Blankets Redo

I would have to say that Blankets is easily my favorite graphic novel, and will remain in my memory for years to come. I’ve wondered what sets this piece of literature apart from so many other graphic novels. To me, what sets Blankets apart is the honesty present in this work. I would be hard pressed to find another graphic novel that digs so deep into the authors personal life. In the novel, we cover such topics as sexual abuse, religious angst, and first encounters with love and physical intimacy. Such topics are not particularly easy to talk about, no matter what the context. Thomson discussed these ideas not in a ambiguous way, but pertaining directly to his life. He delves into, with much passion and detail, the most intimate aspects of his life. We are brought close into Thomson’s person experiences, and held there in a way that is directly relate able, no matter how similar or different your own past might be.

This graphic novel is very successful as an autobiography. Many autobiographical works I have read have been dry and lacking of any entertainment value or are devoid of any connection to the reader/viewer. Blankets, on the other hand, is a terrific piece of work that can only be looked upon more fondly knowing that it is a factual account of the authors life. While being entertaining and moving, Blankets also manages to capture what is most likely the most important aspects of Thomson’s early life. We not only see the struggles Thomson had to endure, and the Joys he experienced, we FEEL them. This, is in my opinion, the greatest achievement of this graphic novel. This book riveted me; I found Thomson’s struggles to be my own struggles, and likewise when he experienced his first love and liberation from oppressive beliefs and family bonds, I felt elation and relief. Many of the aspects of Thomson’s life he included in the graphic novel I vividly remember living myself; on the other hand though, many aspects of his life I can’t say I had to deal with whilst growing up. Impressively though, this didn’t make it any harder to relate to; no matter how different my life story was from Thomson’s, I still found it no less difficult to relate.

Milk and Cheese

As weird as it is, I enjoyed Milk and Cheese. The comic provides fast paced, easy to digest physical humor, coupled with frequent bad puns.

The premise of the comic is focused on an unlikely duo; two dairy products, milk and cheese, that have “gone bad” and are terrorizing the world with their ill tempers and disdain for everything.

I love that even the basis for this comic (dairy gone bad) is a pun in and of itself. This serves to prepare its viewer for the weird, hilarious escapes that the two will undertake.

Within the comic, milk and cheese go to various locals and carry out everyday tasks. What is amusing is the manner in which these two go about everything they do. Every action the pair engages in is filled with as little class, and as much malice as possible.

The only visual element that makes them anthropomorphizing are surprisingly serious faces and small hard to notice limbs. What had me laughing while reading this comic was the amount of destruction that these most unmeaning characters committed, and the way the two were drawn. I suppose I just found the level of contrast in the comic hilarious; one would never expect such hatred from milk and cheese.

American Splendor

American Splendor features Paul Giamatti, playing Harvey Pekar, the author of the autobiographical comics American Splendor. I found American Splendor to be very similar to the documentary “Crumb”. This shouldn’t be a great surprise, however, as Pekar and Crumb were close friends, and Crumb actually illustrated many of Pekar’s novels. What to me seamed to be congruent between the two films was the characters that were featured. Again, this shouldn’t be a shocker as Crumb and Pekar were friends, and it should be unsurprising that the two would rub off on each other.

The film, I feel, was very well constructed. I feel like they did a great job at tying in personal history, artistic style, and narrative, to make a piece that was coherent, entertaining, and accurate the man and his comics. I also feel that the film was cast exceptionally well. Giamatti always does a great job at playing run down, depressed characters; in this particular role all Giamatti needed to change in his acting style was to amp up the weirdness. Other people, such as Joyce Brabner and Toby Radloff were cast by very skilled actors. When I saw the actors, and then the actual people they were portraying, I was shocked at how well they captured the likeness.

Pekar, Brabner, and Radloff all have very distinct personalities and mannerisms; that the film was comprised of such unique personalities contributes a certain peculiarity towards the film. Ultimately, this peculiarity coupled with the general melancholy of Pekar led to me receiving the film poorly. I walked away from this film respecting how effectively and artistically it communicated the life and art of Pekar, but feeling a bit unsettled and depressed no less. While it was well constructed, the movie still focused on a very odd, frustrated, and depressed man, and therefore was by no means a very light watch.

There were points of this movie that I did enjoy however. In building up to his meeting of his would be wife Joyce Brabner, and the beginnings of his career as a comic author, we are shown the struggles of Pekar. This of course, just equates to a greater amount of emotional impact when good fortune find Pekar. I do not feel as though this film balanced out the negative aspects of Pekar with his positives, however, and the end result of this is that I found myself annoyed with Pekar and his struggles, instead of sympathizing with him.

Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts

Electric Dragon is an interesting film, to say the least. I’ve watched the film 3 times throughout the course of this class, and I still can’t say for sure how I feel about the film, or precisely what happened. General confusion aside, however, Electric Dragon does a great job at conveying the mood and pace of comic media.

The Film is fast paced, exciting and brimming with ‘badassness’. Conversely however, the film is also confusing, corrosive, and far too often incoherent. I enjoyed the mood of the film, but I feel like I lost far too much of what the creators were trying to convey in regards to story content and characters. In the end I fathomed that there are two electricity themed superhero’s battling in the setting of modern day Tokyo (or some other large Japanese city). More than this, however, I would have a hard time deciphering.

This brings me to an interesting point in Electric Dragon. I get the impression that the aim of this film’s creators was not to make a piece of high art, or necessarily to construct a film with a compelling narrative. I think it is safe to say that the intent in making this movie was to construct something cool, to illustrate a battle between two superhero’s in a way that isn’t often seen today.

I’m personally getting very sick of rehashed adaptations of old marvel heroes in Hollywood. I feel as though the modern superhero movie has become rather formulaic, particularly in the West. In this context, Electric Dragon shines. It isn’t trying to be the incredible hulk, or the remake of the incredible hulk, or the remake of the remake. Electric Dragon shows us a fresh presentation of a classic formula, and in this way, the film stands out in the superhero world.

Battle Angel Alita!!!

I read through volumes 1-6 of Battle Angel Alita’s “Last Order”. In consuming this comic, I found myself reminded of several important influences in pop culture. Such influences include the Matrix, Fifth Element, Appleseed and most strikingly similar Ghost in the Shell. All of these but Ghost in the Shell were produced years later than battle angel, however, so its safe to so none of these influenced the design of this comic. One may speculate, on the other hand, that this popular manga has influenced many iconic movies. I was very interested that the construction of Gally, the cyborg protagonist, looked so strikingly similar to the construction of ‘Lilu’, the super warrior star of the film ‘The Fifth Element”.

I have to wonder if Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel influenced each other as they were being developed in roughly the same time. Both comics feature strong, cyborg protagonists in a more or less dystopian future. In reading through this comic I was reminded often of my viewing of Ghost in the Shell; this is the extent of how similar I found the two manga.

Having discussed the similarities I’ve found between Battle Angel and film media, I should mention that I feel as though Battle Angel would work wonderfully in any of a number of different media. I could easily see this comic adapted into an animated series; The comic’s numerous fast paced battle scenes would be great to see in animated form; in reading the comic I was constantly picturing my vision of what this comic would look like at 24 frames per second. While less plausible, I also feel like this comic would be a great feature film. I was shocked to find out that Battle Angel is currently in preproduction as a feature film, directed by James Cameron. While the director is most likely going to see The Dive and Avatar 2 through production first, the movie is currently set for release in 2011. I am hopeful that this comic will hit the big screen with such, especially with such a big budget.

The fast paced action and interesting environments made me excited to contemplate the idea of playing a Battle Angel videogame.

Diary of a Dominatrix

On first Impression, I was a bit underwhelmed by the visuals of Diary of a Dominatrix. The drawings are unexpressive, have a hard time describing certain ideas or objects, and lack in general appeal. As I read through this comic, however, the unique narrative begins to draw me into the story, as I’m curious to read a real humans perspective on such an interesting job. This becomes the main appeal of the comic for me, as every aspect of the comic, from the dialogue to the drawings, helps illustrate the thoughts and struggles of an ordinary person working in a rather extraordinary job. This is the one aspect of this comic that lead me to investigate the story, as if it weren’t for the personal perspective of an actual person, I fear this comic would have degraded to nothing more than a pornographic comic more humorous than most.

This being said, I wish the comic focused more on Zelda, the Dom’s personal life and less on her life as a dominatrix. The scenes focusing on her preparing for her work, or afterwards I found to be the most interesting. I understand that the main demographic of this comic most likely pick up this comic for its adult material, but I personally found this aspect to be the least interesting. I enjoyed the humorous aspects of the sex scenes (why is there a Kermit doll, umbrella, and pogo stick amongst Zelda’s sex toys?), but I found much of the comic’s more explicit scenes either uninteresting of conversely too graphic to want to read. I should have been prepared for this when I opened the comic, but regardless certain descriptions of torture and bondage left me somewhat disgruntled.

Some aspects of this comic that I found particularly unique, and therefore interesting were its focus on texture, fantasy, and a few pages, which were designed more creatively than most. Such pages include one wherein we see the thought process and fantasy of Zelda as she considers killing and dismembering a client and then the repercussions that would follow afterwards. This page is illustrated with minimal character acting or dialogue; much of the page is described in newspaper or book clippings.

Crumb

I found Mr. Natural, and other of Crumbs comics to be rather tasteless and offensive. The actual aesthetic of the comic isn’t terrible; Crumb’s style is interesting at times. In reading this comic though, I have to wonder what Crumb’s motives are for publishing such crude art. In his comics we see various illustrations of rape, fecal humor, and general indecency. I have to wonder why Crumb chooses such subject matter. It may be that crumb wants to illustrate such subject matter in an attempt to shock his viewers, perhaps to widen the reader’s perspective. On the other token, it may just be that Crumb is illustrating his own sick fantasies. At any rate, I have to conclude that Crumb’s comics are what I would consider sick and antisocial. I have never condoned censorship, yet at the same time I wouldn’t condone any media that endorses or flaunts acts of rape and mutilation. I was most shocked when during the documentary we watched the development of Crumbs comic wherein a character had sex with a decapitated woman. I find this, and similar comics extremely offensive and tasteless, and find much difficulty in classifying this example of personal expression as art. Crumb relinquished his title of artist when he allowed work that may be harmful to the general public to be published. This in turn, however, presents an interesting question; at what point can media become considered harmful to its viewers or humanity in general. I may not have the most objective opinion in this matter, as my views on art and censorship have been influenced by years of videogames and violent movies. I personally feel that the line should be drawn where media profits on depictions of rape or violence lacking narrative or cause. If an artist or author wants to depict such heinous acts for no cause greater than shock value or his own amusement, I feel that greater means of censorship should be taken on such media.

Triplets of Belleville

Triplets of Belleville may very well be my favorite movie made (almost entirely) in 2d. This film varies greatly from my standard preconception as to what great animation is. Prior to viewing Triplets, I had the idea that there were only two great schools of thought in regards to traditional animation; the first being Disney, the second being Miazaki and studio Ghibli. This film made me recognize that great animation could come from somewhere other than Japan or the states.

The film excels in several regards, all of which I find very relevant to my chosen field. The first is that the movie is very strong from a conceptual standpoint. Triplets manages to continue to surprise the viewer by consistently throughout the film making original choices as to how the film should tackle a particular problem, or convey a certain idea. This is seen in all aspects of the film; Character design is original, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly is rooted in a functional level. One such example is the henchmen and mob bosses; the henchmen appear as almost a single entity formed of two individuals, they are solid, stoic, and menacing. The mob bosses, alternatively, are much like babies, possessing no real power by themselves. The film plays on this correlation by heightening the joke with baby cries when their henchmen desert the mob bosses.

Another level on which Triplets achieves a higher level of creativity than most films is how the characters solve problems. Mob bosses rig racing bicyclists into stationary bikes in front of projectors, old singers fish with grenades, and a caring grandma uses egg beaters and a lawn mower to tend to her grandson’s sore muscles. The frequency and originality of these actions is so refreshing in an age where 90 percent of all films are an adaptation of something else. Watching this movie made me realize exactly how much potential animation, and film in general has.

One other aspect of Triplets that I enjoyed was that the film was almost entirely pantomimed. The film was mostly silent, and I found this a point which made the films success all that more impressive. In areas where the film could push cheap exposition with dialogue or even narration, Triplets chose to show us everything, explain a child’s yearnings with photographs and a scrapbook found in his room. I suppose the correlation between this film and my media (computer animation), is that triplets sets an example as to how we can be efficient and refreshing storytellers in an age where it may seem at times that everything has already been done.

American Born Chinese

I’ll start off saying that I really enjoyed American Born Chinese. I had read Gene Yang’s The Eternal Smile several years ago and really loved it, so when I saw Yang’s name on the reading list I had to check this comic out. The comic unsurprisingly focuses a majority of it’s energies on depicting the struggles of a son of Chinese emigrants. The struggles of this kid, named Jin Wang, and his difficulties in fitting in at school and America and general are the main focus of the work. In this respect, the comic was a bit hard to relate to me; the story of hardship due to cultural differences and the difficulty of assimilation is one I have not yet experienced. This did not make the story impossible to get into though. The struggles of adolescence I believe is a story anyone can appreciate.

An integral theme in the comic is identity and how one should hold true to theirs. We see Jin Wang turn away from his own identity for much of the story. We, as the reader, want to see Jin embrace his identity, and yet we can see why he would shun his true self in an attempt to be better received by others. I imagine everyone can admit that at some point in their lives they sacrificed a part of their self to be seen in a better light by others. In this respect Yang chooses a theme universally appreciated, illustrating it with the story of an American born Chinese student.

Aside from the satisfying themes and morals behind the story, I really enjoyed the humor of the story; from the slapstick visuals to the awkward antics of maturing youths, I found the comic funny and entertaining throughout.

Yang grabs to reader, and holds fast to their attention throughout the comic. He does so using the genuinely touching narrative of the main protagonist, engaging visuals, effective humor, and by breaking the story into 3 simultaneous narratives. These three stories appear almost completely unrelated; the only common element at first glance is the Chinese influence, an occurrence that at first glance could be attributed to the author’s influences. Near the conclusion of the story however, we realize that the three narratives interview and connect nicely with out another. I found this a rather satisfying way of grabbing the reader’s attention.

Maus

As I was first reading Maus I have to admit, I found it rather slow. The topic of the holocaust, and conversely contemporary Jewish family life, is one that I find very hard to relate to. The story is more or less a familiar one for me; having studied to holocaust throughout my entire academic life, I didn’t find this narrative expressing any new information on the topic. The only thing that might be different would be the way in which this material is being expressed. This, in my opinion, is another area in which Maus falls short. I found the design and layout of Maus uninteresting; the illustrations were generally small and minimalistic, and relied more upon subtlety than fast, attention grabbing visuals. One thing I did enjoy in Maus however, were these subtle details that can be found on the pages of the comic. On every page, underneath the drawings, hid many expressive details that Art sprinkled upon the pages. I specifically use the word hid; these details often hide underneath the minimalism. Oftentimes one of these tertiary details was expressed as a single or several less; a very rough representation of whatever was depicted. I’m glad that Art included these details to add an extra level of immersion, but at the same time I wish Art’s style was a bit more attention grabbing.

Specific to Art’s visual technique, is the depiction of different races as different animals. Jews are depicted as mice, whereas Germans are shown as cats. The obvious symbolism is comparing the plight of the Jews against the Nazis as that of a mouse attempting to survive a cat. Poles meanwhile are depicted as pigs. I found this interesting, as the poles in this narrative are shown in several different lights. In some portions of the story the Poles are selfish characters who would neglect or even turn in the Jews to benefit themselves, whereas other poles in the story as shown as selfless characters who put themselves on the line to help Jewish survivors. I found the portrayal of pigs very apt, as pigs are neutral to the struggles of both cats and mice. In the story the Poles can shift in favor to either the Germans or the Jews, so I found this rather appropriate. An interesting touch that I enjoyed was the visual metaphor of using masks to show when a character is masquerading as a different race. This was one of those details that I might have actually missed if I was reading the comic a bit less intently. The masks would be denoted at times with one or two rough lines, it took a bit of imagination at times to take Art’s illustration in the direction that he would want.

The Arrival!!!!

Shaun Tan’s the arrival was a singularly refreshing piece of literature. The most immediately noticeable trait of the book is that there are no words, at least no words that can be interpreted by the reader. This fact leads to what I found the books most appealing characteristic; while using no comprehensible written language, Tan flawlessly communicates a complex and endearing story of life experiences.

I was continually surprised by how successfully Tan communicated any theme, emotion, or experience, however intangible or nuanced it was. Adding to my awe was the fact that the book’s illustrations flowed more like a well edited movie than a novel or comic. The still images conveyed a smooth and readable progression of time, with sequential images giving the stills an animated quality. As well as a pleasing flow of time and sequence, Tan employed skilled transition techniques and appealing compositional elements. Tan communicates with incredible efficiency; little time is wasted by the reader finding where we are supposed to be looking, or discerning what is happening on a given frame.

Several scenes in particular stick out in my mind. When the traveler reaches the new land, he goes through the steps necessary to immigrate into this new local. I was fascinated by the interview scene, that Tan could communicate such an action using no written language yet soever. I have to wonder the amount of reference and studies Tan underwent on human movement, emotion, and aesthetics to so accurately and efficiently pin down each frame.

Another scene which impressed me was the cloud scene. This sequence was impressive to me less on a technical level, and more from a conceptual standpoint. I found this a tremendously original and effective means of communicating the passage of time. I was delighted with the originality of this shot, and others/

Aside from the impressive technical and conceptual aspects of this book, I found the story, interplay of different characters, and original creatures and environments absolutely delightful. This book took me to a different world, one that I've never seen before in film, literature, or games. This world was fresh and appealing to me, offering as many new surprises to me as it offered to the emigrant. The book did not exists solely to deliver a change of geography, however. The interweaving stories of the different immigrants was a poignant display of human struggles, joy, and friendships, and I'm thankful that Tan succeeded in imbuing depth as well as charm into his masterpiece.

Understanding Comics

I was a bit surprised by understanding comics. I was expecting to open the book to find an academic analysis of comic books. I was greeted instead by an actual comic book. Or so I thought. Understanding comic's presentation is eccentric, yet fitting for its subject matter. As the book analyses comic books, I suppose it is appropriate that the book read like an actual comic book. This however, isn't a typical comic book, even by this classes standards (or from what I've read so far). The book was surprisingly informative, giving some rather in depth discussions about the media of comic books, and their relevance to the artistic world. I must say I was a bit surprised to see how well well McCloud argued for the importance and significance of the genre that is comics.One aspect that pleased me about this book was how McCloud described the interplay between comics and other media. Many of the ideas described in this book I found were just as relevant to animation, illustration, or film as they are to comics. Particularly to topic of Iconic imagery, and use of icons interesting as it applies to other forms of art. This made me thing about comics use in my own studies. I have studied film and animated works as reference to how to go about the preproduction of an animation. The conceptual aspects of animation are very important, as a solid base must be formed, with which the artist continually looks back to support decisions on composition, sequential flow, and communicating ideas and actions. I found this book surprisingly informative in this domain, topics such as the use of icons made me think of more efficient ways I could communicate characters or action in my preproduction process.McCloud's book was somewhat surprising, and to be honestly, a bit more laborious to read than I feel a traditionally layed out text would have been. The upside though, is that I found this book much more entertaining that it would have been if he had just written a text. On the same token, I imagine this book attracted many new readers that would have never strayed into the domain of comic analysis had this book not been written.

Little Nemo

I really can't say I enjoyed Little Nemo. I delved into little Nemo in Slumberland. I found some aspects of the comic interesting, but in the end, the lack of plot, coherency, or solid narrative really frustrated me. On a superficial (yet, important level), the way McCay wrote the text made it hard to read the comics at a decent pace. I had to spent an undue amount of time analyzing McCays writing, instead of just breezing through the text. While the extra time It took to read through the comics as a result was bearable, the distraction from the comic and the imagery was less forgivable. To me the most important aspect of the novel was the psychedelic imagery. Because of this fact, I found the distracting text very harmful to the my enjoyment of the comic.On a lighter note though, the comic presented some some images. I'm sure that particularly in it heyday the comic wowed reader with its imaginative environments, weird variety of characters, and outlandish creatures. In our day however, we have movies like Avatar that can present us unbelievable creatures in such a manner that the mystical seams almost mundane. Because of this, I was less enthusiastic about Nemo in Slumberland than readers of McCay's era must have been. The differences between comics of the present day and the pioneering comics become apparent McCays work. Not to bash on the artist, however, for at his time his work was marvelous, and without him many forms of art may not be the same today. I did however, notice many techniques that had no been innovated yet that might have made his work more engaging. Almost all of McCay's compositions were very straight on; he rarely allowed the readers an angled camera view, and usually keep the camera the same distance away from the focus. Many modern comics have gone the opposite direction; we see extreme camera angles and close ups. Such compositions are employed to heighten drama. I really realize this in McCay's work; it isn't until I am deprived of interesting compositions that I really realize how necessary they are to keep a viewers attention. As I was reading through Slumberland I could clearly see a gap in time in McCay's work; it took me a while before I figured out what was really bugging me was lackluster composition.

Blankets

Blankets was a very interesting novel. Longer than I was expecting, I was anticipating the novel to be a chore to read. I could not have expected to be pulled in so greatly by this novel. The first 20 pages or so were rather hard to read; to story of Thomson's early life is not an easy one to digest. I found this, instead of a deterrent, a motivator to read on. I wanted this little kid's life to improve, I wanted to see him get away from his abusive household, and most importantly I wanted him to meet the girl he is seen with on the cover.
This novel seems to very accurately capture not just human experiences and emotions, but specifically events and their significance to people at a certain age. Thomson's descriptions of his characters and what they went through at particular ages struck a cord with me. They didn't just describe those events; they described what it felt like at that age, and in that particular part in time. During the first chapter I recalled my own childhood, and realized how accurately Thomson described hardship for youths. Similarly, Thomson's descriptions of the awkward experience of puberty and first love felt particularly familiar to my own experiences. This really pleased me, I can't recall at this very moment any films or books that so accurately synthesized some of these experiences. Maybe this is just because some aspects of Thomson's life in particular really correlated to my own life, maybe its just do to skillful storytelling.
On the technical side, I found Thomson's use of line rather effective. The line quality sharply varies based on how it is perceived by the protagonist. Frightening portions of the story, such as when Thomson's brother is shoved into the crawl space, are drawn with a harsh, messy, jagged line quality to reflect the narrator's mental state at the time. Conversely, when Thomson first notices his female friend at the church camp, she is drawn in a beautiful, crisp line that had not been seen in the novel till that point. The result is felt, not necessarily immediately noticed. In this way, Thomson more effectively communicates his story, by not just telling up events, but making us feel them as he had felt them.