Week 13 |April 23| Superheros Reconsidered

Batman the killing joke questions:
1.) What is your reaction to the text you just read?

It was very emotional and dramatic. The colors and shading were intense and contrasting. It felt a lot like a conglomeration of animated movie stills. It felt very cinematic and action packed in every still- it is a sad origin story that is mainly focused on the villain. You feel disgust and hate for the Jokers actions as a reader, but also sorrow for his past. The menacing and evil stills contribute to this creepy and evil feeling you get from the Joker. As for the hero- i feel as if batman is trying his best, but he could do better to catch up with the Jokers tracks and try to stop him more deliberately. Batman is still seen in this as an iconic character that captures the feeling of heroism. 

2.) What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect. 

I am not able to completely connect with the characters good and evil because the events in their lives do not relate to anything I've been through. since i have not experienced much loss in my life- I personally do not think it makes logical sense for him to be losing his mind so quickly. Turning into a psychopath. I think they should have had more of a dramatic reaction to his wife dying, and the post-loss that drove him mad rather than events happening so quickly. I do like the fact that he was a failed stand up comedian and takes out his evil plans inspired by attempting to be humorous. I cannot also connect to batman because personally i would have wanted to try harder in finding the joker and allowing him to live constantly just creates more problems. Simply put i would have just killed the Joker and ended it no matter what life he has worth living, its not worth to torment many lives of innocents. 

3.) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I would adapt this comic into movie-grade material such as the super hero movies that have been adapted today such as wonder woman. The cinematic stills serve as a good basis for the camera angles and dramatic feel that would be used in a movie. I would have changed the script and jokers origin story. Some parts in the comic are very climatic, and some are anticlimactic and don't move you as much. This can be changed by emphasizing the jokers suffering and loss. Making the viewer more aware of his pain and suffering and will do to terrible crimes that live up to his evil name. The script is also a bit cheesy at times on the Jokers part. It is a very dark version of Batman as it is meant to be, but for a movie it could be darker. 

Week 12 |April 16| Women in Comics

Week 11 |April 9| Contemporary Graphic Literature

April 9th

Tale of one bad Rat

This comic is about a homeless girl who lives in Britain and has strange encounters with other homeless people on the street. There are some flashbacks showing her past. It shows that she is suicidal but has a reason to live, which is taking care of the rat. The pictures are vivid and the narrative seems to be taking place sometime in the past. 

Comics Clowes Ice Haven

This is a realistic narrative with modern satire that tells it how it is. There's a man who observes the neighborhood around him and he explains what happens. Children are back talking the adults and having a hard time getting along. The colors are very simple and have this 50's retro style to them. These just seem like realistic experiences of growing up. 

Love and Rockets #23

For this comic it seems like this woman lures men into her house in this dysfunctional neighborhood and uses them. After that she kills them and draws their picture on the wall. The children are drawn more innocent and cartoon style than the adults with a more realistic style. 

Comics American Splendor Our Movie Year 2004.pdf

There's a lot of text that explains events in a mans life as a writer on HBO. It shows the same pictures of the same man throughout on different adventures. It seems like this is his way of collecting or gaining material for his writings. The drawings are detailed and small at times with a lot of shadows, the  they seem to be cartoon themed and more simple as well.

Bone 1

This is a scholastic comic about a bone who is wandering with his friends in the desert and comes across bugs and monsters. He get separated from his friends and becomes alone, running away or befriending the monsters of the desert as he tries to regroup. The backgrounds are painted nicely in what seems to be watercolor.  

Week 10 |April2| Manga

This week i read Battle angel Alita

The style of the comics seems like more realistic anime than I've usually seen. I'm used to less textured fills and rather more simplified angular textures. The story itself is very cinematic. It still keeps that anime style within the face of the character. The illustrations look masterful, complicated, and intricate. It pairs perfectly with the sci-fi theme. The close ups are dramatic and elegant, while gruesome with the crosshatching illustrations.

I also enjoyed reading Ranma this week. The author i found is a successful female illustrator in japan who is making comics to this day. Her anime style is a bit older and classic. The story is fun and adventurous but it is also strange which makes it interesting. Its about a girl being set up with a boy/girl/panda who can transform into many different forms. I found the illustrations really cute and the story interesting which kept me reading.

Another manga i read this week was Yaoi Cinderella boy. The illustrations mixed with the text seemed confusing, and not as appealing. The drawings themselves are a bit too simple. I think that better illustrations mixed with a more fun story keeps the reader attached.

Week 9 |Mar 26| European Comics Tradition

Week 8 |Mar 19| Non-fiction Comics

This week i read Persepolis about a little girl growing up in hard times as a Muslim within a country of political trouble. It is illustrated like a children book, with cartoon characters that seems almost innocent. The story itself is not innocent and light-hearted, but is perceived in that way at first. The drawings are innocent and child-like, with adult themed events and stories of hardships.

I like how non fiction comics can be an outlet for creators and artists to tell their stories in a different medium other than the spoken word.

Week 7 |Mar 5| Legitimation of the Comics

This week we read Maus. After only a few pages i knew the meaning of the comic and the imagery as well. This is definitely a lighter approach to nazi Germany, antisemitism and the holocaust in a simpler, cartoon-like and less realistic approach. I would say this is okay for children only because of the cute animals, but maybe for early teens.

The mice are depicted as very cute and innocent animals which are hunted by the "cats" which are the nazis. I feel directly relates with how the situation became, innocent people being hunted and attracted by the leaders and people of the countries they lived in. They are dressed like humans are drawn with a simple and distinct cute mouse face.

Week 6 |Feb 26| Underground Comix

Crumb uses a lot of cross hatching for shading in his work. The story is very quick and can be read fast which makes the line work simple to flow through and read. The comics are illustrated child-like and cartoon-like but with adult themes.

This week i read one of his comics and it was rather strange. The comic was called white man and its about him camping and finding a yeti woman and loving her. I think it could be imagery for racism loneliness. Seeing as underground comics do not hold back on offensive material and it is the goal to offend the audience i suppose it could work. I personally did not think it was interesting or as if i got anything out of it other than the fact in knowing that the comic was intentionally offensive. These are definitely exclusive to adults and only adults should read them.

Most of the comics i've read this week, also fat freddys cat. Seem to mainly be adult themed and not geared to children. I think it is sensible to keep these comics underground and out of the reach of the obvious regular crowd being mainly children.

Week 5 |Feb 12| The Graphic Novel

This week i read contract with God. I got a lot from it, mainly my religious views relating to the story but on a smaller level. I also could relate to the strong storytelling and characters he conveys. It keeps you hooked and wants you to see whats next. You can also learn about the artist himself by reading the comics, you can clearly make the correlation to how he grew up in new York city.

Will Eisner's comics are very detailed and well illustrated. He has a lot of gloomy imagery which pairs well with his storytelling. His graphic novel storytelling gives very good life lessons and keeps you interested in the outcome of the story.

I read another comic by Will Eisner called Fagin the Jew. What i got from this comic is that most of his comics are about characters that when choosing to refrain from Judaism, it comes with a great loss and the character most likely always returns to the community.

Week 4 |Feb 5th| The Comic Book

The comic style by Herge and Carl barks are simplistic and cartoony- very closely related to simple style that shares with animated characters. Most animated characters are simple and readable when created, so that they are also easier to be animated. This can keep the reading pace seemingly faster.

I read this week Herge, Explorers on the moon. The illustrations mixed with the colors definitely look outdated. I'm guessing 60's or 70's for the space travel theme. The story is cute and simple, as are the illustrations with the same line density. It definitely looks like its targeted towards children more than anything.

Week 3 |Jan 29| Little Nemo and Krazy Kat

My comic was influenced by little Nemo, being it is a dream themed comic strip about a young boy going on dreamland adventures, i made mine about a girl dreaming of cloud surfing. Most of the comics ive read this week had surreal enviornments with little to ominous subject matter which i found interesting. It can be confusing for deep stories to connect wiht the reader with these general imagery.

Week 2 |Jan 22| Understanding Comics

I learned that making a wordless comic requires drawn images of the characters acting more than speaking, they are the pawns telling the story. In my comic/ silent storyboard, i'm expressing emotions such as pain and being abandoned for being different. You really need to visually story tell in order to get your point across by creating detailed images. Movement of limbs, creating gestural movement helps show the reader the emotions of the characters and their intent as well.

Week 1 |Jan 15th| Wordless Comics the arrival

In class assignment:

Translation 1

Woman tries to balance like the chicken does. She keeps a collection of smaller eggs near her.

Translation 2
An angel watches over a woman that seems to be dying or dead, could be representation of the person who cares for them also.

Translation 3
Girl lays in a coffin while a demon man stands over a nude woman. The nude woman could have some evil to her and she was wearing a fake angel outfit all along. There are angel wings sitting aside.

Translation 4
A chicken woman and a chicken man have a killed woman sitting there reading to be cooked or eaten. It is the opposite of what would happen to them. There are a lot of nude dead humans laying around for the chickens to eat.

Translation 5
a chicken man is upset because his human wife has been killed by chickens as he enters the room. There is blood everywhere and he is upset

Translation 6
a chicken is wrapped in a stick in the corner behind a cupboard, while a man and a woman are dancing.

Translation 7
a chicken man is talking to regular women
translation 8

a chicken man is running through the house and 2 girls are trying to hide from him but they are surrounded by other birds.

Blog post for this week:

There is a lot of imagery with objects and it connects the reader to the story. Sight and Images are the strongest sense we have and it can change the perception of the reader by a lot more than just words can in ways.

The benefit of wordless comics lets the reader interpret the story in their own way. A picture can mean a thousand different languages all meaning the same universal concept. An image is less easily described and straightforward as text explaining the plot, setting, characters and story. The large images of this wordless comic captures the theme, mood and setting very accurately and helps to explain the characters emotions more.

You can already tell this story is about immigration and coming to a new land just by the images of boats hurdled with people and sailing away from a dangerous past life. You get the overall theme from just the first few slides showing a series of images such as a suitcase, a family and personal belongings.

The artist shows the reader the main characters family and they are shown at once by the different faces. The introduction and identification of characters helps the reader understand what different characters are going through and experiencing in the story.

Character’s emotions and reactions come through more with illustration and convince the reader that the emotion is real and it is there, something words cannot do alone most of the time.

There are sometimes many various slides of illustrations being shown, almost like animation. This can indicate the speed of the action the character is doing, and also promote the reader to pay attention more to details occuring in the seen such as foreshadowing an event.

An example of these is when someone is stamping the main characters papers and he shows him a picture of him family, indicating that the person stamping them have some sympathy and let it go just for now.

If words were shown in this scene we would have put together something less imaginative as we wish to see the story. It would have been too straight forward and this is why images are powerful in storytelling even alone without words.

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