Maus and Barefoot Gen.

I was really impressed with both of these works.  Maus was a great novel that I really enjoyed.  I didn't get a chance to read it until after our class discussion about it but I feel like hearing other peoples responses helped me to analyze it on a few different levels I would not have realized otherwise.  The first thing I noticed was the art work.  I was done it a deliberate crude fashion that really fit the mood of the story and I felt the staging was brilliant.  I was really struck by one of the very first panels where the father was riding his bike and his son was trying to get him to tell his stories of the war.  As the father says to him nobody wants to hear his stories you see the son framed by his father hunched over the bike and you see the tattooed numbers on his forearms from the camp.  That frame to me told the story in itself.  I couldn't help but look for different framing techniques used.  Another cool example was when you see the father telling the story sitting in his chair and the background was still in the story being told.  I also really liked the train ticket with the text telling the story in the middle and the information about where the train was heading on the sides.  Other things I appreciated that where touched on in class were the different races and nationalities made animals.  It brought emphasis to the ridiculousness of the situation and the simplistic roots of a complicated situation.  My favorite part of the novel was the framing and story telling in general.  It was something that I personally have never seen before and I was really impressed how seamlessly it worked and how much it influenced the story as a whole by setting the pace and bringing clarity.

Barefoot Gen was another beast in and of itself.  That was really hard for me to watch.  Having family on both sides of the war I really connected emotionally with the film.  I often don't know what to feel when I see things like that and they always make me think about my ethnic background and where I come from.  Overall it was a very well done and was very successful film in accomplishing what it was meant to do and I cant imagine how difficult and liberating it had to be for the creator to tell his personal story in such a powerful way.

Underground Comics

This week I read Robert Crumb's Whiteman, Heroes of the Blues, Fat Freddy's Cat by Gilbert Shelton and I read about half of Gay Comix.  I had know idea what to expect with underground comics and I soon found out.  The readings were littered with sexual content which was interesting, it was used as humor and also helped to discuss feelings the characters were feeling.

Whiteman was the first comic that I read and at first seemed like a regular comic but soon turned into a XXX love affair with a female Bigfoot.  I enjoyed the comic all in all and I thought it was really funny at times it just was not what I expected.

I also read the Heroes of the Blues which was really cool piece consisting of short bio's of Legends in the Blues genre.  I a, a big fan of the Blues and I had a good time flipping through looking for names and the illustrations that were created of the influential men who made the genre what it is.  The art in Robert Crumb's work is really interesting and it has an awesome gritty quality to it that I really enjoyed and was consistent throughout what I saw of his work.

I found Fat Freddy's Cat to be hilarious.  My favorite was the comic about him working as an agent for the government and just recklessly killing everyone.  He was do full of shit telling the kittens this story I could help but laugh my ass off.  I love rich characters like that who are bullshitters and do things with their with motives no one else knows about.

The last reading I read Gay Comics was really a neat piece that gives insight into people who have tried to deal with being "different" in society.  While reading this piece it felt so honest and had such a variety in it's stories that all of them really were their own individual stories and experiences.  I enjoy stories that leave nothing out and feel raw and personal and this collection of experiences was full of those stories.

Brief History of the Comic Book

For this selection I read Carl Barks' Pygmy Indians Story and Tin Tin in Tibet.  I chose to read Barks' Pygmy Indian Story because I was interested to see how Donald Duck translates through comics instead of animated.  I chose to read Tin Tin because I have never read a Tin Tin comic and since all of the talk happening after this new movie I really wanted to see what all of the fuss is about.

I enjoyed Barks' Pygmy Indian Story although it was very evident it was a work of it's time.  There were many stereotypes used when referring to the Indians, not all necessarily bad but because it was a cartoon some of the characteristics features and beliefs were exaggerated.  Also there was a interesting social commentary that was taking place throughout the duration of the story.  A lot of time was taken referring to the modern morals regarding nature and the preservation of land.  All together I really enjoyed this comic and i had a good time reading it.

Tin Tin is a comic I had been looking forward to reading for a while. growing up I never really heard all that much about it but I recognized the character and when the film came out I saw all kinds of commercials and trailers and the old distant recognition came back.  I knew it was big in the UK but I didn't realize the entire world loved it except the US, so naturally I wanted to see why.  When I first started reading Tin Tin in Tibet it took me a few pages to adjust to the humor and story telling.  The first thing I noticed was that in the beginning there was a lot of time talking about other things and setting up the story before the inciting incident occurs.  Also the humor was very different but it was very refreshing.  At times it felt very English but it was still very funny.  This comic also contained much more reading than previous comics I have read, and I laughed to myself thinking what a lazy American I was when I saw a page full of dialogue and sighed.  I enjoyed reading Tin Tin very much and I really liked how it could appeal to all audiences which I could only assume is part of the reasoning behind it's huge success.