Bethany's Literature of Comics Blog

 Reading March directly after reading Maus was great because I was easily able to compare and contrast the two works. The art style of each is very different but I appreciated both. I've come to realize that the quality of drawings in a comic make little difference if the story is compelling. In Maus, the drawings were more crude but still just as compelling and emotionally stimulating as March. The art style of March was something I truly appreciated though and hope to adopt some of that style into my own work when it comes time for thesis. The art style of March was almost cinematic. The "shot" choices and angles, as well as lighting, felt like that of really well done storyboards for a live action film. I think that the style was fitting given the very serious tone of the story however, Art Spiegelman did prove that the art style can be more simplistic and not take away from the seriousness of the story. I thought that in volume 1 the backstory of John Lewis went on a ...

I am so incredibly grateful that this book was a mandatory reading for class. I now find myself recommending it to everyone I come across. What a powerful story. I understand why Spiegelman chose to abstract the story a bit by portraying all of the characters as mice and cats; to lessen the severeness of the topic. However, even so, I felt deeply while reading this story. I cried several times and was in awe by the sheer amount of love that Vladek and Anja had for each other. I felt Vladek's pain and his aching for Anja when he cried and asked his son why he ever remarried and started crying out Anja's name.  To see the beauty of Vladek and Anja's relationship and all they went through together and how their love grew stronger after all of that was truly inspiring. I understood Artie's pain and his contempt for his parents, having undergone childhood trauma but feeling it wasn't valid since it was nothing in comparison to the trauma his parents had gone through in A...

 I thoroughly enjoyed reading underground comics! I appreciate the realness and unapologetic-ness the creators bring to the table. I can see why many would be uncomfortable with reading material like this but I believe that most people have thoughts that are very on par with, if not even more twisted, that what was being portrayed in these comics. It's the reality of the human mind sexuality, drugs, alcohol are all things that we as humans struggle with. I think it is very evident that men struggle moreso with their sexual temptations than women do but these comics shed a light on how different people deal with these temptations. In Air Pirates I read: the Dirty Duck comics, as well as Silly Sympathies, and Dopin' Dan. You can really feel the college kid spirit in these comics. I thought about how when you're in your twenties is when it seems you're your most authentic self. Your most unapologetic self. These creators have come into their own and put out material that t...

 After reading this story, I was truly inspired and plan to dive deeper into Will Eisner's work. I have really been struggling to figure out what I am going to do for my thesis this year and I feel like through reading Last Day in Vietnam, I've finally figured it out. I felt like all of my ideas were to self indulgent and not creative enough. Then I read Eisner retelling of personal experiences that happened to him while he was in the military and I realized that's what makes a story special. Seeing someone else's perspective is what makes stories so great. I loved that he chose to illustrate his comic in a first person POV as well. I might adopt that strategy for my thesis as well too. This comic was beautifully drawn and I really appreciated the simplicity of the style and how expressive the bodies and movement of that characters were. Reading something about military culture was also very entertaining for me because I could relate as I am currently serving in the Air...

 Before I stopped and read any of the comic strips I quickly scrolled through to find one that caught my eye. The overall aesthetic of comics at this time was very nice in my opinion. I love the style, use of color, and inking techniques. I will say that I noticed racist depictions of African American people as was expected for artwork created in this time period. Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland comics were something we learned about in History of Illustration my freshman year so it was nice to read something familiar. I also enjoyed the Popeye's comics and noted how spot on they were to the animations I used to watch on tv as a kid. There seems to be no change in character design or even art style from the comics to the animated cartoon. I was probably one of the very few 90's kids who actually did read the "Funnies" section of the newspaper growing up. I wasn't always an artists but I was always a fan of cartoons. My father was a high school baseba...

 The high praise that Scott McCloud gets from the legendary comic book artists in the very beginning of the book is well deserved. There couldn't have been a better time for me to take this class considering I am taking a storyboarding class for illustration majors this year. After reading both Understanding and making comics, I feel I am very well equipped to make some amazing sequential art. Telling your story with as much clarity and interest as possible was the main priority for McCloud. His explanations and breakdowns of certain techniques was just as effective in this book as it was in Understanding Comics. I really loved how he would draw up a sequence that pertained to whatever technique he was explaining to further clarify his point. I also really enjoy the specificity that McCloud chooses to use when writing these books. Not only does he talk about the main priority of a comic; telling a very clear and entertaining story, he also talks about, transitions, text, layout, fr...

I enjoy the way Scott McCloud writes, he packs jokes into every page. In the very beginning he really caught my interest when he compared the photograph of the man to various drawings that were increasingly simplified as your eye moved further down the page. That comparison was then followed by the question: "Why are we so in thrall to the simplified reality of the cartoon?" The reason I thought I was so interested in cartoons as a child and even now as an adult was because it was a form of escapism. Escaping the pressures and stresses of real life and entering into a land of humor and fantasy. However, the only way one can escape into this world is by accepting it for reality in the first place and I really like how McCloud explains how we are able to do this. "By stripping down an image to its essential "meaning" an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can't." When he also explains that we see ourselves in cartoons that really ...