This week I read some of the web comics that were posted on the class blog. I read Octopus Pie, the Bad Machinery Scary Go Round, Girl Genius, the digital flash comic talking about the new possibilities of the medium and Delta: First Word.
Being so new to comics I have never read any of these before but I really enjoyed most of them. Octopus Pie was really cool and very entertaining. I really liked the art style I felt that its style really fit with the content of each piece and the characters had a nice charm to them.
The Scary Go Round one (not exactly sure what the title is) was really cool as well. The humor was funny to me, pretty dry with awkward moments and random happenings like the caped homeless hillbilly really made me laugh. The art direction was also really appealing as well. It reminded me a lot of the shows cartoon network has been putting out recently.
The girl Genius strip was not for me. I found it really overwhelming both with the layout and compositions which seemed really crammed and the text which felt forced into it. There were a handful of panels I struggled to tell what was going on. I was really turned off from the first few pages and didn't really give it a chance maybe I'll revisit it again another time.
The little digital flash comic was by far my favorite. It brought up tons of new possibilities for digital story telling that I for one never really considered. I really like the idea of the reader controlling time while the artist controls the space within that time which is something Delta: First word really suffered from. While reading that comic I felt I had no idea what was going on and I had no control over the pace it was told. I found it very interesting the way it kept so many of the things that make comics appealing and to me it really improved the experience. There was a strong sense of motion from panel to panel and it never fell apart at any time. I read Delta after I read this one and Delta really suffered from many of the points the flash comic made. Not only with the time and space aspect but the special effects and gimmicks that were forced on to the reader. I felt they added confusion and weren't really necessary. They could have been solved with better posing and staging from the character rather than using the special effects.
Overall I had a really positive experience with the web comics and I am looking forward to reading more of them.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Super hero comics
This last week I read Batman Year One but I really wanted to talk about some other I have recently read as well such as Arkam Asylam, The Dark Knight Returns and The Long Halloween. I've always been a his use fan of Batman and being so new to comics Btman was naturally where I started and I have found a new love within these narratives.
Since I didn't know where to start I did some research of the top 25 Batman graphic narratives and pretty much just start there. I started with The Dark knight returns and I was blown away. The psychological element Frank Miller pulls off is something that's influenced comics for the last 20 years was completely new to me and I really couldn't put it down. The grtitty dark qualities are seen in almost every other Batman comic I've since and for a good reason. The emotional impact it has on the reader was very successful and kept it really exciting to read.
Year One was another one I just flew through. It had many of the same qualities as The Dark Knight Returns that made it so appealing for myself. The internal struggle within Jim Gordan and Bruce Wayne was amazing and the way it found a way it survive without relying on any super popular villains such as the Joker is something I really enjoyed.
Arkam Asylam was a book in it's own league. It was truly a work of art and is something I will never forget. I read it quite a long time ago and what's interesting is I barely remember the story line but I vividly remember the art work and paneling. Each page was just as good if not better than the last and for that reason it took me a very long time to get through it since I was so consumed by the art. I can't imagine a better visual of inside Arkam Asylam which was always a consistent element within Batman and Gotham city and it was depicted as terrifying as I could imagine.
The Long Halloween was a a good solid story with equally solid art work. It didn't stand out naturally after reading the other narratives I have listed above but I enjoyed it very much. I read it on my I pad and the colors and layout translated very well and I enjoyed it very much.
Recently I decided I need to branch out to some other works about different character in an attempt not to pigeon hole myself and grow. I decided to read Watchmen.....wow. I can honestly say I've never read anything like this and I cannot wait to continue it. The atmosphere and the the dialogue are so dark and intense and they play off of each other wonderfully.
Since I didn't know where to start I did some research of the top 25 Batman graphic narratives and pretty much just start there. I started with The Dark knight returns and I was blown away. The psychological element Frank Miller pulls off is something that's influenced comics for the last 20 years was completely new to me and I really couldn't put it down. The grtitty dark qualities are seen in almost every other Batman comic I've since and for a good reason. The emotional impact it has on the reader was very successful and kept it really exciting to read.
Year One was another one I just flew through. It had many of the same qualities as The Dark Knight Returns that made it so appealing for myself. The internal struggle within Jim Gordan and Bruce Wayne was amazing and the way it found a way it survive without relying on any super popular villains such as the Joker is something I really enjoyed.
Arkam Asylam was a book in it's own league. It was truly a work of art and is something I will never forget. I read it quite a long time ago and what's interesting is I barely remember the story line but I vividly remember the art work and paneling. Each page was just as good if not better than the last and for that reason it took me a very long time to get through it since I was so consumed by the art. I can't imagine a better visual of inside Arkam Asylam which was always a consistent element within Batman and Gotham city and it was depicted as terrifying as I could imagine.
The Long Halloween was a a good solid story with equally solid art work. It didn't stand out naturally after reading the other narratives I have listed above but I enjoyed it very much. I read it on my I pad and the colors and layout translated very well and I enjoyed it very much.
Recently I decided I need to branch out to some other works about different character in an attempt not to pigeon hole myself and grow. I decided to read Watchmen.....wow. I can honestly say I've never read anything like this and I cannot wait to continue it. The atmosphere and the the dialogue are so dark and intense and they play off of each other wonderfully.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Graphic Fiction and Graphic Non Fiction
This week I read Arabian Nights, Diary of a Dominatrix, and I watched Cartoon Noir. Needless to say the three of these are very different from one another.
Diary of a Dominatrix really reminded me of most of the content in the Underground Comics selection. I found it reminiscent not only because of the sexually explicate material but the organization of the story itself. The paneling was all over the place and the and the story line was not centered around a main conflict or character goal, it was just a woman talking about her average days as a Dominatrix which was entertaining but very different from most stories and comics I've read thus far. The artwork was interesting. It had a almost surreal feel to it with cross hatched backgrounds at some points and super forced perspectives, but it still felt genuine and real while reading it. I think the forced style really had a successful emotional impact forcing the reader to feel exactly what the artists wants them to feel.
The comic Arabian Nights is a story I'm somewhat familiar with. I wasn't really a big fan of the writing or the art but for some reason I tended to get lost in the stories the more I read it. I think it was because to me the writing and art were exactly on the same level, it wasn't mediocre writing with amazing artwork or vise versa. They worked well together and if it would have been uneven in quality I think it would have taken me out of it. I don't mean to sound like a dick but I really felt that the writing was really mediocre and the art within the panels seemed cramped, messy and as if it was competing with the text.
I also had watched half of Cartoon Noir. The impression I got from that was mixed. I was really impressed by the quality of the first three works but the story lines got a little too weird for me. I like to think of myself as pretty open minded when it comes to independent film making but the manikin piece kind of put me over the edge and quite Frankly scared the shit out of me. But again I respect how well done it was =]
Diary of a Dominatrix really reminded me of most of the content in the Underground Comics selection. I found it reminiscent not only because of the sexually explicate material but the organization of the story itself. The paneling was all over the place and the and the story line was not centered around a main conflict or character goal, it was just a woman talking about her average days as a Dominatrix which was entertaining but very different from most stories and comics I've read thus far. The artwork was interesting. It had a almost surreal feel to it with cross hatched backgrounds at some points and super forced perspectives, but it still felt genuine and real while reading it. I think the forced style really had a successful emotional impact forcing the reader to feel exactly what the artists wants them to feel.
The comic Arabian Nights is a story I'm somewhat familiar with. I wasn't really a big fan of the writing or the art but for some reason I tended to get lost in the stories the more I read it. I think it was because to me the writing and art were exactly on the same level, it wasn't mediocre writing with amazing artwork or vise versa. They worked well together and if it would have been uneven in quality I think it would have taken me out of it. I don't mean to sound like a dick but I really felt that the writing was really mediocre and the art within the panels seemed cramped, messy and as if it was competing with the text.
I also had watched half of Cartoon Noir. The impression I got from that was mixed. I was really impressed by the quality of the first three works but the story lines got a little too weird for me. I like to think of myself as pretty open minded when it comes to independent film making but the manikin piece kind of put me over the edge and quite Frankly scared the shit out of me. But again I respect how well done it was =]
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