Lit of Comics and Graphic Narrative

  For this week I also chose to read My Friend Dahmer by Derk Backferf. Whether it be because I had already known a little bit about this subject matter beforehand or simply because my morbid curiosity demanded it, I went into this novel expecting nothing less than a creepy story. Overall, it was a completely different tone shift after just reading March , but nonetheless, it did provide some interesting entertainment. I wasn’t too fond of the art style from the get-go, but it was a new take on the Dahmer image and probably was less unsettling than watching a real-world documentary. The blocky yet very stoic depiction of everyone’s limbs left actions feeling a bit wonky, giving me more inclination to focus on the expressions that were drawn out very much like an exaggerated caricature.  This story was a bit different from some of the other Dahmer media material I’ve seen thus far as it was written and drawn out as a personal memoir. Perhaps that could make it more accurate to ...

  For this week’s reading of March , I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it, or possibly how fast my reading of it seemed to flow. With a lot of nonfiction works I often find myself being a little bored or distracted at times, but this one did a nice job capturing my attention though I guess I could also attribute it to the fact that it was in a graphic novel format. I acknowledge that these were true past events but I guess now more than ever it did strike a little harder with everything that is going around with current social issues and protests. In terms of visuals, I thought it did a great job in keeping interest through the variation of full-page illustrations, comic box format, and text spreads. If these events were played out using only a simple comic box method I don’t think it would translate the mood as accurately, which is another thing I think really helped improve the overall tone of this book. For nonfiction especially, I can understand how diff...

-Comic Book History of Comics (3 points) -The Arrival (3 points) -Understanding Comics (3 points) -Case Study in Archie (3 points) -Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (4 points) -Little Nemo in Slumberland (2 points) -Jack Kirby Readings (3 points) -E.C Comics Thoughts (2 points) -Thompson and Eisner (3 points) -Underground Comics Collection (3 points) -Maus (3 points) Zoom classes attended: 6 = 6 points Zoom classes missed: 1 

Starting out, I was a bit hesitant to read this week’s comic simply because of the themes alone. I know previously we have read some shocking comics but I tend to shy away towards historical/political comics, especially with Nnazi imagery just because I feel rather uncomfortable by them, though I do understand how reflecting on humanity’s history of war and prejudice is important to take a look at. The most recent piece of media I’ve seen dealing with Nazi Germany and the Jewish escape was the film Jojo Rabbit, which I believed did an excellent job to give a realistic yet humorous/satirical undertone to its darker source material. However, this week is about Maus, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up as well. While there were certainly some panels and real-life events that were horrifying, I liked the author’s choice to portray these characters as animals. I see often in a lot of media that when real-world problems are expressed through animals it can just give off a...

  After reading a couple of comics from Girl Fight and Tits and Clits I could definitely spot a theme going on with both the storytelling and the artwork. Ranging from a mix of single artists to multiple artists, I found that women artists, much like their male counterparts, deeply embraced the ideals of a free society (especially with what was going on in that time period). For example, I could clearly see the support for the “let it all hang out”/resist self-censorship type values. I observed that most of the illustrations I read from were drawn quite crudely, and I’m not quite sure if that was really on purpose or because they were rushed. Disfigured proportions, messy backgrounds, and even just general lack of art knowledge seemed to be rampant in most (but not all) of the comics I read in Tits and Clits , though this also differed from one artist to the next. I suppose it annoyed me a little, but then I started to come to an understanding that the art was not really the thing...

  After reading both stories, I can definitely say they were a treat to see for the first time. For starters, Eisner’s work felt a bit refreshing for me not only because of the older type stories that focused more on harsh yet somewhat entertaining short stories, but also because the narrative, while exaggerated, did manage to mirror some real life struggles of people living in the tenements during that time period. In terms of both works, I can see their dedication to detail and character emotion, as evident through their attention to expression and body language. Both stories used methods of using the whole page at times to convey a larger picture, which for me helped to really envelop me into the story and world they were trying to get across. At first, The Contract with God felt almost like a children’s book, similar in style to having one full illustration with a bit of text accompanying the page space. As I read on some more, I could really tell these were not mere children’...