The Comic book in the modern era

The two aspects of the modern Graphic novel and Comic book that stand out most to me are the way artists are experimenting with the form in a digital way, and the incomplete nature of many narratives. Very often an artist will create a blog, and on this blog they will have their art, and as a part of that art they will have an original character. While the character, or characters, themselves are very well developed, and often the world they exist in is developed as well, the thing most lacking is actual content for a story. An artist will spend hours developing and writing out a story, but when they try to put into the comic medium the work is much, much heavier than they might have previously anticipated. The artists bites off a little more than they can chew, as it were. The comic book and graphic novel has become such a normalized medium to our generation that the idea of the comic book, and the creation of our own becomes much more simple in our minds. We see so many every day, that the idea becomes if there are so many how hard can it be? The work load turns out to be much more of a commitment than coming up with a cute character and a neat world. The amount of dedication and work that goes into a comic is often much much greater than the artist believes, and their character never gets to their story.
On the other end of this predicament are the artists that not only have created a consistent narrative, but have experimented with new forms and mediums. The incorporation of technology into comics creates the possibility for entirely new ventures. Such as motion comics, which combines animation and the comic book. The best current work is almost always on the margin of comic and another medium. Technology and the internet really has opened up entirely new possibilities to artists and creators. The concept that all you need is to publish a story is a blog and the drive to create is an incredible development in our world. There is a comic out there for every kind of person, especially on the internet.

The Killing Joke

My initial response to the graphic novel is a pang of empathy for each character, the Joker in particular, having his back story unfurl as we're taken simultaneously through his story and that of the novel itself. Though we are almost forced to question the legitimacy of even his own memories through his actions and the way he speaks to the other characters, we are regardless forced to ask ourselves about the kind of extreme pain a man must endure to become what he has. How we are faced with the very true fact that at the end of it all, after shooting Barbara, and torturing the commissioner, after all that he's done he is still a person, and he was just like any one of us at one time. He was at one time just like any of the other characters, just a normal guy who had a rough time and the desire to do the right thing for the ones that he loves. How any number of terrible things could happen to any one of us, and how hard it might be to stay sane. Does it take a super hero mentality, and an almost super human strength of will to keep those desires within us, or are we all just one bad day from the edge. 

The aspect of the text that I connected with the most was the idea of the bad day, and fighting through the hurt. All people experience heart ache in one form or another, part of that heart ache is what I believe can bring us closer together, but what differentiates us from one another is how we cope and process our pain. Do we allow it to consume us and drive us mad, the way the Joker did, or do we allow it to make us stronger, and better than we were before our hurt, the way that the Batman has. The Joker allowed himself to see only futility and allowed that idea to consume his mind and drive him over the edge. Deeply seeded within him is an idea that the world is filled only with heart break and corruption of the soul, and that eventually everyone, in one way or another will be driven to the same point that he has. In a way he seeks primarily to be understood through his actions. His deeds, though horrifying, to him are a means of communication, of opening the eyes of the Batman and Gordon to his reality, the reality he exists in every moment of his life, of memories from before he was the Joker, and of what drove him to this point. As artists I suppose our goals are similar to his own. To be understood and to teach others the way we perceive our own worlds. We seek to help others reach a higher form of understanding through our stories or our work, though our efforts often lie more in line with that of the Batman, as a way to help save others from their own pain and situations.

This story would be best told through an animated medium. While the story itself is inherently human the live action form can often lose some of the over the top aspect and grit of the Joker and his work. Through the animated form the movements and twisted, at times inhuman portrayal of the Joker is much more suited for this field. While the characters themselves may be more believable as animated characters there are moments that may be lost in translation. Such as the tunnel scene where Gordon goes through and sees Barbara, this scene would likely have to be elongated to satisfy the animated form. Other scenes would also have to me modified and larger choices about the commissioners character, along with Batman would have to be made. While the two can be played primarily between the lines in the graphic medium, when putting them in motion and giving them a true voice, dramatic changes can be made in regards to how an audience views them. 

Women in Comics

The plight of women in the comic industry directly reflects that of the working woman in modern society, and her history of neglect and often mistreatment. As women began inundating themselves into the comic world there was a perception that the only stories that could be told by a female voice were that of a domestic variety. Often the comics women were asked to write were stories about a homemaker or children, having many of the most famous female illustrators of the early comics era drawing primarily children and cherubs with butterfly wings.  The misconception that these are the only stories women will relate to were a direct influence on what comics women were allowed to create, perpetuating the idea of the house wife and further derailing the desire to work for the modern women. While our society has progressed much farther than these ideas the fact still remains that many women are kept at a distance from the comic world, and while there are more female super heroes and artists they are often met with opposition or even violence. While the new Iron Man is a young black woman and the new Thor (wielder of Mjolnir) is a woman with cancer both characters were met with backlash from the comic community for the mere fact that they were women. Often the male audience neglects the very real fact that women comprise at least of not more than 50% of the current comic reading population, and we want stories that we can relate to, and not just "domestic" tales. The comics industry is and has always been a boys club, but as more and more women join the workforce they cannot be simply over looked and cast aside, if the comic industry cannot continue to accurately reflect the times as they are, many of the popular story arches and characters will be replaced with new ones, ones who had the chance to have a feminine voice and assistance. Comics have always been one step ahead of society, developing and shaping the world as we see it, as the comics artists reflected it, hopefully they continue to do so. As in the Diary of a Dominatrix I believe a woman's reality often differs from a mans fantasy.

The Graphic Novel as Literature

The concept of using animation and comics as a method to tell a historic or literary story is an incredible convention for these methods of storytelling. Such as in Asterios Polyp many of the techniques, such as the use of color and the way the design is able to convey a deeper meaning for the interaction of the characters. When Asterios and his wife first meet their colors are entirely separate, and they exist within different worlds, while as they come to know one another better, and they slowly form into one, their world develops into purple. While this could have been done in a conventional novel I believe it's more effectively displayed when using the graphic medium as opposed to a purely verbal one. The strong ideas, and deeper meanings that animation and comics is able to convey to the reader makes them an entirely viable, and in some cases even more effective method of storytelling than more traditional mediums. Using animation as a way to tell a documentary, such as Barefoot Gen, can be a means of conveying horrifying, and critically important aspects of our histories that may lose some of this gravity when presented in a traditional film making way. The idea of all aspects of learning, the visual, and the verbal coming together in one form to tell stories and show the reader a new way of thinking are impeccable. Comics and animation have never been, and should not become, just a thing for children. Even the most popular children's comics can still teach adults valuable things about themselves and the world around us. Animation and comics are a crucial building block in our society, and I hope that we can continue to use, and develop these mediums even more in the years to come.

Manga and Anime

In the animation field today it can be extraordinarily difficult to find an artist or animation house that wasn't, at least in one way or another, shaped by Manga or anime. The stylization and complexity of movements have both eased their way into our media. Looking at the styles companies like Disney and DreamWorks use there is a distinctly Manga inspiration behind the design of the eyes, and the exaggerated ways that characters move and interact with one another. Perhaps the reason these styles are so effective for children's movies and the often outlandish plot lines of manga is the simplified form allows for a heightened suspension of disbelief. Considering the popularization of manga in Japan came post World War 2 the assumption can likely be made that a great portion of the population would be looking to escape from their own realities and experience another, one that they could easily insert themselves and leave everything else behind. The style and archetypes present in most manga lend itself greatly to this use. The main characters often being not as complex and even sometimes bland, allowing for those reading them to easily substitute themselves for the main character. This idea coupled with the accessibility of early manga, and a societal norm for both children and adults to enjoy it could explain why manga has persisted as the wildly popular medium it is. As opposed to the United States where comics are often considered something that kids read, or that "nerds" only enjoy, the normalization of manga allows for it to be a much more diverse and successful field. Another aspect which makes anime and manga perhaps more desirable than American Comics is the concept that not only a small group of Mutated or Super-humans matter, but that all people matter. In manga one of the reasons many main characters are so bland is to highlight the notion that all people have value, all people have something to offer and contribute, no matter how small or menial their lives appear to those on outside. All people have a talent and place, and we all simply need to find ours, and accept that.

European Comics and Animation

I was incredibly drawn to the idea of caricature in French animation especially. The Triplets of Belleville being among the most visually stunning movies that I've been exposed to in quite a long time. What French animation seems to do, which I've also seen in the Little Prince, was an absence of fear when designing characters. There was no set design, there are no two characters that look entirely alike. The idea of pushing a character to the extremes of their visual appearances and allowing those ideas and actions to speak for themselves. There was no trepidation in allowing the artists and designers to fully express their stories through all aspects of the animated medium. While the Little Prince is heavy with dialogue The Triplets of Belleville really struck me as a story anyone could grasp easily. Not only due to the caricature but the fact that it was for the most part an entirely silent feature. A person across the world who's never even heard of France could see this and understand it as perfectly as a born and raised Parisian. The way that comics and film can transcend geographic, cultural, and lingual barriers astounds me.
The stories that we tell as humans are universal ones. No matter age, ethnicity, location, or language, our stories are our own and they are human ones, and all people should have access to these ideas and works of art. The concept of a company or group of people having dominion or control over these stories and essentially childhood is detrimental to the growth and production of these mediums, and in my opinion to the development of humans themselves. Everyone has a story, and everyone should have the chance to tell their story in whatever way they believe will best represent themselves and their vision.

Stereotyping and Cliché in the Comic Book

The most interesting aspect of the comic book and graphic medium to me is the way that it seeks to reflect the social climate of our reality as it is in any particular moment. The monkey characters in old Mickey Mouse comics, the sexualization of women in many comics, and the way the hero is almost always white. Stereotypes, which is nothing more than a fancy way of saying clipart, generally attempt nothing more than to coddle the reader into believing that the way they see the world through their own warped eyes is okay, and accepted. Rarely is it the case that a stereotype of an entire group of people is accurate, flattering, or even researched very thoroughly before having it illustrated, printed, and published. This issue of proper representation has always been crucial, but as our society develops to a place where it is increasingly more accepting, in theory, of women or people of color to have the same jobs, homes, lives, and salaries as the traditional white man this issue of representation is brought more the forefront. When a comic book, video game or movie is misrepresenting an entire subsection of their audience it is not only a bad business plan, which we all know can be a death sentence in our economy, but blatantly ignoring the woes and plights of (in some cases more than half) of their entire fanbase. We see these issues of misrepresentation and the harmful aspects of stereotyping constantly in the news. The young unarmed black man who's shot down for little more than walking down the street, and the privileged white male college swimmer who can sexually assault a woman with little more than a tap on the wrist.
The argument that a stereotype and clichés are crucial to story telling is not only misguided but harmful to the medium. It forces us back in time and makes accepting the changes of our society and reality as it is that much more difficult. Rarely is it the truth that stereotypes change as society does, and generally when they do it remains only to tell the more ignorant of us that their uninformed, and often fear driven opinions are correct, and that they shouldn't feel anything but alright for having them, when in fact they are incredibly detrimental to human growth. Especially if you are a member of one or often the case may be more than one of the marginalized people. Representation from observation will always be a more powerful, more accurate, and more interesting form of storytelling, and to believe otherwise is to have your head in the past.

Maus

At first glance the graphic novel Maus appears to be about frightened Mice hiding from an evil cat, and an interested reader may even consider this a children's tale, that is until your eyes meet the large black Swastika dominating the background. The novel dives into a biographical retelling of the Holocaust through the eyes of the authors father, a survivor, only unlike many depictions of this event their story is told with mice, cats, frogs, pigs, and all manner of creatures. What the book lacks is a human character, but the story itself is an all too human tale, needing no physical representation of our species to have the gravity of the event communicated. The choice to use animals in our place is, not only a revolutionary idea, but an incredibly strong one. The narrative is not only much more relatable because of this choice, but also gives the book a more powerful message. The decision to use animals such as cats, for the German Nazis, and mice for the Jewish population forces a new perspective on the blatant abuse of power, and the over whelming racism of the time. By using such a representation to depict the racism, it can't be missed, our minds aren't distracted by the idea that they all look so similar that it can't be genuine discrimination. We are given an image in black and white terms, because to the Germans, and many of the time, and unfortunately many today, that is how the issue of race is, cats and mice, us and them. Another aspect of anthropomorphic characterization is the much deeper sense of relating to the characters. By taking specific races and physical appearances almost off the table, a much wider range of people are able to identify with the survivors, and put themselves in their places, to imagine what it must have been like to experience such tragedies. While races, religions, and nationalities are referenced there is no physical barrier between the reader and the subject, any person can relate.

Contributing also to the heightened sense of accessible characters is the relationship between the father and son. Having his father at the present and himself as a character adds an emersion many biographies and historical novels lack. Depicting his fathers current state and their relationship with each other and the world gives an even deeper better look into the history of this historical tragedy. His father being at the present belligerent, and at times even racist sheds a brighter light on the complexities of exploring such a subject. There are times in the narrative that the father will ask his son not to include aspects of his stories, such as his relationship with the woman before his wife, yet his son still includes this tale. The juxtaposition of the two situations highlights the difference in generational thinking. His son believing that every aspect of a story is crucial in learning from the past, and as an artist his need to tell them, while his father holds onto the idea that there is a shame associated with having survived something like this. The Author, Spiegelman, having been influenced by the philosophies in Underground Comics, particularly the idea of telling a story truthfully, and including the dirty, hurtful parts, desires to include every part of his fathers story, as well as his own effect on it. From his mothers suicide, to his fathers reaction to the hitchhiker, nothing is swept under the carpet. The intent is in no way to make the reader pity his father, or to look down on the Germans, or to shame any one group, the intent is merely to expose a truth, to depict an event, while a genuinely horrific one, his job is only to provide a story, and allow the reader to learn from it what they will. While Spiegelman takes this approach his father is quite different, jumping around in his stories and interrupting himself with trivial things, and in some ways glorifying his first wife and child, speaking of them as though they had done no wrong, and denying to accept many aspects of what he had been through. While his father wishes to live in a house of carpet, all the bad hidden below, Spiegelman sees the value in what his father has lived through, and shares his experience with the world, not only because he sees how necessary stories like this are to our society, but becuase deep down he feels like he has to tell it.

Underground Comix

When I first read the underground comix Gay Comics I was struck by how real the stories were, how human and raw. Traditionally at the time gay stories were not produced or published unless they had a particularly sad ending, most common being the death of a lover or main character, that a gay life was a sad, lonely, tortured life, that of course is not always true. It was incredibly refreshing to me to see the stories of untainted, unabridged gay love, so often rewritten a hundred times over, but my initial love and admiration for underground comix as the true tell-it-like-it-is medium (even in Girl Fight where out of this world over the top scenarios happen, there was still always a realness to the hurt, the anger, and the desire to fight back)  for me this was instantly overshadowed by my classmates, and friends initial reaction to the comix.

Much of what I heard in response to the stories was not about the anger, the rebellion, or the realness that attracted me, but of seeing sex depicted so graphically in a comic, which to me was surprising. I was very little effected by the nudity or the amount of physical interaction between characters, what concerned my more than the sex was the violence, and for others that seemed not to be the case. This to me is a direct reflection of our society, how sex is a taboo and dirty thing not to be talked about, whereas violence is almost a glorified act, with even the most heroic of modern characters constantly being locked in epic battles, but never in the physical representation of love. To me this idea is deeply concerning, that at sex we become uncomfortable and squeamish, but at violence we applaud, we laugh even, finding humor in the knocking of some poor idiots head, or the kicking of a rear. Why is it that we have become numb to the idea of violence, but entirely dumbfounded at the idea of two humans being physical.

While some underground comix used sexual physicality, like Mr. Normal, to be shocking in itself, others like Gay Comics, used it to show the different manifestations of loves, but somehow both are treated in very similar ways.

Will Eisner, Blankets, and the Graphic Novel

While reading the stories of Will Eisner and the graphic novel Blankets, there were several moments where I found myself almost uncomfortable reading them. Each in his own way was incredibly intimate. Giving me a look into the deepest aspects of their hearts, and seemingly hiding nothing from their audience. I felt a connection with the characters, and perhaps even the writer, certainly in the case of Blankets, a connection on an incredibly human level. The characters of Eisners' Contract with god were intriguing in the most basic of human ways. Each was presented as flawed and haunted by one thing or another, but none were shown as being entirely one thing. The Super who was accused of child abuse, but who loved his dog deeply, and was at his core, simply a lonely, and misunderstood man. While many would look at a man who was cornering a child in an alley as evil, a look into the real reasoning behind him being there will show that whatever onlookers may think is hardly ever the case.
The other side of the intimacy in the graphic novel can be found in both Eisner and Blankets, that intimacy being found within the human body itself. Their abilities to display such levels of raw human emotion astounds me. With only pen and paper all manner of feeling and interaction is displayed on the page. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is left to the imagination, every moment, every longing is there, clear as it would be if I were there with two teenagers under a game table at church camp. At times I felt almost like an intruder, as if I was prying out from these men their most closely held secrets, and I had to remind myself constantly that i had been allowed in, I had been welcomed by their pen to experience something I could at times relate to, at others know I would never feel entirely what those characters felt at that particular moment.
A critical question reading this material has made me ask myself as an artist is wether or not I am now or ever will be prepared to have that much of myself, my most precious moments out for the world to see. If I can be committed entirely to a story I want the world to hear, regardless of what I may expose about myself. It's something I believe every artist, especially in my field of storytelling, must ask themselves this question, and if the answer is no, if we can tell the stories that matter, because if we can't, what will our work contribute, what else but ourselves and our experiences, and lessons we've learned do we have to contribute? It's something I'd never considered before, but something absolutely worth exploring within ourselves.

The Comic Book

The most striking thing I noticed originally in relation to Comic Books as opposed to Comic Strips was the aspect of more complex story telling in Comic Books. That may be due to the intended audience or the longevity a book versus a strip can provide, however I believe there is an aspect of many variables. The more intricate characters, which is also reflected in the art style, where the strip had more simple characters and scenery overall, the comic book has the potential to be much more complex visually. This may be due to the need for a deeper suspension of disbelief. Having the reader enter into an entire world, instead of having a smaller glimpse into our own, or a simplified version of a fantasy. A comic book brings to life an entire universe, an alternate world to our own. The characters are generally larger than life, instead of an imaginative young boy, we have secret agents, or enhanced human heroes, needing the realism in the art to make them more believable in general, rather than  relatable.
The comic book also posses an aspect of optimism that comic strips often lack. The comic books intention is to present to us a better, safer, more hopeful version of our reality, where a rugged criminal having acid poured over him can become, over night, a hero dedicated to justice and the good of the people. When in reality he likely would have died a quite painful death, he's instead reborn as a hero, a man who can help and make a difference.

Exploring Newspaper Comics

The simplistic and often repetitive nature of the Newspaper Comic can be a valuable tool to have an overarching commentary on society and the way that the average person lives their life outside of the comic realm. By analyzing strips like Gasoline Alley and Crazy Cat, two seemingly silly and simple comics, you are led to realize they have much more to say than slapstick humor, a knock on the head, or a false nickel. Comics like these generally have much more to say than their styles and humor would lead you to believe. While Gasoline Alley has a more experimental illustrative aspect to it at times as opposed to many of its counterparts, the concept is still in tact, and the style stays generally subdued. While the characters are simple and vague the subject matter can tend to lean more on the adult or mature side. The comic is for children, but at its core is much more deep and reflective than at first glance.
This technique of almost fooling the reader into thinking more deeply than expected was explored as well in Understanding Comics, and is one of the comic techniques that has truly stood the test of time, with even modern comics utilizing this idea in their stories. Calvin and Hobbes, as well as Peanuts comes to mid. Two wildly popular comics, with both children and adults, who's art styles are quite simple indeed, but both explore greater meaning and deeper thought. Calvin and Hobbes having a direct reference to the old greats of comic history, intentionally emulating their work.

Understanding Comics

The concept I found most striking in Understanding Comics was the premise of amplification through simplification within the comic medium. By simplifying an art style the reader is less likely to be absorbed in the artwork itself as opposed to the content presented in the work. The content can be watered down and overshadowed by the complexity or immaculate design work of the pages, the meaning or moral can be lost. This technique is accompanied by the ability to exaggerate your suspension of disbelief, by making a character less complex, bare even, the human mind seeks to fill a void we see in this character, often times with ourselves. We place ourselves into the comic, and live the story along with the characters. Having the main protagonist often the simplest character, and the others more detailed, so that the reader feels like they are the center of the action. The more simplified the character the more likely you are to see aspects of yourself in them. 

Children's comics and Japanese manga do this masterfully. Tackling social issues and rather mature themes with a simple and often fun art style so that readers hardly even realize what it is they've experienced, and in some cases may have even learned. 

This ties into the concept of why we create stories and comics, and why we do them the way that we do them. If your goal is to teach with a comic, to shape young minds and take adventures, this technique would be very valuable to you. However if you were seeking to create adventure stories where the reader may not place themselves into the characters lives, but rather be along for the ride, then perhaps a more illustrative path would be best for your stories. This makes being very self aware critical to the comic medium, if you aren't sure of your purpose, there may not be many other things you can be sure of in your stories. 

The Arrival, Shaun Tan

Being a silent comic Shaun Tan's, The Arrival, serves as a powerful and poignant commentary on the experiences of refugees traveling abroad to better the lives of themselves and their family. Through the use of silent story telling Tan conveys the difficulty of communication in a foreign land. Following the protagonist we see his struggle in understanding the language and landscape of his new surroundings. Without the medium of words to guide the reader we are given a stronger understanding of a language barrier between characters, and their reliance on images and drawings themselves as a method of communication, as Tan parallels in his communication with the reader through images.

Through his utilization of symbols Tan expresses an anxiety and distance in regard to the protagonists new home. The suitcase a symbol of what he left behind in his home, the emptiness within a physical manifestation of the emptiness in his home, and how much the character was made to leave behind. The clouds in his dream act in a similar way, conveying a sense of wistful longing for the clouds he sees on the boat as he leaves his family, and perhaps clouds similar to those he would see with them. The clouds are then morphed into his new pet, and the illusion of freedom to travel and return to his home is dispersed, and he is taken back to the reality of a new home. The new pet himself may be a tool the protagonist uses to fill the longing he feels for his family, a piece of his new surroundings to satisfy the desire for his old ones.

The methods Tan uses to communicate the passage of time, and the internal struggles of characters help to guide you through the soundless medium. With the lack of words comes no sense of loss or confusion. With his elongated exposition of changing expression and his portrayal of passing seasons, a dying flower, and falling snow, the sense of time passed is never fully lost, and his use of faded images as a way to convey a story being told about another characters life, often aligning very closely with the past of the protagonist in terms of his plight and reasons for leaving home, giving him a sense of community and relationship with those around him.