Blankets

Blankets was just a beautiful book. I have no other way to describe it. I sat down to read some of it before I went to bed one night and I couldn't put it down. I was completely drawn in by his style of drawing right from the beginning. The stories of him and his little brother sharing a bed were both funny and intensely telling of his life. I found that the glimpses he gave us into his childhood were crucial for the entire book. The way the story unfolded seemed completely organic; there was nothing that seemed forced or unnecessary. I think that half the story was also told through the characters' body language. For instance, the conversation between Craig and Raina the first time he sleeps with her in her bed is filled with body language. You can see the way he pulls away from her that he doesn't want to at first and the way she leans forward tells us that she wants him to. I am always impressed when the pictures convey deeper meanings than the words above them. I think perhaps my favorite were the last few pages with the images all morphing into each other. The entire story really resonated with me as I struggle to discover my own beliefs and my own faith. I never had religion pushed on me like Craig did in the book, but I think that this is an almost universal battle that people go through. The way in which Thompson presented it was smooth, effortless and beautiful. I can see myself rereading this several times in the near future.

Preacher 2: Until the End of the World

I enjoyed this volume a lot more than the first. The story was crazy. It laid out the back stories of both Jesse and Tulip. You find out how they met and all about Jesse's horrific family. The characters in his family were quite scary. The grandmother was far and away the ugliest/creepiest character I have seen in a comic so far. I thought she sort of looked like the Other Mother in Coraline towards the end of the movie. I found myself sympathizing more with Jesse and understanding his actions more. I was also glad that Cassidy made an appearance in this book. I liked when he changed his accent to pretend to be Cassidy. (p.) I appreciated that there was a bit less killing and bloody scenes in this volume. It made it a little easier to read, I wasn't as grossed out. My favorite picture in this volume was on page 105 right after Jesse killed T.C. I thought it does a really good job of showing Jesse's new perspective and character. Even his clothes screamed "Bad Ass." I am excited to see how the story plays out in the next volumes.

The Preacher

I just finished the first volume of Preacher: Gone to Texas. Wow. I have never been so viscerally affected by a book (maybe with the exception of the scene in Crime and Punishment where they beat the horse to death). Preacher was so intense. There was nothing about it that was sugar coated; from the language to the pictures. I don't know if I liked it. I know it is good because of how I am reacting to it, but I can't say that I particularly enjoyed reading it. There was so much blood. I don't have a strong stomach for that kind of thing. So I will try to focus more on the story and the characters. The premise of the book is interesting. Preacher Jesse Custer combining with Genesis, the child of an angel and a demon, then deciding he has to find god, who quit a long time ago. To top it all off, he partners with a vampire, Cassidy, and his ex girlfriend, Tulip. Even the cops are crazy! Everyone in the book is crazy! The cops in Texas are crazy racists, but they all end up getting killed by the saint of killing and the cops in New York seem to be pathetic, closet homosexuals. Then there is Si Coltrane, the deranged serial killer/reporter. He is the quintessential bad guy who thinks it is all a joke, but his crimes are sick, far sicker than any other comic I have read. Of all the characters, Cassidy was my favorite because I thought he was funny and interesting. He believes that all humanity is messed up, but only kills those who are already dying or "deserve it." What a bizarre dichotomy, especially for a two thousand year old vampire. I also liked that you could tell he had an accent just from the way his speech is written. That must be a very hard thing to convey. I don't know if I will be able to read the whole series. I don't know if my stomach can handle it.

Y The Last Man cont.

Y The Last Man keeps getting better and better. I have read through volume 4 and plan on finishing 5 tonight. The pace of story stays exciting and interesting throughout it all and it rarely ever drags. I find that the dialogue also is easy to read and sounds natural. I like all the jokes that Yorick makes (even though most of them are pretty dumb). Vaughn does a good job developing all of his characters, even the small ones. For instance, when Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann were in Marrisville even the nameless faces of the women in the crowds had characters. The old lady in particular was well done; she was tough, but also empathetic. I think that Pia Guerra does an especially good job on the faces of the characters. Their faces always convey a lot of emotion and it makes the story more dynamic. A good example of some of the faces is on page 79 of the second volume.

In the third volume, One Small Step, the author reveals the reason behind the title of the story. It comes from a Mary Shelly novel called The Last Man, a story in which a plague where everyone dies except for Lionel the main character. In Y The Last Man a traveling group of actresses put on a play that they wrote about the last man on earth. The writer for the play was inspired by the appearance of the monkey Ampersand in their lives. Yorick ridicules the play and is distressed to find out that in the end of the play the last man kills himself.

Y the Last Man

Y the Last Man was a very interesting comic. While I only have read the first book so far, I am intrigued to see what happens. So far I like the characters and the plot. I especially like agent 355. I like the fact that she doesn't have a name. I also enjoyed the structure of the book. Each chapter starts out in the now, then goes back a certain amount of time and works forward again to the present. It makes for an interesting and captivating read. I think that the strongest pages were pages 31 to 33 when all of the men die and you see one panel pictures from all over the world. It was a very good way to convey the fact that this tragedy was happening everywhere and it was also a good way to introduce characters. I also think the art work is amazing! I think the splash page on 59 is my favorite. It is a painting of Yorick jumping out of the white house in front of the American flag with his mother and some other women holding guns below him. It is very dramatic and aesthetically interesting. Since the style of that page is so different from the others, the page really sticks out and makes an impression. I cannot wait to read the other books.

Character Description

Bean:

Bean is a young girl throughout most of the novel, but she gets older as the story goes on. Bean's universe is very similar to ours, the only real difference being what the people look like. There are boys and girls, men and women, even though at times it is hard to distinguish between the two. Everyone wears cloaks that covers their entire body except for their faces. In Bean's part of the world, known as Timaginoan, spoken words are rarely used as usually the people's faces convey what they are thinking. People in Timaginoan have stopped thinking for themselves and conformity is rewarded. Children are meant to learn the rules and a trade, but nothing else. Bean's problem is her insatiable curiosity. It is the reason she cannot sleep at night. She knows there is more to learn than what she is taught and there is more to see than what is around her. The books at the school full fill Bean's thirst for knowledge for the time being, but when she leaves she gets that nagging to find something new again. Bean's restlessness only increases with the knowledge that there is something beyond her small part of the world. She has a good sense of adventure and can tell stories at the drop of a hat.
The people of Timaginoan eat very bland foods pureed together into a sort of mush. (It is called moosh). It is a blend of cabbages and potatoes, on special occasions carrots are used. Bean discovers other foods while on her travels, some as exotic as pomegranates and avocados.

Dark Knight Strikes Again

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is Frank Miller's sequel to the Dark Knight Returns. It has all the same super heroes a long with some new ones like Wonder Woman and Dick Grayson. The story begins with Batman and Catgirl (formerly Robin) training a group of batboys to fight against Lex Luthor's control on the city. The batboys release many other super heroes from government buildings, where they were being forced to work for the evils that be. Superman, who is also under control of Luther, is told to stop Batman, but is defeated in the Batcave. Batman finds himself and his 'soldiers' to be pop culture superstars and start making public appearances preaching rebellion against the government. The Question, sort of a similar character to the Watchmen's Rorscharch in that he writes down his thoughts and observations in a notebook and tends to work alone, spies on Luther. The Question tries to get Martian Manhunter to kill Superman because he is too much of a powerful weapon for Luther to have in his power. However, while they are planning they are attacked by someone who looks like the Joker. The Question is rescued by the Green Arrow, but the mysterious bad guy gets away. Brainiac releases a monster on the city, which Batman ignores because he sees that it is an attempt to get him out of hiding. However, Brainiac makes sure that his monster defeats Superman and the other super heroes under his and Luther's control to make people stop believing in the power of super heroes. Superman does not die though because he is saved by his daughter Lara, who is also the daughter of Wonder Woman. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Lara run away from Luther to join Batman. But they also trick Brainiac into thinking they are going to give him Lara and by doing this they get the Atom to get into the bottle, where he lets out the Kandorians. This starts the revolution. Batman then lets himself be captured by Luther to distract him while the Green Lantern destroys his satellites that were going to kill most of the world's population. Luther is then killed by the son of Hawkman. Then Catgirl sends a message to Batman telling him that she is being attacked by Dick Grayson, who it turns out was the villain who looked like the joker, but he heals extremely fast and has the mind of the criminally insane. (Dick Grayson was Batman's first Robin). Batman throws himself and Grayson into a fiery pit of lava, but he is saved by Superman and Carrie.
Whew, summarizing is a lot of work for these books. I thought a lot of the same about this Batman book as I did about The Dark Knight Returns. I thought it was cool and fun, but not my favorite. I did like in this one how Miller explored a darker side of Batman by making it so he is willing to sacrifice the lives of innocents because the risk is too great. I also thought that Lara was an interesting character, showing traits of a villain even despite the fact that her parents were Superman and Wonder Woman. The art, again, was great; entertaining and lively. I also thought the pace of this book made it an easier read than the Dark Knight returns. All considered I liked this one better than the first.

Dark Knight Returns

The Dark Knight Returns was an epic comic. It had all the big guys; Batman, Superman, Robin, Green Arrow, and a whole army that Batman trains! I had no idea that this book was like this. It starts out normal enough with Bruce Wayne becoming Batman again after coming across a Mutant gang in the alley where his parents were killed. Carrie Kelly helps him as his new Robin (I did not like this character very much. I think her role as the 'side-kick' was boring and expected, although it was cool that she was a girl). Commissioner Gordan is replaced by Ellen Yindel and Batman sees that even though Two Face looks normal again, he is still bad. When Batman finds out that an army general was giving guns and weapons to the Mutant gangs, he confronts him and finds out the general was only doing it for the money to save his sick wife. He kills himself in front of Batman. Then Batman fights the Mutant gangs, but the leader of the gang kills the Mayor. Batman gets him out of jail so that he can kill him. Then the Joker gets out of jail and gets Batman to come to a talk show, where he sprays him with Joker venom and runs away. The Joker takes Selina Kyle and ties her to a bomb in the middle of a field after killing a group of Cub scouts. Luckily, Robin (Carrie) defuses the bomb. Batman finally fight the Joker and breaks his neck, but does not kill him. However, like the army general, the Joker kills himself in front of Batman by twisting his neck to break the rest of his spine. The old Mutant gang members who became the Sons of Batman after he killed their leader become the local law force, a source of vigilante justice. The government gets Superman to come and fight Batman and during the battle Oliver Queen shoots Superman with a Kryptonite arrow and Batman wins. BUT! Batman soon after has a heart attack and Alfred blows up Wayne Manner (then Alfred dies of a stroke). However, when at the funeral of Batman, Superman hears a heart beating in the coffin and realizes that Batman is still alive. Overall I thought the book was cool, but I didn't like it as much as the Killing Joke. I enjoyed each of the stories, but not on as deep a level as I enjoyed The Killing Joke. I thought the art work was good, but not my favorite of the books we have read. I think this might have been too superhero-y of a comic for me. I prefer the ones that take it to the next level and give it more depth.

The Killing Joke

I have not read a lot of Batman comics, but this one will probably be my favorite no matter what. The Killing Joke was simply amazing. The insight into the psyche of the Joker is incredibly well done and intense. I like the portrayal of the joker as an intellectual, rather than just a "jokester." I think that it gives his character much more depth to have him give reasons for why he is bad. His description of man kind is particularly bleak. For instance, on page 290 the Joker says, "I give you...the average man! Physically unremarkable, it has instead a deformed set of values. Notice the hideously bloated sense of humanity's importance. The clubfooted social conscience and the withered optimism....How do they live, I hear your ask." He calls humanity club footed and withered, clearly giving a dark outlook on human life. The format of the book sort of reminded me of in Hamlet, when the gravediggers are digging Ophelia's grave make jest of death. Same as in the Swedish film, The Seventh Seal, where the Squire plays chess with death. All three of these characters, the Joker, the gravediggers, and the Squire believe death to be an embittered and hopeless joke. This complexity of the story made it a very sophisticated and interesting read. Besides the story, the artwork was also amazing. Each panel is a masterpiece in itself and as a whole it is an incredible piece of art. One of my favorite panels is the one on the bottom of page 282 where the Joker is looking straight out at the reader with his head tilted sharply sideways. His eyes are bloodshot and the thin, jagged lines that go through it make it even more intense. Everything about it screams insanity. Overall, I really liked this book and the more I think about tit the more I like it. I enjoyed all the conversations between the Joker and Batman, and the back story to how the Joker became the Joker. It has definitely become one of my favorites.

All Star Superman

Grant Morrison's and Frank Quietely's All Star Superman was a very interesting read. After reading We3 I was excited for the art work before I even opened it up and I was not disappointed. I have never read a Superman comic before because Superman has never been one of my favorite super heroes, but I did find this to be pretty good. Most of time I find Superman to be pretty cheesy, which I am sure is part of its appeal, but just not for me. However, I thought the dialogue in this version was sophisticated and I liked the stories. Of the six episodes in volume 1, I think my favorite was the fourth one, Superman/Jimmy Olsen War. I liked it for a number of reasons, mainly I liked seeing the dark side of Superman and I like Jimmy Olsen as a character. I thought the use of color was particularly good in this episode, also. For instance, on page 93, we can see the beginning of Superman's transformation into bad superman as the background of his speech bubbles becomes gray. Then when he makes the full transformation they turn fully black. I also like the rainbow jacket. One thing about the comic that I really didn't like was the lettering of the titles (on pages 30, 41, 80, 84, 109, 137). I thought they didn't fit with the rest of the art work that was so incredible. These titles reminded me of stuff people make in Microsoft Publisher. I just didn't like how it fit in with the rest of the book. The use of color throughout the book were also really impressive. I liked how the panels went back and forth from black and white to color on 46 to 47 to emphasize that Louis Lane is finally seeing things clearly. Then on the next two pages the panels alternate from a dull grey background to a vibrant pink. I think that it keeps the reader interested, or at least it did for me. Another thing I found amusing was that the dogs in Superman are so similar to the dog in We3. I liked that because you can see the artist in the works.

Akira Review

Akira is the story of two friends, Kaneda and Tetsuo. It takes place in Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019 after World War III when there was apparently a huge bomb that devastated Japan. Tetsuo and Kaneda are in a bike gang that runs into a young boy. Tetsuo, unable to stop in time, gets into a wreck on his motorcycle and is hurt. Before Kaneda is able to find the little boy, he disappears. Then the military come to the scene of the explosion and ask a lot of questions. Tetsuo is taken to a government research lab where they experiment on him and his underlying physic abilities begin to awaken. He is more powerful than any they have seen before and more dangerous because he does not know how to control it. The friendship between the two teenage boys is put under a lot of strain as Tetsuo learns more about his powers. Kaneda, meanwhile, is having a relationship with an anti-government woman named Kei. Tetsuo is confused by his new abilities and starts to learn that the force behind it all is the mysterious Akira.

Akira was an amazing read. The art work was incredibly detailed and emotional for a graphic novel. There was a lot of action in the book and while sometimes that can be hard to follow, it was very clear in Akira. You could see exactly what was happening as well as feeling it. I think that is an incredibly admirable skill to have. The author Otomo Katsuhiro is also a very good story teller. He did a great job at developing his characters and their motives. You understood all of the characters at a very personal level, which made it possible to understand their actions and see where they were coming from. Although a pretty long novel, it read quickly and felt almost like watching a movie. The depiction of Neo-Tokyo may have been my favorite part. Katsuhiro really made the future city come alive and it sort of reminded me of A Clockwork Orange. I think because it had to do with teenagers doing bad things, but there was something very similar about the two.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am definitely going to continue with the series. I don't understand how anyone could stop after just reading the first one! I need to know what happens and what this elusive Akira is!

WE3 Review

WE3 is the story of 3 animals, a dog, a cat, and a bunny, that have been turned into the ultimate weapons. The story begins with the decision to terminate the We3 as the company decides to expand, whoever their trainer is against killing them and facilitates their escape. The animals are essentially half robot and have the ability to speak in fragments. They are incredibly deadly. They escape, but are pursued by helicopters and soldiers intent on their destruction. Then the animals come upon a father and son hunting in the woods. The father shoots the rabbit and the dog and cat react by killing the father and his pet dog. Eventually, after much more destruction, the dog and cat shed their armor realizing it is not actually a part of them. Then the homeless man who fed them earlier becomes their owner.
Quitely's use of the page is very interesting for a comic book. He has a way of using extreme close ups to give you a better sense of the scene you are reading. He also uses a lot of splash pages that are incredibly beautiful. I liked that there was not a lot of dialogue and most of the story was told through the pictures. I think the characters were also very interesting. Their limited ability to talk gave them personality, but also insight to the limitations of having animals as weapons. The art in the book was just amazing, even though at times it was quite violent. I especially like when Quitely layered the panels, using several smaller panels of close ups to give the feel of the larger scene going on in the background. Overall it was very interesting reading.

Watchmen

I read Watchmen for the first time this fall. I had been hearing about it for so long that I decided it was really time that I read it. I was amazed how sophisticated it was. I had read a couple of comic books before and Persepolis had been the only other graphic novel, but Watchmen was so different. Watchmen is set in a similar universe during the 1980's. The main difference with the Watchmen universe is that there are super heroes. While these vigilantes were popular for a while, they had fallen out of favor and there was a law passed in 1977 that forbid them from practicing vigilante justice. None of them have any "super" powers, besides Doctor Manhattan, who is used as a weapon and an advantage against the Soviet Union. The story begins with the murder of one of the original Watchmen Edward Blake, the Comedian. The first panel is a close up of his smiley face button with a drip of blood on it sitting in the sewer on the street. The scene zooms out until we see that he was thrown out of his window from a high rise apartment building. The police inspectors have no idea what happened. Rorschach, a super hero who refused to "retire", finds out that Blake was the Comedian and believes that there is a plot to kill off all the costumed adventurers. He tries to convince his old friends of the plot, but has some trouble doing so. Doctor Manhattan banishes himself to Mars when he is accused of causing cancer, which throws the country into political unrest because he was a huge weapon. His wife Laurie Juspeczyk, who is the second Silk Spectre, goes and stays with her old friend Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl. They form a romance and break Rorschach out of prison to help him stop the plot against the costumed adventurers. They discover that it was Adrian Veidt who killed the Comedian and he plans on a larger scale attack on the city. He destroys much of the city, giving humanity a chance to start over. Rorschach does not believe this is right and Doctor Manhattan kills him before leaving for another galaxy.
The story is an amazing testament to what graphic novels are capable of. The art and writing in Watchmen is incredible. I have never felt so moved by characters or art while reading. I think that Rorschach's mask of ever changing ink blots is an awesome idea. It is so completely different from any other super hero costume I have ever seen or read about. I enjoy the dark undertones of the entire story and how even though the Watchmen do good, they are somewhat hated. Their involvement in justice is morally ambiguous. The colors used in the book are also very vibrant and emotional. The contrast of the red blood on the yellow happy face button is intense. Rorschach's journal entries may be my favorite part of the novel. I enjoyed reading it again and cannot wait to see the movie.

Covers

Perhaps most impressive to me about Will Eisner's The Spirit covers is the use of space. In the first cover that we looked at from No. 26, there is a spider web that covers both the title and Eisner's name. You can see Spirit tangled in the web trying to free himself while a villain in the background approaches and a woman seductively looks on. There is a certain amount of haste and desperation in Spirits expression and body language that is hard to get from cartoons. I also liked the second cover in our packet from No. 28. It sort of reminds me of Indiana Jones because of the Spirit's costume. All of the little gnome-like creatures attacking him are both funny and scary looking at the same time. They seem to be delaying Spirit as he tries to travel underground. You can even see how unbalanced he is on the logs floating in the water. The main thing that I like about Eisner's covers is that you get a sense of what is going to happen in the story before even reading it.

Vocab Words

Comics-"juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer." (p. 9)

Icon-"any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea." (p.27)

Gutter-the space between the panels of the comic where "human imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea." (p. 66)

Bleeds-"when a panel runs off the edge of the page." (p. 103)

Motion Lines-"lines that represent motion and speed." (p. 110)

Closure: "the phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole." (p. 63)

Splash: a full page drawing, most of the time it has the title and credits and is the first page of a comic.

Panel: the box or space where the pictures and words are in comics.

The path of the medium that is comics:
1.Idea/purpose- the content of the work and the philosophy behind it.
2.Form- the medium
3.Idiom- the style that the work is done in
4.Structure- how the piece is composed
5.Craft- The actual making of the work.
6.Surface- The part that you see, the visual aspect.
(p. 170)

Transitions-
1.Moment-to-moment- when nothing happens in between the panels.
2. Action-to-action- a sort of before and after shot of an action
3. Subject-to-subject- "the movement between two different subjects while staying within a scene or idea."
4. Scene-to-scene- Requires deductive reasoning from the reader because it "transports us across significant distances of time and space."
5. Aspect-to-aspect- "bypasses time for the most part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place, idea or mood."
6. Non-sequitur- "no logical relationship between two panels whatsoever."
(p. 71-72)

Eisner

After reading Understanding Comics I was excited to read something by Will Eisner because he seemed to be the exception to every rule that McCloud put forth. He has a distinct and influential style. His drawings are both detailed and emotional, as well as full of action. I was continually impressed with how well he could portray emotions on faces since that is what I have so much trouble with myself. I think I am going to read Fagan the Jew, a graphic novel he wrote about Oliver Twist from the perspective of Fagan. Oliver Twist is one of my favorite stories and I would be really excited to see his visual portrayal of it.

The Spirit

Will Eisner's The Spirit was a very influential comic book that first appeared in the early 1940's. The story follows Denny Colt who changed into the Spirit, a vigilante crime fighter. Eisner's style is unmistakable. His use of the panel makes the characters come to life with emotion. I was most impressed with how Eisner can show movement in single panels. The lettering of the comic was also very distinct. In the first issue it was very straight and long; it reminded me of the New Yorker magazine's type face. However, in the Lorelei Rox, the lettering changed to a more conventional comic book type. I like how the first letter of the speech bubbles are block letters like the title on the title page. I also really like the cover art that Eisner did. He made very use of space and the title lettering always fit really well with the story.
I think that Eisner does a nice job of mixing camera angles to keep the comic's appearance interesting and engaging. He uses the environment to his advantage not leaving it blank but giving subtle details that you might not notice at first, but set a mood for the scene. For instance, when Spirit goes to see Dolan at the police station in Lorelei Rox, the dark theme is maintained throughout. He uses the storm outside to echo not only Spirit's menacing darkness, but also Dolan's shock and surprise at seeing him. The crash of the thunder highlights Dolan's realization that Spirit has walked into his office after a presuably long absense.
I also enjoyed how he does not only employ rectangular panels. He uses all different kinds of shapes to emphasize the actions that are going on. It also keeps the comic more interesting because you never really know what to expect next. Perhaps my favorite example of this was in the first Spirit comic when Dr. Cobra is introduced on page 22 as just a floating head inbetween two panels. Not only do you get a close up of his face to see his anger, but it also is a nice break from the panels.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics

Scott McCloud's comic book Understanding Comics gives interesting insight into the world of comics. It starts out by developing an original definition for the word and genre of art comics is. Roughly defined as sequential art, comics can be seen all throughout history. He discusses images and words as icons and the different meanings they can convey, finding the balance between words and images, and the time spacing throughout panels. In the seventh chapter, McCloud lays out the six steps of artistic creation: Idea/Purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft, Surface. Not everyone realizes that there is so much to art than what is on the surface.

I liked reading about the different styles of comics that range from the east to the west. Japan has transformed old styles and created unique new ones that are exceptional. I enjoyed their use of the page as an additional aspect to their art. Also, McCloud's six step process of artistic creation was quite intriguing. It was true that most people follow this process backwards drawn into the trade by what they see on the surface of artist work that they admire. Overall I found it to be quite an enjoyable and informative read about comics.