feels like happens to older people that there brain is replaced with a computer chip making them not the same as young adults who have yet to have this happen. and in a weird way it this whole story to me is all about questioning what makes use human or just a cyborg and the conflict between two groups who say they are right and will kill for it. it had a lot of substance and was really enjoyable to read the biggest thing that was a problem for me was the panel transition going on the other side which threw me off for a little while. but this book made me want to explore more manga and not everything is like dragon ball z.

Persepolis the movie

Persepolis was a wonderful movie from a side of the story that is hardly seen and not known about to myself and probably a lot of people i know of the people of  an Iranian's during the islamic revolution through the eyes of a young girl trying to express herself during a time where women are oppressed even still to this day are treated like lesser beings then men. the art style wonderful which fits the story from when they first are made to put on the vail and lose there identity and become what someone else wants them to be. i also really loved the use of metal and punk music in this move even pop with her little button of Michael jackson which seems like not a big deal now but being in a place with such strict views michael jackson is a hell razor with way different rebels views. and iron maiden who has sometimes has had controversy of Satanist references in there music. i also love that her family try's everything to not get her to conform most coming from her grandmother who always tells her to never let down your morals and that you will meet a lot of people who will do stupid things but that you need to think of them as dumb and not yourself you are able to see there faults and not go down the same path. in all it was a really wonderful film that tough me a lot of what had happened in iranian and also to say and do what you believe is right and never let your morals go because someone else doesn't like them

Maus by Art Spiegelman

I found mouse to be a wonderful read both comic and first glance I thought it was going to take me forever to ready with both books being over 150 pages long. But the more I read the more I lost track of times this book truly sucks you in to not only to the story of Spiegelmans fathers events of being a Jew in Germany though world war II and being sent to Auschwitz but into Spiegelmans life in general. from his mother suicide to the way his father who hordes found thing and will not pay for anything and how Spiegel man and his wife and mother in law have to deal with him and there own personal trouble. It gives the stories a real personal and raw emotion that you don’t get from stories about the holocaust a full look at everything from the past to the present.

            What really gave this narrative a very great edge was he didn’t use people besides for when he shows a comic about dealing with his mother’s suicide, which added a nice touch to the book and helped connect things and show his true feeling of this mothers death. But I love the choice of using cats as the Nazis, mice as the Jews and pigs as everyone else which helped I think me engage with the story though it was about his father I could put myself in his shoes and I liked his choice of rats for this time period because rats are thought to be dirty things that need to be killed. and that’s how Nazis thought of the Jewish people and in turn Nazis being cats who are know to kill mice and even play with them as they are dyeing before they eat them. And everyone else as pigs, which are just, know as eating anything and not caring. I really enjoyed when they where sneaking out to get food or to find knew shelter to hid to not be sent to a death camp speigelman used pig mask on Anaje and his fathers characters which I thought was great and added and really let you know they where in hiding. I really enjoyed this book and though I thought it was going to be a long read I read it pretty fast because I was so invested in these narratives they where like reading a movie yet you could truly put yourself in them better then any book or movie you could ever see because the visuals really help put this story to a whole nether leave that I don’t think any other medium would do this story justice.

underground comics

i read i few different underground comics from are classes rescues stuff from Robert Crumb's Whiteman, fat freddy cat and some tits and clits. for me this was my first time reading any sort of underground comic before this class i was uses to some main stream comic super heros and news paper comic strips whens news papers where still truly around. The biggest thing that stood out was how most deal with sex in atlas in one issue if not throughout the whole serious not so much for fat freddy cat but alot of weed and human violence towards his cat which is different then the norm because knowing if it was a main stream comic peta would be after then because they have nothing better todo. but the best thing about reading these three was i got to see the broad range of what underground comics where all about robert crumbs whiteman was all about sexual fantasy with a bigfoot something that you would never see besides in a comic, also tits and clits which is all into female empowerment and breaking stereo types about sex and female roles in general. it showed me that underground comic like all comics they can be a really great medium to get your message or fantasy throughout and are really true to everyday life with issues that mainstream comics will not touch.

A Contract with God

Will Eisner A Contract with God was a really great and enjoyable read for me though it was dark with death in most of the short stories. The narrative does a great job with showing the characters inner and outer lives who live in the apartment complex. the one that really stands out to me was the one about the tenant who everyone thinks is just a rough mean man, but who really is just someone who is lonely and feels outcast and who has his money stolen by a young girl who looks innocent but is really the cold hearted one who kills his dog and in the end the man commit suicide and dies with people thinking he was a brut and the girl is looked at as the poor innocent one, which is true to life that sometimes we only judge people based on looks without knowing who they truly are and this rings through throughout the stories in this narrative.

Little Nemo

Litte Nemo left me a little conflicted whether i truly liked the stories or not. on one had the first few where really great most the stories are about troubles going on in there lives and them being in a dream state and at the end they wake up.. and that is what conflicts me mainly because after awhile you knew they would wake up in the end of there dreams and it kinda got board with that and the stories became more predictable and took some of the suspense for me. it wasn't that the stories where not fun and interesting they where. but i knew they would wake up and that it was all a dream... but i guess i just need to forget that its all a dream because the stories where so fun and interesting about life in a weird and very dream like state.

Krazy Kat

while reading Krazy Kat the first thing that comes to my mind is pre tom and jerry probably because that its about a cat and a mouse who are causing trouble and what i grew up with as a kid. besides that i found Krazy Kat really interesting to read the language they use very interesting and added a lot to the stories and i felt like the characters come to life because of it. the way the panels are layout and the action give you a lot with very little but works well and the comic comes to life. i really enjoyed krazy kat it was a very fun read.

Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics the invisible art by Scott McCloud was an all around great read with a lot of interesting looks into how comic are formed. i think one of the things that was really caught my attention was that it doesn't matter the medium a comic is made in whether it be traditional ink or all photographic to collages. its all about the juxtaposition and sequence of events. which was kinda eye opening to me because my range of comics has been very limited and it kinda opened my eyes to think of comics in a different way.

Max Ernst

First panel

There is a woman in the forefront doing this weird pose like a ritual and there is a person in the background who seems to be dead. there is also a weird chicken on a sphere.

Second panel

There is this person in a bird costume and a woman who looks to be ill on a bed it looks like she is seeing a spiritual healer or part of a cult. there is a recurring chicken in the watching.

Third panel

Now this is a women in a coffin that has been placed in a whole there are two chicken people looking at her and a women who is undressing its like something a cult would do to someone that had died or that they killed.

Forth panel

This scene is really weird there are two woman who look to be dyeing or are dead a chicken person is still in this panel but he is with another man who looks like a mystic  and they are in what seem to look like a church.

Fifth panel

This scene is totally different and actually shows someone who is truly dead with blood on the ground where she lays half way on her bed but this time the chicken person is walking into the door and looks shocked to see her dead there are also two small chicken looking at her dead body

Sixth panel

This scene is also different then the rest there is to woman dancing which a chicken person hiding and watching them without them noticing like he is stalking them

exploring the question of how wordless comics like The Arrival can tell complex stories without using words

The Arrival by Shaun Tan's was a wonderful wordless narrative though it is the first wordless narrative I have ever read/looked at I can see the complexity in which it is able to tell the story. The first thing I noticed while reading/looking at the images was the sense of emotion you get like starting out with the picture of him and his family and going through the emotions you already get the picture of what is to come then it opens up to a full bleed image of him and his wife with there hands holding on a suitcase looking at it in a sorrow you totally understand in these to pages someone if not all will be leaving. The book also uses a really great grid system which allows it to tell the story really well allowing for larger images to be placed with small squares to really and emphasis to important images in the story. It also uses cropping in these smaller squares help by just zooming in onto parts that really tell the story like when his daughter is holding his hand before he get on the train if it was just an image that was not cropped on there hand it wouldn't have looked as dramatic. Also the full spread images give the story this giant feeling. This narrative is like a great silent film it shows the parts that will hit you and and enough back information to let you fully understand the story.