Week 7

Week 7

Maus is a story of war. The character is mouse and cats but it show the pain and violent of the war.  The story talks about Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences in Poland during the 1930-40’s. This story is famous and earn Pulitzer Prize in 1992. I just stared to reading it but I really want to finish and read the story well.

Written down the experience of war in the style of comic, this is the first one I ever sees. The topic is heave, which is so different then most of the style of comics. The author use mouse and cats as character. I feels like it soft the story in a certain way. We can sometimes forget it is a story between human while reading it. However, whenever I remember those character are real human in history I gets shock each time. 

Week 6

Week 6

A very weird experience of reading. This is my conclusion of the reading this week. 

The reading experience is a huge different between the previous reading. Jumping from teenager style comic to the underground world.  I read the gay comix and the Tits and Clits. Both shocks me in how weird style it gets. My first impression is how much sex including in the story. There are sex organ anywhere in the comics. It becomes like a material to tell the story. Sex are also happens a lots, it became an activity that needed to happen. The story is self is also strange as its own way. Most of the story is really hard to catch up. It is hard to understand why and what is the character doing. After few of the story I finally get the point: just don't tries to get the point. After I get it, the reading became a lots more interesting. The imagination in the comic is wide and flying, reading the story come out like a box breaking for my brain. 

Week 1

Week 1

Shaun Tan's, The Arrival, is a novel that tells the narrator's journey of his immigration. The interesting part of this story is it is a wordless novel. The author uses only illustration to tell the story. I believe this is the very early kind of comic and a huge innovation.  The illustration shows his experience of how he sees and feels in the new place. The illustration is like series of picture record down his life. 

The illustration also refers his feeling in the way of art style. We can tell what kind of emotion just by viewing the picture. I think this is a very advance storytelling and has the huge effect on the later comic.

I study film as my major, for me comic is a very intriguing style of a literature. Telling the story by picture makes so many sense. I feel like Shaun Tan's, The Arrival is a middle point between a novel and a film. As the pioneers the comics it shows the charm of the comic.

Week 4

Week 4

The class brings out the early comic of USA. It’s is really interesting to me that how the early comic stands out. I tried to read some of the action comics, like Superman and Supergirl. I find out most of the story is not so interesting for me. It’s kind of hard for me to get the joke in the comic. Also, I feel like most of the story is design for the child reader. The story is too simple and over description. There are tons of the superhero story and also very well told stories today. 

However, I totally understand how special this early comic stands out in the early period. It started a great style of comic, the super hero’s adventure. This kind of story is so powerful that till today it is still the most popular style. (All of the superhero movie…) Whether it’s a good thing or not but who wouldn’t like Superman?

Week 5

Week five

I read part of the "A Contract with God" and "Blankets". I feel the difference between a visual novel and comic is quite a difference. I really enjoy the story of "Blankets." It is like an autobiography written in the comic. This is the first time I read this kind of topic of a comic. For me, it is fresh and interesting. The story talks about his personal experience, his growth, and his thought. I enjoy it a lot! I can personally relate to the story a lot, like how the religion and education can affect a child, the first love to a girl and most importantly the confuse and thoughts of a young man. I got amazed especially when the story shows what he thinks in his mind with illustration. It is really beautiful. Also, I really like the art style of the work. The art style is almost like an illustration. I can feel the emotion with the visual art. It makes me realize how art style can support the storytelling and give the reader a unique feeling to the story.

Although the story is quite different I think there is the similarity between Will Eisner and Craig Thompson. They are both great storyteller and understand the mind of people. When I read the story I can sees and feels what people are thinking and understands the action. I feel they both bring comic into a more advanced art form which brings the reader into the great story of people.