Maus

Maus, by Art Spiegelman, is probably one of the best pieces of work that I have read so far in the semester. At first glance, I thought this was gonna be just a graphic novel about the holocaust with a visual gimmick (Jews being mice and the Germans as cats). But I was glad to find out that Maus is a very deep piece of work in so many aspects. The art style is simple but enjoyable and does a fantastic job flowing from panel to panel, the storytelling is engrossing and unique, and you can feel attached to these characters.

When discussing Maus in class a very important question was brought up which made me appreciate this book much more than I originally had: Just what is Maus’s story about? What makes Maus so intriguing is that you’re not just following a holocaust story. Instead, the reader is witnessing a story about a man being told his father’s struggles through the holocaust and through his point of view, and in turn trying to make a graphic novel out of it. Now, it is very important to note that the fact that the holocaust sections are being told through his grandfather is a big deal to the main character. Artie feels that it’s important to view this from an objective angle and he insists on reading through his late mother’s diaries to get her side. Needless to say, he is angered when he learns his grandfather has disposed of them. Because of this, Maus becomes something much deeper, and tells us a story about the main character and his struggles with his and his grandfather’s relationship.

Maus is such a visually striking book. Depicting each nationality as different animals is such a clever device. At one point, Artie’s grandfather and his wife are in hiding and because of these they, as mice, are seen wearing pig masks. I thought this was so clever because it’s a visual representation of what they really had to go through: Hide who they are in order to survive.

Underground Comics

Underground comics are probably a genre that will never really appeal to my tastes as to what I’m looking for in a sequential art form. Looking through each option we could choose to read, I found it very difficult to be engrossed by the content. Not only did I not enjoy the overall art styles that were depicted through each one, but I also felt offended by some of the themes like racial slurs and untactful, raw, sexual depictions. I ended up choosing “Mr. Natural”. However, I’m sad to say that while this was the one most enjoyed, it really doesn’t say much.

Reading Mr. Natural before being exposed to other underground comics during class has helped me reflect and compare. Mr. Natural has by far a much better sense of depicting its illustrations than every other comic I read during class. The latter was much more crude, lacking rhythm and every other aspect that would appeal to me as an artist. You could argue that the point of underground comics isn’t really about the art but more about the freedom to depict any subject matter you want and to do it in a censor-free environment. However true, I can’t shake off the visuals. Underground comics are still comics. They are meant to be read through images because it is a form of sequential visual storytelling. I felt like this was lacking in both “visual” and “storytelling” aspects. To me it felt more like an outlet of ideas and the fact that these were publish still impresses me. I don’t really see these as good stories rather than an excuse to publish controversial themes.

Contract with God

Will Eisner’s Contract with God completely took me by surprise. This was another case in which the drawing style fooled me into thinking that the content would not actually get too adult oriented. Instead, the cartoony aspect enhanced and exaggerated key moments that were brought to this story. One of my favorite things about this book is that it tells a collection of stories rather than just focusing on one big plot. To make it even more interesting is how Eisner decided to connect all of these stories and characters through the use of one location: The apartment building. This is extremely important as you feel there is a relationship between all of these characters even if it doesn’t seem so direct.

I find it interesting to think that this book is considered to be the first graphic novel, and yet, it doesn’t feel like what we know of graphic novels today. This is especially evident with the panel layout. There is a lack of traditionally placed boxed illustrations. Instead, we see drawings almost as vignettes, framing pages and the words telling the story. However, this isn’t the case with every single page. We do get a series of sequential drawings carried through a page as well, though they still lack an obvious frame around them. This doesn’t bother me though. I found it to be fresh and actually made me feel like the story was being communicated at a faster pace. I didn’t feel confine within each illustration. I’m glad because these are beautiful illustrations and they do a fantastic job at portraying emotions through body language. Will Eisner does a incredible job at making us sympathize with the pain and struggles that a lot of these characters, the tenants, are going through.

The Comic Book

I’ve never read any Tin-Tin comic books before I took this class, though I’ve always recognized the character. For this reading I chose to read The Calculus Affair. I was pleasantly surprised by how serious; yet comical at times the story was portrayed. My initial reaction to the artwork was an expectation of a kiddie story. I did not expect attempts of murder from antagonists via bomb going off in a house and use of alcohol. Now, I’m not going to say these enhance the seriousness of a story, but it does help to a small level keep the story to seem like something that only kids could read.

Now, I found the artwork to be beautiful, but I felt a bit discouraged when some panels would literally be ¾ covered in speech balloons. I understand that in some scenes of the story the characters need to go through some conversations, which will further develop the plot, but I feel the overuse of this ruins the pacing and only slows down the drama when reading this comic book. I’d hope that instead, we could have seen more scenes like the one where they investigate the house where they find a tied up Professor Topolino. What was great about these sections is that we see a development of the plot through actions of characters rather than them sitting down at a table and simply just talking panel after panel with the exact same camera angle.

Peanuts

Growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Peanuts, was one of the few comic strips I remember reading as a kid from the newspaper. Not only that, but the characters, such as Snoopy and Charlie Brown are forever engraved in my mind as childhood icons. I have to admit; I wasn’t too thrilled to be reading comic strips at first. I’ve always found them to be too simple and would just lead to a bad pun or some other form of a lame joke. However, once I read Peanuts again after years of neglecting comic strips, I found the reading to be enjoyable, for the most part.

While I still love these characters, I dove into this reading expecting some repeating themes a couple of bad jokes. I have to say that I found no surprise regarding this. I expected (and received) Lucy chasing after Schroeder as he is still mesmerized by his passion for Beethoven and playing the piano. Snoopy is still sleeping on top of his house, and Charlie Brown will still fail to kick that football. Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t really a problem for me. I’m in love with these characters. I love that Snoopy is still a silly dog that gets or causes trouble form time to time. In fact to this day, he is still one of my favorite characters in comics. I do have to say that I preferred going over strips that had little to no dialog and just relied on character actions. I thought these were the funniest and impacted me the most. I don’t think I’ll ever stop smiling at the thought of Snoopy sliding across the ice, skating about, only to find himself in the way of a pack of kids ready to whack about a puck right next to him.

Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art was an interesting read for me. As a kid, I grew up reading comics, so it was a bit of a bizarre experience for me to read a comic that was informative about the medium itself. When I first started reading, I couldn’t help but simply nod at ideas that I whole heartedly agreed with, like for example, the definition of comics as a visual narrative medium. These were concepts that weren’t new to me but help establish the entirety of the book. However, Scott McCloud brings to light certain aspects about comics that I never wondered to think about as it relates to the subconscious aspect of our minds.

One of these concepts was about the story-telling transitions from panel to panel: Moment to moment; action to action; subject to subject; scene to scene; aspect to aspect; and non sequitur. Now, again, these concepts deal heavily with one’s subconscious and you have to be looking for them to really appreciate them and become aware of how they progress a story. As an artist and storyteller, I found this to be the most crucial and important section of this book.

Another concept I found myself interested in was the discussion about icons versus the use of rendering. I can agree with McCloud that the use of icons can drive an image forward to the viewers mind in a far more effective manner that a rendered image can. The reason for this is because as humans, we abstract images and shape them into symbols and thus they become easily more relatable to us as readers.