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I am sick as a dog. The kind of sick where you lie in bed and not go anywhere, where you have the most painful cough and the nastiest congestion. Sorry, Spencer, but I just couldnt go to class. The last day of class. God, I feel stupid.

I feel like I really learned quite a lot about graphic novels over the semester. I don't view them as simply 'comics' anymore, but as actual books, with just as much meaning to them as textbooks or novels. In short, I have come to respect the medium as an art. I think this course was extremely useful in that matter.

I feel like shit, so I'm going back to bed.

Thank you for everything Spencer.

Palestine

An interesting Graphic Novel. However, after a while, the drawing style seems too ludicrous, and everything that it depicts is hectic, chaotic. Maybe that suits the subject matter of the book. Still, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on since the early 20th century, and even the characters inside the book seem to have grown tired of it. What I mean to say is that the subject is exhausted. On the other hand, this book shows the reminds the world that the conflict is not over. I just wish the drawing had been more like berlin, or V for vendetta: a little more realistic, a little less wierd.

Berlin II 4/16

This book was really good. I completely agree with TIME's blurbs on the back: "[Berlin] will be the longest, most sophisticated work of historical fiction in the medium. Lutes has a natural, clean, European drawing style, much like Herge's Tintin... this book has the density of the best novels."

I always thought Herge had a detailed, highly sophisticated style of drawing. Lutes also does, but in a different way: his use of lines reflect a german quality... 'german engineering,' so to speak. I can't really explain it. Herge definitely drew in an English/French sort of style.

As for density, Berlin really is like a novel. It seems like I've been reading so many graphic novels lately, that I don't really consider them 'comics' as much, but lump them in my mind with novels in general. Because the story is what matters, whether told in pictures, words, written words, or a combination of the three.

There was one particular example of panel use that I thought was pretty cool. On page 197, when kurt and marthe are sitting in a restaurant. In the last two panels, the space in between the two panels act as the glass, with the man on one side and kurt and marthe on the other. I almost didnt catch that, but then I saw the guy's words were getting less bolder as they moved in to the next panel. Then, looking back at the previous panel, I remembered that he had been pounding on the window. Then everything clicked. Not a big deal, i guess, but, how do you even think of that?

Berlin

The first few chapters were very good; the story was gripping. I especially liked how well the author was using the graphic novel medium to bring together and talk about writing and drawing/painting (Art in general) as well as more serious issues such as racism, political factions, and war. The author seems to use Kurt Severing to deal with the latter, while he uses Marthe Muller for the former issues. For example, the discussion among Marthe and her friends about the scientific principles of art (or lack thereof) and the very next chapter when it first snows, are good examples of what the author thinks of the art of the time. When Severing was attending the parade/rally of hindenburg; this is a good example of the journalistic mind of the author revealing itself through the character (a journalist).

fun home

When I did a little background search on Fun home, it said that she spent a long time in carefully photographing herself as each character, then drawing those photos. For example:

I was just wondering then, if she photographed herself in order to draw the panels for her several masturbation and fellatio scenes. That'd be kind of wierd, but then again, I guess it is acceptable as art.

Just wondering.

fun home two

I was sort of right. When I read on, I found that Alison writes on page 196, panel 3 "...A narrative of injustice, of seuxal shame and fear, of life considered expendable. It is tempting to say that, in fact, this IS my father's story." So, its kinda like she's narrating the story for both her and her father. Their life story. A story of two gay people, father and daughter, one who stayed in the closet and ultimately died, and one who came out and discovered new horizons. The funny thing is, no one else in their family turned out to be gay. Only Alison. Genetics are a fickle thing, I guess. Another funny thing is how she speculates after saying the above comment (in the panel, she's smoking a lone cigarette on a pier): "There's a certain emotional expedience to claiming him as a tragic victim of homophobia, but that's a problematic line of thought. For one thing, it makes it harder for me to blame him. And for another, it leads to a particularly literal cul-de-sac. If my father had "come out" in his youth, if he had not met and married my mother... where would that leave me?" I mean, I'm certain people have at least once in their lives thought "what if my parents had never met?" But for Alison, its "what if my dad had come out?"

The fact that Alison did come out, is what sets her apart from her father. Very similar people, albeit with different aesthetic taste, but resembling each other nonetheless. I think she came out because although she knew that she had inevitably become homosexual (I mean, she blames her father), she knew that she could do something about it, differently from her father. I think she realized this (that she was different from her father, or at least wanted to be) at a pretty early age; for example, page 15: "I was spartan to my father's athenian. Modern to his victorian. Butch to his nelly. Utilitarian to his aesthete." I guess as she grew up, she found that she could still be homosexual but could use that to rebel against her father. This is the generation gap.

All in all, she just didn't want to be like him. But in a way, she did become like him. The ending lines of the book were really profound and moving. "He did hurtle into the sea, of course. But in the tricky reverse narration that impels our entwined stories, he was there to catch me when I leapt."

Fun home

So I started reading Fun Home and I couldn't put it down. I think it has to do with the fact that I am intrigued by autobiographies and memoirs. And when it's in Comic form, its all the more interesting to read.

Alison's family does bear a striking resemblance to the Addams Family, not so much in appearance as in their actions. So far, although the book largely focuses on Allison and her place in the family (she narrates, so...) I was most taken with her dad. His story is the most tragic. Well, so far anyway. I haven't finished reading the book yet. But the amount of pain and turmoil he must have gone through as a gay man staying in the closet, hiding his true feelings, and trying his utmost hardest to raise a "normal" family, seems incredible. He was manic-depressive, homosexual, and incredibly afraid of not appearing perfectly normal. So sad. And the fact that Allison becomes a lesbian, even though her father hid his homosexuality well, makes me wonder: could it be genetic? I think the psychological traits that eventually brought on full-blown homosexuality in Bruce Bechdel were also embedded in Allison. So, homosexuality isn't genetic, but manic-depression is, and perhaps that plus a negative environment brought it out in Allison.

To be continued...

V for Vendetta

This is one of the best dystopian stories ever. I love the matrix, but V for Vendetta has a certain, hmm.. English sensibility to it.

I especially liked the wordless ending. Who is that guard supposed to be?

I agree with what it says on the back of the book: ...V for Vendetta is everything comics weren't supposed to be.

England Prevails.

V for vendetta, pt 2.

First, I'd like to say that the sparse, almost hazy and indistinct colors used in this book adds to the actual tone/mood of the plot: that is to say, a dark, clandestine, dystopian sort of atmosphere.

The first several pages of the second part were really wierd, but interesting. A prelude to the chapters to come, but in actual musical form as well. I can't really read music. I don't know if this piece was actually used in the movie, but maybe it was.

I think that the graphic novel form does more justice to the theme of the story, in that it delivers elements of the plot more directly and effectively to the reader than the movie. The colors, the use of panels, and the block text (to name a few) all add to the tone of the plot, and besides, since its a vis-a-vis situation (the book and the reader) , the reader will become more engrossed, more invested, more absorbed with the story. Granted, the movie is more realistic, but is that better when dealing with the subject of dystopia? I think if the movie had more noir elements (black and white, maybe), it would have been a bit better. I like it nonetheless, of course.

V for Vendetta, pt. 1

I saw the movie around two years ago, just when it came out. I guess I was kinda surprised to find that Evey Hammond was supposed to be a prostitute; that might even have made the movie a little more interesting. That said, I thought that Natalie Portman did a great job of portraying the emotions that Evey Hammond must have felt. The scene where she is put into solitary confinement by V is especially convincing.

More on this, in a little bit.

Wrapping up McCloud

I think chapter seven was the most important chapter in the book. It didn't focus on comics and aspects of comics alone, but tried to integrate them into the general world of art. I actually hand-wrote the six steps in my notes (for another class, because I was doing the reading in another class. I was bored.):

1. Idea/Purpose: The impulses, ideas, emptions, philosophies, purpose of the work; the work's content.
2. Form: Book? Poem? Song? Painting? Sculpture?
3. Idiom: The "School" of art, the vocabulary of styles or gestures, subject matter, the genre of the work.
4. Structure: Putting it all together, what to include, what to leave out, how to arrange, how to compose the work.
5. Craft: Constructing the work, applying skills, practical knowledge, invention, problem solving, getting the job done.
6. Surface: Production values, finishing, the aspects most apparent on first superficial exposure to the work.

What is most important, as dramatically mentioned in the book is:

The Desire to be Heard,
The Will to Learn,
and The Ability to See.

Any artist, for any genre/medium, can benefit from these six steps in some way. I don't want to call myself an artist (yet), for the sake of modesty, but if I was an artist, I'd say I was struggling between steps 2 and 3. Ok, just to be clear: I play the guitar, and although I've been attracted to many styles since I've started playing (metal, punk, classical, jazz, reggae, dub, ska, etc. you name it), I've more or less stuck to Blues guitar now. I think many a guitarist chooses this genre, this style of playing, but not many can get past it and move on: their vocabulary and phrasing become limited, because they restrict themselves to only one style. Which is precisely my problem.

I need a source of inspiration, some jolt or shock in my life, to get my creative juices flowing again; then I can move on to the next steps.

The frustrated artist.

living in line, show and tell.

Ok, so these chapters were about the power of pictures to evoke an emotional response (vital to noat just comics but all visual-based art) in viewers and the power of words and pictures combined.
After reading chapter 5, I realized how abstract pictures can be unless we assign meaning to them. After reading chapter 6, I realized how words can be used to assign pictures meaning, and how, combined, words and pictures are not just crass products of commercialism but a high medium of art.

watchmen 1-4

What was interesting was Rorschach's face. No doubt named after the Rorschach's ink blot test. There were no two ink patterns on his face were the same; with every different panel, so was his face different. So, the Rorschach test judges a person's personality by what he/she sees in the ink pattern. I first thought that Rorschach (the character) might be schizophrenic (or is the reader supposed to be?), but then I read on pg. 19, third panel, top right corner, "Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?" So he isn't Schizophrenic.

While reading through chapter one, I kinda got an idea of what Watchmen might be about. If I were to use a phrase to describe it, I'd say: "The Incredibles for adults."

I'd write more, but for the sake of brevity, I'll stop.

Wrapping up blankets pt.1

I can't exactly recall what happens in the last few chapters of blankets (since I left my book in the classroom), I can tell you that it is not Garden State all over again. For one thing, in garden state the two lovers stay together, while in blankets, not so much. that's huge. Like Time comments on the back of the book, its a first-love story, but its also about one's obsessions and leaving them behind. In garden state, the girl acted as the catalyst that helped the protagonist's overcoming his obsession (depression, to be exact); in blankets, the girl is the object of obsession that the protagonist must overcome.

So....

Am I supposed to talk about both McCloud and Blankets? Probably. So here goes...

I've just read from chapter 1 to 4 of Understanding Comics, and I must say, its pretty complex. I didn't know that comics could be so complicated. I mean, "Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence?" wtf does that even mean? Also, I didn't think that comics could have "vocabulary," until I read about Icons. Plus, this guy named McLuhan, who called TV and Comics "cool media," seemed pretty smart.
There was a lot to digest in this particular comic book. I guess what I got from it in a nutshell was how we (as media literate people) should learn to better respect comics as a medium, as an art form. It is a pretty kick-ass art form. So, until next time McCloud.
Blankets, as usual, was phenomenal. Chapters 6-7 continued exploring some aspects of Craig's childhood (especially the religious aspect) and his growing relationship with raina (finally climaxing in a sex scene, or so it seems; I can't be too sure). The one scene that really moved me was when the dad walks in on craig and raina sleeping together in the morning and starts to get pissed then sees raina's face, so happy. When he pulled out the family photo album, I could almost hear him let out a huge sigh. That's when I really understood how shitty it was for the members of raina's family.

blankets chapter 2-5

ok, so I don't know what I'm supposed to write here exactly. I sat down with Blankets on saturday, and after the first page, I couldn't stop reading. Chapters 2-5 were (if I remember correctly) about the author/protagonist's encounter with Raina, starting with him meeting her at bible camp and then ending with him staying over at her house.
I was also brought up in a strict christian environment, and as a young kid, I was sent to many a bible camp. During my sophomore and junior year of high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Canyonville, Oregon, called the canyonville christian academy. There, I met a girl, my own 'raina'; our relationship quickly ended just like the author's. Craig Thompson beautifully captured the emotions of the whole process. I especially liked the part where they are lying in bed and he's just looking at her, thanking god for his perfect creation, admiring her lithe, slim frame and its every subtle movement, calling it a temple; as I was reading this part, I remember thinking: 'that's exactly right, man.'
One thing that I think is amazing is how craig never lost his faith throughout this whole story. how is that even possible?