Week 7: Maus and the Legitimization of the Graphic Novel

I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying Maus after reading it. The art style and story were far from what I usually read, hence my initial hesitation. All the same, I became deeply invested into the story barely a few pages in, and by the end of the book I found myself wanting to read more. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to obtain a copy of the second volume online, but I might pick it up the next time I go to the library.

While the art style put me off at first, I eventually grew used to it. I initially had thought it strange that Spiegelman would use such a simplistic, cartoony art style to depict such serious and horrifying events. I later grew to appreciate it, however. I understand that using cats, pigs, and mice instead of humans was pretty effective, in its own way. In some scenes, such as depictions of the holocaust victims being hanged and displayed for the public to see, it was even more surreal to see them as mice rather than humans.

I also wasn’t expecting the story to be so personal. The story told by Art had a lot of his and his father’s very own experiences. While this is hardly the first firsthand experience being told through a holocaust prisoner’s eyes, it is the very first one I read that came in the form of a graphic novel instead of a memoir. It’s also interesting to note that the author of the story wasn’t told by Vladek, the victim, but instead through his son, Art.

There were two parts in particular that stood out to me. The first was the scene with Art yelling about his mother turning him into a murderer while he was behind bars. Add to the fact that he had been institutionalized, and one can’t help but feel sorry for him. The next is the scene where he calls his father a murderer. Both were very chilling scenes and left the deepest impressions upon me after finishing the book.

I was also heavily affected by the movie we watched during class, Barefoot Gen. I recall watching it just last year in another class of mine, though at the time I hadn’t known that I didn’t finish the entire movie. Back then, we had stopped at the part where the bomb just set off; I had no idea that there was a continuation afterwards of the surviving members of the family. At the time, I recall being shocked by the absolute mood whiplash and equally abrupt ending, but I understand now that it ends on a more hopeful note.

This week in general had touched on topics that are very heavy such as the bombing of Hiroshima and the Holocaust. I’m glad that the mediums they were portrayed through were anime (and initially manga) and graphic novels. It just goes to show how effective it is when people can use visuals to aid and further their understanding of the topic, and connect with the author in a much deeper level.  

Week 6: Underground Comics

I have to say, I was not the least bit prepared for our recommended reading this week at all. Mr. Natural started out like almost any other humorous comic I've seen before, but I quickly came to understand about midway that it was anything but.

For one, I was very surprised that it was published with uncensored genitalia. Or that it had so many crude jokes. Or that there were so many tropes involved that people would consider offensive. Or basically the entire book in general.

I was absolutely astonished by the way it went from quite the standard slapstick humor prevalent in Western comics to being downright sexual in just a few pages. Perhaps I am somewhat prudish, but there were many moments while reading the book that I felt so uncomfortable in what I was seeing that I actually had to balk a bit and wonder if I hadn't just read it all wrong.

It started out innocuously enough, too, with a humorous, if somewhat irritating and insensitive, man just harassing people. This in itself is pretty standard in most comics. But then they went on to show uncensored genitalia, and featured a number of characters doing wholly inappropriate things. As a kid who’s grown up reading Garfield, Foxtrot, and Calvin &Hobbes, seeing a cartoon of an old man manipulating a giant baby to essentially give him multiple blowjobs was so astonishing that I actually had to close my laptop for a minute or two.

Regardless, I suppose that I can appreciate how revolutionary drawing and publishing a comic like this is (even if, for the most part, I found it rather distasteful and unnerving). But perhaps that was the intention? To make the reader utterly dumbfounded with the audacity of what is in the comic? To shatter the barrier of ‘what is socially acceptable to print’? While I do appreciate and approve of comics being more liberal in what they show in terms of sexuality, I also think that this crosses the line just a little bit.

Whatever its purpose, I can’t deny that it certainly left an impression on me. While you probably won’t find me twiddling my thumbs in anticipation of reading the next Mr. Natural comic anytime soon, I definitely will have strong impressions of it in my mind for a long, long time to come. 

Week 5: Body Talk: Eisner and Thompson

Upon reading Blankets and most of A Contract With God, I was absolutely astounded by the sheer amount of emotion that was portrayed into both works. Blankets, in particular, left quite a deep resonance with me.

I’ve always appreciated works that dealt with human relationships without making them appear too banal or trite, and Blankets was a perfect example of that. In (far too) many works today, interpersonal relationships seem to be portrayed in a way that’s far too shallow or predictable. It’s one of the main reasons why I cannot follow many live-action dramas for a long period of time; I find it hard to invest myself in characters that I care so little about because I simply cannot overlook how seemingly shallow or cliché they and their relationships are.

Such was not true with Blankets. For one, nothing seemed over-the-top cliché or unrealistic, which is always a huge plus in my books. Since it’s narrated in a first-person point of view, I felt a deeper connection with the main character. The way he faced a lot of problems were also pretty realistic. He wasn’t brave enough to confront those who bullied him, but clearly resented the treatment enough to think of up highly unsavory situations involving them. I’ve never been a personal victim of bullying per se, but I can understand the feeling of being pushed into situations which made me very uncomfortable.

His relationship with Raina was also sweet and poignant in many ways. It really captures the essence of being a young adult in love, without being over-the-top dramatic or cringe-worthy. It also ends up being rather bittersweet, but I imagine that he learned from the experience and became a more mature person for it.  

I was also surprised that one of the biggest themes in the book ended up being about religion. As a child, I was raised Catholic, but I’ve never been a very ardent believer. I went to church when my mother prompted me to, and while I do think there is a God out there, I’m also fairly casual in what I believe in or do in terms of religion. Seeing someone whose life predominantly revolves around their religion, especially my religion, made me appreciate reading Blankets just a little more. 

Week 4: The Comic Book

The reading assignments for me this week was basically one huge blast to the past, and you can’t imagine how delighted I was when I discovered that Tintin was among the comics listed this week. As I child, I absolutely loved the entire series, and I have many fond memories of reading the comics when I was younger.

For one, it was introduced by my mother, who also loved the series and wanted to share it with her children. She’s not an avid comic reader, but she greatly enjoyed the Tintin series due to the interesting plots and whimsical characters. When I was a little kid, I used to borrow the comics from the library; I ended up liking them so much that my mother agreed to buy me the whole series. Since my first real experience with Tintin involved me having to read them from a library, I never really read them in order at first, and therefore didn’t have a proper sense of continuity. Often, I would be confused when they brought up characters or events that happened in prior books. It wasn’t until I had the whole series that I could enjoy reading everything in order.

While I greatly enjoyed the series as a whole, my definite favorites were The Seven Crystal Balls and its sequel, Prisoners of the Sun. Looking back now, I appreciate them because they were the most interesting (the plot had been largely about a group of archaeologists falling into comas under the influence of voodoo after returning home with foreign, sacred memorabilia), but as a child I’d liked them the most because they were the funniest.

I also liked The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure because those two books were the first to introduce Captain Haddock. I had once mentioned in class that Donald Duck eventually became my favorite in the Disney Franchise; the same applies for Captain Haddock of the Tintin series. The two tempestuous, socially awkward, but surely good-hearted characters gradually endeared me over the more two dimensional characters, Mickey Mouse and Tintin.

My favorite part about Tintin has always been the interesting plotlines and especially the humor interjected throughout the story. Tintin’s Explorers of the Moon, for example, had never been a favorite, per se, but I enjoyed the difference of setting in this one. As most of Tintin’s adventures occur on Earth, the fact that the majority of the main cast were able to travel to the moon to have explore it is a nice change of pace. Professor Calculus was also a prominently featured character in this story as well, and the absentminded professor has also always been one of my favorites.

I simply can’t stop mentioning how glad I am to be rereading Tintin. There are so many fond memories attached to the series that I’m happy to be given a chance to revisit it all over again.

Week 3: The Comic Strip

I recall there being a period of time in my childhood whereupon I was absolutely enamored with comic strips. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always liked comics in almost every single shape or form, but there was a period of time where I read comic stripes almost exclusively.

Prior to this class, I hadn’t heard of, nor read, both Little Nemo and Krazy Kat before, but I have to say that I rather enjoyed both comics. I preferred Krazy Kat because I felt that it reminded me of the comics I used to read when I was younger. One strip I particularly enjoyed involved Krazy Kat trying to hide its diary under a rock, believing it to be safe from prying eyes, only for the rest of the cast coming back at night to read it. I’m not sure why I liked it quite so much, but it stuck with me even after I’ve forgotten most of the other strips within. I suppose reading Krazy Kat brought back a sense of nostalgia regarding the days where I used to read comics upon comics with quirky characters in ridiculous situations.

I believe that I started out by reading the funnies page in the newspaper. Back then, I couldn’t understand the humor in at least half of the comic strips, but I recall liking the Garfield strips well enough. My first real love for comics began with Calvin & Hobbes, however. I had always been charmed by the characters, and I suppose being a child at the time helped me appreciate what went on in Calvin’s head. At the time, I also had a stuffed animal which I loved very much. Seeing Calvin interact with his own as though Hobbes was a real life friend not only greatly entertained me, it left me with a lingering sense of warmth, too.

As I grew up, I also learned to appreciate other comic strips such as Foxtrot, Sherman’s Lagoon, Baby Blues, and Get Fuzzy. I also redeveloped a new liking for Garfield strips. Most of the comics I mentioned above were discovered through the funnies page. I hadn’t understood the humor in most of them at first, but I gained a new appreciation for them as I grew older.

My favorite thing about the comic strip is the lack of continuity and, for the most part, the lack of a real plot. It means that I can start off just about anywhere and not feel like I’ve missed much, if anything at all. Reading comic books are great, but it’s very difficult to gain an understanding of what’s going on if you don’t start with the first book and read them in order. With comic strips, you don’t have to worry about anything like that at all. Occasionally, the strips would carry on with the same mini-plot for a while, or throw in a callback, but they are, for the most part, standalone.

Another thing I like about comic strips is that each and every single strip is funny in its own right. There’s always a small joke and punchline, and they’re a great way to pass time and simply entertain yourself all the while. 

Week 2: Understanding Comics

I have seen the book Understanding Comics before in many a bookstore before and heard its name pop up on occasion, but I’m afraid that I hadn’t had the opportunity to actually read the book until now. I have to say, the content of the book certainly didn’t disappoint.

Before reading the book, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I liked reading comics enough, sure, but I’ve never considered reading about the mechanics behind them. As it turns out, people actually put a lot more thought into creating comics than I thought. While I never had any illusions that drawing and writing out your own comic was easy, I also never knew how truly intricate the art truly is.

There were many interesting points about the book, but one part I found to be interesting was the discussion about relatability to a character based on its looks. It was the first time I’d heard of such a concept, but thinking back on it, I now see the reasoning behind such logic. It makes sense to be able to relate oneself to, say, a stick figure than to a detailed portrait of someone who is definitely not me.

The part about our brain filling out the blanks was also quite fascinating, because most of the time, we don’t even know we’re doing it. We assume that the man has eyes behind his spectacles and legs beneath his torso in his upper body shots because our brain is hardwired to think that way. I recall, on one occasion, learning that the human brain is capable of reading scrambled words and understanding them near perfectly as long as the first and right letters are correct. Everything in between can be a jumbled mess, and we’d still be able to read them almost instantly. Tkae tihs for exmalpe; taht dndi’t tkae so lnog to raed, did it?

And yet another interesting point that was brought up, if only for a couple pages, was the differences between Eastern and Western comic. As I grew up with both influences, I enjoyed reading both in my childhood. I was certainly more interested in the former due to its prevalence in Asian bookstores, but I also read many Western comics when I was younger. I found the comparison of panels to be interesting, and now, I can see the differences between them so clearly that I wonder how I could’ve missed it before. In fact, the whole part about ‘capturing the moment’ in Japanese manga, or simply dedicating complicated and detailed panels simply to describe a certain moment in time, is one of my favorite things about Eastern comics.

All in all, I thought Understanding Comics was a highly entertaining, informative read. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who’s even considering creating a comic of their very own and to those who simply want to understand or appreciate comics better at all.