Week Fifteen: Revision

Revised post from "Week Seven: The Legitimation of Comics".

This week, I read volumes 1 & 2 of Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Having never read it before, it became clear to me now why it is considered such an important memoir by many. Maus is a digestible, hard-hitting and very real work by a cartoonist who is documenting the tales of his grandfather who was a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz during WWII. For many, it is sometimes hard to find documents of the war that don't sound so wholly gruesome and unbelievable that it almost seems like a work of fiction. To someone who has never experienced the horrors of war, there can be a disconnect between fictional stories about war and how it actually happened. It can be terribly hard to relate the reality of what happens in war because it's so gruesome that it seems like it can't possibly be fact.

However, Maus does a great job of making the war seem like something real that happened and affected the people involved as well as their posterity. Because it is told from the eyes of the narrator hearing the story retold from his grandfather, it emulates the experience of the war stories seeming like some far-off, unreal thing. At the same time, however, hearing it told from the narrator's grandfather kind of reminds the reader of hearing it from their own grandfather, and can further the relatability of the story.

I think another victory of these comics are the way the characters are represented visually in the book. The characters are different races of animals-- mice, pigs, cats-- representing the ethnicity of the characters. It drives home the point of discrimination and categorization by the Nazis home in a very simple way by doing this. As well as this, by turning the characters into cartoonish animals, it gives the story a level of accessibility that I don't think it would have with human characters, had the animals be specific caricatures of the people they represent. With such little identifying features separating them, the reader is able to project themselves and/or their family into the roles of the characters in Maus. I think this feature helps give the comic the level of accessibility it needs in order to reach such a wide audience, as it did.

Week Fourteen: The Future of Comics

"Ant Comic" by Michael Deforge, from kingtrash.com

If you ask anyone in my generation who is into comics what helped them maintain their interest in comics, often they will say that they've read webcomics their whole life. Growing up in the 90's as we did, the print comics industry was waning, and a lot of people were declaring comics to be 'dying'. What a lot of people didn't anticipate though, I think, was the emerging venue of the internet. A lot of people found that the internet was an easy, cheap way to showcase your artwork and have a lot of people be able to see it (at the catch of more risky copyright issues). As print comics were largely expensive and inaccessible to most people, a lot of people started putting up their comics on the internet. As print comics died down a bit, kids like me started to read comics on the internet-- the place where we spent most of our time.

This week I read Ant Colony/Ant Comic by Michael Deforge. Deforge is a small-press cartoonist who is one of my favorite comic artists working today. He tells his stories with a very serious tone which blends unusually well with the strange-yet-humorous visual style and subject matter. Deforge is an example of a comic artist who has a lot of comics on the internet, webcomic strips, and print comics from which he makes his living. Some of my favorites besides Ant Comic are Lose (an annual anthology which is now on it's sixth issue), Sticks Angelica (an online strip that is ongoing), Abbey Loafer, First Year Healthy, and Spotting Deer. I always recommend him to anyone looking to get into small-press or indie comics.

Week Thirteen In-class Post: Alan Moore & "Promethea"

The comic "Promethea" is one whose narrative is tightly wound with a storyline told much like a myth. Because of this, the authors utilize the idea of the symbol to convey the significance of the myth throughout the main narrative. the symbol that stands out to me to me the most is definitely the sun motif that is present on every single page. It's hard to miss; and initially it seems to represent the idea of Promethea's overarching significance as a type of god figure. When you look closer you can tell that there are two types of sun motifs used. One style, an older-looking, more natural-colored sun signifies that the story is in flashback mode, showing Promethea's beginnings; the other style is brighter and newer-looking, and signifies that the story is now taking place in the present tense.

I found it interesting that the authors were able to tie in the ancient mythology into a present-tense, modern setting. Utilizing connections between the past and the future alone I think furthers the relatability of this story. Often I find that stories told in a 'mythological' style that take place hundreds of years ago are harder to connect with, as they seem so alien. I enjoyed seeing how the troubles of the Promethea of the past-- religious visions and demonic curses-- clashed with the modern-day troubles encountered by Sophie, that is, dealing with the crude way her friends talk and the stress that comes with dealing with people who are much older than you. I always like a story that features primarily female leads also, which is not something you often see.

I could honestly probably enjoy the story a lot more in another medium. I'm not entirely partial to the art style that the story is drawn in-- I love superhero comics such as Hellboy but even then, Hellboy's art style is one that I think is pretty innovative in this specific genre. A lot of superhero comics these days have been very successfully adapted to action movies, and I think Promethea would be a perfect source material to adapt a movie from. There's a lot of movies that are being made right now set in biblical times (for example, exodus) and I think Promethea fits snugly into that genre, while also bringing a female superhero lead character as well as nonwhite characters to the table of the superhero movie adaption genre. If I were to make changes to the comic itself, I'd probably redraw it in such a way that is much less dated than it looks to me-- though I'm always more partial to strange or more interesting comic styles.

Week Twelve: Comics by Women

This week we discussed any and all comics made by women, and the history behind women in comics. I read This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, one of the best comics released this year, in my opinion. Jillian and Mariko are kind of a cousin-team who have made a graphic novel in the past, Skim, and Jillian has experience keeping up her own comic strip, Super Mutant Magic Academy.

 This One Summer is a young girl's story about two tweens who spend their summers together near a lake in Canada, in vacation homes with their families. It's a story meant for young girls and for women who remember what it's like to be a young girl trying to figure things out (so, pretty much all of us). Comics made by women are very important, which goes without saying. The Tamaki's story is one that carries great cultural significance so far in the wake of its release.

The story is one that would probably have never been written or drawn by a man, either-- nor would many women be interested in reading such a story if written by a man, for what do they know about it? This is the basis of why comics by women are so important and can't be overlooked as unimportant compared to their male counterparts. Often, the subject matter written and drawn about (female-centered) can often not be compared to a male-centered story, they are two different things. The same goes for stories written by and for the LGBT community, by and for people of different races and nationalities, and so on. As widely acclaimed as a story can be, a comic is often never going to hit every mark as far as audience, so diversity continues to be very important.

On the other side of the coin, it's important to consider these stories as carrying the same amount of weight as stories written by white men, and not just 'niche' comics kept solely for the sake of diversity. Often it's a faux-pas to spend time in interviews with women creators, asking what it's 'like' to be a woman creator working in that field. Male counterparts never get asked this question, and instead get asked questions that delve deeper into the genius of their work. Spending time asking women what it's like to be a woman takes away from time that could be spent revealing the greatness of their work. Even in this day and age, women creators often get glossed over and many times have to work twice as hard to get recognized!

For this reason, I love This One Summer and the impact it's had on the literary community since its release. I always recommend it to my friends and anyone interested in graphic novels. I've even been in a panic a couple times over not remembering who I lent it to (my copy is signed by the Tamakis themselves)...