Mr. Natural the Horny Mystic and Adult Disney

Robert Crumb, The Book of Mr. Natural

Well all I really have to say is that the Mr. Natural comics were definitely not what I thought they'd be, and they kind of took me by surprise with how graphic and vulgar they were. Especially since they have almost an innocent, simple drawing quality to them.

The character himself is a very moody person, is pretty cynical, and he seems to have some weird sexual obsessions. Like in the strip where he ends up dreaming on a bus, gets kicked off the bus with a baby, tricks the baby into giving him a blow job, and then ends up in jail for child molestation. He definitely isn't doing what I would expect a holy person to do; swearing, womanizing, child molestation, appears heartless at times, and his advice to others - when he does give it, using usually crazy sounding.

I still am not really sure what to think of it, and I think part of that may simply have to with me not having a Y chromosome. Mr. Natural seems to be a very self-indulgent personality that pretty much does whatever comes to him. I think this comic series does examine the psychology of men, mostly the baser instinct and ideas surrounding sex. Mr. Natural seems to act, at least to me in some aspects, on his basic instinct if his decisions were not influenced by society pressures or morals.



Air Pirates Funnies

This page from the comic book just made me laugh so hard. It's so simple, yet reminds me of drunk conversations with friends lol

I find it odd how this book would be considered pretty vulgar too, but I don't mind it much as compared to the Mr. Natural comics. Part of that may simply be because I find this really funny cause it goes against everything Disney - puritanism, patriotism, consumerism, and conformity.

I figured that there would be a lawsuit from Disney, so I looked that up and yep! There definitely was. I read that Dan O'Neill, the author, was so eager for Disney to sue him that he even smuggled a copy into a Disney company board meeting. It was a really interesting case, especially since legally O'Neill never won the case, but he never went to jail so he saw it as a 'win.' He kept disregarding the courts' decisions, until Disney finally settled and dropped the case as long as he stopped abusing their copyrights with the Pirates comix. Disney ended up with something like $190,000 in damages and over $2,000,000 in legal fees.

Dan O'Neill also became the youngest syndicated cartoonist in American newspaper history at the age of 21.

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 highly enjoyed though were the

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.

Art Spiegelman's Jack Cole and Plastic Man

So I didn't mind this comic that much, but it definitely wasn't one of my favorites. The visuals interested me more than anything else; I've found during the last few weeks that I tend to enjoy the comics with less talk and more visual. I found that really odd since I absolutely love reading, but not so much reading and analyzing images at the same time. Weird, but that's how it is!

What I really loved about the art though was the motion in the pictures. It really does remind me of animation in a way, with all the squash and stretch like in this panel to the right ------------------------------->








Film
Kevin Smith - Chasing Amy

I've never actually had a chance to watch Chasing Amy before, which is weird because I love Kevin Smith films. He's one of my favorite American comedy directors/actors. The dialogue is always witty, fresh, and clever. Something you don't see much anymore in a lot of Hollywood films (especially "blockbusters").

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith play one of my favorite partners on screen, "Jay and Silent Bob." They're so outrageous it's completely hilarious. I also love how Kevin Smith uses the same actors for many of his movies like Jason Mewes (of course), Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, etc.