Maus by Art Spiegelman

I asked my mom to tell me about a difficult time in her life. She told me about the difficulties she experienced after losing her dad, which is something I never really knew about.

Underground Comics

I wasn't as surprised as I thought I would be by underground comics. I really didn't find them all that offensive but I think that might be because I went into it expecting to be offended. But at their core, some of them weren't offensive at all. The only way I can really see someone being offended is if they were insecure or unsure of the topic being portrayed. For example, there wasn't anything at all offensive about Gay Comix. It was just a collection of people's stories regarding their sexuality. The only way it can be seen as offensive is if you're homophobic. I guess it's all about perspective though and the reason why I might not find these comics all that jarring is because of the time I grew up in. Maybe if I hadn't been exposed to these topics before, my opinion would differ and reading these comics would be more shocking. Which is probably why they were so shocking at the time of their release. Topics like sex and sexuality were much more taboo and so it makes sense that these comics were so hidden. Today, however, you can find comics about anything and everything offensive. And these comics are all easily accessible online to anyone and everyone. It's crazy to think of what a huge change has occurred not only in comics culture but in our culture in general. What used to be underground is now commonplace. Obviously topics such as sex are still very much hush hush but people are more exposed to it today, which makes the content of these underground comics far less controversial than they must have been at the time of their release.

Blankets by Craig Thompson

There were a lot of moments in Blankets that affected me on a personal level. I think since it's a coming of age story it's something that is easily relatable to a lot of people. But for me, specifically, the way he slowly lost his belief in God, the way his first love ended, and the way his relationship with his brother fluctuated really hit home. I found that the depth of emotion he showed in his storytelling was extremely captivating. So even if the situations weren't exactly what happened in one's own life, it's still extremely easy to connect to Craig's reactions and feelings about those situations. For example, his relationship with his brother isn't exactly like mine. There are a lot of differences but the guilt he feels is something that's incredibly relatable. If you're the oldest sibling there's a sense of responsibility you feel to look after your younger brother. And when you can't do that there's a feeling of helplessness and regret. But you could spread that even further. If you whittle it down, what he's showing is just the general remorse of letting someone down. It doesn't even have to be a sibling. Anyone could relate to that core feeling he showcases. Which is a huge indicator that his visual storytelling is amazingly well done. He's able to tell his specific story in a way that focuses on the raw emotion rather than the specific circumstance. I think he accomplishes this through his expressive, imaginative drawings, and his naturally flowing panels. There are some pages where the panels just meld into one another in a way that completely transforms you into his world and his emotions.

The Comic Book

I was very surprised to learn about the beginning of comic books and how they were looked down upon. It feels as if there's a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the medium now, which makes it hard to believe that it was seen as a childish or immature source of entertainment in the past. I was even more surprised to learn that the industry went as far as censoring comics to make them more appropriate for children. Especially since there were so many adult consumers eager for more mature storylines and graphics. Knowing this made the EC Horror comics really stand out to me. The mood and storylines reminded me of The Twilight Zone. The two are similar in the fact that the horror was really woven into the story. Whereas today there's a lot more gore/violence based horror. Which I think may have had something to do with the censorship at that time, although these could very well have come out during the war, before all the censorship took place. Either way, the suspense and terror these comics managed to convey with what seemed to be very little gore was really amazing. In "The Haunt of Fear", for example, there's one story where a man mistreats his wife and is said to have a "heart of ice". Eventually his cruelty pushes the wife to her breaking point and she retaliates by killing him with an ice pick. Yet this is depicted without any blood or gore. All we see is her crouching over his body, murder weapon in hand. EC manages to tell the story without intense graphics and maintain something truly horrific and enthralling, which I found incredibly interesting.

The Comic Strip

Out of all the comic strips that I read for class, Calvin and Hobbes stuck out to me the most. One of the things that I found interesting about Calvin and Hobbes was its childlike mood. Garry Trudeau wrote a forward for one of the Calvin and Hobbes collections and in it he mentions Watterson’s  ability to accurately depict what it’s like being a child. He presents the idea that those looking to go back to their youth should just read Calvin and Hobbes. This really hit me while I was reading through the strips. It was like the story was alive with this infectious childlike energy that sucked me in. The way Watterson depicts Calvin is so interesting, funny, innocently mischievious, and relatable that it made me feel like I was 6 years old again.

I think the comic strip format acts as a perfect outlet for this story and only enhances the childlike feeling of it. The quickness of 4 panel strips creates short individual narratives that are reminiscent of childhood. As a child you don't really look too far ahead, and most instances in your life don't always connect or lead into one another other perfectly. Your attention is so fleeting and your imagination is so all over the place that often you can just jump from one thing to another without question. While reading the strips consecutively, as a collection, and jumping from one part of Calvin's life to another, I felt like a kid jumping from one thing to the next effortlessly. This combined with Watterson's accurate and entertaining characters creates a believable and charming world that one can get lost in. I think that this could still be accomplished in other formats, but the story might lose some of it's childlike spirit without the quick storytelling that comic strips are able to provide.

Understanding Comics

One concept that I found interesting in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics was that form and idea are the two main factors at the core of art. I think it's something that can easily be forgotten. For instance, I often find myself getting distracted by the surface level. So it was nice to be reminded that the purpose should be to express some thought or idea about life or to explore the form through which the expression takes place. I think comics are a great way to prioritize both form and idea, since its an extremely experimental outlet. Panels allow one to tell their story in so many different ways, simply by messing with the composition and timing of a page. And the sequential quality of comics allows for ideas and stories to be expressed clearly and easily, in a way that cannot be done within a single image.

McCloud dives into more than just idea and form, however. He discusses the whole process of comics and other art forms. Of course it all starts with idea and form, but after that there is idiom, structure, craft, and surface. He uses the metaphor of an apple to demonstrate this, claiming that even if one starts out being drawn in by the surface, they will eventually bite into the core. I found this very interesting. That even if one is seemingly creating surface art, without any concern for idea or form, it's almost impossible to not inject any semblance of a message or purpose into the art. Almost always the artist will follow the six steps, even if they don't realize that they are. But it's beneficial of course to be aware of the steps and focus on idea and form. By doing so one can find the ambition and purpose to spread their beliefs to others, which only inspires even more ideas.

The Arrival

Honestly, reading The Arrival I was a little lost. I had to go back and reread it before I really understood it. That could just be a me thing, but I think the lack of words does add some degree of confusion. It’s still a beautiful story and a beautiful comic, and I do think the lack of words was the correct artistic choice for the story. But telling a story without any words is incredibly difficult. It leaves a lot for the reader to interpret. Shaun Tan does it incredibly well, though. His images are clear and the sequence he places them in allows the reader to jump from panel to panel with ease. Truly the lack of words only strengthens this piece. It puts the reader in the shoes of the protagonist. This man who is confused by his foreign surroundings is much like the reader who is thrown into his story without the guidance of words. Although some of us may stumble a bit in trying to understand the story, ultimately Tan is successful in conveying the narrative only with images. So how does that work? I think there's a lot that goes into doing this successfully. For one thing, Tan creates panels that don't leave much in-between them. In comics there is always a jump between one panel to another, which the reader has to fill in for themselves. With written comics it is perhaps easier to jump a bit further ahead in time from one panel to the next with little to no confusion. However, when you do not have words to assist you it seems best to make smaller jumps in time. I noticed while reading that Tan does this a lot. Often there will be a series of panels that are similar except for some minute changes. I think these subtle shifts in his visuals makes the story a lot easier to follow. There's a lot of other factors too. Like what he decides to put in each panel, the body language of the characters, and the clarity of his images.