Wide World of Comics

The first time I had heard of Heavy Metal was from a South Park episode back when I was in middle school. I think it was based on the movie version, but the episode was animated in that particular style of the movie and comic. I hadn't seen anything that looked like that visually, at the time I thought it was very weird and a bit ugly looking. Now after reading the comic for the first time, which I hadn't realized existed until taking this course, I still find it to be really weird and a bit ugly. But in a good way. This comic series is very punk. Its graphic in its depiction of violence and has a certain dark humor to it. In fact in most of the stories that I read the main character dies at the end in some horribly violent and creative manner. And I think thats awesome. It felt like eating junk food. Its probably bad for me but its just too damn good.

Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

As a kid I grew up watching shows like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and I didn't know that they were anime, I just assumed they were a different type of cartoon. I still watch anime on a regular basis, my library is a bit more diverse, although I do admit that probably the majority of it is still shonen. Anime has been a part my life for as long as I can remember but for some reason I have never read any manga until taking this class. I guess I just figured that most anime are based off of manga so there wasn't much need to go reed it when I can just watch it on a big screen.
The two manga that I decided to read were Ajin Demi-human and Fairy Tail. The reason I decided to read Fairy Tail was because I have been a fan of the anime for several years now and wanted to be able to compare the two and see what the differences are in how they translate from manga to anime and the difference in experiencing them. I found it to be a relatively similar experience except for certain aspects of pacing. Its interesting because the anime often has a frantic, quick rhythm to it which gets a bit lost in the manga due to the way scenes are carefully and sometimes meticulously set up with pages simply establishing the environment. I however enjoy the manga, but do prefer seeing the anime because I have grown attached to the cadence of it as wells as the voice cast of the dubbed version, which really brings the characters to life for me. The other manga I read was Ajin, and I have really fallen in love with this story. Its a supernatural, science fiction hybrid with a really cool premise. There is a very small species of people, no more than a few dozen in the world, that can't die and they are called Ajin. No one knows that they are an Ajin until they die and come back, and the story follows Kei Nagai who, after dying, realizes he is one of them and must leave his life behind and disappear to avoid being captured by the Japanese government. Netflix is releasing it soon as an anime series, and after reading a bit of the manga I cant wait to see it.  

Comics as Contemporary Literature

The comic that I decided to read was Transmetropolitain by Warren Ellis and boy is it one hell of a ride. I just found it to be purely entertaining, from its crazy cyber punk world to its badass, no nonsense main character Spider Jerusalem. Its super violent and full of dark humor that made me smile throughout. To me it felt like a far less serious version of Watchmen. Spider is a deeply flawed anti-hero that operates in an even more messed up city similar to several of the characters in Watchmen. They both also heavily use allegory in certain political, social and cultural aspects of their stories. I found it to be more sophisticated than most hero comics while also being completely over the top and hyperbolic at the same time, which is why I think I enjoyed it so much. I also enjoyed some of the pop culture science fiction references sprinkled throughout its panels, such as Spider's blaster pistol that looks a lot like Han Solo's blaster, or some of the background aliens that are very reminiscent of Twi'Leks from Star Wars. It seemed to me like Ellis was influenced by the underground comics that came before him, such as Heavy Metal, or other comics like Watchmen. This is a comic for me that I found to have a world and characters that are unique and interesting, that set it apart from other comics and left me wanting to read more.

Comics by Women

I read This One Summer by the Tamaki cousins as my choice for a comic created by women. This is a comic that I found to be very real. What I mean by real is that this story and its characters are grounded in reality and provides a reading experience that I found easily relatable and that anyone reading it can connect to on some sort of level. In short its a coming of age story that I found to be genuine, which is the best way I can describe it. To me it felt like the creators were borrowing heavily from their own experiences, which for me is what allowed me to connect with it because it feels like something people experience in the real world, and we do. Its sad and bittersweet but it is a reflection of our real world. The scary, dark, and confusing things that we all experience as we grow up from small, naive children to young, mature adults. The creators do a terrific job of catching that sense of lost innocence.
On a purely visual level I really enjoyed the way the environments and backgrounds of this comic are designed and rendered. Once again a comic reveals the influence of manga's highly realistic backgrounds with simplified cartoonish characters. I think it works well in this case for the story. The characters are very expressive in the way they are drawn which allows for the minimal use of dialogue to describe characters thoughts and feelings. I personally found this comic to be not something only women can relate and invest themselves in, I was able to connect with it on a certain level which is why I don't necessarily believe that just because a women created a comic its going to resonate on a deeper level with women and not really connect with men.    

Reconsidering the Superhero

I read Watchmen for the first time when I was a freshmen in High School and it still remains one of my favorite stories, not just in terms of comics but in storytelling in general. The thing that I found so engaging about Allen More's masterpiece is that all of his characters are so deeply flawed, some even completely psychotic, which is rarely seen in superhero comics. It is a very mature comic in terms of tone, its depictions of violence and sex, and what it sets out to do in tackling complicated real life issues all within the context of what appears on the surface as a murder mystery. But it quickly reveals itself to much more than what appears to be. The world and its history are so dense it really takes multiple readings to fully understand and appreciate the complex interwoven stories of its many and diverse cast of characters. When I read Watchmen for the first time it blew my mind because I had no idea that comics like it existed or that it was even possible to tell a story like it in the comic medium. This is the third time that I have read Watchmen and still find it to be an incredible achievement in storytelling and a must read for anyone.

The other comic that I read was Arkham Asylum, but only about the first fifty pages or so. I have played the Batman video games of the same name and was curious to see how much of the games borrowed from this story. From what I read so far it certainly seemed like the creators of the game were very much influenced by the darker tone and esthetic of the comic. I think thats what my first reaction to the comic was, its visual style and its very creepy dark tone, which I love in a Batman story. It reminds me a bit of The Killing Joke, by Allen More, also one of my favorites. The way the comic is drawn( or painted?) is very cool and interesting, I  don't think I have seen any comic that looks anything like this. Which I think fits what the story is trying to tell very well, the idea of insanity. I also found the parallel story with Armedeus Arkham to be a really fascinating backstory that helps put the Batman part of the story in some context. I plan on finishing it when I get the chance.

Web Comics

This week I read the web comic Stand Still Stay Silent, which is the first web comic that I have ever read. What drew my attention to this particular comic was the premise of its story, which is a post apocalyptic adventure with norse mythology elements. I had never come across something that had mixed these two very different themes together and thought it had the potential to be something really unique and interesting. After reading the first one hundred and fifty or so pages I have mixed feelings about it. My biggest critique I have with Stand Still Stay Silent is how slow the pacing of it is. Pretty much everything that I read was establishing the world, its history and its many characters. Despite this however I found the world to be unique and interesting enough for me to continue reading, this is in no small part due to the fact that the environments are really well drawn and illustrate a cool world that I want to be engrossed in. Its a slow read but has the potential to be a great epic fantasy story. One other minor issue I had was the way the characters faces were drawn. A lot of them looked very similar to one another and made it difficult to follow what was happening with which characters. Maybe its just me and I need to spend some more time with them, after all these characters haven't been given much to do up to the point that I have read.

I was impressed to find out that new pages of this web comic are released daily, especially considering how well crafted each page is and the scope of the graphic novel format. Its an immense undertaking. Im not sure why but while I was reading the comic it reminded me of Avatar The Last Airbender. I think tonally most of all it feels similar. The artist also seems influenced by manga and anime by the way it looks stylistically, like Avatar. Over all though I plan to continue reading Stand Still Stay Silent because I thinks its world will be worth investing in and I hope the stories pace picks up.  

Symbols used in Authority

Based on the first volume of Authority it seems like the creators are using symbols taken from other iconic comics and characters with some other real life symbols in the mix. For example part of Jenny Sparks costume is a union jack shirt, while in a different scene she is wearing a shirt bearing a symbol that resembles the logo for V for Vendetta. There are also two other characters that appear like imitations of Batman and Superman, Midnighter and Apollo. At this point in the story I'm not quite sure if this is intended to be a spoof on superhero comics or if it is simply using iconic symbols to help tell a unique interpretation of a superhero story.  

I was able to connect with this story so far based on the fact that it has many familiar elements found in almost all superhero comics. The cast of characters seem diverse and interesting while also being visually similar to superhero archetypes. However having only read the first issue, it is hard to tell where this story and its characters are heading. Is it more than what it appears to be on the surface?

I will say so far I enjoy the familiar feeling it has. The villain, Kaizen, has a very Fire Lord Ozai, from Avatar the Last Airbender, look and feel to him, which I find funny and cool.  

If I were to adapt this in to another medium, I would try to make it in to a television show. Im not sure if I would change anything based on what I have read so far.

Thoughts on Shaun Tan's The Arrival

The first thought I had after reading The Arrival was how amazing it was able to effectively tell a story through only illustrations. A fairly complex and involved story at that. The craftsmanship is what really drew me into the story more than anything. Each page is beautifully drawn and the world that he creates is one that I wanted to explore. That might be intentional based on the subject matter of the immigrant story, and if so it helped me feel what I thought the characters were feeling and engaged me in their journeys. I also enjoyed the stylized world he created that evoked certain qualities of familiar places in our world which made that story relatable. I think this work can appeal to anyone because of the human nature of the story even though on the surface the world seems fantastical and unrealistic, it is quite the opposite. I believe the lack of any text makes the story even stronger and also highlights the fact that this is a story that anyone can relate to. It does not need the worlds, the story stands strong on the illustrations alone and I believe make a stronger impact because of it. Shaun Tan's work is inspirational for me as an illustrator.