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.

Week 3: Winsor McCay's Little Nemo and Charles Schultz's Peanuts.

In this week’s reading, I found Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo and Charles Schulrz’s Peanuts are quite interesting. These two comics are very different from each other. Little Nemo is more graphic and detailed. It mainly talks about a little boy’s dreams. The story always end in his awaking. He always travels to different amazing countries. There will be some strange creatures like a dragon with a huge mouth which you can sit in. There is no words, dialogues or explanations in the comic. The artist’s drawing style is really beautiful. He always used a lot of decorations to make the drawings more colorful and beautiful. Nemo is not the only character in this comic. His grandparents and parents are always the person who wakes him up. But there isn’t any story talking about their characteristics. There is also a princess who always having fun with Nemo. But even her and Nemo don’t have any specific personalities. Characters in Peanuts have more obvious personalities. They also have more complex relationships. They will do something based on their personalities. Snoopy wants to have a peaceful life. So he always tries to escape from the chaos made by those boys. The author also creates contrast in characters’ personalities. For example, Snoopy is a dog, but actually he is much more mature than the children. I think those differences between these two comics are very interesting.