Questions and answers

1.     Are there any prominent symbols in preacher? If so, what and how are they used?

I’m not very knowledgeable about symbols, and when reading. Many times they will go over my head. The fact that he became a preacher could be a symbol.

2.     Is there an aspect of the story, in which you were able to make a personal connection?

I grew up in a very small town, so the inter collection of the town and its rumors worked in the same way. None of the rumors were as devastating, I grew up in a dry county, and everyone went to church. But I connected with the way the small town would work in this rural area. Although the area is much more southern than western, The idea is still the same.

3.     If you were to adapt this story into another medium, what changes would you make? And why?

If I was going to change this story into a weekly news article, Meaning I would write a few short paragraphs a day and then you would wait for the next installment, I would start each story reestablishing the restraint this is currently taking place in. Each day it would be slow, and likely try and reestablish the mood that the previous post made. And then continue on to the true story, which the preacher is telling. With the side bits of the angles being a ‘bonus’ story to the story. Its visual sophistication would be zero, but with this medium you could still attempt to retain the same messages in the comic.

Webcomics_Weeks 14

Webcomics is something that I have also been living with for a while now. But the big things that make me enjoy the comics is as follows. There free. It’s a free platform to let anyone read their work. And although it hasn’t gone through an editor, that is a detail that doesn’t matter. They took their thoughts and put it down on to the web to let others take it and interpret it in their own way. You can truly say it is ‘your work’ when you make web comics.

The style that someone draws the comic doesn’t have to be good. Although there are some well made comics, you can produce any level of finished to your comic. I read Ducks by Kate Beaton, which was done in an incredible style. It was still in such a sketchy state. It took me a while to understand everything that was going on in the panel at times. It was very interesting, and I loved it.

Another perk to the web is the number of things you can do with it. I watched a Ted talk that talked about how you can make a spiral comic, a comic that uses sound, a comic that has animation, a comic that is just one giant line. Because it is on the web. An example is ‘homestuck’ that includes full flash cutscenes, and long dialogue boxes with a single picture. It even has an ever-changing web page that matches what is going on in the comic. It makes a very evolving experience.

reconsider SuperHero_Weeks 13

To reconsider the superhero I read the priest story in class, along with Fable before class. I’ll talk about the priest story more in a separate post. But I’m going to admit that I had played ‘The wolf among us’ before reading Fable. I count Fable as a superhero comic because it includes people pretending to be normal, with a alternative life, and they have ‘super powers.’ It’s a whole community of people living out their lives outside of the government. It’s interesting just to see the characters re-imagined in this gritty world trying to live their lives without storybook rules to help them. Without them glorifying their lives and getting a happy ending anyway, they are actually struggling with it. Forced to take up less than honorable professions. Living on the skins of their teeth to just get by.

Women Writers_ Week 12

‘This one summer’ by the tamaki cousins was what I read for women comics week. It got the exact feeling between two young friends perfectly. It caused me to remember my lame time as a pre-pubescent girl with an unrealistic crush on boys that are so out of my league it’s almost humorous. It matched friends messing with each other about their crush, and doing little things such as encouraging or saying small things about how it just might not be a good idea.

The children were written so well it almost hit too close to home. I still have vague memories of the simpler life with a friend that it was an incredible escape from my now busy life to revisit my childhood.

Contemporary Comics_Week 11

For contemporary comics, I chose to read Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. The comic sparked my curiosity when I saw images of it on the course share.  The drastic use of styles was interesting to look at and I wanted to know more about the work. To my relief the whole comic was in a pleasant style to read. Each character was drawing in a related, but distinct style. Working on the main character’s belief that each person has their own ideals and how it influenced others. Even the text bubbles were formed in a way that allowed you to know how they sound, and who was talking without it pointing to the character that spoke.

I very much liked the non linear story telling. Causing you to be curious about how the main character got to where he was, what actually happened, and how he works to make it better. 

Manga_Week 10

I had been a big fan of manga/anime sense I was very young. Back then of course, I believed that it was a superior medium from cartoons/comics from the west. Of course, I now see how foolish I was but because of this I have been so submerged into the medium, It is difficult for me to talk about it with a set of new eyes. But for this assignment I read Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha (or the first volume of it.) I had not read any of Tezuka’s work, only watched the anime that it influenced. For this it had many of the same qualities that Anime has, with deep symbolic meanings, and characters that have to figure out why life is life.

A cool thing about Manga is that the western audience is growing rapidly thanks to the internet and acceptance of the material. Many comics, and cartoons are now influenced by anime, making many references to it and making cartoons deeper than previously done.

World of Comic_Week 9

I read the Euro Comic, Persepolis. The comic was a very personal telling of Marjane Satrapi’s Life living in Iran, and then her high school time in Vienna, Austria. The book was very indulging and was difficult for me to put down when I read it for the first time. It was very interesting seeing her young ideals of the world, and wanting to change it for the better develop as she grew up and finding herself in the large world.  Watching her interactions you can see what influenced and what strongly stood in her mind when she grew up.

I think that is the strongest plus to comics that depict real life events. You can feel the randomness of life and have a better understand of characters. Because the writer isn’t making them up and creating their own new personality. But is using the uniqueness of an actual person.

SterioTypes in comics_Week 8

I’m a female. After school I’m going to be working in the game industry. I have been immersed in games my whole life, with a recent addiction to any and all comic books. (thanks to the new comic class) I believe that a huge stereotype that I saw in almost every comic, from old newspaper to new indie web comics is the ‘beautiful women’ default character body type.

Almost every character that might appear in a game, a comic, and even an animated movie all have the same figure. An hourglass, man’s dream women type of figure with large breast and revealing clothing. Instead of have the extremely wide difference of body types and facial differences, the reader is forced to vaguely tell which girl is which by their hair color.

I think this stereotype is the stupidest thing I had ever seen. Women makes up more than half of video game players, and comic book readers. When people market to men and only men, they are excluding the female audience.

I had recently watched all of the Feministfrequency videos, and although they were wonderfully made videos, every related video was people complaining about what was being said. About how she was talking shit about video games, and acted as if video games were the most holy of mediums and no harm could be done by them. Even girls were not watching it and understanding that these tropes are tropes for a reason. And although I don’t agree with everything, I do agree with so much of what she says, it isn’t hard to listen to what she has to say.

I think it’s entirely possible to like something, while critically analyzing it and understanding what they are doing wrong and what they are doing well.

Maus_Week 7

Before I read Maus by Art Spiegelman, I have never heard of it. Going into it, I only knew what was said on the assignment page for this class. But after reading the first few pages, I was able to tell quickly why this comic novel was viewed with such a positive light.

The work itself is very well conveyed with a visual styling that helps bring attention to the work and what it stands for. Classifying each race a different animal, helps the reader tell who is Jewish, German, or Polish. The reader wouldn't be able to tell these races apart if they were normal humans, and the segregation of race in ww2 was a large part of the story. If the reader wasn't able to tell the difference with each race instantly, it could cause much confusion that could be avoided.
Another side effect to classifying the races as animals, causes the reader themselves to racially separate them. Just reading the book you can very easily tell the difference between a pig and a mouse, which could be a good and bad thing.

The way he sets up the story is different than most stories that start in the present, and then rewinds to someone's past. More times than not, the movie, book, or comic would start with the character talking in the present. When the character speaks of his past, you are able to only witness past events. The story rarely breaks the past tense until the end, after their story has been told. This story has the father taking breaks because of his health, he starts rambling, it gets late, many things that brings us back to the present. Because of this the story is helped, You are reminded that he lived through the WW2, and is able to talk about it now. It causes you to wonder, what did happen to his family, his son, when did he meet his new wife? Because you know these questions will be answered because the story is constantly progressing, you keep reading.

I can understand how this story is much more a personal one, rather than a historical novel. The break in it to describe current events is very personal. With him and his father talking about his father's death and their rocky relationship. His struggle in writing the comic as well, the story is much more intimate than a typical historical novel, which would be only about the concentration camps.

Underground Comics_Week 6

I read several underground comics in class, and Robert Crumb's The Book of Mr. Natural and I didn't like it.
Every underground comic I read had the same sexist, racist, immature content. Mr. Natural had a comic where a baby gave him a blow job. Many comics had the character 'realize' he was in a comic, and because of this he was now able to 'get any girl he wanted to.'

If it wasn't for this class, I wouldn't have picked up one of these comic books, and because of this class I am never going to do it again. Unless there is one that isn't about a man's dick or  a person acting like a dick, I'm not interested.

ComicBook_Week 4

For my assignment I read several Carl Barks comics and a few Tintin comics by Herge.

I have read many Carl Barks comics before the class, and I have a great fondness of them. Their simple story with interesting characters going treasure hunting is very easy to follow and enjoy. Also a comic book associated with Disney never hurts.  But his works in expanding the entire ‘duck universe’ was astonishing, and his works later fueled Ducktales, and many other great comic artists. Although he didn’t get as much credit as he should, because his comics were listed as ‘by Walt Disney’, many people still knew that what he was doing was great and interesting.

Tintin has a many same qualities, with someone going on adventures ever issue, but had a more serious tone almost. Mostly because it was humans instead of ducks running around. Tintin has more characters to interact with when visiting other countries. And feels like he is after a great adventure rather than the destination. Also, while Scrooge is only after personal gain, Tintin has friends and more purpose to help others and solve problems.Because of this you are more interested to buy more comics, because the story continues from each story. Bringing up old friends and making new ones.

Newspaper Comics_Week 3

For this assignment I read Charles Schultz’s Peanuts and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. While reading several strips, it became very apparent that these were designed with adults in mind. 

Although I know many people who associate newspaper comics with children. Because of current associations with children and comics in our present day. But while reading it, I was presented with jokes or punch lines that only an adult would understand. 

The two comics share a large part of their charm together. There about children observing the world with a ‘I don’t quite understand how the whole world works yet, but I am observing it how i see it’ charm. Meaning, you can make snappy judgment about how your life is going to turn out when you grow up. 

While Calvin and Hobbes was much more adventure, imagination, and childhood fun. Allowing the reader to remember the good old days when they had stuffed animals, tried not to go to school, and their worst part of the day was going to bed. 

Peanuts had kids doing kid things with simplistic humor with children hanging out and making jokes that adults, the intended audience, would find funny such as the kids making jokes about taxes, or having one-word comebacks that usually link to an adult term in the work force. 

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics_Week 2

When reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, he most interesting thing I found about it was the small discussion about character design.

The idea that he portrays is that the human race is so conceited, that when looking at a simplified human face; such as a default smiley face J we see ourselves in it. And because of that we are able to sympathize with the information or the emotion better because we are now imaging ourselves in the story. With this technique we are no longer observing the story, but instead extending ourselves into the story and fully immersing ourselves into the story’s lore.

His example of this was the very way he drew himself in the comic. Instead of seeing him as his own character, we are instead seeing him as an extension of ourselves. Instead of someone else explaining the terms and ideas in a comic book, we are using the little voice in our head to make him talk and move around on the pages. He brings this up well when he draws himself as a realistic man instead of the simplified person. When doing this it gave his drawing a personality outside of our own. Forming a stranger on the page that we don’t know anything about, and the mind is quick to wonder whom this person is. But when he was simplified we didn’t care about who he ‘is’, because he was just another piece of the viewer.

I have heard this theory before but put in a different context. Some believe the reasons Groot was such a hit in the movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, was because he had an extremely simplified face. Although the character said one line throughout the entire move, we understood to his emotions and could see ourselves in the character. Unlike the other characters that formed a personality of their own, you were able to put your self in Groot’s possession and sympathize with him the easiest.

writing assignment class 1

 While reading the story, i saw the rooster as a god trying to understand the emotions of the others and the woman that intereact with him

1.     A woman worships her gods every day. She is tired of this life and the life before her. She has murdered a bystander and offers his body to the god. The god is born

2.     The god lives out his life, but wants to understand the human race more He dissects a woman that was brought to him by his worshiper. He want’s to understand why the humans live with such emotions. 

3.     The woman worshiper has brought another chicken god into this world. This time sacrificing her own daughter. The priestess knows not what she does, but instead has devoted her whole life to her gods.

4.     The gods evolved quickly, many people except them into their kind but not everyone is as nice. The human worshiper demonstrates her mortality, which terrifies her rooster god. He had forgot how human his worshiper was.

5.     Dead, his worshiper, the rooster god is tormented from her death. He finally understands human emotions, looking at her corpse. He doesn’t know who could have murdered her.

6.     He is distraught, and hides away for a long time. He again immerges when he hears laughter, and sees two women.

7.    The Rooster tries to woo the women; he showers them with fine gifts and takes them to finer places.

8.    The women begin to suspect that the rooster is hiding something. They get up during the night to see if anything is wrong. The rooster has evolved further, with an animal like body., the women escape for now.

9.     The women discover the skeletons in the rooster’s closet. They are terrified and escape.

10.    The women are kidnapped out of the train by a gang of roosters

11.    The women are stolen away to be sex slaves to the chickens. The chickens are advancing farther than the humans that came before them.

12.    The woman decides that she has to escape from this hellhole, and makes plans for her and her friend.

13.    They fight off the chickens; one of the girls shot and killed her friend. Although she escaped, she was depressed and deeply affected.

14.    She kills herself; the rooster god is devastated to have finally found the love of his life again, only to see her dead. He demands justice for the women.

15.    The rooster god after long years of fighting the rogue chickens, he has finally had enough. He hangs himself, finally ending his life.

16.    The chickens celebrate the rooster god’s death as a devastating event. Although they act as if they are seeing human’s as equals, it is not true.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival_Week 1

Readying Shaun Tan’s The Arrival was a very interesting journey. The abstract shapes and impossible environment got me hooked right from the first page. It caused the story to be engaging without dialogue. But because the story is told with no dialogue, it was very hard to understand the first time reading through the story. The parts that caused me the most problems were the flash back scenes, because it happened without warning and I was disoriented. But re-reading the story, it was very clear and well organized. The images themselves told more than any dialogue box ever could, and it forces you to enjoy the art than reading the dialogue and forcing the images to come second.

The reason this story works so well without dialogue is because you are traveling to a distant foreign land with the main character. And neither you nor the main character can speak, read or understand the native language, or the culture. You are both exploring the land together, learning how to survive along the way. The story also has an obvious goal; you want the daughter and wife to be reunited with the main character. Small successes like the main character getting himself food and learning how to work with his pet makes the comic feel like there is progressing and you feel happy for the main character.

The abstract and no dialogue caused me to critically think about every image I looked at. What could the symbolism mean? What story is this possible portraying?

If I had to critically analyze this story I would say that it took place during a war, and was about a family trying to make a life a different country. The father doesn’t understand the native in the land or the strange customs that the country could have. The author obviously over exaggerated each aspect of the country to demonstrate the foreignness to any audience that looked at the comic.

Comic Response

This Blog is for the responses to Comics.