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.

Sequential images in class

The first panel contains a female character facing a bird. She seems to be doing some kind of performance as if to entertain the bird. There also seems to be a dish full of eggs which I interpret to be some kind of income in this world.

There is a very dominant central figure in form of a humanoid bird looming over a woman laying in a bed. It seems to be examining her.

Two bird-like men bury a dead deceased woman. The scene feels like that of a funeral. The rooster men seem to be dominant figures throughout these panels. They always seem to be in control.

I feel like perhaps these two bird people are mourning over the female. Once the woman is buried, these two are paying their respects. Other human figures around the scene feel like ornaments or pieces of art. Like scupltures.

This panel seems to be a flashback of the female's death while her companion, perhaps husband finds her laying on the floor. This person however is a rooster man.

Perhaps this man is experiencing a metamorphosis and turning into a rooster himself. The female figure in the background seems to be shocked by this occurrence.

The Arrival

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan is probably one of the most interesting sequential art books I’ve read so far this year. It’s compelling how a series of images, without need the aid of written words can communicate such gripping narrative. This is the first time I’ve ever read storytelling without the use written words. However, the illustrations are so amazing composed that it could never have the same impact it did by adding these. Every single page seems so carefully throughout, from the use action-by-action panels to the use of full page illustrations showing establishing shots and dramatic key points in the story. The images themselves are extremely well depicted, using a style that captures character expressions, showing their struggles along with the use of surrealism and beautiful creature designs.

I loved the character development. Although The Arrival’s main character endures his own struggles, giving resolution to his problem by the end of the narrative, there are also other characters introduced, each whom has a different story to tell and different kind of visuals to carry them with. It’s through these characters, who share the same struggles the main characters is going through, that is, immigrating to a new country and settling, that make this wonderfully surreal world that much more believable. Not only that, but the narrative, through the use of an invented language shown written throughout the story, allows the reader to relate to the main character, who also has no clue how to read this. This allows to not only see what the character is going through, but to sympathize with him and root for him until the very last page.