Acme Novelty Library ~ Week 11

For this week we were asked to read comics that are in the category of contemporary literature. I ended up reading Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library.

 

Acme Novelty Library has adopted numerous formats in the course of the series and, similarly, doesn't feature a continuous cast of characters. Ware's first major graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, was originally serialized in Acme Novelty Library between 1995 and 2000. Jimmy Corrigan is the saga of a lonely childlike man and his alienated ancestors, partly inspired by Ware's hopeful but unhappy reunion with his absentee father. Issues are imbued with the defining characteristics of Ware's work; a pervasive sadness and nihilism

permeate tales of disappointment, thwarted affection, and the dehumanization of the individual in a modern and mechanized world. Through the use of apparently extraneous novelties, such as cut-outs and flip-books, and prose parodies set in tiny fonts.  Ware blurs the boundaries between author, the reader and the character.

This comic was my favorite so far. I really like the different formats he does and the art style. When I look at the main character I think of the baby from Family Guy.  I'm pretty sure when these characters were developed they were most likely looking at one or another. I don’t know which

one came first. 

The author uses a lot of different formatting within this comic. One example of the use of color in the artists format is that he has one half the page in a monotone color palette and the bottom of the page being completely different monotone color palette.  It is an interesting way to set the mood clearly and easily.  Another thing that the author does is he uses color and black-and-white sections spread throughout the comic. I really enjoy seeing the two different types the artist uses and seeing how he incorporates them into his work. His building and landscape drawings that he does is really amazing and the mood that he sets up from them is really impressive and you can get the mood instantly. The comic is really enjoyable to read and it is an easy read. I highly recommend it.

Girls of The Wild's Manhwa ~ Week 10

This week we were asked to read manga. I have read a decent amount of manga. For this assignment I wanted to find one that wasn't really well known that was kind of popular that I haven't heard about before. I ended up reading Girls of The Wild's Manhwa  by author Hun and artist Kim Hye-Jin.

A brief summary of the manga series:

“Wilds high, it has a history of 42 years as a fighting specialist all girls private high school meant solely for the elite. The place Wilds-League is held, the most popular event in the country, the only place in the world where teenage girls have brutal fights with their lives. This year has been changed into a mixed gender school. The only male student- Song Jae Gu, has been granted a full 3-year scholarship regardless of grades. Being someone who had to spend every moment working or taking care of his two younger brothers, he accepted. However, the scholarship was granted with the sole condition he does not leave. But after meeting Queen, the bloody champion of Wild's-League, drenching her in coffee, calling her a "Monster" and other mishaps could prove fatal.”

This manga has a very common storyline that it shares of a lot of other manga.  One example is it takes place in a high school, which in the manga universe is a good chunk; about 65% of manga produced has a high school or a school environment. Which is is not bad it is just something I noticed that repeats a lot. Another example is a complex love story. What I mean when I say a complex love story is in a normal content there would be in love triangle with two girls that wants one guy. Instead for an example there would be six girls wanting one guy in the storyline. So as you read the story sometimes you don’t know which one the lead male will end up picking. They are there are other manga that are more obvious which girl the lead male will pick.

The artwork on the other hand is really different. It does have some of the stereotypical manga looking elements in the characters. One of the things that makes it stereotypical is how the line work is use and designed. For an example the eyes and how the clothing is designed. For me what I thought was really cool about this manga is the action scenes of how the characters kicked and punched other characters. Also the movement of the characters is more realistic or more believable then others I have read. You can see some examples on the right side of the page.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was the backgrounds and the all the details that was put  into them. In some frames the background doesn’t really exist, but when there is a background they are not boring, and very interesting. You can see that the artist put a lot of detail work into the backgrounds, which for me is really different from what I normally read. Normally the backgrounds are really boring and you don’t really pay attention to the background, they don’t call you into them.

            Lastly in the art section, I wanted to touch on something that’s kind of obvious to this particular manga, which is the use of color. This manga is completely colored. The color that is use is nicely handled and well executed. If this mango was not colored I don't think it would've been as interesting or strong with just the black-and-white line work that it has, it would have lost some pats that made it interesting.

The formatting of it is extremely different from what a normal manga looks like. The page for format is extremely long. An example of the page is on the left and right. I found this really interesting and unique because you're basically getting the same amount information but you get to see more details to the artwork. I feel that this set up is more designed towards the art and letting the art breathe from panel to panel. The chapters in this manga are really short then other manga there are about seven pages per chapter. Which is understandable because all the work detail that goes in each page.

            If you want to read a manga that has action, comedy, drama, romance and beautiful fighting girls that want one nerdy guy then you should read this manga.

~Nikopol Trilogy~ Week 9

For this week we were asked to read an European comic and I ended up reading the Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal.

A short summary:

It’s the year 2023 and Alcide Nikopol has been revived from

a state of suspended animation after 30 years orbiting Earth. In the meantime, the planet has suffered two nuclear wars, and France is ruled by the ruthless dictator J.F. Choublanc. The immortal gods of Egyptian antiquity have also reawakened to revive their rule over humanity, and they now hover above the crumbling technopolis of Paris in a massive stone pyramid/airship. Horus, the renegade falcon god, takes possession of Nikopol’s body, rendering him immortal, and concocts a conspiracy to overthrow the Choublanc regime.

This comic is really different from what other comics I have read. It’s confusing in some cases because you don’t know what the basic storyline is. I think there’s about three different storylines going on. The first part of the story is about Alcide Nikopol and gets possessed by Horus. The second part is about a girl name Jill, who is a reporter who is sending stories of the present to the past. Her path crosses with Nikopol’s and they fall in lust.  The last part is about takes place in Equator City, a metropolis in permanent subzero, involves Nikopol’s son and a boxing match. As you can see it’s really confusing and can be difficult to understand what is going on if you don’t pay attention to small things.

 

The artwork is really interesting and very different from what I’ve seen before. The drawings and the art is really gritty and muddy and has a lot of things going on. Even though the art is really rough and muddy the character design that the artists used is pretty amazing and interesting. There is a wide range and use of different characters. For an example the artist has normal people but then there are some that have crazy abnormality to their face or they have crazy makeup on. There are other characters that have even more odd-looking features. For an example some have human bodies and have animal heads. Another example is a green and white striped cat that looks like it was crossed with a bear

Even though there’s a lot of randomness going on in the storyline and artwork. It is really fun to sit down and look at all the details that the artist added in.

~American Born Chinese~ Week 8

The main focus for this week was stereotypes and how they are used in comics. For the reading this week we were asked to read comics that had to do with stereotypes so I read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

 Stereotypes can be good or bad or both. For an example of a stereotype that is good and bad is someone of Asian to send always gets good grades and is really smart. The stereotype can be good if you fit the stereotype. On the other hand that stereotype can be bad, if you are from Asian descent and you don't get good grades or are having a problem with a class you can be stress, pressured and feel bad for yourself for asking for help.  An example of a stereotype that is not good but is thrown around in the US culture is the dumb blonde. That if you were blonde that means you’re stupid just based off the fact that you have natural blonde or have died your hair blonde. Hair color means nothing about how smart someone is or not. An example of a good stereotype is “the nice Jewish boy” that comes out of the beliefs system of girls wanting to marry the perfect Jewish man. Which not every person is going to be nice, perfect, good person, but this stereotype is something to strive for.

 In this graphic novel the AmericanBorn Chinese it touches and shows how the main character

goes through life and all of the problems and obstacles he had to go through. For an example of stereotype being reflected or put on the main character really starts off at the beginning when he started his new school. There were stereotypes that the main character ate dogs, arranged marriage and being married off at thirteen and many others. Some of the stereotypes are major, so when you read it you really notice it. Then there are others there a little more low-key.

I believe that with the simple images and great storyline with the lessons, teachings, obstacles, problems and hardships of the author’s life really makes this graphic novel. It’s a makes you not want to put it down. Will he get the girl? What crazy thing is he going to now? I really enjoyed this graphic novel.

~Maus~ Week 7

For this week we were ask to read a graphic novel Maus by cartoonist Art Spiegelman. I did not expect that we were going to read this type of graphic novel in class. Even though, I am very excited to read it.

The baseline of the novel is how Art Spiegelman depicted his father’s experiences as a Jew and Holocaust survivor through interviews. Art depicts the races of humans as different kinds of animals, with Jews as mice, Germans as cats and non-Jewish Poles as pigs.

For me I thought Art was genius for making the race of men different types of animals. I think it makes it easier for people to pick up the book because it isn’t like a human getting their head blown off. Also it really stands alone compared to other wartime comics or war inspired comics. Another thing that I liked was how he uses not just any animals but ones that have a strong attack fear complex relationship, like cat and mouse. I feel the each personality of the animal really fits the characteristics, Nazi being a cat and a mouse being Jew.

The book uses a minimalist drawing style while displaying innovation in its page and panel layouts, pacing, and structure.

            Even though the drawing is very simple I like how the drawing is really scratchy in rough looking it really fits the story. With the rough line work and a war story it seals the deal for perfect narrative. On the right I found an image from this comic, which is an example of what I am talking about. In a chunky font it says “The Noose Tightens” then below the type is nine mice with nooses around their necks. In the front there is a mouse with the Star of David on his coat. The artwork is really scratchy and simple for an easy read yet packs a punch. The scratchiness really gives a nitty-gritty that these poor mice are getting strangled and represents what was happening with the Jews in Germany and around the area. A narrative that I got from this image was that the Jews were running out of time because they’re getting killed, going to concentration camps and basically getting exterminated.

            I found that the timing throughout the panels and pages are very innovative and different then the normal everyday layout. An

example on your left is a page out of the Maus. This page layout is really different and I have never really seen this happen before in any type of graphic novel or comic book that I have read. Page is laid out into two columns a small the left and a large on the right. The story does not go straight across the page, drops down then goes straight across again etc. etc. Instead the story goes straight down the column. When it hits the bottom of the page it goes back up to the top to the second column and then continues. Also the size relationship between the two columns is very interesting. The small column on the left is made up of the father talking to the son. Then goes into the larger panels on the right, which is about what was happening to the father in Germany. It makes sense that this is how it’s set up because as a reader you want to see more of what happened in World War II then of the son and the father just talking to each other.

             I found this graphic novel really interesting because it's not like any other documentary or anything I have read about World

War II. It is very personal because it is someone’s life story and you can feel it when you read the novel. Even though the animals are representing people it still doesn't really take out the impact of what really happened or what happened to this poor father trying to survive the Holocaust with his wife. Another thing that I liked a lot was how the book takes place in the past and present. How Art set up each panel and layout, you really get the feeling that the father is talking to his son and telling is holistic story and that you are having this story told to you and interesting way. I would strongly recommend reading this book if you like to read World War II stories.