Week 14: The Future of Comics

Webcomics, in my opinion, have always been a very understated and underappreciated medium. Just the notion of creating entire comics (usually alone) and posting them online for millions to see, sometimes for no profit at all, makes me really respect and appreciate webcomic artists. I believe that, among comic artists, they are probably one of the most admirable kinds of all.

Of course, there are pros and cons making webcomics compared to going the traditional route. For one, you don’t get paid regularly, and you’re not sponsored by any publisher and therefore need to come up with advertising yourself. However, working yourself means that you’re allowed to come up with your own hours and deadlines, and that you don’t need any editor’s seal of approval.

I am familiar with some of the webcomics posted on the litcomics blog, but among the names there, Girl Genius and Hark! A Vagrant stand out to me the most. I’ve heard of and read a little of Girl Genius, but I started falling behind updates and eventually dropped it. On the other hand, I doubt there is anyone out there who hasn’t heard of Hark! A Vagrant due to its massive popularity. I always liked the humor employed by Kate Beaton and often got a laugh out of whatever comic she posted. I also appreciated that they were short and usually fairly standalone so I didn’t feel like I missed to much whenever I skipped a comic or two.

Though these titles aren’t mentioned in the blog, I have also read and liked Lackadaisy, Nimona, and Cucumber Quest. The first is exceptionally drawn and about cats, which is always a huge bonus in my book. I’ve lost track of it recently, however, but I occasionally come back to read the comics for the beautiful drawings alone. Nimona is a webcomic done by gingerhaze, an artist with a sense of humor I also appreciate. The story is interesting and the art style is very charming and cute. The last comic, Cucumber Quest, is only a few years old, but is also very entertaining in its own right. I found the artist (hiimdasy) first through her very humorous comics about other video games, but when I discovered that she had started a webcomic series of her own, I decided to give that a try too. I ended up liking it much more than I expected due to the cute art and light-hearted plot.

                I’ve always enjoyed webcomics and appreciated the effort put into them, and I’m glad that they’re becoming more and more popular these days. It takes a lot of courage to put up your own comic so that essentially everyone can read it, and I especially like that basically everyone can be a webcomic artist if they tried hard enough.

Week 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

Honestly, superhero comics are pretty much the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind as soon as the word ‘comics’ is brought up. At this point, it’s pretty much inevitable due to the sheer amount of superhero comics there are. That isn’t even mentioning the even greater number of superheroes that star in those aforementioned comics.

When it comes to superhero comics, Marvel and DC are naturally the first two names that pop up. As the two leading companies in the comic industry, both Marvel and DC have achieved astonishing success in marketing their characters. As a child I was more familiarly acquainted with DC as they were marketed more in Asia. I would see cartoons of Batman and Superman (though I recall that my favorite had always been Robin) on television, but not so much of Marvel characters.

I am glad to see Marvel making a resurgence in other mainstream media these days however. I think a lot of its success can largely be attributed to the popularity of Marvel movies these days. With titles such as Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man hitting movie theaters left and right, each earning critical box office success every time, it is no wonder that there is a new interest in Marvel characters once again. When I was younger, the in-thing on Cartoon Network was Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans. Now, I’m seeing more and more spin-offs of the Avengers appearing on just about every medium possible.

I’ve also heard of Watchmen before, naturally, though I’ve never actually read it. It wasn’t a DC title I was familiar with as it wasn’t as mainstream as, say, Batman or Superman. I did hear good things about it when it was brought up, however, and I know for a fact my dad liked the movie they produced for it, but I never got around to actually reading them. The first thing that struck me when reading it was that Watchmen  had clearly been intended to be a deconstruction of whole superhero trope, which was fascinating to me because Watchmen was also very clearly a superhero comic. I liked the spin of superheroes being used as propaganda for wars and later being sanctioned as government soldiers because I believe a scenario like that is actually a more realistic portrayal of how a superhero would behave like in a world like ours.

I’ve always liked superhero comics for the sense of escapism they gave. It’s always fun to read about amazing people doing amazing things, and it gives me a personal sense of catharsis living vicariously through them. 

Week 12: Comics by Women

Like many other professions out there, the comic industry is one that favors men. While I understand that there are many male readers out there, I also know for a fact that comics are something that women enjoy just as much as well. So I suppose something that I never understood was why there were so little female artists working in the comic industry. After all, it just makes sense that, to attract female readers, comic book artists would hire more female writers and artists alike, wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, that seems very far from the case. I do believe that Japan is more successful that integrating both genders in this regard. There are plenty of female manga artists in the market today, hence the success of the shoujo and jousei genres, which are predominantly drawn by and read by women. On the other hand, female artists in the Western comic industry are practically unheard of. Most of the writers and artists there are men, and it shows.

For one, blatant fanservice is abundant in many a comic, so much so that I’ve become mostly unaffected by it. I still do find it tasteless to see a lot of boob and butt shots in so many comics, especially if the plot interests me. I cannot count the number of times I’ve tried to read and appreciate a comic, only to drop it when the fanservice got too out of hand. I suppose that this is something most male readers could appreciate, but I often find that kind of thing very tasteless and boring. This is especially when all the figures look like they came out of the same cookie-cutter character mold and that everyone’s boobs and butts are essentially the same shape and size.

Women are a bit more tasteful in that, I believe. This is not to say that women don’t appreciate or draw adult subjects, but it’s always pretty obvious to me what gender the artist for a comic is when I flip it open and read its contents. I liked reading This One Summer a lot simply because I absolutely loved the general atmosphere of the whole comic.

It felt nostalgic and as someone who also grew up with many summer traditions with my family and friends, I especially enjoyed seeing what Rose would get up to as a child and in the years to come. Coming-of-age stories are a favorite of mine because of how close they usually hit to home, and This One Summer is of no different. I loved the diverse characters and how, for all the quirkiness that Rose had, she ended up being very relatable and down-to-earth. I have to say, however, that I ended up relating to Windy more in the end.

I especially liked the way that these characters were portrayed and how none of them felt too fake. I think the main issue with women being written by men is that far too often, they would be shown as bland or as an artifact to the hero. Women have a better understanding of them and therefore write them better as a whole, though sometimes their portrayal of men make me cringe just as badly. With This One Summer, however, I didn't have to worry about anything like that and simply enjoyed it for the light-read that it was. 

Week 11: Comics as Contemporary LIterature

I’ve always wondered how people who weren’t into art would appreciate comics, and now I’m glad to know that they are slowly becoming a medium which is becoming more and more accepted over time. Growing up, I admit that I was among the people who had thought of comics as a form of entertainment which, if popular enough, might get its own movie or animated series. I hadn’t really taken them seriously before, though I changed my mind after reading enough of them as I got older.

One of the first comics I read that wasn’t purely for entertainment was Perspecolis. My mother had bought the book for me and asked me to read it. I had no idea what it was about before reading its contents, but I had heard of it before. To say that it surprised me would be something of an understatement. I was used to humorous comics with tales of adventure; jumping into the world of Persepolis was a huge leap from what I was used to.

All the same, I appreciated Persepolis simply from the medium it came from. I liked comics a lot, and the fact that Persepolis was nothing like the other comics I’d read did little to stop me from liking it. The subject matter was very grave and gave me a lot of insight into Iranian culture. I thought it was interesting reading about how the revolution affected so many lives, and I felt bad for those who were executed for being spies.

It also gave me a lot of insight into the way Iranian culture treated women. Many cultures believe women to be of a lower social standing than men, and I noticed that this trend was also very much present in Iranian culture. I also noticed that social standing had a lot to do with what you could do in life. The part with the maid, for one, was quite interesting to me for that reason. That the other boy lost interest in her completely after discovering that she was a maid subverts a lot of tropes I was used to seeing in other media.

Among the many scenes that I have seen, I thought the part where Marji tried to sit in the bathtub for a long time to feel what her grandfather felt while being tortured struck out to me as one of the more memorable scenes. In general it was a pretty heavy read at the age of when I first read it, but reading it again has given me a better understanding and appreciation for it.

Week 10: Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

Though I grew up with European comics, I really learned to appreciate manga and anime when I was in my early teens. I watched anime far before I read manga, however, because they would often air in the local channels. Among the very first anime I watched were Akazukin Chacha, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Pokemon. Among the three, the first two were of the shoujo genre (lit. little girl). As the name suggests, the target audience for the show was for little girls.  I got bored of television and by extension, anime, for a time, but I got back into it when AXN started airing anime as part of their television schedule. By then, the shows I watched were of the shonen genre.

I cannot recall the first manga I read, likely because I read them first in Bahasa rather than in English. Part of the reason for that was probably because I read them in the format of weekly or monthly manga rather than in individual volumes, which meant that I read single chapters of multiple manga titles rather than many chapters of one. I read them because my dad liked to read them too; he used to buy a few volumes when we went back to Jakarta, and I would read them after he was finished. In the same vein that my mother introduced me to European comics, my father was the one who first inspired me to read and appreciate manga.

Even though I’d been an avid reader of manga for many years, I hadn’t read much of Osamu Tezuka’s works. Reading it now, however, has brought me a new appreciation for manga. It was nice to see the origins of manga (which many believe to be Astro Boy) and especially interesting to see how it would later evolve as more and more people began to draw manga as well. I had also heard of Bakuman before, though I am more familiar with the artist’s previous work, Death Note. It was fun reading Bakuman, though I didn’t get very far with it. To my understanding, drawing a serialized manga is a lot of hard work and involves a lot of planning and cooperation with other professionals. It’s nice to see a manga focused specifically on that, as we learn to appreciate just how much work it takes to make a successful comic.

I will admit to having manga being my main driving force for making art when I was a kid. When I was much, much younger, I used to draw cartoons based off of the shows I watched – Mickey Mouse, Powerpuff Girls and so on. Then one day, I saw my cousin drawing in the style of Japanese manga, and I was so impressed by it that I tried to emulate her (even though I had no idea it was manga back then, just that I knew it was very pretty and that I wanted to try it too). And so I grew up drawing with that kind of style, and for the longest time, people were impressed by it and liked what I did.

…Which, of course, made moving to an international school and then studying art in Ringling all the more jarring. Suddenly, it wasn’t cool to watch anime or to draw manga anymore; in fact, in Ringling it is blatantly discouraged, and we are outright told not to do it. Coming from a culture where manga and anime played extremely large parts of my childhood and upbringing, I couldn’t help but find it extremely insulting to be told something like that. We discussed weeks ago about stereotypes affecting people negatively, and I believe that this is one such example. Many are often dismissive of manga because they lump them all into one collective lump of moe and eroge, while that is obviously not true in the slightest.

While I still don’t exactly appreciate the general bad consensus anime has around here, I do think that it has ended up affecting me positively as well. I had to develop a new style to avoid being called out by my teachers (a fairly large number of them), but it soon became one that I grew comfortable and familiar with. In a way, I’m glad I came here because I learned how to deal with an environment which forced me to adapt my skill set and forced me to broaden my art style.

Week 9: A Wide World of Comics

As a child, I grew up with European and Asian comics and as such am the most familiar with them. In fact, it wasn’t until I went into an international school that I was truly exposed to American comics. To my understanding, Europe is one of the first places where the comic originated and as such have one of the richest histories in that aspect.

I mentioned before that I read Tintin often as a child, but there is also another European comic that I frequently read when I was young. I used to go to the library often to borrow new volumes of Asterix and Obelix until I had read almost every single one. It has been a long time since I’ve read any Asterix comics, but I recall that I had enjoyed them greatly as a child.

I liked the adventures the two Gauls would find themselves in, the different people they would encounter and the various places they travelled to. I supported the Gauls, of course, but I also couldn’t help but like the bumbling Romans even though they were supposed to be the antagonists. Even Caesar, the main antagonist, was portrayed as not entirely evil, and I suppose I appreciated that.

My personal favorite was Obelix simply because I appreciated his constant hunger for food (namely wild boar). Little me thought that the way the artist drew the wild boar was so delicious, and I would always ask my mother if we could have it one day (and to this day, I still haven’t). I also enjoyed the many drawings of food and the way Asterix and Obelix enjoy whatever was served to them no matter where they were. Aside from the protagonists, I also enjoyed the many side characters such as the druid, the bard, and their village leader. Each had their own vibrant personalities that made reading the comic all the more enjoyable.

Both Asterix and Obelix and Tintin were the first ongoing comics I read as a kid and I remember them both fondly today. For the former, I never really cared what order I read them in, which meant that I was a little confused about the characters initially. However, I quickly learned their names and idiosyncrasies. In Tintin’s case, I didn’t read the first volume first, but as they were mostly standalone I didn’t have any problems following the plot. After reading enough of them, I decided to start over from the beginning and read them in order. It was far easier to understand what was going on afterwards.

I suppose that is one thing I appreciate about European and Asian comics. In American comics, there are so many artists for the same comic and in that vein, so many interpretations and reboots based on the aesthetic of each artist that it is very different. In European comics, there is usually only one artist per series and so there is a consistency that makes the comic and plot easy for me to follow.

Week 8: Stereotypes and the Ethnics of Representation

Stereotypes are so omnipresent in today’s society that we don’t even realize it’s there most of the time. For the most part, I’ve been so exposed to them that I barely even notice them unless they’re blatantly obvious. I don’t actually mind having stereotypes in our mass media unless it has a negative effect on the culture they’re portraying. It can be dangerous, however, when all a person knows about a culture is simply based on the stereotypes they’ve been fed alone.

A stereotype can be defined as a widely spread, oversimplified image or idea of a particular culture, person, or thing. The first thing that comes to mind is culture stereotypes, such as the notion of the burger-eating, loud-mouthed American, or the squinty-eyed, extremely intelligent Chinese, or even the beret-wearing, wine-sipping French. We’ve been so exposed to these ideas that as soon as someone mentions a race or country, we almost instantly make up an image of how we expect their people to look like, even if it isn’t particularly true.

Most of the time, these stereotypes aren’t too dangerous, provided people don’t take them too seriously. Sometimes, however, they have adverse effects on the people in question. There have been instances of blatant racism and lack of understanding of certain cultures because people have decided to base their opinions on stereotypes alone. I’ve seen firsthand of perfectly nice and reasonable people disliking an entire race simply based on a few stereotypes, and it is not pleasant at all in the slightest.

On the other hand, stereotypes are also highly marketable. Some stereotypes are largely harmless once we step away from the whole cultural minefield – the notion that cats are mean, and that dogs are dumb, but heroic. Those tropes are extremely commonplace and generally not harmful to either cats or dogs. It’s stereotypes like these that I don’t mind, because they’re highly exploitable, usually amusing, and don’t harm anyone.

I also admit that they are a necessary strategy in character design and representation. People like seeing new things, but they also like seeing how old ideas can be reinvented. By fixating on a stereotype, creators can develop new designs and have people understand its origins or intentions as long as they include a little of the stereotype along with it. For example, a new character can be designed and look entirely non-Asian, but all the creator has to do is put something associated with the culture (a paper fan, a ninja star, etc.), and viewers will instantly see it as being part of that culture. It’s a very simple but effective strategy and sells very well to fans of that one particular culture or idea.

I have been affected by stereotypes, though fortunately none too badly. A lot of people think I’m clever simply because I’m Asian (and wearing glasses, for that matter – surely a sign that I’m highly intelligent). They also tend to be surprised that I speak fluent English because they had expected me to have an accent based on appearances alone. The one I find most disgruntling is the stereotype people form of me based on my religion. I wear a cross around my neck – just a small one, hidden most of the time – to show what religion I belong in. Some of my friends had mentioned that they were surprised that I was personable and open-minded because of the general stereotype that all Christians were narrow-minded, gay-hating, and pushy. This is, of course, not true – it only represents a small part of the Christian population; but such an image is so widespread now that it is the first thing people think of now.

While I do admit that most stereotypes have at least a grain of truth to them, I don’t think that we should judge people or things too much based on stereotype alone. It’s alright to make light of them, to appreciate them sometimes as a joke. I personally think that as long as we don’t cross the line, stereotypes can be perpetuated and spread around in mainstream media.