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.