~Underground Comics~ Week 6

 This week was different then the others. We were asked to read some underground comics. These comics push the envelope a lot. They crossed a lot of lines and were very inappropriate. At this time everyone and even today think comic books are only for children. The underground comics were made for adults. They are very crudely drawn because these were just random people drawing these comics.  They were not professionally made or done by a professional printing press company. They were printed by people that randomly had a printing press and distributed that way. Most of the themes would have sex, drinking and prostitution. Basically it was a porno but in comic form.    

I don't feel comfortable putting the title I read on here. So please bear with me rambling about this comic. Thank you.

The underground comic that I read follows the life of a cat doing random cat things or thinking it’s a human being. Like most underground comics that come out of the underground this has nudity, strong violence, drugs, and so on. This comic book is made up of many short strips of this particular fat cat doing random things. The stories go from him having warfare with ants, to being on drugs with his owner, the cat thinking it’s a cop and killing whole bunch of people and so on. This comic doesn't have a filtration system, it's just rambles with weird stories that involve the cat. Overall okay, there were some funny parts in it. For an example the cat crap and the owner’s typewriter got shocked.

The artwork is crudely made and sometimes very hard to understand or read what is happening in frames. The comic does have some nice panels but they’re not consistent throughout the whole comic.

These types of comics are not really my cup of tea so I will end it at that. 

~The Spirit ~ Week 5

For this week we were ask to read some of the Spirit by Will Eisner.  Like most of the reading in this class I have not read Spirit before.  My overall impression from just looking over the cover of this one issue, which is the Spring issue number eight of the Spirit series. I feel that it is about a crime fighter of some kind or he is some sort of hero because he wears a mask and he has a little henchman. It looks like it’s going to be a fun read.

As I read through this issue I really enjoy how Will Eisner drew his gestures for his characters in the comic.  You can really understand what the person is doing. Also the uses of dramatic poses are very interesting and fun to look at. It shows what each character is doing clearly. The characters also have very unique gestures also. I really enjoy how Will Eisner drew this comic strip. How he draws this comic is my favorite part of the whole strip.

The timing for each frame to frame and how it’s all laid out is really amazingly done. It flows seamlessly from one page to another page. I may be wrong but I think that people who are doing comics now have looked or have seen some of Will Eisner’s work because this is pretty much the set up to how comics are today.

I found this comic really funny and really interesting. One reason is the main character is in a bright blue suit with a mask on all the time. I think it’s interesting how he played with the use of color and clothing to help you find the hero and each image. The reason why I think it is funny because no one would have a bright blue suit and wear a mask and fight crime. Another was Will Eisner really played with the Point of view with in each frame of the comic. With this I find that it gives you a better read because you feel like you are more submerged into the comic.

~TinTin ~ Week 4

For this week we were asked to read TinTin. Before this class I have never read the comic. I have seen the new 3-D animated movie that just that was beautifully made and it was really good. So this week I looked forward to reading some TinTin and see why this comic was lucky enough to have a 3-D animation for it.

The Adventures of TinTin stories were by Herge, a.k.a Georges Prosper Remi. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies. Which I do not know about you but that is crazy and really amazing. The Adventures of Tintin has been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film.

As you probably already know The Adventures of TinTin is about a boy name TinTin and his cute little dog who go on these fast adventures using their detective work to solve mysteries. I can see why this comic was so popular because it is easy to read and you can feel like you can be a part of the adventures.

How the comic is designed and formatted with word bubbles makes the story easy to follow. It really meshes well together and you can really understand what is happening in each image even though it has a simple image format.

The characters that the artist developed are quirky and funny.  As we go along in the story we can see their special characteristics. I feel the special characteristics put a nice twist and turn to the comic. It makes the comic more unique and more enjoyable to read.

Even though The Adventures of TinTin looks like it is meant for kids I can see an older audiences picking up this comic and reading it. For an example for teenagers to early adults for an easy and fun read. I believe that one of the reasons why The Adventures of TinTin has sold so well and has been printed in different languages is that the story is so well-developed and characters well designed that everyone can pulled into the story or be part of it. Who wouldn’t want to go on these real-world adventures and have fun as you go.

After reading some comics The Adventures of Tintin I can see why this comic makes for a good movie idea. It’s pretty much designed for a kid or young adult adventure movie. The storyline format is great; the characters are very unique get quirky, funny with some attitude and adventurous. Basically the making for a great movie.

~ Little Nemo~ Week 3

This week we were looking at many different types of comics that came out in the early stages of comic history, around 1900s. Some of the titles were Krazy Kat, Prince Valiant and many others. I felt bad looking at the older comics because I have not heard most of the titles that were shown in class or if I did it was long forgotten. There was one title that I knew because I took a class about history of Illustration, which we talked about and had to know Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo.

This comic is about the adventures of a little boy in his dreams. Little Nemo is a fictional character created by Winsor McCay. Nemo is the main character of the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. The weekly strip depicted Nemo having fantastic dreams that were interrupted by his awakening in the final panel. The odd dreams are triggered by something odd that Nemo has eaten before he has gone to bed.

I found that McCay pushed out side the box with this strip. It is set up like no other in this time period and can be seen as a based for now a day comics. I felt like he really experimented with the form of the layout of the strips page, color, timing, pacing, size, shape, perspective, architectural and other details of each panels.

For an example in the image on the right shows part of the Slumberland strip. Also shows how McCay pushed himself. For the layout of the strips page it is clean cut and simple for and easy read.  The coloring for each panels helps with the line art to make a real interesting image and makes it simple to the viewer to understand. For an example the turkey eating the house in the middle shows a great use of color and where to put it. All the colors are in the turkey are richer and flashy.  He used more simple and neutral colors in the background to help make the turkey pop. The timing and pacing is well used with having quicker parts, like the turkey eating the house, to slower parts, like Nemo falling in to red water and swimming to shore. With this strip McCay used three different size panels. I think the reason for this is to help show the reader what are the more important parts of the strip. McCay for this strip did not stick with just boxes. As you can see he played with different shapes, like circle and sloping panels. He is the master of having fun ways to use perspective and architectural that is simple and yet you can easily tell what is going on.

I find Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay a classic comics strip and you need to know if you want to do comics. It may be old school, but it is great just the same. 

~Learning About Comics~ Week 2

When I heard that I was going to read is book about comics I thought it was going to be like all the rest of those normal books that has a lot of type with only a few images that go with it, but I was wrong. If you have not heard of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and you want to know more about comics this book is a great way to learn about them. It is a book that is designed as a comic book. The book shows and teaches you what is a comics, how to understand and or make one.

Most think that comics are just simple sequence of images that tell a story with words in boxes for kids. But there are always some that brake out. As you read through this book it can open your eyes and show you there are many different types and ways you can go with a comic set up or design.  For an example there are comics that do not have text at all like The Arrival by Shaun Tan or just a short comic strip like Charles Schulz's Peanuts. There are many ways and direction that comics can go in for kids and adults.

What I thought the most interesting thing that Scott McCloud did in Understanding Comics was how this book is designed. I thought it was genius how the book is a comic which breaks everything down for an easy read. For an example, it would be hard to explain how to draw and setup a person that has a movement through many frames, with only text and some images.

Scott on the other hand takes that information and draws it out. He breaks it down into four frames. In the image it shows how Scott has drawn out a complete background that is broken down into four frames. With his character “walking” through the frames to tell a simple story with some text to help. The text in the text bubble is talking you through how to set up the movement and some tips. I found this really easy to learn from because it show exactly what he is talking about.

With this layout of the book it make everything about comic within this book easy and fun to read. Before I read this book I knew just the basics of how to set up and comic and that you need some prep before starting a comic. I found this to be a great read and learned a lot from the book.