I thought this was a great class! So, with our many discussions, I just wanted to sort of summarize some of the things we've concluded this year.

Starting with theorists and old school comic veterans, our class began to look at the comic form and also the power of its aesthetic message.
Vacation Time
From Donald Ault's analysis of Carl Barks' "Vacation TIme" Donald Duck comic, we learned about continuity and discontinuity in comics. Looking at the deliberate nature of such things like panel shape, perspective, and deeper things as well, such discovering the reason for depicting humans v. animals v. really human-like animals all in one comic world!
panel motion

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KISS: Psycho CircusI've been meaning to post about this for a few weeks now, actually, sort of partially in response to the post about Gaiman's Sandman, partially in response to Watchman. Now I'm re-reminded of the topic, due to a discussion we've been having in Professor Harding's 1960's Theatre seminar, regarding the idea of the cowboy as mythical figure (the tall tale of the cowboy), and how he's been replaced by the rock star as the tall tale, which (of course) led to a discussion of the superhero as the emerging mythical figure. (Essentially, we could argue that cowboys were our imperialist Cold War heroes of the 1950's, but by the late 1960's, the rock star emerged when fighting the establishment became heroic, and superheroes? Well, apparently that's a phase we're in right now. But I'd argue that we have been since Action Comics #1 came out; we just change the way we choose to read them.)

But. Back to the rock star. I'd been threatening to various associates to write about KISS Psycho Circus on the blog, and I think they thought I was kidding. I wasn't.

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Now, some of these claims of messianic resemblance are certainly stronger than others, but I think there is something to be observed in graphic novels and comics about Biblical references. Granted, what Western novel, poem, or any other work of fiction, doesn't use Biblical or Greek Mythological allusions? As a Western trend it is, thus, common to see resemblances between heros and major characters and Jesus or self-sacrificing figures.
superman messiah

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Note: I wrote a long, heartfelt blog post about my viewpoint on blogging. To summarize, I stated that I had a hard time blogging because it was difficult trying to think of something significant to contribute. I went on to say that blogging is a good way to introduce and discuss content, but I felt that it was likely that most people would just treat it as an assignment being done for a grade. Believe me, it was a good post. Sadly, the whole thing got wiped out when I decided to add an image. Unfortunate.

In lieu of trying to recreate that masterful work (it took about an hour to write), I will instead rummage through my collection of miscellaneous writings and post something else. It is a mathematical rumination, almost surely incorrect (embarrassingly so, I am certain). Enjoy!

- - - - - - - - Don't read this I have no knowledge of mathematics or physics- - - - - - - -

Entities within fractal space possess a fractional dimension based on the number of replicative parts within the object and the requisite factor of magnification. True shapes, such as a circle or cube, have "proper", whole number dimensions - 2 and 3 respectively. But fractals can have a wide range of dimensions, from 0 to 2.56278163784 to 4.3 and so on.

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It is my opinion that main stream comics these day have hit a low point. Both major companies, DC and Marvel. have published year long crossover crisis for several years now. Both universes seem to be in a state for continual chaos. Marvel has had Disassembled, Secret War and Planet X in 2004, which fed directly into House of M and Decimation on 2005. This was followed by Annihilation and Civil War in 2006, which sets the stage for World War Hulk and the Initiative in 2007 and the "spin off" Messiah Complex which led to the Secret Invasion in 2008 and currently ongoing Dark Reign. DC had Countdown to Infinite Crisis in 2004, Infinite Crisis in 2005, which led to One Year Later in and 52 2006 then Countdown to Final Crisis in 2007 and Final Crisis 2008, plus as "spin offs" Sinistro Corps War in 2007 and Blackest Night currently being published.

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One of the biggest troubles I had in getting through Super Spy was distinguishing between the faces of the characters. This managed to become a problem for a few reasons:

- The story is fragmented; the reader is supposed to piece it together
- Names are rarely used at all, so we are left with what facial similarities the artist similarities
- The artists style makes faces look different from different angles

This left me flipping back through pages more than I should have been to examine the faces and make sure this character was where I saw him or her. Even Sharlink the Shark looked different in different stories of the novel, and in one story I didn't even realize it was her until mid-way (and I am not referring to the Soviet one where that is intended.

Faces

The last years of Calvin and Hobbes represent a surprising departure from the established norm. The collections that I am calling "the later years" are the last four produced: The Days Are Just Packed, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, There's Treasure Everywhere, and It's a Magical World. In these four books we see the major characters and situations that have defined the strip for years, but the tone is less slapstick, less innocent, and sometimes sardonic.

Kazam

Notice how in the last panel Calvin looks depressed. This one concept is an important element within the later years. Calvin still has his childlike imagination, but he is no longer strictly bound to his fantasies. He is now in control of his imagination and uses it as a tool to escape the real world. He becomes quiet and reflective, wishing that the real world could hold the same kind of wonder and mystery as his imagination. He has grown up emotionally despite his small stature.

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As I've had to reflect back on my webcomic experience for both the class presentation and our final portfolio, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of the audience. When my group (Team JAMA) came up with our idea for a webcomic, we didn't have a specific audience in mind. We talked about what should go in our presentation, and I thought it was important to include our intended audience, but it was at that point that I think we all realized we never had an intended audience.
This lack of insight into one of the most crucial elements of the webcomics relationship - the audience - was clearly evident when I looked over our Google Analytics report. We had a little over 50 unique visitors (which isn't terribly impressive when you think that 25 of those were most likely members of this class). The only comment we received was from one of our team member's mom. Without a specific audience, and without very many readers, it made the unique "conversation" between the audience and the author(s) impossible.

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Moonshadow and Jimmy Corrigan couldn't be more different. One is a sweeping, whimsical coming-of-age narrative, the other a stifled and awkward account of a few days in one character's life. But more than just the stories themselves, the visual elements of each work heighten the romanticism and insecurity of each work respectively.

MoonshadowIn Moonshadow, the art is soft and, to put it simply, pretty. The lines are fluid and often undefined by any kind of solid outline. The muted palette and multilayered shading of the watercolors give the illustrations depth and the romantic feel of a Waterhouse painting. Each panel is a work of art. And the panel structure itself lends to this feeling. Panels aren't always clearly defined; often different images spanning space and time blend together into a single image, and whole pages can consist of only one panel. Often long spans of time are condensed into one image or a short series of images. Overall it the art has the feeling of a fairytale, just like narrative would suggest.

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I, like everyone else probably, found Jimmy Corrigan to be a very depressing read. Moments of stark humor crept in here and there but for the most part I kept thinking, "Wow! How have they not made this into a movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman yet?!"
Movie Poster
Then it struck me how similar Jimmy Corrigan is to the recent Koffman indie flick, "Synecdoche, New York" with PSH. I'm not at all comparing the plots (in case anyone's seen the film and disagrees) because, admittedly, they are very different. However, the general tone, a lot of the themes, some motifs and techniques are rather striking.

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We've spoken so often in this class throughout the year about the medium of comics as harboring a more elevated form than previously considered by popular culture. While I think we all agree that comics truly are "not just for kids anymore," something has come to my attention as of late that I found rather interesting: if we consider illustrated children's books, where is the line drawn between the graphic novel & kiddie lit?

The components are all essentially there: images that support & flesh out a plotted text; a text that parallels & behooves illustration. If a children's book is meant for a child by its form, what are we to consider Moonshadow? The text is narrator-driven, with minimal dialogue coming from the characters themselves, & static images on each page serve to balance this narration. Consider the Clifford the Big Red Dog series, or Arthur, or even chapter-by-chapter illustrated texts for children like the Sideways Stories series or - & perhaps this is a stretch - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There are elements in all of these books that speak to adults as well as children (some, of course, more blatantly than others), but why does this make them more of a "comic"? Or does it even make them more of a comic at all?

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With the class (and our discussion of the comic form) winding down, I want to take this opportunity to do something that is somewhat overdue: plug a great comic author whose original work is often overlooked. I may still have one last gasp of critical commentary in me, but that will have to wait for another day.

Babylon 5: It's the name of the place.

For most of you, I would actually be pretty surprised if you know who J. Michael Straczynski (henceforth referred to as JMS) is. Those of you who dip into geek culture a bit more liberally than others might have heard the name dropped, and might even respect it, depending on where you tread. So, a brief introduction: though he is many things (i.e. a writer of just about every fiction medium imaginable), JMS is most well-known for the mid-90s TV sci-fi epic, Babylon 5. He has, off and on, worked for Marvel and other publishers, including, most recently, a 2001 to 2007 run on The Amazing Spider-Man, ending with, I believe, the reviled "One More Day" arc (though I'm not sure the plot was his idea, as often happens with big properties like that).

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This semester we've been talking and writing a lot about talking and writing about comics, so by now, I feel like this question should be easier to answer: How do you write about comics? We've talked enough about the difference between comics and other media that I feel like I should have a good ready answer for that, but I haven't.

For instance, here's a page of Marvel's new comic book adaptation of Pride and Prejudice:

Pride and Prejudice: (Click to enlarge.)

And then (part of) the same passage in Austen's novel:

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Just another example of the many intricate aspects of Super Spy -
There is a sub-plot in the “Polly Peregrine” story that we didn’t really discuss in the class (at least, not as a whole).
On page 213, there is an image of Harold’s scrapbook. On it are doodles of a hospital and a woman reading. In his scrawled notes, we see that the woman is named Martha, and that the hospital is where she was born.
At first glance, it may seem like the woman is Harold’s wife; however, his wife's name is Margaret, not Martha.
“Martha” is never directly mentioned by any of the characters, and she is otherwise not present in the story. Harold’s notes indicate that the drawing is based off of a vacation in 1939, presumably before the beginning of the war.

It could be argued that the death of Polly, the bird, is supposed to be representative of the death of the couple’s daughter; however there is still the possibility that she is alive somewhere.

"Martha" Appears

Marry MeI love online graphic novels. I like the idea of reading a webcomic with a concrete beginning, middle, and end. After Marry Me was mentioned in our last class I decided to look it up. It was delightful. The story, for those not paying attention, follows a pop star who marries a guy from the audience at one of her concerts. It may sound a little too romcom for some people but the story is solid. The supporting cast is wonderful and hysterical. If you need something to brighten up your day then read it.

Another wonderful online graphic novel that everyone should read is The Tower. The Tower is interesting because it is textless. All you see is the story unfolding through the illustrations. A princess (we suppose) escapes her Tower and goes on an adventure. Which brings up the question: is this even considered a graphic novel? Does that fact that it is online negate it ever being a graphic novel? If it was printed and bound would it still be considered a graphic novel? Do graphic novels need to have text in some form?

The Tower Pg 4

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I believe in class Professor Whalen (I'm paraphrasing big-time) called Jimmy Corrigan "hilariously depressing". After rereading the work, I would have to completely agree. I first read this gem all the way back in Freshman year for English 295. I remember being a naive Freshman and plowing through the work rather easily. I finished it and thought, "How weird and sad".

Now I see the work for what it really is (or at least I'm pretty sure I'm seeing the light). Sure, it's tragic, but it's so in-your-face tragic that Ware must be going for some sort of comedic irony at the same time. In my Shakespeare class, we like to call it "tragicomedy" (see Shakespeare's The Tempest and arguably Antony and Cleopatra). Jimmy is clearly not the smartest kid in the universe: he's an insecure, delusional, antisocial mama's boy. Ware juxtaposes tragedy and comedy so well it's uncanny. Almost every conservation is full of awkward small talk, discerning faces, and odd pauses like "cough", "huff", "ha ha", "mm--hmph" (or something similar). Jimmy's day-dreaming goes far beyond just a mere dream: he's living in a alternate reality.

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Unrelated to any graphic novel we have read, this blog post largely has to do with the sheer amusement I retained after reading a "comic" my brother made. I gave him the link to my webcomic and he emailed me back 8 attachments of his unpublished comic he created about a year ago.
Kidneys Are Your Best Friends 1
I know these personally made me crack up, but maybe we just share the same humor because we are related. However, it also made me consider a sort of comic art that we have not provided much, or really any, discussion on previously this semester, which subsequently caused me to wonder how to classify it.

My brother had an assignment in nursing school to write a piece of literature for patients similar to this one about how to detect kidney disease. Of course he found the manuel asinine and an easy target for ridicule but as a creative person he took it to the next level; he created an annotation of the illustrated manual that mocked its approach to the point of satire even.

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Something I ran across a while ago through Chris Hazel's excellent webcomic Misfile is the WOWIO website. WOWIO deals in downloadable .pdf books, including comics and graphic novels. WOWIO deals with both print comics and webcomics, and usually has something free to download every month. Alternatively for a few dollars other content may be downloaded.

While I used to find WOWIO to be a great resource lately their content has underwhelmed me. WOWIO is definitely taking on more of an erotic theme in some areas, especially with regards to their comics. Most of the smart comics I used to read through this service have pulled out due to financial disagreements with the company. Hazel in particular has been keeping a running counter at Misfile for how long it's been since WOWIO paid him his earned royalties (currently over $7,000). Likewise, Sarah Ellerton of Phoenix Requiem and Inverloch is no longer on WOWIO for probably similar reasons.

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In my opinion, Jimmy Corrigan is one of the most visually appealing graphic novels we have read this semester. Chris Ware seems to get distracted from the plot and goes into beautiful, sprawling architectural-scapes.

Throughout the novel, Ware uses dull, muted tones. This gives the novel a consistent visual style. The colors also keep with the depressing mood of the story. It completely breaks with the bright colors often used in comics like those seen in Watchmen.

The way Ware draws his characters also differs from comic conventions. All his characters have very rounded bodies and seem to be oddly proportioned. This adds to their sense of awkwardness. They all seem to shuffle along. They contrast greatly with the landscape around them which is much more realistic.

Even though it is not necessarily art, the panel layout of Corrigan adds a lot to its visual impact. The sizes of the panels vary greatly, from 1”x1” to a full page. They arranged in such a way that occasionally leads to confusion in reading order. Sometimes the story can change slightly depending on the order in which the panels read. This, combined with the fact that action often occurs outside of the panel, creates a slight feeling of unease in the reader which goes with the story well.

Superman Jumps

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The popularity of comics has gone down over the past decade or two. What has replaced them? Video games. Instead of reading a story, you can now play it out the way you want to. Has the invention of video games taken away from the development of a kid’s imagination? When reading a comic, you have to picture in your mind what you think something will look like, or picture it if it were a movie and was in motion instead of just a drawing. Nowadays kids play video games instead of reading comics, so they don’t need to use their imagination because everything is already there for them to picture. Although comics are no longer as popular as they used to be due to the takeover of technology, they still play a key role in something, and that is the making of video games. Without comics many video games (and movies for that matter) would not even exist. For example Batman: a comic turned into a movie, which was eventually turned into a video game. Every video game starts out with drawing the storyline in which the game entails, and making the storyline requires the making of cartoons. Comics are the basis of most video games, so they are still vital in the world of entertainment.

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