Sunday, April 24, 2011
Persepolis
Where Palestine (in my opinion) was lacking, Persepolis on the other hand was successful. Satrapi creates a very intimate retelling of her life in such a way that she appears not to have an agenda even though at times she is critical of the country she lives in. Much of how she presents information is done in a way that the personal aspects specifically the negative light she at times sheds on herself allows for the commentary she has on both the people around her and her government. Much of the negative critique is done as a response to how it directly influences her family, friends and herself so that the reader accepts the information that is presented. Beyond this however, Satrapi does a good job with the visual format. Although it is not drawn realistic and is done in black and white (which is something that I more often dislike then like) the style seems to match the content. The ‘cartoony’ drawings allow Satrapi to retell, at times, disturbing content without overwhelming the reader. The tortures aren’t graphic to the point of horrifying, the God detail is believable, and the unrealistic panels become acceptable. At the same time this quality amplifies thematic elements within the story such as the consistent use of the endless stairs, the self beating on 95, and the historical recount done by her father. All in all the visual and contextual content of Persepolis create a very believable autobiographical story as well as being an enjoyable read.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Response to Class Mini Comics
Comic 1: Latency by Jason Christianson.
Latency caught my eye immediately for multiple reasons. This mini comic’s content is the first element that is easily seen. I play online games and I appreciate what the mini comic is doing. Beyond just the content, Latency is very appealing in how it is presented. It has a dualistic overlay in that there are 6 separate panels yet they are linked globally by both the back ground visual of the circle that overlaps the separate panels as well as the panels themselves interacting with one another. In this way the visual and the content parallel each other. Even though it seems as though this panel can happen as a singular moment, the MS numbers (aka latency) in the corners of each panel show that there is in fact a time differentiation between each of them. As the panels get further from the first the latency gets higher until the final member of the group of players receives the ever dreaded disconnect message, halting the progression of his fellow gamers. I felt that Jason’s use of connecting the panels in such a way as to create both the aspect of singular moment yet have it in a way that can be read as a progression was very creatively done.
Even though the assignment could be argued as a single panel and not fulfilling the requirement of the assignment, for the above reasons I would say that in does in fact meet the expectations laid out. There are many main stream comics that deal with singular moment in such a way that there is a subtle shift in time and done across multiple panels. A singular panel usually consists of a singular event within one scene. The fact that Jason includes multiple scene to scene transitions defines this as going beyond a comic such as Family Circus. Also there is a sense of motion; something is transpiring across the panels instead of a snap shot of a motionless one panel comic. This motion, I would argue, is another aspect defining this as a multi panel comic.
Comic 2: Roy the Roach Rides Again by Claire Moles
The aesthetic quality of Roy the Roach was a quality that wasn’t easily missed. Living up to the name of the title, the mini comic is shaped creatively like a roach. Beyond the binding, the inside fits the shape of the roach but follows a more traditional layout with the three pages following a 5, 5, 4 sequence. This comic has a sense of tabular involved in it, although maybe not to the extent that Latency did.
Page one varies between action to action and subject to subject, however there are a few interesting transitions involved beyond these moments. Panel 2 and panel 5 are connected through panel 6’s shared dialogue, breaking the time sequence and in essence making panel 2 a double panel whose events happen twice with different dialogue.
Page 2 has more of these connecting movements and also includes a tabular effect. Panel 1 and 2 are connected by Roy the Roach who overlaps both panels. At a closer look however it could be seen that these two panels are actually one scene but the split accompanied by Roy who is of neither panel, allows for his action of flying toward the reader be accepted as flying at the characters. I found this trick to be well placed on the page. The second quality is Roy again overlapping panels 3 and 4 while panel 4 and 5 share another common dialogue bubble. Page 3 ends with a 4 panel, independent layout, ending in a more traditionally aesthetic way.
Comic 3: 8 of the Worst Things to do Alone by Anelle K.
This mini comic was by far the most disturbing of all the mini comics, although not in a bad way per say. At first it seemed to be a humorous commentary on a person being single but reading the final panel seemed to leave this ominous lingering tone that didn’t easily dissipate after finishing the comic. I found this to be an interesting cathartic moment insomuch that the characters drawn were very simplistic, again not a bad thing, but I find that typically when I read more detailed comics the more I find I have a reaction to them. It’s very rarely that any form of emotion is sparked through reduced drawings. Although McCloud argues that the simpler the drawing the more universal, I find there’s a point where this no longer becomes necessarily true and can distract from thematic because the content isn’t taken as seriously. Here the word combination with the pictures does a successful job at relating the thematic content.
The only issue that this comic brought up was how closely it achieved its goal when compared to the assignment. Beyond the character being female and being consistent throughout the two pages, I was confused if this character was supposed to be relating a real story about the author’s life being single and the final panel being her fear beyond this or if the story was exactly what the title states, that of being the 8 worst things to do alone. This could be easily fixed with a simple dialogue box or word indicator attached to the character so I feel this is a minor consideration due to how easily it could be adjusted however it is something that came up as I read it.
Overall: Taking in each of the mini comics as a whole brought about a few interesting revelations. In sharing as a group in class it seemed that many students shared many similarities in the process of creating each of their individual assignments. Many of us outlined the comics similarly, likewise we shared many issues in the printing of the comic (whether online or in actual print). But despite the many familiar details shared in how we went about approaching, designing and creating the comic, what became the finished product varied beyond what I could have imagined. A previous years assignment was shared with the class before we began our work on our topic and that may have been what caused this shock. That class had to share a common thematic story. Though there were variations in these and lots of differences, seeing the same characters presented tied a common thread throughout them. Our class however produced comics so vastly different in every possible way I was shocked: aesthetically, design, style, content etc… I feel that taking away the common content allowed us to go beyond the limits of that had been possibly placed on previous assignments. I think the challenges we faced as a class are probably those that are shared by any class doing this assignment yet we had more freedom in what our content could be. I don’t believe there is a way to reduce these problems as they are something innate with creating a comic book of this type. The only difference for future assignments of this type would be what or if to change the content limitations. The past assignment of using a fable I believe would have been too limiting wherein our classes limit of having to maintain a story that was real matched the overall class theme of the comics we are studying. Possibly continuing to match class theme to the assignment theme would be an idea to consider.
Latency caught my eye immediately for multiple reasons. This mini comic’s content is the first element that is easily seen. I play online games and I appreciate what the mini comic is doing. Beyond just the content, Latency is very appealing in how it is presented. It has a dualistic overlay in that there are 6 separate panels yet they are linked globally by both the back ground visual of the circle that overlaps the separate panels as well as the panels themselves interacting with one another. In this way the visual and the content parallel each other. Even though it seems as though this panel can happen as a singular moment, the MS numbers (aka latency) in the corners of each panel show that there is in fact a time differentiation between each of them. As the panels get further from the first the latency gets higher until the final member of the group of players receives the ever dreaded disconnect message, halting the progression of his fellow gamers. I felt that Jason’s use of connecting the panels in such a way as to create both the aspect of singular moment yet have it in a way that can be read as a progression was very creatively done.
Even though the assignment could be argued as a single panel and not fulfilling the requirement of the assignment, for the above reasons I would say that in does in fact meet the expectations laid out. There are many main stream comics that deal with singular moment in such a way that there is a subtle shift in time and done across multiple panels. A singular panel usually consists of a singular event within one scene. The fact that Jason includes multiple scene to scene transitions defines this as going beyond a comic such as Family Circus. Also there is a sense of motion; something is transpiring across the panels instead of a snap shot of a motionless one panel comic. This motion, I would argue, is another aspect defining this as a multi panel comic.
Comic 2: Roy the Roach Rides Again by Claire Moles
The aesthetic quality of Roy the Roach was a quality that wasn’t easily missed. Living up to the name of the title, the mini comic is shaped creatively like a roach. Beyond the binding, the inside fits the shape of the roach but follows a more traditional layout with the three pages following a 5, 5, 4 sequence. This comic has a sense of tabular involved in it, although maybe not to the extent that Latency did.
Page one varies between action to action and subject to subject, however there are a few interesting transitions involved beyond these moments. Panel 2 and panel 5 are connected through panel 6’s shared dialogue, breaking the time sequence and in essence making panel 2 a double panel whose events happen twice with different dialogue.
Page 2 has more of these connecting movements and also includes a tabular effect. Panel 1 and 2 are connected by Roy the Roach who overlaps both panels. At a closer look however it could be seen that these two panels are actually one scene but the split accompanied by Roy who is of neither panel, allows for his action of flying toward the reader be accepted as flying at the characters. I found this trick to be well placed on the page. The second quality is Roy again overlapping panels 3 and 4 while panel 4 and 5 share another common dialogue bubble. Page 3 ends with a 4 panel, independent layout, ending in a more traditionally aesthetic way.
Comic 3: 8 of the Worst Things to do Alone by Anelle K.
This mini comic was by far the most disturbing of all the mini comics, although not in a bad way per say. At first it seemed to be a humorous commentary on a person being single but reading the final panel seemed to leave this ominous lingering tone that didn’t easily dissipate after finishing the comic. I found this to be an interesting cathartic moment insomuch that the characters drawn were very simplistic, again not a bad thing, but I find that typically when I read more detailed comics the more I find I have a reaction to them. It’s very rarely that any form of emotion is sparked through reduced drawings. Although McCloud argues that the simpler the drawing the more universal, I find there’s a point where this no longer becomes necessarily true and can distract from thematic because the content isn’t taken as seriously. Here the word combination with the pictures does a successful job at relating the thematic content.
The only issue that this comic brought up was how closely it achieved its goal when compared to the assignment. Beyond the character being female and being consistent throughout the two pages, I was confused if this character was supposed to be relating a real story about the author’s life being single and the final panel being her fear beyond this or if the story was exactly what the title states, that of being the 8 worst things to do alone. This could be easily fixed with a simple dialogue box or word indicator attached to the character so I feel this is a minor consideration due to how easily it could be adjusted however it is something that came up as I read it.
Overall: Taking in each of the mini comics as a whole brought about a few interesting revelations. In sharing as a group in class it seemed that many students shared many similarities in the process of creating each of their individual assignments. Many of us outlined the comics similarly, likewise we shared many issues in the printing of the comic (whether online or in actual print). But despite the many familiar details shared in how we went about approaching, designing and creating the comic, what became the finished product varied beyond what I could have imagined. A previous years assignment was shared with the class before we began our work on our topic and that may have been what caused this shock. That class had to share a common thematic story. Though there were variations in these and lots of differences, seeing the same characters presented tied a common thread throughout them. Our class however produced comics so vastly different in every possible way I was shocked: aesthetically, design, style, content etc… I feel that taking away the common content allowed us to go beyond the limits of that had been possibly placed on previous assignments. I think the challenges we faced as a class are probably those that are shared by any class doing this assignment yet we had more freedom in what our content could be. I don’t believe there is a way to reduce these problems as they are something innate with creating a comic book of this type. The only difference for future assignments of this type would be what or if to change the content limitations. The past assignment of using a fable I believe would have been too limiting wherein our classes limit of having to maintain a story that was real matched the overall class theme of the comics we are studying. Possibly continuing to match class theme to the assignment theme would be an idea to consider.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Palestinezzzzzzzzz
There's very few times that I have nothing at all good to say about a comic book or graphic novel. Yet as I sit here trying to figure out something, even a morsel of redeeming value within Palestine by Joe Sacco, I find myself at a loss. Right from the start this text showed it's horrific nature. Now, I'm not opposed to thick blocks of text, in fact I love Hickman who is known for a dense comic/text relationship, yet Sacco fails where Hickman is masterful. I believe the reason to be two part. The first aspect is in the layout itself. Sacco either separates the text almost 100% from the pictures (pg 41-50 being an example) or he overlaps a high amount of text blocks over the panels in such a way as to be highly distracting to the actual content within. In the first case, I may have been able to justify a page or two at the most of complete separation but Sacco creates TEN pages where the panels are secondary to the separate text. It feels as though the comic transition to a book that is illustrated. The second case creates an issue with me being able to connect with the story itself in a way that I normally would with a comic book. This leads to another issue. I didn't care about what was being told. Partly due to the aforementioned portion but also with the way the whole story unfolds. On page 120 I have deja vu of the first chapter's demonstration. It's different but at the same time it's too similar. I feel that the story is highly repetitive. I got to end and thought to myself "I swear if he get's into another taxi..."
About the only interesting portion of Palestine that can be mentioned is the purely superficial aspect with the section REWIND on 208 where the panel transition goes from highly disorganized and random to what we would see as a normal panel lay out on 212. If Sacco had presented a more interesting story I may have taken the time to consider why he made this choice, but unfortunately by that point my interested had died several times. With that, I wish I had more poignant things to say about Palestine but alas I can only find the joy with which selling this book back at the end of the semester will bring.
About the only interesting portion of Palestine that can be mentioned is the purely superficial aspect with the section REWIND on 208 where the panel transition goes from highly disorganized and random to what we would see as a normal panel lay out on 212. If Sacco had presented a more interesting story I may have taken the time to consider why he made this choice, but unfortunately by that point my interested had died several times. With that, I wish I had more poignant things to say about Palestine but alas I can only find the joy with which selling this book back at the end of the semester will bring.
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