Literature of Comics & The Graphic Narrative

Week 1-7 Assignments: 30 Points Attendance 7 Points Total 37 Points

After reading a collection of underground comics including Monolith, Atomic Comics, Little Green Dinosaur, Mu The Land That Never Was, and Girl Fights, I have noticed a throughline of various recurring topics through all of them. The corruption of society and people seems the strongest, but other topics like overt sexuality and violence also persist in all except the Atomic Comics.  “Atomic Comics” takes a textbook-like approach to storytelling, using its characters and actions to exemplify the dangers of over reliance on dangerous forms of nuclear energy. The drawings paired with the information make it easier to digest than just reading a paper on nuclear energy.  “Little Green Dinosaur” is a satirical comic that inserts a dimension hopping stylized dinosaur into various time periods and stories. The dinosaur also has a penis and uses it. A lot. He is crafty and just kind of goes with the flow, ending up at the center of a whole slew of situations, where others reacting to h...

  Maus is a groundbreaking work for the medium of the graphic novel. Universally praised and considered a legitimate work of literature even by those who normally condemn the entire medium of comics as worthless lowbrow garbage. But all this praise doesn't come so easy to its author, Art Spiegelman. Early on in the second book, he depicts himself being overwhelmed by the spotlight that comes with having a renowned work. Constant questions about the deeper meaning behind the work are bombarded at him all the while he needs to deal with the guilt he feels for having an easier life than his parents, and ultimately profiting off of their personal struggle.  I would first like to argue for Maus’ legitimacy amongst all the other holocaust survivor tales, most of which are autobiographical of the people who lived through it. It's not really necessary to make this argument considering Maus is literally the Posterboy for comics as a legit form of storytelling, but I will make it anyway...

Understanding. A desire that exists deep within all people. We want to be able to bear our full selves to someone and have them understand and accept us. It is such a strong desire we often expect people to understand our actions and expectations, because deep down we’re all the same… right?  And if we can’t find acceptance or understanding we close ourselves off, until something inevitably breaks down the doors once again. It is this concept that I believe is explored to an intimate degree in Eisner and Thompson’s works. Einser's Novels can be considered case studies into the lives of his subjects, most of them being tragedies. “Contract With God” explores the life of a man who had convinced himself that he had made a deal with God, if he does good, no bad will befall him. He spent his life adhering to a contract that only he had signed, and when his adopted daughter met an unfortunate and early death, he felt betrayed beyond belief. An intimate and private contract between him an...

  One throughline found within several of the artists we looked at this week was the concept of getting credit for their work. Jack Kirby for example, was and is known very well by comic fans who have read his works or the works influenced by his pioneering. Today, however, many of the stories he had a large hand in creating are now blockbuster juggernauts but fans of the films have accepted them as the work of the late expert marketer and personality Stan Lee. While Kirby’s name may have slipped through the cracks over the years, the opposite is true for Carl Barks. Fans of the Scrooge McDuck Comics were able to sift through the uncredited strips and identify “The Good Duck Artist” as he was known for years until the comics were released under the names of their creators instead of simply “Disney.”  One thing that I like about Bark’s Scrooge comics are his sense of scale and adventure, as well as the motivations of the characters that lead to those adventures. It feels like a...

  The Smithsonian collection provides a comprehensive snapshot into the history of comic strips from their introduction to newspapers across the country and going forward. It shows just how much things have changed and how much they have stayed the same within this specific niche of the comics industry.  The specific strip from this collection I would like to focus on is “Wash Tubs”. The strip tells the story of two young men who are drugged and then swindled into working on an old fashioned whaling vessel by an evil and crafty first mate. The strip is heavily story driven for a story that was originally cut into multiple parts in the paper. At times it is hard to tell exactly when it splits from one strip to the next, since most choose to leave on a tense cliffhanger. Reading in this collected format however, the reader Immediately gets the payoff. An aspect that i really enjoyed about this strip was its attention to detail in the sailor’s day to day lives at sea as well as ...

  “Understanding comics” By Scott McCloud is an interesting analysis on the medium of comics. Scott’s attempt to link the vastly diverse and complicated medium under a common definition and theory is (surprisingly enough) an entertaining read. Despite being worded and constructed similar to an academic paper on the subject of comics, McCloud’s choice to present his thoughts utilizing the medium of comics himself keeps things cohesive, allows for visual examples to be used extensively, and holds the reader’s interest bar better and a text based academic journal ever could. The part of the book I found the most intriguing is the section on panel-to-panel pacing, timing, and progression. This is one of the aspects of comics that I personally most enjoy, since panel lines and shapes can be played with by the author to great effect in emphasizing things and providing impact. McCloud makes the assertion that there are 6 distinct types of panel to panel transitions. Moment to Moment, Acti...

Reading "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan is a rather unique experience for me in more ways than one. Everything from its lack of legible text, be it transcribed character dialogue or written word within the story, to its extremely detailed and surreal imagery, to its heavy reliance on moment to moment action and expression to tell a story, it is certainly not your typical comic book.  I would like to talk about its extremely strong visual based worldbuilding. Without an ounce of text to explain the workings of this unusual almost alien world that our assumedly human cast lives in, the locals manage to feel tangible, real even. I think this is because of the feelings that the places give off are rather universal and relatable, rather than their appearance. The “food shop” family’s story of escaping these enormous, featureless men with unstoppable vacuums that deposit their victims directly into their flaming backpacks is not only a fearsome and awe inspiring image, but it is also re...