Week 5 - The Graphic Novel

This week I read A Contract with God. What I like about this story is it brings visual interpretation to a now well talked about era. There is also a lot of rhetoric in this story that feels natural, many of the people moving into the tenements were immigrants and it comes across in the language used in the story. Another thing I noticed was the text was bigger and used more than the images themselves. It is clear in this tale that text is very important. When Frimme Hersh yells it has dynamic lines and gets darker and bigger. Sometimes the text bubbles will become black, it can also be incorporated into the background. These text choices are often different to comic books which have a very specific layout and are delineate.

I also read much of the comic Blanket. It definitely was not something I would have thought to read on my own. At first I didn’t think it was all that interesting but as I continued to read for whatever reason I did not want to stop reading. I enjoyed how relatable it was to so many people as it covered a large array of issues many people go through. It talked about issues with parents, siblings, religion, fitting in, love, etc. and while not all people will experience all of those in their life time its guaranteed they will experience at least one of those things. In particular, the point about escaping from reality through art is one that every one in our literature class can all relate to. It was an interesting comic to read especially because I would not have thought to read it otherwise.

Week 4 - The Comic Book

For this week I have read Plastic Man and cannot help but laugh at the name and goofiness of the story. Comic books of this time were cheap and entertaining thin books for children in an age without other significantly available media. In the early age of comic book they all had a very similar style and were an obvious deviation from strips. They are able to more efficiently utilize space and some comic books like Captain America took on a political agenda. Captain America was birthed from a time of political tribulation that resulted in its, and many other heroes, creation. This in itself is a form of propaganda showing that comics can serve more than one purpose. They teach lessons, influence us, and entertain us. In Captain America we even blatantly see him and his side kick Bucky beating up Nazis and on the cover of the first issue he punches Hitler in the face. The Golden age of comics is where comic books specifically make a huge turn-out and also where we see the large influx of superheroes. Now a days superheroes are often an annoyance to many people as they swamp the movie industry but back then they were widely beloved. Despite many people’s dismay of their constant appearances they are still widely read and loved all around the world since its beginning in America.

Week 3 - Comic Strip

            After reading the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics I did not realize that newspaper comics were looked down upon for some time. It was only until many years later that they were taken seriously. Newspaper comics in their earlier development like in Little Nemo were very surreal and often depicted fantastical happenings. The author of Little Nemo also utilized panel space very uniquely. Newspaper comics were often single cells moving linearly across the page but in Little Nemo he was innovative by outstretching panels or spanning them across a page. They had no particular organization sometimes. He also played with perspectives quite a bit and drew characters themselves stretched out with the panel or walking along walls, sometimes making it difficult to follow. Another interesting thing about the Little Nemo comics were how he chose to end them. The last panel of the Little Nemo in Slumberland comics all ended with a panel of Little Nemo in bed showcasing that it was clearly only a dream.

            Comics from early on in their development specifically the early 1900’s and so on had lots of humour elements that no longer make a lot of sense to audiences from today’s era. Though this does not mean they are not still enjoyed. Many people, and plenty that I know, still read newspaper comics and enjoyed them from their own child despite the introduction of a lot of new mediums. Calvin and Hobbes, the Peanuts, and many others are still widely sold and enjoyed.