Revise: Blankets

I had never really expected to like blankets as much as I did. By appearance alone it is a little on the intimidating size it clocks in around 600 pages. A heart wrenching coming to age story is usually not my thing either but, after reading the first few pages I became hooked. I wanted to know more about this character Craig a socially awkward teenager who can't really fit in all to well. Craig goes to church camp where he meets Raina and the story of the first love unfolds.

This is were I think most people can connect and why this Graphic Novel became a thriving success. Whether someone was an awkward teenage or not everyone has had their first love. Everyone can relate to the feelings Craig has for Raina and the pain he goes through when they break up. I began to love the story because I began to see myself in it, like everyone else I had my bout of first love in high school and it was actually somewhat close to Craig and Raina's story. It became so personal to me that at times it almost brought me to tears. I love blankets because it provokes my own memories and it is really something I can relate to. In the same matter I think it relates to everyone and is the soul reason why everyone should love this story. If I come across the few who probably do not love this story, it leads me to believe that they cannot see through the exterior of a boy and his relationship they should open up and really let it encompass them. Well that or they never had a first love, and if they didn't have a first love chances are they were awkward in high school. So either way it really should speak to people.

JTHM

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac almost perfectly aimed to the audience who reads it almost turning itself into cult classic for the high school hottopic goths. I went through a "goth" phase in high school where my favorite store was Hottopic and no one understood me. Even though I had never read Johnny back then all of my friends worshiped it. Similar to Invader Zim, the author aimed the comic towards one social group and was very successful.

As a reformed Goth kid, I think material Like JTHM attracts the minds of Goths because it portrayed the feelings that we had "deep down". Psychopaths, Homicide and torture were very cool in the comic book form because it was so different. Passe normal people could never like something like that. (Even though Dexter is now one of the most popular shows around) It was cartoon enough to take any realism out. Real homicide, in the news, totally not cool possibly even boring? Who watches the news, the squares. No one understod us goth kids but JTHM did, he knew exactly how we felt. People may think it weird to pin teddy bear heads but not johnny he knows we are simply misunderstod.

Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and Arkham Assylum

Watchmen is the graphic novel that got me into reading graphic novels. It redefine what I thought comics were and opened up my eyes to a great world that I had been missing for most of my life. The concept of the anti-hero really struck me, this novel wasn't full of Good Guys fighting the bad guys. It was up to me to decide whether Ozymandias' reason for killing millions of people was justified. Killing millions, that sort of sounds like a bad guy, but to save billions? Watchmen is very gray and Alan Moore's critique of the superhero concept is perfection. No one character is necessarily good or bad.

After reading watchmen I moved on to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which I thought was equally as great I feel it recreated the concept of batman he is not just a superhero but a tortured anti-hero who becomes obsessed with the villains he hunts. Of all the Frank Miller novels that I have read, this was my favorite. It deals with the anti hero again, a type of character that I love in all media. The anti-hero takes the perfect hero and beats him down until he is flawed and normal just like every human. The storied are often dark but that is the exact reason that I love them, if I wanted a light version of superheros I would just watch The Incredibles over and over again.

For my actual reading this week I read Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. I had previously tried to read this just a few months ago but it was hard for me to get past the first few pages. Between the distracting pictures, small text and the tv being on I could not focus. After sitting down in a silent room and reading it, I have fallen in love. Arkham Asylum took all the elements of the previous novels I mentioned and combined them. Batman again is portrayed as an anti-hero which I believe is a result of Frank Millers work. The novel is a complete pyscological peice batman is forced into the minds of the very villians that he hunts and almost breaks because of it. The novel also gives a good background of the Arkham Asylum and shows how even the founder is driven insane. Batman is taken from being flawed to almost down right deamed crazy as if he belongs with all the fellow inmates.

Scooter Girl

Scooter Girl made me want to punch myself in the face. Going into the manga within the first few pages I could tell that it was going to be a angsty romance novel. So I tried to channel my inner girly high school self in hopes that I could come out of this manga enjoying it. I was unsuccessful I did not channel my inner girl well enough or this manga was just to much cheese for me to handle. It is so unoriginal that its obnoxious a popular boy who has it all meets a girl who he cant get and makes him fall on his ass. He tries to move away and he slowly regains his life but of course who shows up but the mystery girl that cant get and his life falls to shreds again. This whole process kind of continues until the end when he confesses that he really does like her and doesnt just want to get in her pants and they ride off into the sunset on there scooters. Ick. Throughout the manga I coninously caught myself saying things 'really...? really??'

The bottom line of this primarily being the art was nothing special the story was certainly nothing special. I could have found something much better to do with my hour that it took me to read the first volum.

Jimmy Corrigan

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, my friend who had previously had this class told me how much I would like especially being a GIC major. I kind of shrugged it off until I opened up the graphic novel to read and it really took me away. First off the style of the graphic novel is absolutely fantastic. The saturated colors that worked so well together the very architectural drawings that were placed on the page with absolute presision. It made my inner deisgn nerd very very happy. I liked the added elements as well the added pages that had complete cut outs and directions to make a pop up house, or the other that made a really cool flying device. It makes me want to go buy my own copy so i can tear the book up and end up with a cool paper air plane. There were also diagrams thrown in here and there that were very cool very graphic, structured, and awesome.

The story was very sudtle but very good, it was just about a man who is trying to reconnect with his father that he had never met before. Chris Ware did such a fantastic job making the reader really feel for Jimmy. He was so alone and sad and sort pathetic I just wanted to reach inside of the book and hug him. It almost began to be hard to read about his sad and lonely life but I couldnt put the graphic novel down. Jimmy had dreams about what his life could have been like and in a very sad and depressing way it sort of reminded me of the childish dreams of Nemo. I very much enjoyed everything about this graphic novel possibly not the feeling of pitty I had for Jimmy but I will surely be adding the Graphic Novel to my collection.

Monster

It took me a while to get back into swing of reading manga its backwards so it took effort to read. Which panel comes next kind of deal. Or reading the panels in the wrong order and getting thoroughly confused until I can sort everything out. Beyond all that I really enjoyed monster. It had a pretty captivating story. I have always liked the medical drama type show so this was kind of right up my alley. Though I suppose the story wasnt totally original surgeon with a heart who is being used by his heartless boss but, nothing is really original these days. I come across a lot of manga that is angsty teen romance, mechas, or some crazy story revolving ninjas and demons. So a sort of medical drama was a breath of fresh air for me in the manga world.
The art style was basically what I expected it to be. It looked very much like manga. Manga has its very distinct style sharp features big eyes, etc. So nothing really fascinated me about the artwork, I liked the story enough to possibly read the next volume.

King By Ho Che Anderson

King is a biographical graphic novel of Martin Luther King Jr. it followed Kings life from boyhood through college. I have no idea how accurate it was because I don't know my facts are King's life through the earlier years. This graphic novel was very wordy and it gave me quite the hard time to read it. I of course think that MLK was a great man but I not expecting a visual biography even though the title of the graphic novel is King. Reading this reminded me of high school doing a report on MLK, it bore me and slowly reading this graphic novel became more of a pain then anything else. I can understand why this graphic novel could be considered to be great especially for people who want to know more about MLK. I would actually recommend it to anyone who has an interest in MLK they would surely enjoy it. Me not really being one of those people I could have most definitely done without trying to get through it at all.

The one thing that did interest me about King was the art style. It was black and white and very bold. It reminded me of a stamp. I think it fit the sort of dramatic and bold feeling of the narrative. The parts that were in color were just as wonderful. Anderson dawned a somewhat of a impressionistic feel that greatly contrasted the black white but in a very successful way. I had heard good things about King and I really do wish I could have enjoyed it much more than I did. I think you really have to be a history buff to enjoy this one.

Maus

Maus tells the tale of an artist who decides to write a comic book based on his Father's recount of the Holocaust, which, in fact, is what the author is doing based on his own Father's experiences. The book spans about 4 decades from the mid-thirties to the seventies, covering the pre-WWII period to the time when the author is actually exploring the past with his Father and writing this book. There are two stories intertwined marvelously in this book: a first-hand survivor's experience of life before, during, and after the Holocaust, and that of a relationship between an ageing Father and young-to-middle aged son who have a serious disconnect.

The two stories could actually have been written independently, but it is their excellent juxtaposition which is one of the clear highlights of the book, for it has a multiplier affect on the poignancy of both the Father's and the Son's situations. Each of the stories themselves is well crafted, managing to weave together a bunch of incidents across points in time to create a very smoothly flowing narrative. I was particularly impressed by the telling of the Father-Son relationship, for it manages to pick and show very small events which we know can cumulatively build up to create tremendous long-term frustration, but are almost never able to remember, or recount effectively, or demonstrate the impact of, either to ourselves or to others. Art picks his moments beautifully, and even though the setting is completely different.

I really enjoyed the these two Graphic Novels over all, I thought they were powerful and really embraced that hardships of the Holocaust. These Graphic Novel went fast for me and I was actually able to read them in one sitting. These Graphic Novel really impacted me and I feel it was the best Graphic Novel or Novels that I have read in this class.

Need more Love

I thought this was a very interesting memoir it is very different from most. It is part scrapbook, diary, and comic book. It was enjoyable in its non traditionalness. It was so personal and the fact that it was not just a written book made it seem like it was so much more personal to her than a book. It seemed touched, she definitely put herself into the memoirs.

The comics themselves told a story but, I did not like the comics that much. The art was not very good at all it reminded me of something I would have done in high school. Usually I would try to work past bad art id a good story emerges but, the strip was very scattered busy the text was small handwritten and hard to read. It would have taken some kind of crazy concentration to be able to focus on the comic strip and be able to understand what was going on. So with the overall busyness and the bad art it was very difficult for me to appreciate the comic strips in this memoir.

I can definitely appreciate this memoir as personal and very non traditional, but as a comic book I didn't really like it to much. The art work was very poor and very hard to follow.

Mr. Natural

I thought Mr. Natural was very strange. The artist style reminded me of something that would belong in the funnies something that could very easily be confused for a kids comic but, it was most definitely geared for a mature audience. From the first couple of panels that I read drug use was widely and rather nonchalantly mentioned. Mr. Natural advised the other character to take LSD and twist some nipples. In the following story Mr. Natural asked the other character if he was still on acid and the character confirmed. Sex was also a common topic of the comic, Mr. Natural was quite the sleazy old man who lusted for women in a very vulgar way.

It was a very wordy comic, more on the conversation side then action. From panel to panel it was mainly Mr. Natural giving advice to another person. There was no real action and very little actually happened. Each story was short only a few pages long. They didn't really seem to have much of a story to them at all that I could really follow. To say the very least I did not enjoy Mr. Natural it was certainly for "Mature Audiences" in quite the over the top vulgar kind of way.

Plastic Man

Before reading this essay I had never heard of Jack Cole before. I found that through reading he is probably one of the comic books world's least recognized and by far most troubled geniuses. This essay provides a great biography of his life from his childhood to his entrance into the world of comic books. Jack Cole was responsible for Plastic Man one of the most prized strips from the golden age.

I found that Spiegleman's essay was less a biography, and more of a tribute to Cole by S who writes with admiration, and artist's awe. Spiegleman, wisely allows Cole's work to stand-alone. The book contains two full Plastic Man stories and a riveting True Crime tale. The latter part of the book also includes Cole's work for Playboy, which helped shaped the young magazine's artistic style, and his own daily comic strip, "Betsy and Me."

From all reasonable accounts, Cole was good-humored, and possessed the wherewithal to endure the long hours of the early comic book industry, perhaps evident by his creation Plastic Man, a criminal who reforms when a chemical spill makes his body rubber. However, Spiegelman also demonstrates Cole was a man at odds with himself, brewing an internal conflict that would eventually prove too much a burden to live with. Though he could earn greater respect, and wealth, from his own comic strip, and watercolors for Playboy, respectively, the freeform page layouts and fun evident in Plastic Man give way to art which, when seen in a full collection such as this, evoke a great sadness.

Blankets

I really liked blankets, it was a very nice coming to age story with theme of it's better to have loved and lost then to never of loved at all. The art was expressive with its bold black lines. Blankets told a story that almost everyone can relate to your first love as a teenager.

The story starts out with the main character Craig and his brother sharing a bed when they are young children, the fight over the blankets. You then follow Craig through school, he is an outcast and is often made fun of and beat up. As he grows older it shows that he attends a church camp every year, through faith he expects to find salvation but he finds to be in the same situation he is in at school. Made fun of because he is different because he is poor. One year he meets other outcasts that he enthused about until he finds out that two of them do drugs and pressure and judge him like all the other kids but this time for not being different enough. Among the outcasts he meets Raina who he is instantly taken aback by, their friendship blossoms when they are at camp. After camp they continue to talk through letters and on the phone everytime Craig talks to her he falls more and more in love with her. He convinces his parents to let him visit Raina for a few weeks. At Raina's their relationship blossoms even more, and Craig finds out how stressful and how much baggage Raina carries through her family. She sews him a quilt. After Craig leaves Rainas house to go back home not to long after they break up becuase Raina needs some space she still wants to be best friends, but soon after there communication stops all together. Craig burns everything that reminds him of Raina except for the blanket he made for him. Craig moved out of his house and established a life elsewhere. When he finally returns home for Christmas one year he reconnects with his brother and feels he still has the universe in front of him.

I was disapointed by the ending of the comic, probably because I am female and wished for some sort of reuinon from Craig and Raina but no such thing happend. It was then that I realized the moral of the story its better to love and loose then to never have loved at all. It was a sweet graphic novel that I enjoyed reading, I was also suprised that I was able to read through it in one sitting since it is around 600 pages. It hit home with me as well, I went through something just like thi story in high school. First love one of the mandatory parts of growing up.

Family Matters

Family Matters was much different then what I had expected. I was expecting something light and colorful but I was surely mistaken this Graphic Novel was dark and explored what it meant to be a family. The opening quote read. "Families are really physically indistinguishable from each other. They wear no badges. They are after all, tribal units to which their members belong by virtue of a biological event. And they are held together by a magnetic core that sometimes seems to be neither love nor loyalty." This quote in its essence describes Will Eisner's Family Matters.

The story begins with a man asking for a loan to go out of town to go to his fathers 90s birthday that on of his sisters is holding. As the story progresses each family member is introduced they each have there issues and back story and they are all headed to there fathers birthday party. As each family member shows up at there sisters house it becomes quite clear that none of the family members actually like each other, they are just obligated to be there because they are indeed family. Arguments and drama persists heavily through the family paying no attention to the reason why they have actually have gotten together to see their father. They have no concern of their father except when he will die so they will be able to collect on his will. Flash backs are also placed through the novel none of them being positive, all negative memories that each of them have with their father. The story ends with the family arguing over what to do with their father and they finally decide to place him in a cheap home because no one can take care of him. When they go to break the new to him they find that he has over dosed on his medicine and died. What they don't know is the quite nephew gave him to many pills to put him out of his misery and let him leave the awful family that he belongs to.

The style of this Graphic Novel was also very interesting it was black ink on white paper with an orange wash over it. The interesting part being that there are no distinct panels the entire page flows from one scene to another overlapping each other. This gives the graphic novel more of a modern feel and defiantly breaks away from the old tradition a rectangular frame around each panel.

A right to be Hostile: The boondocks

I can't really say weather I liked The boondocks or not. It was certainly very different than all the comics that I read for this assignment. It had a very simple plot, a grandfather and his two grandson move from Chicago to suburbia. The first thing that I really noticed about this comic is that it is the first comic that I am familiar with that has all main character that are black. I have no problems with this, it was more of the subject matter that made me dislike it. The boondocks is very racy, everything that the little boy Huey, the main character, talks about is his race. I had a hard time getting into getting into a comic that talks about not much more than his race, the ignorant white people around him and how he will never fit in. Quite a few good points were brought up modern culture and the main character himself is very quick witted, smart, and very clever.

It is also hard to define what kind of comic this is, its not action packed like Flash Gordon or Light hearted and cute like Calvin and Hobbes. There is a very strange sense of humor that could most definitely be considered satire or mocking parts of modern culture. The style of the comic I find to be fairly modern, there are gradients and shades in color, each character has much more detail in design that eludes slightly to there personality. This comic originated in the news paper funnies section and was eventually turned into a show that aired on the Adult Swim section of cartoon network. To say the least this different and bold comic was very succseful.

Flash Gordon Vol. 3

Out of all the comics that I read for this assignment. Flash Gordon would have to be my least favorite. The first thing I observed was the style of the comic it had very sketchy lines that were very busy. There was a lot going on in each panel. The colors did not help the situation they were bright and loud, very many at a time and usually primary colors though every now and again there would be a green or purple thrown in. From what I could tell this Volume was printed in a newspaper because at the end of every page it said that it would be continued next week.

For being in the newspaper the story was really consecutive through the entire volume there is one plot line. The plot line is really action packed there is always something ridiculous going on. This fastness of the plot is probably one the things that turned me off of the comic so much. For example in the first chapter you find flash gordon and hes friends trapped in a forest, they are soon found on a log in a lake fighting a dinosaur, they get out of the lake climb a tree and are instantly attacked by angry flying squirrel like creatures. Theres a short scene with Flash Gordon being romantic with the girl he is with but, that is short lives only for them to be attacked by a angry elephant. This is all going on while Flash Gordons enemies are in the same Jungle looking for him so they can kill him on sight. This was all in the first chapter and way to much for my tastes. The other chapters continue on in this exact way.

I can see why Flash Gordon would be a popular comic with young boys. A Superhero who is constantly fighting some sort of evil weather it be a dinosaur or flying squirell. The plot is also very fast paced which would keep the attention of a unfocused young boy. Alex Raymand may have also been trying to market it to teens because there is a good deal of Flash Gordon with women, I must say that Flash Gordon seemed to be quite the Womanizer. This comic may be very popular and well renouned espcilally for the time that it was printed in but it is most definietly not for me.

Calvin and Hobbes

I can honestly say that I have never read a Calvin and Hobbes comic before and I was really looking forward to finally reading some I have heard of how great they from a few of my friends. The story is primarily based on a boy that has a stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who is also his imaginary friend. The style of Calvin and Hobbes is extremely simple black lines with basic character designs. Most of the comics are just in black and white but, when the comic was originally published in the newspaper every Sunday comic was in color. The color really gave the Calvin and Hobbes a pop.
There isn't very much of a story in the comic because it was printed daily in the newspaper. As in most newspaper comics a short one shot thats cute, childish, and light. Every so often there are stories that would last about a week or so. There was a story about Calvin lost Hobbes and was going through a good deal of grief without him, the story lasted 7 stippes, one week. Most of the stories were really light hearted as I had mentioned. Some Calvin and Hobbes stories would deal with much darker subjects such as death. One strip was about Calvin and Hobbes finding a wounded Racoon, they try to rescue it but in the end it ends up dying. Its rather sad but, gave more depth and story to the usually light comic.
Calvin and Hobbes also had a lot to do with the imagination which greatly incompasses children. Many of the comic strips deal with, space ships, dinosaurs, and other wild imaginations of his. One of the greatly remembered strips was Calvins Transmogrifier machine which turns him into a young tiger and he runs around like that for a few strips until he decides he no longer wants to be a tiger.
I liked Calvin and Hobbes it reminded me of my childhood and I think it would still be very succsful if it was still printed in the newspaper today.

Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice

As a classic comic I thought Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice was quite fantastic. The story was light and the characters were rather simple. The style of the comic was very simple. Bold black lines that are somewhat sharp relatively stylized. The colors are almost like a wash of watercolors. The color themselves are pastel and overall suits the feeling of the comic.
The story starts off with the princess of slumberland and her playmate Nemo are visiting the Palace of Ice to see Jack Frost. They run into a few issues getting there when the ice stairs colapes, they run into a snowman ball, and have to take a sled to the Palace of Ice. They meet him and is warned to now shake his hand because he has a really tight grip. They also learn where snow comes from. They find out that the Palace of Ice is being torn apart. The princess and Nemo find themelf on a iceberg and get picked up by a pirate ship.
It is now good to mention that between everypage of the comic the last panel is the boy nemo being woken up from his dream and then the story continueing. With that being said the quick changes of scenery makes plenty of sense if it is a dream. The princess of slumberland and nemo find them self prisioner on a pirate ship rescued, after they are rescued there ship crashes and they end up in a place that seems like Africa, after they are in Africa they are in a modern city where the comic ends with Nemo and one of the guys he meets in Africa scaling buildings because he is gigantic.
One of the reason why I enjoyed this comic so much, was because I felt Winsor McCay so succsessfuly portrayed the little boy's dream. I felt like I have had dreams of that nature with such quickly changing scenery. The story was light and cute and fairly interesting since the scenery changed at a especially quick pace near the end.

The Arrival

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a beautiful illustrated Graphic Novel. It is completely silent having no words however; a magnificent story emerged. It is beyond me to think of how someone can create such a wonderful story using no dialogue what so ever.

The story opens with a man moving away from his family to a new world away from some sort of terrible monster, to get a start for when his family arrive. When he arrives in the new world he is in a completely foreign place. Strange letter, buildings and language. The man struggles to get by since he is completely lost in translation. Once he finds a place to stay he befriends what seems to be an ordinary rodent. The man then searches for food all of which looks very strange to him, one thing even reminds him of the monster from back home. Another man shares a memory with him from a monster from his home town, this other man invites him back to his home for dinner. It opens the next chapter of the man trying to find work, he finds a few jobs and continuously does them wrong. He ends up working in a factory where he meets an elder man who shares stories of his past in the army. The man sends a letter to his family as seasons pass he finally receives one telling him when they will arrive. His family arrives and they are again united in the new world.

I feel that this story is beautiful and in this situation the wonderful art work only helps move the story along. With the lack of word the more beautiful and realistic the art can be used without taking anything away from the story. I find that Shaun Tan also uses such strange buildings, letters, and food to emphasis that the man is in a new world. If we can understand nothing about the new world then we can relate more to the man who also understands nothing. This story parallels to immigration to the United States and helps readers understand the hard ships that immigrants had to endure. I would recommend this book to anyone you do not have to be a comic book lover to enjoy this graphic novel.

Understanding Comics

I have been reading the funnies since I was a little kid but, it wasn't until last year I indulged myself into the works of Alan Moore. I did not think much went into comics besides word and picture. After reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics I found out I was as wrong as ever. The psychology that is put into comics is quite ridiculous. I used to be one of those people who judge a comic by its art and was nearly not able to read watchmen, now one of my favorites, because I did not appreciate the art style. Through understanding comics I learned that artists sometimes choose a simpler art style so the reader could take in the content equally. A over detailed and realisitc art style could very easily take away from the message. I also learned simple things like the space inbetween each frame has a purpose and it is left up to the reader to determine and understand that purpose. To better understand Understand Comics McCloud broke the comic into 9 chapter each chapter explored a imprtant meaning.

1). Setting the Record Straight: Discusses a dictionary style definition of what a comic is.
2). The Vocabulary of Comics: Looks at icons in the comic book.
3). Blood in the Gutter: Establishing the different types of transitions between frames of comics.
4). Time Frames: Looks at how time plays a role in comics, and how it effects the overall experience and outcome of the story in the comic.
5). Living in Line: Explores motion and emotion and how it is made visible in comics.
6). Show and Tell: Explains how words and pictures work together in comics, and what combinations work and which combination means what.
7). The Six Steps: Idea/Purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft, Surface. Explains these six step and how they form the perfect comic.
8). A Word About Color: Shows the effect of color in a comic book.
9). Putting It All Together.

Each of these chapters opened my eyes to something that I have never realized before. There is a real interaction between the comic and the reader. Seeing what put in between each frame, recognizing what simple lines mean, and making the connection from panel to panel. This comic about comics gave me much more than I had expected. I now feel even more prepared to tackle the world of comics now that I have a firm understanding of how they tick.

A blog for my class

This blog is for my Literature of Comic book and graphic novel class at Ringling College. I will be reading and responding on certain comic books and graphic novels that are assigned to me. I look forward to expanding my knowledge on the subject and reading multiple Comic books.