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.

Maus II

This week we were to read the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Unfortunately I was unable to find the first book, however I did locate the second one Mause II. This is the visual biography of his father's capture in 1944 by the Nazi troops. This book begins with his father and mother, both Polish Jews, caught trying to flee and now placed into Auschwitz. Well... That's not exactly where it starts. There are also sections where we cut back to Art's life where he is planning how to make the graphic novel. I've just realized how awestruck I am by this novel. The author jumps in and out of time from present to past to past-present. The style for the current time, where he is writing this novel I think I like the most. He takes the characters out of their anthropomorphic designs and makes them people with animal masks on. It shows how overwhelmed he is with the pressure of the media on him due to the popularity of Maus I. It also seems more of a jaded choice. Like he really wants to get out of the context, out of the book, and shows this by how out of style the people are drawn. Just barely in cohesion with the rest of the book by giving them these animal masks. He also depicts himself as a small child at this section. Overwhelmed by the attention and the weight of his father's death and the subject matter he is writing about.

The author also has breaks from his father's recollections about Auschwitz to break into more modern tales about his father and trying to collect his memoirs. It's a very necessary break from the overwhelming devastation that are his recollections of the death camp. In all honesty I can't fathom how little I actually knew about this subject till now. In school they tell you about it and that a lot of people died and some of the methods how. But it doesn't really hit you until you really hear about it from some one that was there, and even then it's not the complete story.

The end of this novel was very abrupt. At first I thought that there was to be a part three, but rereading the last few pages I realize this is the end of the story. It's the last few discussions he had with his father about the holocaust. He found out how his father and mother found each other, a good ending point. Clearly not the end of the story, but his father passing would explain the suddenness of it. I really need to read Maus I now to find out the rest of this story.

Underground Comics

A few weeks back I was looking at our course list and decided to read some of the underground comics in my spare time. I'm not sure how to describe them. They are clearly counter to the trend of main stream comics. I specifically read Girl Fight Comics and Gay Comics.

Girl Fight Comics I found confusing. The plots were hard to follow definitely. They were also about several different stories all about women, which is a nice change from the traditional comic chains. This dealt in extremes. Problem situations were about almost being raped or sexual exploitation. They mostly dealt with female power. It is clear from the character Fox right at the beginning that these girls won't just stand around. When confronted by men in a sexual way she solves her problems by stabbing them. She is shown as strong through a lot of her actions. She joins a Women Army, kills a jaguar, prevents her own rape, and saves an African village that apparently her father is the leader of. Oh yeah, Fox is also black in the classic 70's way, big fro and kicking ass. This is a huge change from the mainstream since most if not all the main comic series were of white males.

Gay Comics on the other hand was really enjoyable, especially after reading Blankets. The first story appears to be an autobiography about the struggles of a woman learning that she was homosexual. It's very touching and ends very sweetly. The other stories are all about real issues people are dealing with at the time as well. The first issue mostly focuses on the search for love or a relationship. The sweetest story was toward the end. It was the story of a woman talking about her mom and Mrs. D, who lived with her mom and raised her right along side her mom. They never say the mother is a lesbian it is implied, but the daughter denies it at the end. It's very tame compared to the other stories which either show lots of sex, or imply as much. The style is very simplified which makes the whole story feel more like a nice card. The quality of this comic was just better, the art, the story, and the tone. It was a much better experience than the cover lead me to believe.

Blankets

I also read this week Blankets by Craig Thompson. I was warned by my friends ahead of time that this graphic novel was a bit depressing. But I didn't find it that way. It felt like life. It was a life since the novel is an autobiography. At times it was dark. Extremely dark in at least one case, where he tells of how he and his little brother were molested. Yet in the end it felt hopeful? I'm not sure that's the word I'm looking for. It felt like growing up. Yes bad happens as does good, and it makes you who you are.

I really like the style of the novel. Especially how abstract it got at times. The content also influenced the abstractions style. When he was happy they got curves and flow to them. When about anger or him dealing with a personal demon they got angular and more static, despite the energy to the lines... like a moment frozen in time. It could be mimicking how the mind usually remembers more bad experiences stronger than good ones. Mental scaring even. Where as the good 'dreams' give a sense of more of an experience. there is more too look at and more that you only get a vague impression of when thinking back on. At least for me anyway.

I'm not sure what else to say about it right now. I think I need to read it again, slower this time, and analyze it as I go.

The Name of the Game

Today I finished reading Will Eisner's The Name of the Game. It was the story of how one Jewish family, the Kaynes, came to rise up in the social circles of the Jewish New York high society. In class we've been discussing how the style in the art of the comics is used to draw the reader in. I found his style to keep me very emotionally detached from what was happening in the story. Which may be the point considering some of the subject matter. It was easier to take in the whole tale when you don't get all up in arms over subjects like the abuse that takes place. The emotional distancing also takes place in how the story is told. It starts at the foreword with the letter from the Kaynes telling the audience a brief synopsis of the tale. But then the story jumps all the way back to the Arnheim family. By going back into the history of the Arnheims it does two things. One, it starts the tale from it's origins. Allowing the whole drama to unfold around the reader. The second thing it does is break the reader out of their initial connection with the Kaynes from the foreword. It also gives the appearance of a collection of stories about families marrying up for status. In the end the story was about the Kaynes. It ends on how Misses Kayn, not originally from the Arnheim family, has now been accepted into a local garden club bacuase of her new connections through her son. It seems that of all the families in the story it is only Mr. and Mrs. Kayn that do well and are not living a shame of a marriage in the end. Which is the reason I think they promote the whole idea of marrying up into status. Where as Rose Arnheim knew what that life was like and had married Aron to escape that life. Which just turned into one of those shame marriages anyway.

TinTin: Explorers on the Moon

When I first skimped through this space adventure of Tintin's I wasn't completely sold on the comic. The characters looked a tad simple, and the story itself a tad childish... till I saw the unconscious dog kicked down a port hole. That defiantly got my attention. Then only a few panels latter is see Tintin, pointing a gun and smiling, which will now haunt me. Needless to say I had to read this comic.

I was unfamiliar with the adventures of Tintin prior to this comic. I found myself pleasantly surprised. The story was very enjoyable. Not to mention I got my first true taste of space Phlebotonum, with the Nuclear engine that gives them gravity. I was surprised at some of the mature themes in Tintin, mainly because of my own preconceptions. Tintin, the character, comes off as a very innocent adolescent, somewhere lost in an ambiguous stage of older child to late teen by design. His face seems to be normally drawn in a state of semi shock, leaving him to appear exceedingly innocent at first glance. I was very pleased when Tintin yelled at Captain Haddock for being stupid enough to get drunk and decide to leave the space ship. One, because he was drawn yelling, which was a nice change. Two, because he wasn't yelling about the Captain endangering himself, but endangering everyone else. The comic in general felt very intelligent. they talked about how propulsion works in space, a little, and some solar system geography and in general seem to be trying to give knowledge along with entertainment, which I liked. The side characters however seemed a tad, well, boring and flat.

Captain Haddock was in the middle of going to the moon and when he wakes up the first thing he talks about is how very little he knows/understands about what he's doing there, or anything about space travel, which just bugged me since he clearly should have known a little since he agreed to go or else he wouldn't be on the ship. But nit picking aside, he came off as a very just angry man verses a multi dimensional character. His role seems to be the angry party-pooper with old fashioned ways, that drinks. That's it. I'm sure his character gets more depth over the series, but for now he falls a tad short. The two characters that I really could have done without were the two detectives. They didn't feel like they had a point to them. They just seemed to be there to cause minor inconveniences, which the story could have easily done with out them. Colonel Jorgen though might be my favorite for very bad reasons. Mainly because I couldn't take him seriously. The man went to the moon for revenge... he waited for DAYS before doing it. There is no way i can take a man seriously for that, but it's a quirky enough scheme that he won me over as a character.

I definitely want to read more Tintin. Especially if there are more Colonel Jorgen hijinks.

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.