The Comic Strip

I personally love comic strips. I read and enjoyed them as a kid, and I enjoy them just as much now. This week I read a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Krazy Kat, and Little Nemo. Now I'm most familiar with Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts, however Krazy Kat and Little Nemo were just as entertaining.

The formula of the comic strip is perfect as far as I can tell. Small stories told in a few panels that can be part of a larger story, or just take place in a set universe. Basically simplified franchised comic books. Maybe not even that seeing as a comic strip can be a franchise unto itself, even if that isn't the intended goal. The main appeal for me is the simple stories. They are short, sweet, and told in a way that makes you laugh. Unlike comic books, the comic strip seems to be mostly about humor, with the exception of comic strips like Prince Valiant.

Now, with three of the four comic strips series I read, I knew the basic premise. Krazy Kat, I admit still has me a tad confused. From what I can tell Krazy Kat is a pretty nice cat, all things considered, and is friends with a mouse named Ignatz, who seems to like to throw bricks at Krazy? Not quite sure how that works, and I'll admit the plot of some of the stories had me scratching my head at times, yet I still enjoyed the comic strip itself.

Little Nemo is done beautifully for the subject matter. The comic strip allows short forays into the dream world of Slumberland and adventures there in. I found one strip about Stardust trying to escort Nemo to Slumberland but getting delayed till dawn very endearing. Not to mention the drawings themselves are beautiful, and show a lot of care and attention for a comic strip.

Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts are pretty much the standard I remember them to be. Calvin has adorable and creative adventures with his stuffed tiger/best friend. While Charlie Brown and company.... I'm not actually sure how to summarize them. I wanna say they deal with being kids, however they have more social awareness than that. I guess this means I need to read more Peanuts. Over all, I think comic strips will always occupy a little groove in my heart.

Understanding Comics

I must admit that Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics was a bit tedious to read at times. He makes a lot of really good and interesting points, but tends to repeat the same information over and over and over again. Thus making me feel as if I am trudging through mud trying to find the occasional bits of solid ground.

Not that I don't understand why he restates his points so much. I know that he is trying to reach a broad audience with varying degrees of understanding of the medium. Yet I couldn't get past this problem. What should have been like an hour or so read turned into several days of trudging. In all honesty I still haven't finished the book completely, which saddens me since the new information I get out of the book makes me think. I just really wish that the content had the fat trimmed off so I could be more actively engaged in this book.

And for all the restating he has left out information about some of his topics. When he was talking about how we can still see ourselves in nothing more than a circle, two dots and a horizontal line he left out the concept of Gestalt. He talked about it vaguely, but didn't mention the term itself, which kind of bugged me, as it's a simpler psychology term. But that's me nit picking from frustration.

Overall I'd say this book was a bit hit or miss. When he was onto new clever information and viewpoints he was really interesting and easy to understand. However the constant recapping of information over several chapters was big enough of a turn off for me to wonder what all the hype is about.

The Arrival

So this is my first post, of my first blog. I want to take a strong step forward and talk about The Arrival by Shaun Tan. This was a wonderful graphic novel. It is about a father traveling to a new country seeking a better life for his family, and the struggles there in. The illustrations are beautiful and the world is so interesting. I really enjoyed how the new country was strange to both the main character and the reader as it allowed me to share in the experiences with the character, rather than just reading about them. The lack of dialogue was a perfect choice to convey this feeling as well. It forced me to focus less on what they were saying and pay attention to what was being said.

The monsters that were terrorizing cities were also interesting. I found myself trying to figure out which oppressive force they represented in our own historical timeline. I believed that the timeline would be around the 1930s, and the monsters represented different terrors from World War II. I saw this most in the family that shares a meal with the Father. The image of the Giant Men, sucking up everything into flaming vats on their backs really made me think of the Nazi death camps, especially with how the couple escapes in secrecy during the night. However, the monsters I liked the most have to be the winding tails from the original city. They feel threatening and oppressive, yet not openly so. They represent to me the unrest bubbling under the surface, one that everybody knows about but no one mentions.

The cyclical ending of the tale was just how I wanted the tale to end. The Daughter giving directions to another new arrival really was just the right touch. It showed full adaptation to their new home, as well as showing how the cycle continues on. I also think that having the daughter give the directions gives a sense of hope as well, especially since the new arrival is also a young woman. It seems to be implying hope for the future, due to their ages and the act itself being a kind gesture.