~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.

~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.