week 14: the future of comics

This week I was reading Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack. It is a very interesting comic. The comic uses short panels to create some tiny funny stories. Most of the stories have a surprising ending. The story will also start with a peaceful beginning, every character is happy and calm. Then there will be a twist with black humor in it. I really like the black humor elements the author used in the stories. I really like the one about puppy. A man said he would sell his soul for a puppy. Then a puppy showed up and played with him. They were happy friends. But in the final panel, the man was tortured in hell. I really like the different between the beginning and end. The way how the author managed the story line really surprised me. I think some of the stories are even talking about our society problems.
I also like how the author draws the characters. The main character is always a simple man with no clothes and no shoes. He is just a doodle. I like how the author deletes his personalities. He just becomes a simple element in the comics. Even though most of the stories are depicting a negative attitude, I still feel the humor in it makes me happy.

week 13: reconsidering the superhero

This week I read The Killing Joke. The story is very short as a superhero story. There are many stories about Batman and Joker. We all know Batman will never kill Joker, they will keep running and chasing till the end of the world.

Answers for the questions
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

I think there is not much text in the comic. We only see the dialogues between the characters. Most of the story is told by the illustrations. But I really like how the way Joker speaks changed after his personality changed. He became calmer and more confident, but also more insane.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?

When the Joker talked about how a bad day can make a person insane, I think I feel connected to this part. I have read this story years ago when I was still a teenager. I couldn't be related to the characters at all. But now I feel more related to Joker. Because after I left my parents and lived alone, I had more bad days, sometimes I just want to ruin myself and destroy something. I think Joker's experience is a dramatic version of everyone's life.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?

I think this story could be a good musical. Because it has a very intense climax and there are many characters' monologues. I think I will change the plots a little bit, maybe put the flashbacks late in the story.

4. In what ways does this story differ from the typical expectations the reader might have for a superhero story?

The Killing Joke is very different from other Batman stories. Batman stories usually have a very dark tone. But The Killing Joke has very bright colors. I think the bright colors show how intense the story goes. Also, the ending is very unusual. We never know who wins in the end.

week 12 comics by women

This week I read Fun Home. This is a very sad story about father and daughter. The author talked about the two different life choices her father and her made. Her father and she are both homosexual people who tried to have a normal life. She talked about how her father tried to be a normal father, she also talked about the little details she found about his secrets.
The story starts with house building. The author talked about how talented her father is. He changed the old house into a fancy new one. But he was also a very strict father. The author didn't give the characters any expressions. Characters always have a sad face through the whole book, I never saw them smiling. So even though I saw her father was building the house with her or trying to do something with her, I didn't feel any happiness. The author also uses blue as the only color in the comic, it makes the story feel very sad.
The interaction between father and daughter is very touchable. Father always tries to teach his daughter to read. They love the same kind of books. When the author took her father's class, he said she was the only student that worth teaching. She said his class is the only class worth taking. I think this part shows how much love they have for each other.

week 11 comics as contemporary literature

This week I read Arsene Schrauwen. This comic is a super strange one. The whole book is about the author's grandfather's adventure. He visited his cousin and fell in love with a lady. The story is kind of hard to understand because the author will use very abstract illustrations to describe what happened. Sometimes the character is sitting on the chair, suddenly he becomes animals and dancing with the lady he loves. It is very interesting and strange.
The author describes his grandfather as a mid-aged man who has many bad hobbies. When he fell in love with the lady he met, the author didn't make this relationship romantic. He chooses to make his grandfather become a donkey. The author never hesitates to depict the character's desire. He always changes the characters into animals when they have sex. It is also interesting that when characters become lusty, the author will draw in orange. I think that is a good way to tell the audience how intense and exciting the story becomes.

week ten: manga and the japanese comics tradition

This week I read the Astroboy. The story is very interesting and attractive since it is very rare to choose a child as the protagonist for a superhero story. Astroboy is a very old manga. I can still remember that I was sitting in front of the TV and waiting for the Astroboy anime. When I was a kid, I could barely understand the meaning of the story. I thought this is a superhero story about how a robot kid helps humans defeat evil enemies. I never realize this story has very deep meanings such as the relationship between human and their creations.
I still remember the miserable story about Atom and his father, Dr. Tenma. Dr. Tenma created Atom after his real son's death. He tried to treat this robot boy who looks exactly like his son as his son. But he soon realized Atom will never be his son. His son is not someone can be replaced. And Atom has his own personality, he wants his own life. This story talks about how people react after their relatives' death and how they should continue their life after that. The story also talks about if robots should be considered human. Atom thinks his servant robot is his friend, which Dr. Tenma doesn't agree with. Their argument is very interesting and meaningful.

week nine: a wide world of comics

I read Blacksad this week. This comic has always been one of my favorite comics. I really like how the artist creates all the character designs. Usually, when people decide to create an animal character living in an animal city, they created a walking animal. This kind of animal characters will still keep a lot of animal characters. Animal characters in Blacksad are different. They usually act just like a human. You won't see many animals' personalities in them. They act like a human, talk like a human and even love like a human. The author uses this animal society to reflect many problems in our society. For example, the story about black animals and white animals reflects racism and human rights. He even talked about how mix-blood animals will suffer in this situation. I really like the part when Blacksad is sitting in a restaurant. He is bothered by both black animals and white animals. Because he has black and white fur. It simply the self-identity issue most mix-blood children have. They don't know where they belong to.
I also really like the art style the artist have. The artist use very sharp and clean lines to depict the movements of the characters. The watercolor style also makes the whole book feel like an old detective film.

week 8: stereotype and the ethics of representation

As an animation student, the stereotype is definitely a serious problem we need to deal with. Since the target group for animated films is always normal people who don't understand how to design a character, it is very hard to not only avoid stereotypes but also make them understand. For example, if I need a ballet dancer in my animation, the first character design I can think about is a skinny blond white girl wearing a ballet dress. This is definitely a stereotype, but this is also the character design most people will understand. Because normal people usually don't understand ballet dancers. They don't know dancers need a lot of muscles and they don't know when they practice, they actually wear soft pants. It is the filmmaker's and animators' duty to explain this to the audience. So if you want to avoid stereotypes, you could design a muscular black dancer, but you need to set up the story and give it a good reason. You need to teach the audience about that. However, there are many animation shorts, which don't have enough time to do the explanation. For them, using stereotypes is actually a good idea.

For myself, I am always affected by stereotypes. For example, people still think Asian parents are very strict about grades. I think that's true. Most Asian parents are strict and that is a huge problem all Asian kids have. So I actually don't consider it is a bad stereotype. I think as long as you do some research and understand what the truth is, it is okay to have stereotypes.

Week 7: Spiegelman's Complete Maus

This week I read Maus by Art Spiegelman. This comic is about war and death, family and friends, father and son. The story is told through the interview between the father and the son. The story goes through the whole life of the father. I really enjoy reading this story through the father's POV. At the beginning of the story, I felt the character in his story is so different from himself in reality. I think the author is really clever to mix the real-life and the story together. After reading more about the story, I start to see the similarities between father and the young handsome man. 

In the story, this young man is ambitious and energetic. He is very confident to do anything. He wants to build his own business and family. He wants to show himself off to the girl he loves. But I can also see how irresponsible he is. He didn't refuse Lucia when she showed her love to him. Even after he started a relationship with the author's mom, he still didn't reject her completely. In the real-life, the father is the same person. He blamed Wala for a lot of things. He always gives orders and never wants to obey. When the author dropped cigarette ashes on the carpet, he was very angry and started giving orders. 

I also really like how the author depicts the war. He mixed the real-life and the stories together. So the audience can see how the war changed father obviously. He was ordered and tortured by soldiers. But now he threw his son's coat. He started to force other people to follow his orders. He was changed by the war. 

When the author depicted his father, I think he wanted to create a real human. So he gave his father bad temper and personality. But he also described how his father cared about his family, how clever he was and how brave he was. All these things make him look more like a human. I think why this book is so attractive. 

Week 6: Air Pirates Funnies

I am definitely surprised when i see Mickey mouse and Minnie having sex. I never consider them as someone who has genders. They are cartoon characters. Cartoons are for young kids. The characters should be innocent and pure. Yes, they are a couple. But they should have Platonic love. They should just be happy animals. So i am so surprised when i see they walking around naked. The author wants to break the limitation of cartoons. I feel the rebellion spirit he wants to express through the comics. But i still don't understand what he wants to say when i see a giant worm who has six vaginas. But i do think the author has great drawing skills. The background is super detailed and the characters' movements are well depicted. I really like the story about Mickey mouse driving an airplane and shooting the bad guy. There has never been such violence in the traditional cartoons. Mickey mouse is usually a happy, good boy. But in this comic, he is more like a grumpy middle-aged man. I like the difference of his personalities.

Week 5: similarities in Eisner's approach to graphic storytelling and Thompson's

I think even though these two artists use very different drawing styles, there are still many similarities in their artworks. First, both of them like to use very dramatic lightings. They like to put character under a high contrast lighting. There will be clear dark side and light side on the characters' faces. This is a good way to depict the characters' personalities. High contrast lighting always make the story more intense and interesting. So we will see a lot of high contrast lighting in the climax part. They both like to use lines to draw shadows. Usually this way will make the drawings look very rough and messy. Rough drawings will feel not so intense. However, they are not only use lines. They always paint a large black shape beside the lines. By doing this way, there will be a focal point in the drawings, so the reader won't feel the drawings are too messy. Also, both of them like to design the font of the dialogues. They usually let the font be a part of the drawing. I think by doing this way, audience can feel more related to the story. When you read the text in the drawing, you can feel what the emotion is. The layout they use is also very similar. They also do a few small panels to show the setup of the story. Then there will be huge panel to show the climax. There will be more details in the big panel. In the small panels, there are only simple backgrounds and characters.

Week 4: Batman comics

This week i read the Batman comics from both 1940 and 2010. I can see how the style of Superhero comics have changed through time. The Batman comic from 1940 is definitely more simplified. The colors are very limited. Most of the colors are red, green, blue, yellow and orange. They are very saturated.  I think that's because of the limitation of the printing techniques. There are not so much shadows in the drawings. The drawing are very flat. There are only a little bit details on the characters. I think Batman and Robin may still be just a symbol of superheroes. They don't have many personalities. They are just a hero and his sidekick. The change of Robin is also very interesting to me. I think in the 1940, the Robin was Dick Grayson. He looks like a 15-year-old teenager. He looks almost like an adult in the comic. He is too muscular for a teenager. When i look at the comic from 2010, the Robin is more like a kid. I guess Damien Wayne is the Robin now. Even though he is younger than Dick Grayson, we can see how the way of depicting teenager characters changed. Also, there are more colors in the comics. We can see burning flames and shining lights. When Batman was fighting in the underground, we can feel how the poisoned water glowing in the dark. Dick Grayson is the Batman in the comic 2010. He is depicted more detailed. He also has more personalities. I think it is very interesting to see how the comics changed.