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...
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...
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...
Comments
Post a Comment