Web comics of the 21st century

This past week I read quite a few web comics. One of my top three if not my favorite was "When I am King by Demian Vogler. As strange as and mildly disturbing as this comic is, I do believe I love it. It is about a pharaoh who wakes up and wants a flower, and shenanigans ensue. Though those shenanigans are often sexually related... mainly due to two sleazy women and a camel, that has fallen carnally in love with the pharaoh. The camel is one of my favorite characters in this, I'm not completely sure why. I think it's because he operates on simple goals, and breathes fire.... and eats children. The style of the comic is also really appealing, especially the integration of animation in later panels. I really like the nontraditional paneling during the dream sequence. It added a sense of time to how I read the images that helped keep my interest, as well as broke up their usual formatting of side scrolling. The simple shapes and vector images were also a nice choice. It focused more on simple graphics and composition, which left the story very clear. The side stories were also nicely woven in. There is a problem between the two guards over masculinity in the form of who has the larger dick. This problem is brought on by the two women and resolves in a very awkward manner, though the last panel is rather interesting. The tone seemed to be saying "Oh Camel," in the style of 1950's sitcoms. The lesson the pharaoh learns is nice too. He learns that what he really wanted was companionship and not the flower. But the camel loves him, and follows him everywhere so he gets both! I feel like this is an eye opener of a comic. It takes a good story, puts an edge on it as well as an ending, and then doesn't apologize for what it is. The amount of sexual oddness, as well as taboo in the comic could easily been toned down, but they made their statement and stood by it and it works. I hope I can use this boldness to inspire my own work. Not in the same ways but with deciding on how a work should be and not shying away from it afterward.

The Authority Volume 1 May/June Issues 1999

Wow... So, The Authority. I really like this comic series. I need to start over with Stormwatch though, since I didn't know about it till the end of the May issue. So far I really like these characters. Their super powers feel fresh, except for Midnighter whose kind of a Batman rip off in design and attitude and the one chick with wings who seems to not really be important and just like an obligatory Hawk Girl character thus far. My favorite character so far seems to be Jack Hawksmoor whose power is Place Empathy. I thought that was an interesting twist on an empath character. That and how his interactions with other people seem much more gruff and less connected. I also like the generational characters of The Doctor and The Engineer. The idea of gaining powers because the previous hero died just feels new even though I know it isn't. I hope to find out more about what they do since The Engineer seems to be the only female character that I find interesting in this series thus far. I'd also like to stop giggling every time they mention The Doctor, because it makes me think of Doctor Who.

Visually, I'm still not sold on the series. It has a little bit of the feel that digital comics have that I don't like, even though I have no idea how this was made. But I can overlook some of the flaws I dislike in favor of the story, which for knowing nothing of this franchise, is doing a very good job of filling me in on the back story of the characters.

I had one hiccup with the transition between the May and June issues though. The story arc from the May issue didn't continue into June. Though I could have just misread the end of the May issue. Since it could have implied that they beat the bad guy. It doesn't help that the enemies in the June issue are reoccurring from Stormwatch though. It left me a tad out of depth about what was going on.

Classics Illustrated Arabian Nights 1943 by Lillian Chestney

This week I read Classics Illustrated Arabian Nights from 1943 by Lillian Chestney. The story is very sound and a good choice for comic format, as it is about a woman telling a series of stories. It is also a good choice because the stories are recognizable. Even as a child cartoons and other media would reference the 1,001 tales of Sheherezade.

But what I found most appealing was the wispy quality to the drawings, especially the females. The spacing on the page was also interesting. I like how the boxes are relatively even in size, but then have unusual shapes thrown in, mostly the use of circular forms and rounded edges. The work looks like a saturday morning comic from the newspaper, but that is understandable considering the fact that it was made in the early 1940s. It's really nice to know that women were making comics like this around the time where comic book companies were trying, and failing, to make comics for girls. It has the dramatic appeal girl's like, with romance and adventure, but also has stronger female roles. In the tale of Ali Baba there is a slave girl named Morgiana. She is shown to be incredibly clever and quick witted as well as very loyal. She is the only one to foil Ali Baba's enemies, going so far as to become an assassin at one point. Her tale is very inspiring as she manages to become freed all on her own merits and eventually marries Ali Baba's son out of his gratitude toward her. It's interesting because it is almost the reverse of traditional fair tales where the knight saves the damsel and then gets to marry her out of gratitude. Sheherezade uses her intelligence and creativity to stay her own execution as well as foil the plot of a cruel King who would behead his new wife at night, and in the end, the whole country praises her.

Sandman: Dream County- A Midsummer Nights Dream

I had heard about this Graphic Novel because it won the World Fantasy Award, before they had a comics category. I really need to read more of this series. The visuals are like a refined version of what we see in Prince Valiant comics. But the stye is pushed and the colors used more as a tool to create a mood rather than being localized color. My favorite page has to be page 23, here Puck has his monologue at the end of the play. The words are a nice contrast to the actual images. it creates a nice duality between the soothing reassurance of the monologue and the actuality of the Hobgoblin Puck now basically released upon the mortal world once again.

As far as the story, it took a play that I'm already familiar with and put a bit of a nice twist on it. The actors performing a play about the fey that are their audience. I like how the actor's seemed to have acutely portrayed their respective fey counterpart. Like how Queen Titania is still taking an interest in children and in fact tries to lure William Shakespeare's child away during the intermission. I also like that there is this subplot to the story about how Shakespeare and Morpheus have this deal and how it seems that it is actually changing Shakespeare in ways that are hurting his family a little. Hamnet was very easy to relate to as he was one of the few characters that discuss what is going on in their heads, the other two characters I liked were the Hobgoblin Puck, and this large blue fey that goes unnamed. Puck was nice because he could see how the play worked faster than both Auberon and Titania, who seem to both get bogged down by the fact that the events in the play never actually happened to them. I really liked the large blue goblin though because he was very intelligent and seemed to be enjoying the play as well as keeping the peanut gallery in check. It was a nice change in a traditionally type cast role.

I definately need to read more Sandman after this, my expectations are very high but I know that the series is well above them.

Shiva

So I've been a little behind these past weeks and am now attempting to catch up. Roughly two weeks ago I read the comic Shiva by Deepak Chopra. I also looked at a few of the other India Authentic stories as well. I really like the texture of the first few volumes. It was really nice to see clearly digital work, not have the usual digital feel. Unfortunately the art quality dissolves over the series, and in my opinion cheapening the potential that they started with. Since the series is dealing with Hindu gods, I feel that they should all maintain the same high quality aesthetic do be respectful of the culture. Especially when the beginning volumes were really visually appealing and interesting. They were just more epic in design than later work. However, in the way of story they get a bit confusing. I am fairly certain that I didn't understand the second half of Shiva just because I am from a different culture. It seemed to be citing a specific story of how humans and demons, most likely Rakshasas, cease their fighting to work toward a common goal. Their goal seems to capture this large turtle with a mountain growing on it's back, from the sea. Almost all of the people and demons get killed by a toxin the sea releases, until Shiva comes along and purifies the sea and air for them, and basically gets their prize for them. Yet the actions of Shiva and the people didn't seem to have motive to me. I felt like there was more to the story that I didn't know. It seemed to be one of those stories that people grow up with and thus assume that everyone knows, so they leave certain parts out with out meaning to. The turtle is the biggest example, since it is never named and it takes a few pages before they explain what is even so amazing about it, which is that from it spring goddesses and objects of great power. However, that is only after the people and demons have been trying to drag the turtle to shore for roughly 3-5 pages. I feel that this story would have just been slightly more approachable to a wider range of readers by just explaining more about the subject matter.

Buddha: Volume 1 by Osamu Tezuka

This week I read the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series. The first volume alone is 400 pages, yet is a very easy read. His style is very playful and energetic. Emotions are clear and are pushed, but don't appear as cliche. His influence by Walt Disney is also clear, especially with how he draws animals. What i find most interesting is that Buddha, or Siddhartha as he was named at birth, barely features in this book at all. His mother and father are mentioned and he is born, but that's it. Which really emphasizes how much more entertaining the other characters are in comparison to the main thread of plot. The side characters are Tatta, a pariah caste boy who can posses the bodies of animals, Naradatta, a Brahmin studying under Master Asita, and Chapra, a shudra/slave caste boy who wishes to rise above his rank in society. By their level of abstraction you can immediately grasp onto both Naradatta and Chapra. Both have a handsomeness in the style. They are drawn less caricatured and more remote in style. It instantly makes them stand out compared to other characters. Tatta, for all his interesting abilities and personality seems to be more of a background character. He's almost comedic relief in comparison to the other two. Yet Tatta's powers come from his minor enlightenment, making him a bit more important spiritually in the story. I really liked the section where Naradatta sent Tatta, in animal form, to bring a message to his Master Asita. It showed that for all Naradatta had thought he had become enlightened he still knew nothing by wasting so many animal lives just to save Chapra and Chapra's mother. I'm very interested how Tatta and the now feral Naradatta will feature into the next volume. The last pages seemed to imply that they play important roles in the life of Siddartha. I'm very glad I chose this manga over others as i do know a little bit about the story of Siddartha and how he became Buddah, as well as a few stories about the caste system in India. For a while I was thinking that Chapra's story was a retelling of the story of the Potter who became a soldier. Unfortunately Chapra's story seems to end much more tragically than how I heard the Potter's tale ended.

King parts 1, 2, and 3

This week I read the graphic novel King by Ho Che Anderson. The story is about Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. At first I found the beginning of volume one a tad disorienting, it was a series of scenes, in color, that were of different racial incidents that still occurred in 1993 followed by suddenly going into pure black and white images and scenes from 1933. It was a tad confusing because the 1933 scenes had no explanation and were very short and quick. It took me at least 3 pages before I realized these were scenes of the child Martin Luther King Jr. Book one covers him growing up to after the Bus Boycotts. I really like the style of this volume more than the other two. it looks a tad more cleaner and the poses are a bit more gestural and less static than in the other two books. The splashes of color when added to images in this version make the images stand out, where as the over abundance of color in the later editions seems to mute the effect. I also really liked how most of the faces are in shadow in the first volume. It's a tad more graphic and feels a bit more powerful with the use of dark verses light on the page.

Of all the volumes I think I liked the second one the least. In this one all the faces were more exposed and images were almost over exposed with the use of white on the page. It felt like it lost a bit of the power of the first piece. Images were less emotionally distant, and more about facial emotions. Photo montage was more prevalent as was the use of coloring on top of them. Figures were also a little more distorted and felt a little less refined and finished than in the first book.

The third book was predominantly color. I do like the texture of the materials and how expressive the colors were. Yet it still didn't feel like it matched the first book. Figures were very geometric and distorted, even compared to the second book. Yet this book had a lot more life to it. Over all I respect what this book was trying to do, but I'm not as impressed with it as I was with other graphic novels like Blankets.