Posts

week 14: the future of comics

I think with the digital medium now comics are bigger culture than ever, spreading across all kinds of platforms both traditional and digital. I am most familiar with the South Korean web comics that Naver runs, with hundreds of comics being already completed and new comics bring new content every week or even twice to five times a week. The style vary vastly aiming for all age groups and gender, creating a pool of works where anyone could find a piece they could enjoy. It is really easy to follow as content is brought to you weekly, and it is personally something I look forward to with its accessibility through a mobile device. It is also really easy to communicate with the authors. The necessity to keep up with the weekly deadline tend to exhaust a lot of artists who then take a temporary break to recharge and prepare before returning. Provided as a free service that runs ads, this platform allows millions of comic readers to have access to amazing content easily and for free(complet
Post a Comment
Read more

week 12 comics by women

I read This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. It was beautifully illustrated following a story of a girl dealing with family problems, friends, and drama during her stay at a lake during summer vacation. I thought it was really moving to see such an in depth description of the characters and their conflicts during their vacation and how Rose comes to find peace with her family and about growing up. I was personally touched because there are inevitably times when I become frustrated with family matters. Even though parents are one of the people you think you get to know very well, but at least in our family it feels like we always hide our pains and hardships from one another, and it's hard to see eye to eye on a lot of things. I think it could be a generational thing, but also the environment I was raised in was completely different from how they grew up. I think this story could relate to many readers because we all experience issues within family and friends, and th
Post a Comment
Read more

assessment

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read? With the reinvention of Batman into a darker world exploring deep philosophical ideas, the eternal conflict between batman and joker almost seems like an interpretation of humanity. The ideas presented are dark but touches on emotions of being human and being vulnerable to suffering. 2. What connections did you make with the story that you read, discuss the elements of the work of which you were able to connect. Joker, being one of the best known villains of all time, had to be reiterated multiple times throughout the history of Batman, and the depiction in the Killing Joke really turned him into a dark, cruel character but with a origin story that fueled his transformation. It feels like he is the embodiment of pain that the world brings about and he is expressing the cruel nature of it outwards through his words and actions. He is salty about batman's ideal logic of trying to save Gotham and fed up, and he wants to prove h
Post a Comment
Read more

week 11 comics as contemporary literature

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris is definitely a hefty read with 400 pages loaded with immense detail in drawing and descriptive texts. Despite not being able to scrutinize the details yet, the book is such a work of art as it weaves so many things together. It is very non-conformist in style and more expressive, shifting tones and mood as the author sees appropriate. The subject matter is very dark, and it creates an interesting tone being drawn on a notebook paper. The whole book is crosshatched beautifully, and she experiments with creative layouts. She crosses between exaggerated stylistic drawing and realistic, detailed sketches which create great contrast and are astonishing. I think her usage of color is beautiful, especially the cover arts for different chapters. The style kind of reminded me of underground comics, mixed in with fine art and pop art. The story was very deep with a lot going on. The main story was following the mystery of murdered neighbor, but with
Post a Comment
Read more

week 1 : the Arrival

I remember reading the Arrival by Shaun Tan when I was young, being inspired by the visuals and the storytelling. It was most interesting in the fact that the book had no words in the story, yet gives readers full understanding of what is going on. I think the wordless images support the story because the it is about the struggles of the protagonist to settle into a new world where he can't communicate, and the surreal visuals helped with the perspective of being in a foreign place. The wordlessness also engages the readers more into observing the gestures and expressions of the characters more carefully rather than relying on words, and I think this is what the artist intended. Even though there were no usage of notable colors, there is a gradient mapped over the pencil drawings that depicts mood shifts which works on a subconscious level since the whole book is monochromatic. These elements all play a role in creating empathy with the protagonist's circumstances and it feels
Post a Comment
Read more

week ten: manga and the japanese comics tradition

I read the first volume of Buddha and six numbers of Battle Angel Alita. I never read a single book of manga before, but watched several Japanese anime. When I started reading these early forms of manga I was expecting something similar to what I've watched, but they definitely felt very different. It might be because reading doesn't involve hearing and I noticed I read the speech bubbles in a regular plain voice rather than the animated voice. Other reason might be because I'm too used to modern anime. The setting in the film for Alita was visibly influenced by popular American science fiction, where as the book felt a lot darker with comic elements seen in anime. I was immersed in the world and all the characters were interesting. Buddha had a lot of good elements of story telling revolving around the society and culture of India mixed with fantasy. The story was very intriguing and I did not know where it was headed. I only read the first volume, but it communicated the
Post a Comment
Read more

week nine: a wide world of comics

I've always been aware of Moebius's influence in modern sci-fi and fantasy, but I have never looked into his comics before. After reading his work Incal, I felt like I truly witnessed the master of the genre. It drew me into the world that he's built from the first page and kept my attention with bizarre and intriguing visuals and story. I thoroughly appreciated the intricate and fascinating details and his compositions were astounding. He utilized the text to guide the viewers eyes and the colors while simple, showed great depth as if watching a movie. I looked into the life of Jean Giraud (Moebius) and he started off his career with Blueberry comics with Jean Michel Charlier, using an alias Gir. He later wanted to become himself and re-brands his work with a new alias Moebius, inspired by Mobius Strip. With abstract and mathematical visuals, he developed his own world full of new enviornment and civilization with rich, vivid imagery. He said that his strips Metal Hurlant
Post a Comment
Read more