Maus Week 7

I liked how the story was separated into two different timelines with the main character being a self-centered mouse that had little regard for his father’s feelings.  But after listening to the stories about World War II, it made the main character more sympathetic to his father and his hardships.  Maus made me remember about the World War II movies I watch where there are Nazi officers patrolling the houses and the tension they bring with them. It literally would show you want the Nazis did to drag would be prisoners to their doom and how people thought about the situation which was almost often miscalculated. 

I also liked how it would show their daily lives as this looming doom approaches them. I think the reason why the author decided to use mice to play the roles of the characters in the comic is to make the comic more digestible and less scary. I say this because the experience people had during the Nazi regime like the holocaust can be too much. I think another reason may be that humans are in some ways like mouse and rats. Both of us reproduce a lot and are social animals and by switching the two species, nothing has really changed much other than perspective. 

Underground Comics Week 6

I’ve read the “Air Pirates” and I thought that the characters were drawn in a very exaggerated and appealing way. It also looked oddly similar to Disney’s style of drawing which made me look more closely to the issue and found out that the Walt Disney Company filed a lawsuit against the Air Pirates for plagiarism. It turns out that the creator of the Air Pirates consistently kept trying to get sued by Disney and claim that his work was a parody and considered fair use.

Besides the legal aspect of the Air Pirates, the character designs are very simple and appealing because of the copy use from Disney. What’s also funny is the sheer constant adult humor found with these Disney looking characters that makes it feel almost out of place. One instance in particular is the panel containing a female and male character performing sexual stuff with each other which was hilarious. There were also many scenes containing nudity that made me understand why Disney was so adamant about going after the creators of Air Pirates that were potentially destroying their image. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience to read something with kid friendly looking characters yet has content that can make parents cover their eyes.  

Will Eisner ‘The Spirit”  Week 5

Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” has somewhat reminded me of a less serious version of Batman with similarities with both protagonists being vigilantes and both having a detective theme to it although Batman is more action focused than “The Spirit”. One of the most interesting things about “The Spirit” is the main character’s sidekick Ebony White. Out of all the characters in “The Spirit” had had the most defining visual characteristics that follow a stereotype of a black person. When Eisner was questioned with why he had such an exaggerated character, he simply said he intentionally created an exaggerated character, but he tried to do it with responsibility and that the humor at the time was much different.

Aside from that, “The Spirit” entertained me a lot because of its visual language being used, more specifically the poses that the characters take. In each frame there is always an interesting pose the characters take form on which makes “The Spirit” full of silhouettes that tell a story much differently than the other comics. Even the more realistic characters such as the Spirit himself had almost exaggerated poses that make this comic feel very cartoony and light even though it’s a noir detective comic.  

Tintin Week 4

The funny thing about Tintin for me was that I never heard about the comic until after I watched a movie trailer of the 3D animation of it a while ago. Tintin was interesting to me because of the nicely drawn characters and environment as well as the occasional slapstick humor like sneezing very hard that everything felt it. I like how the young and heroic Tintin is paired up with an old and serious looking Captain Haddock. This is what I usually like to see in any story, contrast between main characters because it gives us something else to look at when we get bored of one character.

I personally thought that Captain Haddock had the most interesting character arc in the comic. He started out being a weak and heavy alcoholic, but later on he became a genuine hero after finding some treasures. Also the way he talks is funny because of the way he curses sometimes reminds me of Spongebob’s Mr. Krabs where they would take a sea related object and somehow turn it into an curse word like a dolphin’s laugh for example or in the case for Tintin it’s “Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles”. I also found Tintin himself to be entertaining, but not as entertaining as Captain Haddock, probably because I like ocean/sea themed characters more.

Calvin and Hobbes Week 3

The comic strip I’ve had the most interest in was “Calvin and Hobbes” mainly because I remember seeing it the most when I was young even though I’ve never read it before. Upon reading it in the recent years I’ve discovered how entertaining it was and I think it stems from the fact that it tells us a very short story with a message to the audience very well. It also had memorable characters from the character designs with how Calvin is so short and naïve and Hobbes is stretched out and mature.

It creates a nice duo for us comic viewers to entertain. Besides the characters themselves, the story is what really drew me into liking Calvin and Hobbes from the other comic strips. It always has some kind of witty or sarcastic humorous tone to it that makes it feel so fun to read. And it wasn’t simple slapstick humor; it usually had some deep meaning behind what the characters are superficially doing.  I’ve read other comics such as Krazy Kat and I didn’t find that one to be as appealing because I couldn’t understand it as well as “Calvin and Hobbes” and it had less appealing drawings, although that’s my personal opinion.

Understanding Comics Week 2

Upon reading Understand Comics, I discovered that there is an underlying mechanic that makes comics interesting. I found it interesting how it was talking about the concept of sequential art and the many different forms of how a comic can sequentially show its audience what happens first to what happens next. Another thing I found interesting was how we perceive icons and how it can mean many things. The concept of icons has an importance to why we see very simplified cartoons as “real” to us.

 It’s because the more simplified we make a realistic thing such as a face, the more we focus on specifying the unique traits about the realistic thing. To name an example we can look at Disney or Pixar characters, they are very simple, yet because they are simple; they have some specification to them that makes them unique. Take “Inside Out” for example, all the emotional characters such as Joy, Anger, and Fear have very simplified designs, but because they are so simple and straightforward, they make great use for icons and for us to remember them by. Another example would be “The Incredibles” where the superhero family has variety of different iconic looking characters because of its simplicity.