The Arrival {Rewrite}

What makes The Arrival special has nothing to do with the story, but everything to do with the way the author used the medium. Rather than focus on a story the author focused on a feeling and by stripping the dialogue and making this a wordless comic which makes that goal much easier. The story of The Arrival is a very basic one and easy to grasp because it has been told so many times, but what is admirable is the feeling and immersion the author was able to create by using certain uncommon comic techniques. To create the feeling of awe and to make the reader really feel like they are in the world the comic is full of huge full page, extremely detailed illustrations of new land. By doing this the author is able to create the feeling of experiencing a brand new place by giving the reader this grand image then letting them explore it and get lost in the details just as the character must feel lost and at the same time full of wonder and awe.

The author also uses many disconnected images that clearly have the goal of creating a feeling through small vignettes than through storytelling. For example, their is a page of small panels of clouds which aren't really telling a story as much as they are giving the reader a floaty ethereal feeling. They are there to immerse the reader into the internal feelings of the character which are kind of changing and lost rather than show what actions are happening to him. In doing this the author is really able to capture to time and memory of that experience rather than just a sequence of events.

Octopus Pie

So when I opened Octopus Pie I thought to myself 'I'll just read for a little bit then do a post', but then it was four in the morning and I had read seven years worth of a web comic. Suffice to say I find Octopus Pie hilarious and crazy relatable. All of the character clearly kind of have their stereotype, (Hanna is a stoner, Eve is mad, etc.), but the author really make the characters so much more than that and uses those stereotypes to a huge advantage. Most of the time people really do fall into those kind of categories, but this comic shows that there really is more to people than just that and not every person who is a {insert label here} is exactly the same, they just have commonalities and that's why they hang out. It also shows that different categories of people can totally get along and be friends, like Hanna and Eve. Even though Eve has a kind of culture shock when she first meets Hanna because she's not the kind of person she normally hangs out with they become super good friends and both kind of accept each other's stereotype culture. The story about the laser tag war between the stoners and the nerds really drove that point home and focused on stereotypes which is so prevalent in the comic.

I think one of the things about Octopus Pie that makes it so successful is that it is so relevant to the kind of media and experiences that the average web comic reader is exposed to. It was really interesting to read all of the comics at once because certain trends ebbed and flowed and that way more apparent when I read it like that. For example in the older stories you don't really see much texting and in the newer ones the author uses texts kind of as dialogue at times. I think that her doing things like that really keeps the comic interesting and relevant because that is how we communicate a lot now. It's not just words, it's a phone buzzing in your pocket or through a text message that you rewrite a million times and then decide to never send. Not only does Octopus Pie keep up with the times it also knows exactly what nostalgia buttons to push. The Supermarket Sweeper story was an awesome nostalgia trip, but what's great about the nostalgia is that it isn't all about that because character development is still really tied into those stories. One of the stories that I think really tied in current times and nostalgia is when Hanna had little vacation. Vacation is not really a thing that happens anymore, especially for our generation, because we are working for ourselves or scraping by and feel anxious when we aren't doing something so the fact that Hanna was trying to go back to work or do anything productive on her vacation really is so relatable. Then to top it off she goes to visit the MET and due to whatever she was on she dove through a painting that made her relive the 90's. What I find really awesome about this page is that it's using techniques that are new innovations in comics, such as moving panels, while it is talking about the past. I think that the way this comic really ties the present and the past together through the medium and story is why it's so addictive and relevant. Can't wait for the next update!

Y: The Last Man

At first I thought it was a bit odd that Y: The Last Man was part of the superhero readings. Yorrick isn't super in anyway except that he is the only human man to survive a mysterious 'plague' that wiped out every animal on earth with a Y chromosome. His only power is being alive. But I realized throughout reading it that just because Yorrick is the title character that doesn't necessarily make him the superhero. I'd say the women who survive and rebuild after half the world's population are the superheroes. 355 is definitely a superhero and protector with Yorrick practically a damsel in distress. The only thing Yorrick technically really does to help in this is be alive, and most of the time that is just because all the women around him are trying so damn hard to keep him that way. This comic even has the 'super villain' character in a non-traditional sense, in fact multiple of them. The Amazons, the Setauket Ring, Alter, and Dr. Mann's father are typical 'super villains' in this story which I think really solidifies it's categorization as a superhero comic.

Not surprisingly this comic has extremely well rounded and human female characters. Particularly their reactions to the extinction of the men is very believable. Huge public mournings, super models turned garbage truck drivers, and mechanics who shaved their heads make this so believable. It would be so easy to make every woman drool when they see Yorrick and for every woman to just be in shambles, but they aren't. They are surviving and they are fixing the world. They are being superheroes. Some are driven insane, but that is totally believable too, because we can't all be the hero. It is very admirable that such an unbiased version of this world was written by a man. The one thing that really allowed these characters to shine and truly just been seen as human instead of just their gender is that there are no men. There is no way to make an excuse that a woman wouldn't normally have that job, or she wouldn't act that way or dress that way because it wouldn't be decent and because of that all the characters are allowed to be shown just exactly as they are with no constraints. Seeing women just in the context of being and as humans rather than as counterparts to men is so incredibly rare and this is definitely the purest representation of women I've ever read because of that.

Phoenix: Dawn

Somehow when I was younger I missed the manga boat. Phoenix: Dawn is so different from what I thought manga to be, though it clearly has major differences with western comics. One of the main differences is the lack of fuss about death. In western comics and fiction people hardly ever die and if they do a big fuss is made about it. In this people and children where getting shot dead with arrows, babies were being dropped down volcanoes all with very little fanfare. I noticed this while watching Barefoot Gen as well. Though it seemed particularly appropriate to see so much death in this because so much of the story is about the search for immortality and it solidifies the urgent need for that since it is clearly so easy to die. Though clearly one of the main themes is that death is not so much the problem as is dying unhappy and not taking joy in the life you are given.

Phoenix: Dawn seems to be playing off of old Japanese tales and history, though I do not know enough about it and the history that it says it is referring so it could also be fiction. Either way the sections that refer to these past times make the story seem much more real and as if it is a retelling of an event that happened in the past. It's feels like a very personal retelling of a point in history from a human perspective and instead of being from the perspective of the victors, like history is often told, it is told from the perspective of the victims. I find it interesting that the author makes a point to tell the reader that certain characters were thought to be gods, but were only captains or that certain information was made up, but never says anything about the phoenix being part of myth. It's almost like he is encouraging the reader to believe that it is real by never having a side note about it's origins as a part of the myth. By doing this he is able to have a character that is very influential on the world, characters, and the readers that makes them question and serve as a device to really communicate the authors message.

At points Phoenix: Dawn can seem like a very serious story, and it certainly is, but the author does somethings that are purposefully jarring which are quite experimental and humorous that you don't see often and some you just can't do in other mediums besides. Often he calls attention to the fact that it is a comic, for example one of the characters say something about how skipping so many frames in between might have been pushing it a bit. Another example of the author experimenting is the wolf scene where is draws a few different panels of the wolves coming to attack and they are all in different styles with notes underneath them saying 'disney style', 'movie style', 'grand-prix style', etc. bringing attention to the medium and style. It seems like he was simply experimenting to see what he could do in comics and do them because he could. He used the uniqueness of the medium to create humor and innovate the story and really pushed the way the form was used to communicate his message rather than through a really crazy story. I'd say I'm definitely intrigued by this and glad it's my first manga and will definitely be trying out more.

Diary of a Dominatrix

Diary of a Dominatrix takes a character archetype and actually makes it a person. Dominatrices are people too! In most fiction and even non-fiction dominatrices are only seen really in their sexual antics and during their profession and refuse to acknowledge that they are anything but that. This comic reveal the woman behind the whip. The parts of her being human are hilarious, which might be why they are left out usually because it takes away the sexyness and mystery, but in this case her tripping down the street in a trenchcoat with a latex dress on underneath is welcome. It's those kinds of things that you don't really think about, her putting on her makeup, her clothes, her thoughts about her clients and the trials and tribulations of that which really make you think about her as a person who has a life beyond sex. Especially when she is in a scene with her clients and she is thinking about something totally separate from what she is doing, it reminds me of basically an office worked daydreaming while they are in a meeting. She isn't her profession, it's her job, she doesn't do it for fun, she does it for money just like anyone else.

You would think this would be kind of sexy, given the title, but it is the total opposite. When you are reading about the logistics of what whip to use and how to use household objects as toys to save on spending and innovate it's as sexy as talking about buying office supplies. Zelda talks about her keeping her personal life and these kind of things in the dark from her clients because it would make her less mysterious and more of a person and that would make her different in the eyes of her clients. It's still kind of up in the air whether she really finds this sexy herself or not. She talks about having a slave, but that sounds mostly non-sexual, she just wants someone to clean and weigh on her hand and foot. There is some 'vanilla' sex between her and her boyfriend which ends in kind of hinting to her job coming into the bedroom a bit. However, while she never outright says it, the way she writes about it and shows her internal thoughts it seems like she doesn't really find it sexy, it's just a 9 to 5 for her. All in all a very refreshing read as a woman who has a sexual profession is actually depicted as a 3 dimension human rather than just a body with a whip and a sharp tongue.

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

For having such a simplistic style, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth may be the most complex graphic narrative I've ever read. I've actually owned the graphic novel for quite a while and just hadn't gotten around to reading it. I actually have been using it as my mouse pad as the cover makes quite an attractive pad and it the perfect size. After finally starting to read it I'm quite ashamed that I've let such a masterpiece literally sit under my hand for so long without reading it. Looking at the thickness of it initially I thought I definitely would be able to knock out the whole book in one sitting. I'm still not done reading it. The drawing style of Chris Ware is deceivingly simplistic, but Jimmy Corrigan is so chockful of complex content it creates a maze-like experience. Ware even has the reader turning the actual book as they read and reading pages of lilliputian writing that actually matters to the character development. Featuring multiple story lines spanning generations, dream sequences, internal daydreams, phone calls, and even instruction booklets it is extremely easy to get lost in this narrative if you do not read it very slowly and closely. Even then I still got lost, but thankfully this was anticipated by Ware and he gave a lovely little intermission synopsis to clear up all the things that had been happening. While I'm glad for that little clearing up part, I'm not upset about the getting lost part. In fact it's pretty clearly intentional, especially since he put in a part later to help the reader make sense of it. The way Ware writes and how all of these separate elements kind of flow together is very existentialist in a way. He's really pointing out that all of these things all of these stories are the same story and it's all part of the same thing. Jimmy's grandfather's experiences could have very well been his own experiences and Jimmy's father is currently experience a similar re connection with his father. Everything is so connected to a point that they are really all the same. They aren't really different story lines and time doesn't matter, they are all part of one thing.

Out of all the tragic happenings in this the superman suicide was the most intriguing to me. Not only is Jimmy having to deal with his mother and his father just now reaching out to him, he also has the burden of a suicide being partially blamed on him. It's very odd the way the almost treasures it, like he had some kind of influence on something and it's proof that he matters. Also it cements the way that everyone just kind of want him to bend to what they want and what they want him to be concerned about, even strangers. Jimmy never really does anything because he wants to do it. He is even forced to feel like he is to blame for a suicide because he didn't pay attention to someone else's needs enough. Though he is clearly very distraught by this, and when his father washes his pants without asking that has note in it and it's all torn up it shows even further that the people around him are not really concerned about what he wants. I have yet to finish the book yet, so I don't know how the superman thing resolves, but just wanting to find out about that and how it affects Jimmy makes me want to keep reading.

The Nikopol Trilogy

The Nikopol Trilogy is tragic and hilarious simultaneously. It's also so chock full of tons of ideas and symbolism it's bursting at the seams. Though what struck me the most was this odd contrast between the hilarity of the chaos and oddities and the tragedy of them coexisting so closely. This comic makes fun of the horrible circumstances while it is still highlighting that they are really terrible. Such as the possession of Nikopol by the Egyptian God Horus who is using him to further his plot of taking over France, but at the same time Nikopol humorously jokes about how Horus is "all-powerful" yet can't even help with his headaches. This contrast between tragedy and humor happens a lot in comics that are pretty heavy to relive a bit of the tension the comic is creating so it continues to be readable and reading it doesn't feel like jumping into a black abyss of depression.

Unlike other comics however, it does not keep the comic relief past the first act. In fact the overall arch of the Nikopol Trilogy is so different than most other plots in comics, and really all fantasy and science fiction, that I've encountered. Rather than starting from humble beginnings and starting the story off with more personal stories than ramping up to the big events The Nikopol Trilogy starts off with a bang and then slowly begins focusing on smaller stories that would not make a huge worldly impact. This kind of deconstruction of the traditional plot arch make the reader pay much more attention to these human stories rather than huge war over power and control. The author is clearly trying to bring attention to the fact that these stories are more interesting. He even uses a plot device in the comic where a filmmaker is making a movie about the love story between Nikopol and Jill, rather than the events preceding that which are of a much bigger scale and one would think a filmmaker would be making the film about, pointing to the fact that even artists in this world find the human story more interesting. I personally gravitate towards stories that focus more on smaller interpersonal relationships so I found this really refreshing to see the author really make a point to focus on this and try to show how interesting those kind of stories can be, especially when they consequences of a bigger more global event. Those consequences and what happens after the 'big battle' or what have you hardly are touched on and seeing what happens to characters after they win or lose is just as exciting and interesting, if not more so.

Maus

What makes Maus deeply emotional and effective is not just the horrifying stories of the Holocaust, but how the Holocaust affected the survivor's lives afterwards and how it changed them as people. Many, many stories have been told of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but a very few speak about how the Holocaust affected the individual survivor's lives after the events. Art Spiegelman makes a purposeful effort not to just tell his father's story of the past events during the Holocaust, but what happened before and after. I think that is what was absolutely critical in what made this graphic novel such a success because it filled a gap in the story of that tragedy and gives the audience something to grasp that is more relatable. Some of the most emotional moments in the book for me were whenever Vladek talked about his wife, Anja. There is a scene where Art is talking about something totally different, but Vladek thinks he is talking about Anja and say he sees her all the time everywhere, even out of his glass eye. His strained relationship with Mala, his new wife, is clearly due to him constantly comparing her to Anja who she could never live up to in his mind. It's absolutely heartbreaking that even though they both lived through the events of Auschwitz, the Holocaust never really ended for either of them, especially Anja. The Holocaust still killed Anja even though she wasn't physically in Poland anymore, her mind was still there. Vladek also clearly still lives in that mindset, picking up wires, keeping strong even in his old age, and making sure nothing goes to waste.

Reading a bit about the reception of the work I discovered that some people found the portrayal of Vladek as very negative and criticized Art Spiegelman for showing his father in this light. I found the complete opposite and in fact at times felt that Art was being very ungrateful towards his father. Even though Art is having Vladek pull back up memories that he clearly wanted to bury, as demonstrated by burning all of Anya's diaries, he still happily does it and never complains. Vladek may have some high-strung tendencies, but he clearly loves his son deeply. Art is the only real family Vladek has left in the whole world and he survived a lot to be able to have him and spend time with him. He often remarks to Art that he is happy to spend time with him and loves when he comes over. In return, the only thing Art really wants from his father is his story to tell. Art doesn't want to talk about his father's troubles or problems and really at times it feels like he is using him. When his father tells him that he burned Anya's diaries he isn't at all sympathetic towards why he did it, only upset that his father's actions are thwarting his story. Even after hearing all that his father has been through and is witnessing what he is still struggling with he does not want to spend more time with his father when he most needs it. If anything, I think that Art himself was depicted negatively, but really the fact that even his flaws show through proves that he was just being honest and objective. Vladek is a bit annoying at times and has flaws, but all people do. He didn't portray him negatively, he just portrayed him honestly. Just because he lived through the Holocaust doesn't make him any less human. He isn't a saint. He is just a person.

Crumb

The documentary Crumb delves even deeper into the mind and life of Robert Crumb, which is pretty impressive given how personal his comics are. Crumb is really very transparent in conversation and his hatred for most of humanity shows through. Even though he is so critically acclaimed he still doesn't really fit into his audience. He really doesn't fit in anywhere. Most people seems to treat him more as a peculiar specimen to be wondered at than to actually genuinely interact with. I think this is why Crumb says that he doesn't think that he has ever really been in love. People his whole life, even as he is famous, treat him like a kaleidoscope. They only look and pay attention to him to see the raw deep part of humanity that they are afraid to dig and see inside themselves.

In most families, Crumb would probably be the outcast or the odd one out, but out of the Crumnb family the documentary shows he seems to be the most well off. In fact, a lot of this documentary focuses on his older brother Charles. Much of the documentary seems to talk about the lost potential of Charles Crumb. Robert talks about how Charles was more clever and funny than he was when they were kids and was the head of their family comic club, but even though Charles seemed to be the one destined to be more successful he became a recluse. He became victim of his own depression and hatred of humanity and became a recluse that was jealous of Robert to the point of homicidal thoughts. In my opinion, if Charles had a similar liberating experience as Robert did with the LSD he might have been more functional. Robert had the benefit of being able to let out all of his pent up feelings and frustrations through comics, completely uncensored, which I really think is the only thing that kept him from the same fate as Charles.

Crumb admits that while a lot of people found his cartoons hilarious he initially found them nightmarish. In one of the interviews with one of his past girlfriends she talks about how she thought that he was kidding about being turned on by the things he drew and Crumb laughs and says he's not kidding around. I think that is why Crumb initially found his work horrifying because he was forced to confront his subconscious desires head on and accept that he thought of these things himself, which of most are considered deeply disturbing or taboo by most of society. Confronting your own true desires is scary and I think that is what is at the heart of his work. It's all about coming to terms with your own desires, prejudices, and fears in a society that tries to oppresses them so vehemently.

Tits and Clits and Dicks, OH MY!

The openness and truth of these underground comics are astounding. The artists are telling about their deepest insecurities, intimate fantasies, and fears that really get to the core of what it is to struggle with human urges in a cloistered society. Artists, or people who just had something to say, were using these comics to create a dialogue about insecurities and sex in a society that didn't want to talk about it or even acknowledge it. Even today in American society people are terrified of talking about sex and find these kinds of comics 'lewd' and 'inappropriate'. Most people are scared of their own sexuality, but these women and men who were drawing anything and everything certainly weren't, or at least weren't afraid to talk about their fears. From the comics I read it seems like the women authors tended towards embracing their sexuality and expressing frustrations towards men's and society's attitudes toward women who like sex while the male authors focused more on their fantasies, insecurities around women, and fear of them.

A lot of these comics are laugh out loud hilarious, especially from a female perspective, because they play up the ridiculous expectations of women to be 'pure' and 'proper' and completely free of any sexual wanting. One story in particular shows a woman who becomes obsessed with sex, sells drugs to get money for prostitutes, and in the end she is lead onto the righteous path, but is shown pretty boozed up as the antidote. The lines in it are just perfect, such as the one pictured above, "My God! What'll I do with this vagina!!" They really push the satire with the dialogue and extremes that she goes to in order to get off. Some of these comics are very dark though, dealing with rape. While it is clear that many of these authors did not have much technical artistic training the line quality and mark making that is used in each respective story really seems to match the tone of the story. Satirical stories use traditional styles, romantic stories use smooth swooshing lines, and dark stories use frantic small marks and splotches. Even though they weren't trained, they clearly had a lot of sensibility as to what aesthetic would best support their story. In fact, I really enjoy that many of these are crude because they reflect the raw emotion instinct and lust that these comics are talking about. There is nothing clean about these comics, so the lines shouldn't be clean either.

If you can't appreciate the hilarious sexual antics, at least you can appreciate that these women and men opened up comics and showed that you can do anything with them and that an adult audience was definitely out there waiting to be catered to. One of Crumb's stories in The Book of Mr. Natural actually had a character breaking the fourth wall and saying 'hey look, I could never do this in real life, but I'm in a comic so I can do what I want!'. By really pushing the envelope and telling stories on the border of what is acceptable in society it showed other artists that anything can be explored in this medium, and that it was definitely not just for kids.

Blankets

Blankets is so relatable it's painful. Thompson makes you relive all the pain and pleasure of your childhood through his own brave and truthful true story. But the reason it hits so hard is not because of the dialogue or beautifully rendered sad eyes or even that these issues are universal. It's because Thompson knows what to draw, and it's not the action. He doesn't just draw them having sex for the first time. He draws how having sex for the first time feels. He visualizes ecstasy in swirls and halos instead of simply showing the act. He takes full advantage of the medium by using drawing to show something you can't tangibly touch or see in real life, feelings. That's why Blankets is so good. There have been a million stories and tales of first love and the trials of growing up, but Blankets shows what is happening inside while all of these events are happening. That is what makes this so relatable. While the events of his story may not have happened to you exactly in the same way it still is relatable because it's not the details that matter. It's the raw emotion associated with it that we have all felt or will feel. Thompson so expertly captures those feelings of lust, love, fear, doubt, and anger and draws them how they feel, not the exaggerated fake facial expressions we associate them with, but simple jagged lines and swooshes he is able to reflect what raw feeling really is.

Even though his line is smooth and practiced, the feelings are raw. I relate to those swirls and I can feel them. They trigger memories and I think that reaction is what really gets to the heart of this work. You don't remember every little word that way said or exactly what someone was wearing because it's not about that. It's that raw emotion that stays with you. That is memory. Memories are just the ghosts of raw feelings and Thompson is able to communicate memory and raw emotion in such a true way I struggle think of a story that captures that concept better.

Face it, Archie was a Sistah.

I have no idea how I have not seen Chasing Amy until now. That being said I'm glad I saw it when I did. It seems like a film really ahead of it's time. It really reflects the progressiveness of the underground comix scene with multitude of issues it tackles including race, sexuality, identity, and relationships. When I was watching it I really felt it fit in with the dialogue that is going on today and it was interesting to watch a film that was at the start of when issues of sexual identity and it's flexibility really started being acknowledged seriously and questioned. At the time it must have been super controversial given that most of the dialogue was underground and not a prevalent discussion as it is today.

I found Amy to be a very intriguing creature. Today the character Amy would probably identify as pansexual, where that term probably wasn't widely accepted then and as shown in the film there was prejudice of flexible sexuality in both homosexual and heterosexual circles. The fact that she even suffered Holden's extreme ignorance about sexuality, like saying that lesbian sex doesn't count as 'real' sex, blows my mind. Given the times though and that the majority of people probably thought more along those lines I guess it makes sense that she wouldn't just kick him to the curb immediately. Amy puts up with a lot of shit throughout her whole journey, but really sticks to it because she knows what she wants and who she is. She doesn't bend to societal pressures and listens to herself instead of others.

On a side note, I thought all the behind the scenes and view of a life of an underground comic artist was super intriguing, especially Hooper X. The fact that assumes a completely different identity for a comic that he doesn't even write to manipulate a certain demographic into buying comics is crazy. The scene with him going crazy on a crowd is just magic. All of his dialogue about Archie and Jughead being lovers was hilarious too as it showed how a lot of underground comix artists took those wholesome comics and their style and twisted it to make a commentary about sexuality and repression in a 'straight-laced and wholesome' society.

Classic Comics! Exclamation Point!

While reading these comics I was very confused to how anyone ever thought that comics would cause illiteracy. There is so much text in these older comics. Most of the panels are completely dominated by it taking up usually half of the whole panel. I think that is probably one of the biggest tells that these comics were made in the early days of the comic book. They hadn't quite gotten the balance between text and image down yet. I would imagine many of the writers were coming from pulp fiction and having a hard time writing so little and trusting in the image.

The old EC comics were extremely reminiscent of pulp fiction with the helpless young damsels and the nagging wives. The comics definitely are lacking in women and the women that are present only exist to serve or antagonize the men. One of the comics I read in a Weird Fantasy issue was actually about how people could no longer have children and so they were going to bring people from the past into the future who could still procreate, but they put the portal in a men's restroom so literally no women came through. It most likely wasn't a commentary on lack of women in comics, but still made me laugh a bit because of the connection. Another of the Weird Fantasy stories was about a man who leaves his wife and goes to space with his new lover, his assistant, who he is predictably having an affair with because love has faded in his marriage and his wife nags him constantly. He smuggles his new lover by freezing her, but drops her upon arrival and she shatters. So in this she is literally so fragile she breaks. The women are so archetypal in these comics it makes me laugh, a cynical, bitter laugh, but still a laugh at how hilariously one-dimensional and man-centered the women were characterized as back then.

In the Action Comics issue that I read it became pretty clear that the writers were trying to dictate what the reader's inner dialogue was by narrating it. For example Superman had text like 'What does the evil medicine man mean? How can Superman cause anybody's death?' and 'But how can this save the doomed hun-sha?' which were questions that didn't really need to be written, but are more the job of the reader to wonder and have part of their own inner dialogue. Overall, it seems like in the majority of these comics the writers weren't trusting in the medium. They were trying to fill in all the blanks for the readers and doing all of the work for them, which for me makes these earlier books not as enjoyable to read. While this stage of comics was definitely necessary for the evolution I'm glad that writers and artists trust more in the medium and the reader now and modern comics are less about spoon feeding information.

However, the beginning of the evolution and the start of trust in the medium to communicate story as a balance between text and image is definitely seen in Carl Barks' work. It is kinda funny to me that a comic targeted at kids achieved this balance before the more adult targeted comics that were still really struggling trying to balance text and image. It is probably because of the constraints put on kids comics to not have too many big words or a lot of text, but because of that the image is able to do it's job and text and image works for harmoniously to tell a story. The Bark's work I read was one of the duck comics, The Secret of Atlantis, where Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck get in a squabble about a debt and after lots of shenanigans end up in Atlantis. Rather than relying on text to explain everything that happens in between the panels he draws out the action and shows the reader what is happening instead of telling. He really makes all of his panels count and no action or word is filler. Everything contributes to the story, there is no fat. There is a great momentum in his work because of it and I felt immersed in the story because it was never lagging. Looking at these older comics really reveals the kind of evolution that comics has gone through, especially in regards to trust in the medium and the reader.

Krazy Kat and Krazy Love

Reading Krazy Kat actually makes me motion sick. So much is going on and so many things jump around back and forth and it's all such a great jumble that it creates actual motion when I read it. That feeling of erratic motion really helps contribute even more to the highly disorienting feeling that Krazy Kat creates. Not only are the visuals from panel to panel disorienting, but the dialogue as well. It uses a phonetic way of writing the words so that you can hear the way the characters talk and the accents they have, but it's very different from most writing that is more straightforward. It takes some getting used to, but after a while it certainly contributes to the characters and further fleshes out their personalities. The story line tends to jump back and forth or sometimes starts a story and then changes completely. For example, when suddenly the strip starts off with a stork carrying something and within two panels the story changes and the beginning has nothing to do with the rest of the panels, that is definitely intentionally trying to not make any lick of sense. 

So from my perspective the artist is trying to do everything he can possibly do to make Krazy Kat feel completely non-sensical and make you in fact feel kinda 'krazy' yourself. It seems to me that is the point of Krazy Kat; to be so nonsensical that it becomes humorous how much everything is so illogical. While you are trying so hard as a reader to make sense out of it all it becomes kind of a mad scramble that turns into mad hilarity where you feel insane for trying to make sense of something that isn't supposed to work that way. Crazy things just happen. Deal with it. It's Krazy Kat.

I would say that Krazy Kat is a kind of satire of the illogical rhythm of love and how nonsensical it is to fall in love, especially unrequited love. Most of the stories surround Krazy Kat's obsessive love with Ignatz and Ignatz's hate for Krazy Kat. Krazy Kat is in love with a mouse, which in pop culture and nature should be Krazy's enemy, so that is non-sensical in itself. He/she/it is in love with something that naturally would normally never love crazy back. So is the dilemma of unrequited love. It doesn't make sense to love someone that hates you and throws bricks at your head. But Krazy still does and so do hopelessly in love humans. But Krazy is so innocent and only sees the good in Ignatz and wants so desperately for him to love him back that he decides that the abuse is actually his way of saying he loves him. That idea is so illogical and goes against everything rational about when people hurt us, but love is so blinding that it makes people totally irrational and see things how they want. So it seems what the author is trying to say is that love just makes no sense and people in love abandon all rational thinking. Love is definitely krazy.

Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics is really something that any skeptic about comics being an art or think they are 'just for kids' should read. It delves into a ton of ways that comics connect with the audience, create emotional storytelling, and even touches on the act of creation all while using the actual art form to explain it's points. It makes it very clear that just like literature comics have their own devices to communicate complex ideas and create a meaningful message.

The concept of the mask and simplification versus realism proposed by McCloud was particularly intriguing to me. Our thoughts and ideas aren't photo realistic, for most, so it would make sense that we also see ourselves in our own thoughts as simplified versions. So the more simplified the drawing, the more we are able to relate because we are able to easily identify with that character. While if they had very distinguishing features we would feel distanced because that is not how we look and the more detail the more it feels like an other or an object. An interesting anecdote that supports this idea is that when celebrities faces are scanned to be in video games and they see there faces in 3D they often say it doesn't look like them, even though it is an exact replication. However, once artists go in and simplify it and take out small detail they see themselves in it more clearly and feel it is more accurate. This supports the fact that we see ourselves in much more simplified terms and it is hard to even identify with our own image if it is not simplified.

McCloud talks about how even objects can be given life and identity by simplification. This explains why we don't think it so odd if inanimate objects get up and talk in cartoons and comics. They are simple and so feel as if they can still be given and filled with identity. While using realism in comics does the opposite and gives the reader objects and places to admire. The most interesting example of this was objectifying a character intentionally by drawing them realistically. This makes the reader feel a totally different kind of emotion to them. However, the use of realism in comics seems most prevalent in backgrounds giving the reader an area to immerse themselves in and make them feel like in the world. This makes a lot of sense that something which is more cartoony that is inanimate when it comes to life feels natural and can take on many personalities. However, when something that looks very realistic that is inanimate comes to life it usually just feels creepy or out of place and often disturbing.

To me simplification as a means of deeper relatability is a really insightful observation and a technique that seems deeply seated in psychology and plays on how we think. A very complex train of thought which is all about simplification.

The Arrival

The Arrival depends on body language, shape language, perspective and visual icons to communicate a universal story. By using images that are decipherable by almost any human in any country and by taking a story that is very relatable he is able to tell a story and create emotion in the reader without using words. While we don't often realize it because it is so ingrained in us we are all conditioned in a way to be able to read certain shapes, body movements, and even specific objects as carrying a specific meaning. These can be very subtle or extremely obvious, but most comics and other media use them, though Shawn Tan uses them as his primary means to communicate in Arrival.

From the very beginning Tan uses icon by showing items that are typically in a household and we already learn just from seeing these that this is a family of three, there is a young child, and that a suitcase is being packed. He then quickly establishes the threat by using the visual language of long snake-like tentacles with sharp points on them. Immediately we know there is danger without anyone screaming or saying a word because of this universally known threatening shape language. Later he uses icons, such as having the protagonist draw a bed, which is a rather literal use of icon. The map he uses is also a sort of icon, showing that he is lost and trying to find his way. This is not only recognized by the reader, but also by the woman who sees he is using it and comes to aid him.

Tan brings us to a very foreign world, as well as the character, but he establishes this world not with words, but with sweeping, wide establishing images of the new land. If you really look into one of these images they each have pages of information hidden in them for the reader to learn more about this strange land. These images are quite beautiful and inspire a kind of awe in the reader similar to what the character must have felt. It is very rare to have this kind of suggested first person perspective in a comic. The most significant use of this perspective is likely in a set of panels when the character wakes up. Tan makes these panels transition from a cloud-like dream to blurred vision to looking straight at the protagonist's pet. This series captures what it is like to feel to wake up, from the first person perspective, and in this way Tan is able to make the reader experience and feel what his character is feeling. 

Arrival is a universal story of coming to a foreign place and learning new customs, so Tan certainly has this on his side that it is a known story that many of us have lived through. However, I think in a way that communicating without words in this story is often much clearer than some texts that uses words. By using the kind of physical and iconic language which has been ingrained in us since birth reading this and understanding it is almost instinctual.