Final Post

Revised previous post:

Eisner and Thompson

I was able to read A Contract with God and the other short story, The Street Singer. That  story had a bit more to hold my attention; an alcoholic bookkeeper gets coached by a has-been diva. I do like the happy ending though! The title story was very simple, and seemed even a bit underdeveloped in a way, but that may simply be that he couldn't reach the potential depth of the story because of the comic genre.

What I really loved about this piece, besides the interesting stories, was the black and white pen work. Ever sense I was little I've always loved drawing done in pen since that's the way my grandpa always draws; he was an engineer and I always tried to copy his work. The facial expressions on his characters though are just fantastic and have such great detail.

In the preface, Eisner states that his goal was to create an art work in which there's "no interruption in the flow of narrative because the picture and the text are so totally dependent on each other as to be inseparable." I think he was really successful in that regard, but what I didn't like was the type that he used. Well, I guess it's a type now but it's simply his own handwriting. I just don't think it fits with the content of the story, which is pretty depressing and serious and the lettering is all cheerful and kittens and butterflies.

I'm sure when this was released back in the day it was new and interesting, but it's surprisingly simple. The artwork was fun and beautifully illustrated. I also loved how the text is not just superimposed on top of the art, it's actually a part of the design as a whole. I love the facial expressions on his characters, and just all of the detail throughout the whole piece. I respect him too for the realism involved in the nudity and sex parts of his stories, which is not something that you see many comic artists from that time

I think it's pretty curious just how unsympathetic Eisner is on his view of living in poverty, especially knowing that he himself was raised this way. Even though this is considered a sort of autobiography, the piece really isn't about Eisner himself. He doesn't focus on the details of his life that he half-remembers, but spends his time trying to pinpoint his characters.


Craig Thompson, Blankets

I enjoyed Blankets more than Eisner's work. I did enjoy how both works were autobiographical, but had more of a connect with Thompson's work. Plus, I just love coming-of-age stories.

I think I was lucky that I grew up in a household where religion was not forced upon us; I visited Sunday school and attended church once in a while if I was feeling up to it, but my parents never dragged or forced us there. They hated seeing kids throwing tantrums and screaming because their parents made them come, and they didn't feel that religion was something that should be forced on someone. My mom I know always wished for us to grow to love God, but she recognized that we are our own person and by forcing us would simply make us shun it. My close cousins all went to Catholic schools all the way through high school, and some of their classes were ridiculous; my one cousin told me how their 'science' teacher told them that evolution was a myth and the Devil's work. I found it ironic cause at the time in my science class we were reading the work of Charles Darwin. But, I won't really say much more about religion, simply because I'll get carried away and no one wants to hear a rant on religion.


I really enjoyed the love/hate relationship he has going on with his brother, it's really similar to my younger brother; even though he drives me crazy a lot of the time and I want to strangle him, there's still a ton of love there. There were quite a few moments where I had to stop reading and realized how much I could relate to it.

The art was really enjoyable too, the drawings are fairly realistic but have their own unique style at the same time. I haven't read anything by Thompson before so I can't compare it to his other works. Using only black and white also seems to make the content of the story stand out more and become more the main focus.

Scott Pilgrim

So I attempted to read a few online comics, but I found out right away that I'm not a very large fan of them. I have no idea why, I'd have to think about that more, but instead I decided to watch Scott Pilgrim again.

I've read the whole series and I'm still amazed how well they were able to follow the original comic in the movie that came out a few years ago. When I first heard about Scott Pilgrim I wasn't very interested because I generally turn my head on all manga pieces. There are some exceptions, but most I just don't like. Then one day I actually sat down and read a few pages, and those few pages turned into hundreds more. This is definitely the funniest and weirdest Western take on the manga style. As a character, Scott is relate-able to every 20-something guy that I know; they're all just trying to get by, most are in a band or play an instrument, they're lazy, "between jobs," and constantly playing video games.




 The thing I love about reading these comics is how I'm basically wearing a perpetual grin on my face the whole time, and I'm constantly laughing out loud and startling people around me. There's just something so appealing about Scott, even though he does have his flaws, he's still endearing.

Plus, I'm very much "one of the guys." I've been known to stay up for hours upon hours when I get hooked on a video game.

Watchmen

Alan Moore 

Watchmen

What I like best about this novel, is that it's all original characters. They could have easily made it about pre-existing superheros, but the fact that they created their own really makes you focus more on the content of the story. Not to mention, if the comic focused on DC characters like it was supposed to, then those superheros wouldn't have been really usable for future stories.

Frank Miller

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

This is a four-part graphic series which includes The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Falls. My dad actually has all of these from when they were first issued, and so I got to read them back when I was in high school. I didn't actually read any of these this week, but I thought I'd mention them in my post here since it came out around the same time as Alan Moore's Watchmen (I think Miller's work came out the year before Moore's).

Both of these pieces though were revolutionary in how they portrayed "superheroes." While Watchmen definitely made superheros in general much more "realistic" characters, The Dark Knight Returns is known as the turning point for making Batman much more "serious." Even the storylines seem to reflect one another:

Watchmen - Ozymandias figures out how to usurp Dr. Manhattan's abilities so he can't "see" his plans.

The Dark Knight - Batman ends up creating a gauntlet for Superman, he used Kryptonite to weaken him, and then precedes to beat the shit out of him.

Despite these two characters doing sort of the same thing, Batman is regarded as a hero while Ozymandias is a villain. Although, you don't realize that he's the villain until the end of the novel. Yet they both are, in a way, a reflection of the time they were made during the mid-1980s; the feelings of helplessness against a dismal future. And Reagan.

Will you won't you join the dance?

Bryan Talbot 

Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment

 

I didn't expect to like this piece as much as I did, but it makes since that I do because of my love of history. This novel reminds me of a more-interesting history textbook. I really liked how each page looked almost a collage of images put together. It makes the book seem more "real."

It made me want to know history about England and the Sunderland region because I hardly know anything. That made me think how weird it is that in America we only learn American history, not even the history of Mexico or Canada we share national borders with them. After reading this it also made me think about who wrote those history textbooks I learned from growing up, and how events could have went different than described.

While I enjoyed the graphic novel more than I thought I would, it's still not at the top of my list of favorites. At first I enjoyed the lecture-like structure of the text, but after quite a while of the same thing it got really tedious. At that point I just started skimming through until I reached a part about Alice and the adventures she has.

 

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Lilli Carre 

Nine Ways to Disappear  

I have to say that I'm personally not a fan of the artistic style of this book, although it does seem to fit with the absurd short stories Carre has written. All the stories have the same theme of 'disappearing,' but each is different in many ways. I like the creativity behind the stories and their writing, especially "Wide Eyes," which is about a guy who hides between his girlfriend's eyes to get a break from her. Typical guy thinking!

I did like how the book is all single-paneled pages; it's different and reads more like a picture book than that of a comic book. Like I said, I loved the actual stories themselves and wish there were more than nine of them. I usually end up reading books and graphic novels to escape from my life for a bit, and that's the subject of these pieces - a means of escape, from reality, from society, from relationships, from ourselves.