Persepolis (Revised)

What I noticed immediately after starting Persepolis was how American I am. What I mean by that is the fact that not only did I know nothing about the middle east's culture, but I also never really bothered to think about that either. It just never occurred in my mind. I like to learn about other cultures, so reading this was cool to see what kind of things are common in a middle eastern family. Also, it's nice to see this because it's not something to many people talk about in today's society because of the war and everyone's prejudices. As for the style of the comic, I really enjoyed the somewhat cartoony, round characters. This made the characters seem friendlier and over all made me like them more.
Reading Persepolis kind of reminded me of American Born Chinese in the sense that it was about an individual just trying to fit in. It shows that everyone has the same feelings and though something are different, we are all very similair. I think it's important that I have read this because of how little I know about other cultures. Just from being at Ringling for two years, I've noticed how important that is. After meeting some international students and hearing about how they live, it makes me realize just how much of a stereotypical American I am sometimes. That makes me upset. I am open minded, just ignorant to other cultures, so reading Persepolis just makes me want to learn more about other cultures.

Web Comics

Though I don't usually keep up with them, I really like web comics for the fact that there is a new one every day, or every week so it's like a little daily thing to look forward too. I read a few different comics, but the one I have kept up with most CTRL+ALT+DEL. It's a comic that is mainly focused on video game  references. The y like to make jokes about games that are popular at the current time. The reason I like CTR+ALT+DEL is because it's making fun of some of my favorite things, just as I do, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one thinking how stupid it is that a dragon fight is just a fierce verbal debate.

Kick-Ass

Reinventing the Super Hero? I think that was done here. Kick-Ass is a nerd, nothing goes his way, and he has no powers. What I enjoyed in the comic was again, the style. I appreciated the extra detail throughout the comic as apposed to simple back ground, and somewhat detailed foreground. The whole thing had a bit more detail than a traditional comic which made it more interesting with out being to busy or complicated. What was good was as well was that the story wasn't about some guy exposed to nuclear waste, or someone who was from another planet. It was some kid, pretty much like me, trying to be Batman. The story of Kick-Ass also focused on how he came to be more than just some random scenario you are thrown into, only left to infer what could've happened in the past. Now I'm not saying I don't like traditional super hero comics, I'm just saying it's nice to have a change of pace.

Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp was very interesting. Probably one of my favorites I've read so far. Mainly because when I opened it up I noticed the really stylistic betrayal of the character and how the setting was rendered. Also, the color scheme was really appealing. What was most interesting was the way that it told a story but also analyzed human nature and society. My favorite movies, books, whatever are one that make you really think. I really enjoyed the conversation between Asterios and Hana about speech and lying.

Persepolis

What I noticed immediately after starting Persepolis was how American I am. What I mean by that is the fact that not only did I know nothing about the middle east's culture, but I also never really bothered to think about that either. It just never occurred in my mind. I like to learn about other cultures, so reading this was cool to see what kind of things are common in a middle eastern family. Also, it's nice to see this because it's not something to many people talk about in today's society because of the war and everyone's prejudices. As for the style of the comic, I really enjoyed the somewhat cartoony, round characters. This made the characters seem friendlier and over all made me like them more.

Manga

Though it is one of the more popular manga series, I have been a long time fan of Naruto since it's release back in middle school or whenever. It's been a while. What mainly brought me into it was that I like ninjas and Japanese myths and stories. Naruto was not only about ninjas, but some of the myths in the ninja world, such as the nine tailed beasts and what they represent and the people who conquered them. Over all though, looking back on the style, story and other technical things, there are some little nit picky things that I am not a fan of. Specifically, random fillers to take up time leading up to a new sub plot and some of the scene to scene transitions are hard to follow for someone who doesn't read often, or reads on occasion. Either way, I think it was good, and really liked the development of the characters and story.

American Born Chinese

Right at the beginning the story drew me in with a cool mythical story of a monkey and his kung fu powers and such, so that got me into the story. When it changed into the second story I was kind of confused but continued on to see where it went, throughout the story, what kept me reading was the circle back around the monkey story. By the end, when all three tied together I was shocked at they were all related and how clever it was of the writer to lead up to this with subtle hints throughout the story that you don't noticed until reading the end. Looking back on the story, I saw a lot of little things that actually hinted to the other stories which made the second glance through the story much more enjoyable.

Maus

I’ll be honest; I wasn’t excited to read Maus, because it is another Holocaust or World War II story. I do not mean to be offensive or insulting, but I am just not a fan of those stories. When reading, I found that in multiple places, I had to re-read pages, because of how it was written. The story seemed as if it was translated straight from Polish, or whatever language it was originally written in. Some of the translations were a little difficult to understand because of mixed up word placement, though it was only a minor problem. Though it was early in the story, one thing that stood out to me most was the joke that Spiegelman’s father made. When his father was telling about his birth, and the way his arm used to twitch, earning him the name “Hail Hitler”, I was so surprised that they could even make those jokes after what they had gone through. As much as I did not want to read Maus, after I started reading I got pulled in because it wasn’t exactly, like all the other stories. To start, I like that it was a story about writing a story, which made it more entertaining than just reading the story. I also like that it was a lot of pre war story, talking about how everything lead up to the war. Things I noticed in the story that were clever, was most obviously, the portrayal of the different characters. The Nazis were cats, and the Jews were mice, which gave the reader a real sense of evilness, of the Nazis and helplessness of the Jews. Because of this, I was really surprised whenever the Nazi characters showed compassion, or made jokes because based on the way they were drawn, I perceived them as being ruthless, heartless, and in general evil. A specific instance was with “The Shooter,” and how after learning Spiegelman’s name, he let him go with no hassle at all. Over all, I like the story better than I thought I would, though I did not get to finish it completely. 

Underground Comics

After reading the underground comics I noticed the big theme was sex and drugs. I read a story about a green dinosaur, (I can't remember the exact name) and this dinosaur by some miracle was easily picking up ladies and haveing relations with them in what seemed to be every other line. At a few points in the comic, the dinosaur is with multiple women at once. I wasn't really disturbed or offended by these comics, but was more so surprised. I was surprised that the comics were so blunt, and open. Also, that there were so many of them and they were so popular. I have no problem with them it's just surprising because there seems to be a lot more censorship now, or maybe I am just not looking in the places where these are sold. Either way, it was interesting seeing the "adult" side of comics.

Underground Comics

Based on all the underground comics we read in class, the general story line consisted of getting high and having sex. I read a comic about a green dinosaur (I forget the exact title), and every other line was this little dinosaur getting with one woman, then the next page he was with two, and it progressed to the dinosaur being with four or five women. I guess I'm used to comics and other forms of entertainment being a bit more reserved, and the underground comics all caught me off guard. I wasn't offended or disturbed, but surprised at how big the comics were and how much of them there were. I wasn't a fan of them, because I'm a big super hero lover, and the stories were pretty weak, specifically, the green dinosaur, but after reading and figuring out what these comics were about, it was to be expected.

Will Eisner

I did not read Blankets, based on the responses I heard in class, so I decided I'd read some of Eisner's other work. Though, I was sure the movie and the comic would be very different, I wanted to read some of the Spirit. I actually had a hard time reading it just because of the accents the characters had, and how they accented words were written. I had to actually read the story out loud to get the sounds right so I could figure out the words. But once I got the language of the Spirit down, I enjoyed it a lot. I was pretty entertained with Ebony. It/he/whatever, was just a funny character, mostly just because of how he was drawn, more so than what he says or does.

Early Comics

I read Tales from the Crypt, and as the name suggests the stories were a bit grim. The story that struck me most was the one with the prisoner trying to escape the island prison. The fact that he went through all that planning and did all those outrageous things amazed me. I could not see my self, for one killing a man, then desecrating that man's body, stealing his clothes, to hide out in a coffin on a boat only to be thrown over board that. I guess if you are really that desperate you'll do anything, but looking at it from where I am now, I just could not do that.

Comic Strips

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend:

The last panel is always very simple. Just the bed and the character waking from a dream.
As the comic progresses panels get filled with more and more stuff.
Dreams usually lack a setting.
First panel of dreams is pretty realistic, and quickly moves into a very unrealistic situation.
Somewhat choppy transitions
Krazy Kat:

Mostly location to location transitions
A lot of emphasis on setting
A lot more text than Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (Sometimes too much).
Lots of variation between simplistic and full panels, as well as size of panels
Panels are numbered
Text is fairly neutral in combination with what's happening in the scene. Occasionally they work together.

Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics broke down comics into the most basic aspects. When reading comics I don't usually think of the ideas that were talked about in the reading. Ideas such as how we interpret the meaning of two image sequences based on how they could relate, as well as how well we really can understand such basic elements into a human form. By telling the reader how to understand comics in a comic book, it made it a lot easier to read and understand. It also helps to get used to reading a story in comic book form, so you can follow the frames in the correct sequence, among other things.

The Rooster

1. The person standing on one leg is making fun of the person on the floor.
2. The rooster is at a funeral of the person who was on the floor.
3. The roosters and the woman are preforming a ritual on the girl.
4. The woman who was with the roosters has fallen to the ground, maybe dead or just asleep.
5. The rooster is hiding her, and is maybe upset or happy.
6. The rooster returns to try again on different people.

The Arrival

     Telling stories is done in a number of ways. The one way people don't think of as often is by using just pictures, such as in The Arrival. As it has been said many times before, no matter what language you speak, pictures don't need a translation and are universal. By showing a series of images in sequence you can make the reader or viewer infer what's happening based on, in The Arrival's case, showing important, personal items being packaged up, you can infer that the person is moving. Tan does a good job of explaining why, while continuing the story line as well. As the main character is shown leaving the city it shows what looks to be an evil dragon tail within the dark city, which makes it seem like a bad, scary place. When he arrives at the new place, he goes through a sort of immigration process, and is assigned living quarters. I could tell this based on the check-ups he went through, the paper work he was given, and my general knowledge of how new immigrants could be admitted into a new country. He goes through a hard time transitioning into this new way of life, including getting a job. You can see this from the multiple panels of him talking to people in different parts of town, who all have somewhat sad and apologetic facial expressions. After he starts to settle in he mails his family but doesn't hear from them for a couple years. By showing a leaf in different each of the different seasons in progression, you could then infer that it has been a while until anything happens. When he gets the letter he runs out of the door to meet his loved ones who join him in this new, better city. Based on all the visual clues and hints, Shaun Tan made the story easy to understand and follow. Being able to tell a story without words is an interesting and effective way of engaging a reader in a story and making them get more connected to the characters.