Lit of Comics #7

Maus

Maus used startling imagery to really portray the victims of the Holocaust as just that, helpless victims. Portraying them as mice being hunted by cats is especially effective, as they are being hunted and played with. It can be hard to convey the deeply emotional effects of trauma to those who didn’t not directly experience that which caused trauma, but visual images can effect people emotionally, making this an effective piece about the trauma of the Holocaust. It is, at times, hard to swallow, much like Barefoot Gen/I Saw It, but I think it's important to read these. It would be easy to try to think of these as fiction, fiction that tells horrific stories. But when I think of the fact that these events happened to people, it makes it all the more horrific. In order to connect and become immersed in a story, we have to see or put ourselves in the place of the characters. Imagining myself in the place of these characters is difficult, but knowing that the real people experienced this, and that they couldn't put the graphic novel down, they couldn't pause the movie, or close the comic. These people had no choice but to go through this and live with the trauma, and it makes comics/graphic novels all the more effective as a storytelling medium. 

Lot of Comics response Week 6

A lot of the comics, which I assume are written by males, seem to portray a man’s sexual fantasy in a lot of how women and sexual encounters are portrayed. A lot of the women (however, not all) seem to have no problem with having sex when in these surreal situations, like the women who lands in an underground cavern of horny midgets. There is no preamble, they just ascend her and start to have sex with her. They fight over her different body parts, like she’s a piece of meat. At one point we can barely make out her face, or even her body because there are so many midgets. This completely ignores the concept of consent, and after they are done, its implied that she has died, and is promptly taken to Heaven by “jesus” and is then married off to “jesus”. She has no moment of regret, not a shred of anger, and barely even acknowledges what happens besides being tired. This kind of plays into this fantasy of women in general being willing and wanting for sex, with pretty much no objection to having sex with any man who pursues them. We as an audience are supposed to just assume that she was okay with what happened. The women portrayed like this seem to mainly exist for the pleasure and convenience of the men in the story. They not only are sex objects, but they don’t mind and often enjoy being treated like this. In Tijuana Bibles, many of the women in the stories are pretty much available for sex for the men in the story when they want it. One women becomes a hooker to earn some money, and is literally, at one point, surrounded by strangers with their penises hanging out of their pants, lining up to have sex with her. In the end, she seems to hold no issue with this, and is perfectly content. The comic seems to make light the fact that she is being used in such a way, and even the punchline at the end is at her expense, and solidifies her status as a sex object. Not only do we watch her go through this as if it’s just a regular occurrence on such an afternoon, but we are to find humor in it. We are to accept and then laugh at her situation as if there’s no problem with it.

If this was meant to blatantly remind us of how many in our culture still view women, that it’s effective. There are men who view women this way, as if they are constantly willing and wanting to have sex at his convenience, and many hide this view, justify it somehow, or make light of it in order to avoid criticism.  If meant to be a criticism of such worldviews, this effectively shoves these misogynistic world views in the face of a culture that wants to avoid talking about such issues.

Lit Comics # 5 Response

Both Thompson and Eisner’s characters faces morph and change when they are experiencing different emotions. Eisner’s characters faces morph into creepy looking menaces when they are up to dastardly plans (like when they will cover up murder or attempt to rape a woman) and Thompson’s main character in Blankets’ face, even though a young boy, twisted into rage when a bully talked badly about his little brother. Eisner seems to lean heavily on stereotypes to convey emotions and personalities; the black people are all mischievous looking, with flat noses, big lips and teeth, and usually a sneaky look in their eye. The Italians are almost always aligned with the Mafia, comically fat or skinny, with an equally comical and over the top “Italian accent”. Both artists use effects, such as the shapes and parts of one scene to transition or bleed into the next, which works well on paper, but would seem strange if used in a movie.

Lit of Comics Week #4

Gabrielle Zuniga

Scrooge has cartoon characters, but the landscapes mainly operate in logical and realistic perspective. The drawing style is more “cartoony” but it operates using realistic perspective. We believe that these statues are towering over the characters because the scene looks convincing.

Tintin has cartoon characters, which are more abstract looking than their backgrounds. This looks convincing, as the backgrounds look similar to what we see in real life, as far as perspective goes.

Both of these cartoons have charming characters, will light-hearted but still exciting stories. We are aware that these are cartoons, but the characters and backgrounds aren’t so abstract that we can’t let ourselves get lost in the story or put ourselves in it. These stories are without gore, or graphic violence, and pretty much every problem has a neat, bow-tied resolution.  I can see why they were so popular.

Gabrielle Zuniga

September 1,2016 Comic/Graphic Novel Responses

Charlie Brown

This wry-humored comic brought us into the world of these children and especially Charlie Brown. Schulz presents this world and the daily conflicts of these children, without dumbing them down. When one of the kids has a typical kid-problem, this doesn’t come off as a problem that adults can’t relate to. Schulz is able to present a problem that an adult might not have exactly at this moment (like losing a security blanket) but the adult can sympathize with having felt that at a young age themselves. It not having experienced that problem themselves, they can sympathize with more universal themes, such as loss.

The Complete Little-Orphan Annie

I came into this comic expecting something similar to the sweet, heartfelt movie about Annie. What I was not expecting the numerous kidnappings by seemingly violent thugs, actual character death, and in my opinion, much starker themes of loneliness, fear, and helplessness. One of the writers in the book, describes Annie as “much-abused” and that struck me as odd. In the movie, she was sought after and mistreated by a selfish foster-mother and her conniving boyfriend. However, the mistreatment seemed more comical and easier to digest in comparison to the comic. The comic seemed to focus and make starker the loneliness and helplessness Annie felt when she was stuck in a cave, guarded by her captors and wishing for rescue.

            However, this author finds a balance between these heavy themes and themes of hopeful resilience. Annie was the epitome of American pluckiness, perseverance, and optimism. Also to help balance the heavy themes were the people that were so endeared to Annie; Mr. Warbucks, and my favorite Miss Fair. They showed Annie the kindness that was so absent in mean characters like Ms. Asthma and Mrs. Warbucks. Mrs. Warbucks told Annie that Miss Fair lied when she said she would visit, and talked down to her. Miss Fair not only sent a note to formally and respectfully ask for her company, but reassured Annie that she never said things she didn’t mean. Fair reaffirmed in Annie the belief that “family and money mean nothing and it only matters if you’re honest and kind and try to make others happy.” This is an example of the American spirit displayed in this comic that I think truly endeared the comic to the American public.

Krazy Kat

Surrealistic, this is a prime example of the idea that the more abstract a piece of art is, the more individualistic the response and the meaning that will be taken from that piece of art between people. It’s hard to understand what’s meant to be going on in this comic, and because of that, it has the ability to break rules that more typical comics could. One strip has Krazy and Ignatz in a different location in each panel, and Ignatz denying the fact that they were in each given place. When asked for clarification, Ignatz proclaimed that they were, in fact, on paper. This breaks the fourth wall in a tongue-in-cheek way that feels believable, and humorous. Ignatz is so cynical and this comic is so strange, that it makes sense that Ignatz would have the self-awareness to break the fourth wall, and not buy into Krazy’s sweet ignorance of the reality that they are just symbols/icons on a page.