Future of Comics

Gabrielle Zuniga

I grew up reading manga, having been unattracted to the saturation of superhero comics (however, I still like superheroes in general, I still play superhero videogames, read occasional comics, watch the movies, etc.)  I had seen those kinds of comics a ton of times, and I was a little tired of it. My friends’ obsession with manga led me to read it. I was always drawn toward shojo manga, romantic and romantic comedies where the girl or guy always gets their girl or guy at the end.

A few years later to the present day, and I am reading webcomics. I love how different today’s webcomics are, both in visual style and in writing. The humor, at least in the ones I prefer, is wry and ridiculous, and the visual style is as individual as its author.

I read Hark! A Vagrant this week. One of the things I have loved about this comic is its wit. I love how Beaton parodies classic literature with humor that reads for a modern audience, as far as dialogue is concerned.

I usually read Hark! A Vagrant, Call of the Sentinel, and Back. Back and Hark! especially, attract me because they are dry and witty, but at the same time goofy and silly. This is exactly my kind of humor. Back and Call of the Sentinel, in particular have a lot of fantasy elements but does not follow the typical fantasy epic template. Not to say that the fantasy epics are cliché or overused, because I have certainly enjoyed them. But Back is basically a character who woke up and is told that she is the key to the fate of the world, and meets witches, and goofy, evil kings, and bored, calculating princess, all with her straight-man sidekick, a normal human boy named Daniel. It comes off as light at first, and almost silly, but there is a density to the story, as we realize that the land faces a world-ending threat. The main characters is told, repeatedly, that she will bring the end of the world. 

I highly recommend the webcomic Back, at backcomic.com. Call of the Sentinel is a lighter fantasy webcomic, good for a fun read at callofthesentinel.com/comic/ch1-cover/.

Gabrielle Zuniga

Killing Joke and Bitch Queen Reactions

What is your reaction to the text you just read?

            Bitch Planet #6 incorporated very believable story elements into a fictional story. Sexist men and the little and big things they do it women that I have heard or experienced or witnessed in my life. Seeing a young girl get murdered was the only element in the story that surprised me. But the constant sexist comments and actions both angered me and reminded me of it existing in our own world. The women in the story are still trying to survive and thrive in spite of it. Even though it angered me, I am glad that the sexism was blatant enough to be noticed, but still delivered in the way that it usually is today; as a normalized part of society.

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect. This is calling out everyday sexism for what it is, in my opinion.

            Bitch Planet #6 had parents who wanted to do whatever they had to, to protect their family. A daughter killed in order to protect hers, and ended up in jail, getting groped and almost assaulted by a guard. It shows how men will use blackmail to get women, and how the coworker wanted to blackmail the father into being basically given one of his daughters, like they are nothing but pawns. I often face men who refuse to acknowledge that there are still men in the world who view women as sexual objects. The men who wanted to use Meiko for sex Bitch Planet both sounds believable. The sexist doctor who justified detaining Mirai because she’s of the “fairer sex” also reads as totally believable because I have encountered men who believe the same thing in my life. Even more outrageously, there are men who either refuse to believe that they still exist, or refuse to believe that that point of view is at all sexist or wrong. Every time a woman stood up to a man, she was called hysterical, and her reasons, though legitimate, were ignored. (Not that I’m saying that the murder of the blackmailing coworker was justified.) Meiko’s mother was rightly outraged at not seeing her daughter for 45 minutes, and when she became angry, she was immediately called hysterical. And when she voiced her outrage further she was thrown to the grown, until her husband came. When Meiko defended herself against the guard who was sexually assaulting her, he acted as if he was the one who should be outraged. He called her a bitch, and somehow wanted to justify his actions by claiming his own loneliness, as if his loneliness is enough to justify rape. The author brings up things that I have heard throughout my life in regard to women, “She’s hysterical, it was a compliment, they all want attention…” I also find it funny that the guard almost raped her, and yet it’s the other guards that are acting as if he is the victim.

What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

            I would adapt this story into a movie. I would still use the flashback, and start the movie with the scene of the guard groping and undressing Meiko. The narration in those first few pages would be narrated in a voiceover by Meiko. Toward the end, I would cut between shots of Meiko playing the violin for the blackmailer with close up shots of the violin, and of Meiko being restrained by the guards. There would be a voiceover of Meiko talking about the parts of a violin and how men compare them to the body of an attractive woman, and it would turn to the things said about women, as reflected in the last few pages of Bitch Planet #6.

Gabrielle Zuniga

Hellboy Monster

They look like typical beasts, but they have personalities, and they read like the type of guys you are friends with or the friends you have a drink with at a bar. Monster is shown in a family of friends who want him apart of the Christmas dinner, and friend (and possible romantic interest?) He is shown to be desirable as company and as a friend, and its because of these interactions that he comes across as a completely likable and a capable and strong hero. No one in the comic ever refers to him as a “monster” or “beast”, and no one really points out how different he is, other than they fact that he is extremely strong. It was refreshing to see that he was just another character (albeit superhumanly strong, and a capable officer of the law) and not a beast that his friends saw as extremely different then him.

Asterios Polyp Response

Gabrielle Zuniga

I enjoyed how masterfully the author combined numerous illustration styles simultaneously, and all while creating a cohesive visual language. No character, although being visually different, seemed out of place or took us out of the graphic novel.

I also enjoyed how the drawing style of the character changed when Asterios and Hana met, and when she confronted him and began to drift apart. She is a pink, sketchy character, reflecting how she isn’t nearly as rigid as Asterios. And he is stylized, blue outline of a character, reflecting how he tries to be a composed, logical intellectual. What’s more, is that even when his visual style reflects his unsettled state of mind as a blue outline, kind of stripping him down to his core visually and metaphorically, he still tries to keep up the proud, almost-cold intellectual.  Personally, I was happy to see her confront Asterios, and how he keeps talking down to a perfectly capable designer, never mind his wife. When they were more happy together, they were purple, reflecting how red/magenta and blue/cyan mixed together to create purple. (Also, I would probably have left Asterios when he told me that he had a camera in his room, personal dead-twin backstory or not.)

Gabrielle Zuniga

Manga Response

I have read a handful of manga in high school, and for the most part enjoyed what I read. I always gravitated toward the shojo/romance titles. There were some tropes and cliché things that I would be criticizing. However, being the hopeless romantic, so I still stay for the end and I still care about the main characters and want them to be happy.

Cinderella Boy had a romance that I had criticisms about. The female main character kept being over-apologetic, and easily made sick by a minor thing happening. She and cried after seeing the guy she has feelings for embracing another girl in an acting scene. That being said, she also had moments where I cheered for her. She did her job as a fake pop star boy, and eventually didn’t back down from being herself to her fans. I criticized her especially at the beginning, but still stayed til the end and even looked for the second and third chapters to see if they ended up happily together.

This tends to describe my relationship with manga, especially romance-based manga(not all romance-based manga): overly weak, damsel in distress female characters, and rude, mean male characters. But, if not too heavily filled with tropes or clichés, I usually find the characters and romance endearing enough to stay until the end.