Week Seven: The Legitimation of the Comics

Maus is one of the first comics to be considered to be an epic, and to this day is considered giving significance to comic narratives by introducing mature concepts. Maus uses imagery that I feel helps the reader understand and acknowledge the images graphically rather than their imagination. The Holocaust is usually not perceived in this way, from what I remember most depictions are usually through literature and images, but Maus uses detailed drawings that contains the emotion.

We also see, usually animals that talk and are upright are "funny" Maus breaks that mold and instead uses it as representation. Using mouse maybe just another way to maybe not put a identity and awareness into the comic and we can use it to go into another world. I think this adds to it, as it now focusing more on the narrative of the story rather than what the character looks like. This gives it more of an experience rather than just simply reading a story about it. Unlike other mediums like art or film, comics stay the way they are and the story does not progress unless the reader or audience continues to read and process the images.

Barefoot Gen is a short movie we watched in class based on the World War II bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It follows a boy, Gen Nakaoka who lives on the outskirts of Hiroshima. He lives with his pregnant mother, dad, sister and little brother. Life is hard for all of them, both because of malnutrition because they cannot afford food, and from the constant bomb threats from overhead American planes that fly past. The parents are very obviously upset by this but keep their hopes high for themselves, there soon to be born child, and there kids.

During the night, they go into the bomb shelters nearby while the American planes pass by, although they are struggling, they continue to fight for each other in hopes that the war will end soon and life will improve. Soon, however, the atomic bombs drop when least expected and horrible imagery and themes of death, despair and destruction ensue. The colors shift and distort, time stops and everything around Gen is impacted in that instant. Gen is lucky enough to have been behind a concrete wall however, the girl standing besides him was not, and is shown melting on screen to the horror of the bomb going off.  We follow Gen as he awakes among the carnage wrought by these bombs, as he wanders through a now destroyed Hiroshima, shambling men, women and children walk by like corpses, practically melting as they groan in agony. There bodies withered, and fusing together in unnatural ways. This movie shows us the horror of this war and what these people went through because of the government. This is only the beginning as it follows him after the initial calamity, and for much later. The fight for food only becomes more dire, the mothers newborn daughter requires constant supervision and care. the military is unsure of how to help, and dead bodies and destruction still surround them.

Week Six: Underground Comics

Drawing for comics is about picture writing, and getting ideas across through this process. We can see that the same experience we get from literature, seeing the story and imagery and world through the person eyes. For the Underground Comics, I can see a lot of the content in them has more mature themes that would disturb some and also at the same time make others laugh. It's the freedom of expression of the artist and their ideas. There are no fundamental rules for comics like film or like novels. We have been using this type of imagery for a long time, like political cartoons. Just like video games it created a panic of it influencing people to be bad, or stupid. It can be used as another tool to help. A lot of people in the Underground were taking risks, and because now the decades of trying to be legitimized we can see this eventually created the term "Graphic Novel" now seen as a art form and as a piece of literature. It's a media that will keep being revolutionized the same way. I can already see graphic novels developing into having mini animations.

Week Five: Eisner and Thompson

This week we are analyzing Eisner and Thompson similarities as storytellers. In Will Eisner approach he tries to implement his personal memories and experiences in Contract with God. In Eisner's Blankets, he also is telling highly personal stories relating to their real life. They use real people and real emotions to develop their stories that they tell. I think this is why both are so successful. Both styles are very similar and different, we can see that both explore and use lots of black lines and depressing tones. The figures are more simplified in Blankets, Whereas Contract with God had more detailed figures. These comics are depressing stories about victims that jump back and forth between stories. I also like how both have seasons they both particularly favor like snow in Blankets and rain in Contract with God. Both comics are questioning god and religion. They ask the question: If I'm a good person then why am I punished? They ask these question whenever something unfortunate and out of their control happens. They both at points discuss racism even, with hateful remarks.  Will Eisner believes that this medium is a new literary form that is just told with drawings. It's interesting that a there is so much stigma against graphic novels and comics. Of course, Thompson's comic seems to take place more towards modern day, that graphic novels still have some stigma but are more accepted. Reading both thoroughly, I think Blankets felt more natural. Probably because the length is longer and the interesting visuals.I feel and can relate to a lot of the imagery and story elements that are brought up, as someone who has similar situations happen, or at least feeling. In Blankets, I can understand what it's like to be an artist, and to care about others. The thoughts of childhood and growing up to be an adult through experiences.

Week Four: The Comic Book

I decided to start by reading Carl Barks and The Art of the Comic Book by Michael Barrier before I read the other comics to kind of get more information about Carl. The most interesting part of reading Michael Barrier’s interpretation is that he doesn’t see really feel nostalgic or the memories of childhood. He talks about looking back at Carl Barks comics is that the feelings were relatable and magnified emotionally even the negative ones. Reading over his bibliography, he seemed to have a very hard-working and difficult life. Doing a lot of labor jobs like working on cars or farms and a lot of times he had only a bit of money to his name moving around the country. 

Even the comedy of the comics is based in some amount of seriousness. Common themes of the comics are self-pity and taking a closer look at them its about doing our best or die trying. He starts to talk about Carl Barks being quite unique as an artist and I’m inclined to agree. Especially in more of a world and characters that are supposed to be funny, like Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. While reading, I found out that he became a full-time cartoonist around the Depression and is probably what influenced the type of story-telling he does. Rather than Donald was being developed and changed by Carl its said that Donald was the one the influenced Carl. Donald started to become a more interesting and funny character for this reason and being more fleshed out. Carl Barks seemed to be more interested in getting more interpretation out of one drawing rather than a sequence of them trying to tell a whole story. I think the most interesting part about Carl Barks is that he was an artist that seemed to be able to relate to his characters and their experiences and they don't seem two dimensional for this reason. He wanted to have characters that people could relate too also, the gags are well thought out because he really thought about what he was drawing and trying to get the audience to perceive. I also added this image of Carl Barks reference sheet because its the most popular and reference for Donald Duck. I think this adds to another layer of being able to understand a character deeply.