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Week 5: A Life Force (3)

     For this section on Will Eisner I decided to read “A Life Force”,  a really fascinating glimpse into the human condition and how we all search for purpose in life. This was a really deep read, deeper, I think, than any of the other comics I’d had to read so far in this class; and all of the illustrations inside were done beautifully. All the characters were so expressive in their facial expressions and their body poses, and I really enjoyed the way it was inked. Even the way the panel layout was structured only served to elevate the reading experience, with some pages left completely open with no border to speak of.       I really enjoyed the message Eisner was trying to get across in this graphic novel, especially the character Jacob’s monologue near the beginning. After just being laid off from his job, he finds himself for the first time without purpose in his life. For him, to create gave his life meaning and without that he was no different than a cockroach, going on day by d
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Week 4: Jack Kirby (3)

     For the section on Jack Kirby, I read the Fantastic Four Animation Storyboards, “Challengers of the Unknown” and New Gods”. I’ve always known about Jack Kirby's legendary status in the comic book community and his major contributions to comic book culture as a whole. I knew that he was a pioneer in the field and that he was responsible for creating many of the iconic superheroes I’ve come to know and love today. However, I had never actually read any of his original works. My exposure has been limited to the byproducts of his legacy, so reading these was a first for me. I think my favorites of the batch were “Challengers of the Unknown” and the storyboards for Fantastic Four. What stood out to me about Challengers was how much of a departure it was from the traditional superhero stories that Jack Kirby was so well known for. It felt like a mix between Johnny Quest, Journey to the Center of the Earth and the Fantastic Four. Honestly it was kind of refreshing.      As for the st
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Week 4: Herge and TinTin (2)

       For the section on TinTin, I chose to read “The Blue Lotus”, “The Crab With the Golden Claw” and “The Black Island” by Hergé. The thing that stood out to me the most in all of Hergé’s work is how he’s able to mix complexity into his very simple drawing style. All of his characters are very heavily stylized and stripped down to the most based elements--heck, the main character is basically a walking lollipop with a cowlick-- but even still there persists a certain level of attention to detail. All of the clothes wrinkle and fold as the characters move, and each has their own very distinct look. Where I feel this shows through most however most, however is in the world he builds around the characters. All you have to do is look at the railway station in “THe Black Island” to the airport in “Golden Claw” and you’ll see wonderfully clean architecture that is immediately recognizable to the eye. Even the vehicles he draws, like boats, planes and automobiles  look like they were rippe
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Week Three: The Comic Strip (4)

The comic strip I decided to focus on from this week's reading went by the name of "Polly and Her Pals". From the bits that are featured in the collection, It wasn't that easy to figure out why exactly it was named that way, but after some research, I found out that the comic strip was originally centered around a young woman by the name of Polly Perkins, but as time went on it slowly started to shift focus to the people surrounding her, namely her various family members, hence the name change to“Polly and Her Pals”. I think what stood out the most to me about this comic was the dialogue. All of Polly’s family spoke in a manner that was very informal, with a lot of abbreviated words and eye dialect thrown into the mix, which made for a very interesting, if not slightly confusing, read. I found myself having to go over every speech bubble at least two or three times before I felt like I got a good grasp of what each character was saying. At the same time, I found it
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Understanding Comics Response (3)

       Something I felt really spoke to me while reading Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” was his section on abstraction and how humans like to see themselves in everything. It wasn’t a new concept to me, especially considering my field in art and animation, but this was the first time I think I really saw somebody else go so deep into discussion about why this was the case. His explanation about the image we see of ourselves in our own mind actually makes a lot of sense. There is only so much our brain can fill in from our own memory and so the image we keep of ourselves, in itself, is an abstraction because it’s impossible for us to remember every single detail about our face without looking at it. Because everybody has this wildly abstracted image of themselves in their own mind, they are able to connect so deeply with, say, a stick figure or even a simple smiley face. The simpler the abstraction, the more universal it is.  I see a lot of manga and anime that use this trick a
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The Arrival by Suan Tan (3 Pts.)

       I think the story of "The Arrival" perfectly encapsulates the idea of a stranger in a strange land, or in this case, the experience of immigrants and refugees who have traveled from far and wide to make their new life in a distant country, far away from the familiarity of friends and family. I especially love how Tan is able to depict all of this without the use of words. In the first part we see a man packing a family portrait into a singular suitcase; one only big enough to fit the essentials of life that he will be taking with him on his long journey. As he says goodbye to his wife in child, we see looming in the sky dozens of dark, smokey tendrils of some ginormous unseen monster twisting and contorting around every street corner. Tan, without the use of words, has this abstract means by which he creates a sense of tension and danger. While the exact meaning of these black tendrils is loose -- Is it war? Famine? Disease? Poverty?-- there is an undeniable connotatio
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