Comics by women: Different perspectives. (12 points) Back in elementary school, I always assumed that girls were better artists then boys, since girls had some pretty nice handwriting while us boys often got work sent back to us because the teacher couldn’t read our chicken scratch. Even today, I attend an art school where my female peers outnumber the males by quite a large margin. As such, it makes me wonder how many great artists were suppressed throughout history because they were women. Picasso, Dali, Da Vinci - All men hailing from a time when art made by women was not publicly accepted and this left out of the pages of history. Today however things are finally different and girl creatives can finally have their work published and recognized by the public. Reading the featured comics this week has my interests for varied perspectives piqued. This One Summer by Jillian and Marika Tamaki is a really interesting coming of age story exploring a wide range of e...
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...
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...
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