Week 12: Comics By Women

I had heard good reviews of This One Summer from my friend Anna Craig, who has a personal copy, yet never got around to reading it.  I stopped by the library today and was so absorbed in the book I read it in one sitting!  It seemed to utilize everything I loved about comics; the visual sounds, stunning imagery, and just honest storytelling.  The way the two girls interact is so similar to the way I acted with my friends when I was younger, even down to the awkward pauses which you could just feel within the writing.  The entire story dealt with the different complicated themes that women of each age go through: from the pubescent worries and trials of your first crush to your teenage exploration of your sexuality (and what the consequences may be) and to an older woman dealing with a miscarriage and what that means for her family.  I think that's why the story was so gripping; there were so many different relatable themes going on at once that you wanted to know the stories to, even though the story only really focuses on the interactions of these two friends.

The greatest thing about this story that it is a gripping story dealing with mostly all women dealing with real women problems talking about actual things women and girls talk about and it is written by women!  It is rare to find a stories that are so relateable to how women actually think; stories that treat us as complex characters, and I truly feel that this is probably the best piece i've read in this class so far.  From an animation standpoint, I naturally pick up on acting and dialogue.  For me, I love the acting in this bit right here:

It's something where they're both completing an action, and not just spitting out dialogue.  And the whole wringing out your hair is such a part of honest acting and you are even more intrigued with the story when the other character swims away.  I really love moments like this because there is so much subtext within it, and of course it's drawn and portrayed beautifully.

Week 11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

I really liked Chris Ware's work.  I felt that it was simple and elegant, a sort of mordern way of reading comics.  I enjoyed his storytelling, with how he would often incorporate words in more of a graphic design piece with his comics.  With newer comics, each works to reinvent itself, and I feel that with Chris Ware's work specifically, he is working on reinventing himself through the format of how his comics are packaged and viewed:

I feel that his clean and isometric style speaks a lot to the modernization of the medium and I really enjoyed his work.

Additionally, I feel that authors and artists keep getting more and more creative the merging of text and images.  This is especially true with Aesterious Polyps, another comic that features a very streamlined style.  In my opinion, this comic departs so much from the 'traditional' comic form we have seen previously and I would personally define it   I really enjoyed that this author didn't feel limited by the panel and thought, in the most literal sense, out of the box.  I think this comic does SO many things well; it uses the color palettes to help differentiate between Aesterios and everyone else as well as a different color palette for each flashback.  Additionally, when Aesterios and his wife Hana are in an argument and they are seeing less and less of each other's sides, he plays around with giving them opposing colors as well as different styles of drawing them to emphasize the differences in how they think.

This is so effective and part of me is very curious to see what this would look like in an animated format, because I think this is such a cool way to tell stories visually.  I actually wasn't sure whether I would like this comic when I first started it, but I loved the muted color palette and the art style so I kept reading it.  Now, after finishing it, I'm glad I read it all the way through, because I feel that the way this story is told is in such a new and innovative way.  Even with how the comic ends (which I won't post for no spoilers) is something I would have never expected but it seemed to fit the tragic story well.  

Week 10: Manga and the Tradition of Japanese Comics

I never got into Manga as a child, but many of my friends grew up on Inuasha, Naruto, or Dragon Ball Z.  I knew that this was a popular art style and tried to mimic the style (without watching any of the shows or reading any of it), but for some reason I was never drawn to learn more about the styles.  I was excited to start reading it and try my hand at getting back into them since I feel that it is so important for an artist (and storyteller) to be well versed in all forms of visual storytelling.  The first Manga I decided to try was Battle Angelita, Last Order.  It was an interesting read... and I definitely had to reread it again in order to fully understand it.  What surprised me most about it, right off the bat, is that Manga isn't afraid to go violent or approach these crazy premises; in Manga, they somehow just work.  Granted, you could say that the superhero comics were violent and have far fetched premises, but this Manga showed their faces with bloody bandages and half robot humans... it was a lot to take in at first.  I had trouble originally reading it since I was unsure if it was read left to right or right to left or top to down.  I finally figured out that it was read top to bottom but the text was read right to left, presumably because of the way it was translated.  But I felt the story was very complicated; which the half-asleep Carla that first read it couldn't follow any of the storylines.  But I think this complexity is what also makes it compelling, since you aren't dealing with your typical storylines.  I mean where else do you read about half robot children?

Even though Battle Angelita, Last Order didn't seem to be my cup of tea, I decided to read a little bit of Astro Boy and see how everything started.  Suddenly, robot-human crossovers don't seem so crazy of a premise.  After scrolling through some more Manga's, I realized that this robot-human theme was a very popular concept.  To me, what's interesting is that the closest American-originated idea (that I can think of at the moment) that comes close to humans and robots (excluding movies about AI) is Transformers.  Clearly though, all types of audiences respond to ideas like this, as shown by Americanized versions of these concepts such as Pacific Rim.  After reading these Manga's, you can also witness bits where American comics have taken bits of their artistic style or visual style for their own comic work.

After this little taste into Manga, I got hooked.  I decided to also read Ranma Book 1 by Takahashi, which is a complex premise that you wouldn't see usually within an american comic.  I think the premise alone (a boy changing into a girl based on the temperature of water thrown on him) intrigued me so much that I felt drawn to finish the first book in one sitting!  Honestly, where else do you find things like that?  In this Manga specifically, I liked how the expressions for me were super exaggerated and how the designs simplified depending on the situation the main character was in.  It was an effective way to show that emotion for that quick read and it was funniest parts of the manga for me.

Week 9: Wide World of Comics

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of animation, comics, and graphic novels is the different styles they can take on.  Today in class, we saw a clip from a film I watched last year, called The Triplets of Belleville by Sylvain Chomet.  Chomet is known for his exaggerated characters that really push how far they can go, but also has a wonderful sense of storytelling.  The characters are each unique and have their own distinct personalities and character designs.  All of it works together to make a complete message for the audience.  For example, The Triplets of Belleville is dialogue-free.  Which is amazing, considering it's a full-length feature film.  In America, it is rarer to see those types of films.  The only other film that rivals that status is Wall-E, but that also still restrains to the cute, classic appealing characters.  Chomet's style has a sense of charm, though it is also at times slightly disturbing, it is something that really pushes the animation industry.  I mean, just look at how far he can push something like the Simpsons:

In Europe, since differently accepted styles and genres are more readily accepted, you have a little more leway to create interesting designs such as this.  In Europe, the Triplets of Belleville did very well and was critically acclaimed, yet in America not too many people have ever even heard of it.  Yet it is because artists like Chomet have the freedom to create these unique design that the medium continues to grow and evolve, and we see more of a variety of work and styles.

Additionally this week, I also read some Moebius.  As he is a well-known name in the illustrator industry, I thought his ink work to be particularly interesting.  While he's a master at composition, I found his use of color to also be quite interesting as well.  Though most of his work is shaded solely through the ink, he isn't afraid to use bold colors such as pruple or blue to give an added sense of depth and mood in his work.  At times though, I did feel the wealth of detail to be overwhelming and at times hard to focus your eye.