Revision of a Blog Post

After reading the theories of Will Eisner and his concept of comic illustrations and their sense of movement, emotion, and storytelling through what looks like frozen action frames in an animation, I also see the similarities in Craig Thompson's works as well. Both of them have a firm and complex understanding of what a character can imply through a single frame of movement, and what kind of feelings you can get, expect, and even watch them do. You mind seems to fill in the gaps with movement to each of the still frames, and in your mind you can take what you're seeing and affix a feeling towards even little things like how pushed up someone's shoulders are to show uncomfortability or anger for instance. To reference their theories in action, I looked over Eisner's Contract With God and Thompson's Blankets.

To start off, let's look at the similarities. Visually and literally, both of the works are in black and white with no color. Both of the art styles remain concise and constant throughout the stories, and the use of dynamic poses is very prevalent. Both of the artists display a strong atmospheric feeling of an overarching heavy problem in both the characters, world, and story, and they also accomplish an end result of how the characters deal with this, regardless of positive or negative outcome. To look at the opposites, one can see that Thompson's style is more of a stylized form of characterization, sometimes jumping to abstract representational images, or semi-realistic single frames, whereas Eisner's style is very realistic, with consistent rendering styles and use of purely representational promotion of character attitude, feelings, and the like (example would be the multiple head shots in sequential order in The Super). Another trait that puts Eisner's work from Thompson's is the rooted city-life society and down-to-earth problems these characters have, whereas Thompson's work focuses more on the singular person and the abstract forms of their internal and external conflicts with another person, rather than a society. Overall, I feel like that visually, they agreed on the idea of knowing and understanding things these characters do, feel, and act with dynamic looks, but both accomplish their own feats separately as a deviation of their main theory.

Web Comics - Digital Paper Meets Portability

Oglaf was a web comic series that I found rather hilarious (looking past all the innuendos and such). Its writer had a solid choice in stylization for the personality and direction of the tone in the visuals, as well as the writing aesthetically in the narration. The way that of which they speak to each other with the messed up spellings adds an interesting approach to understanding a character's sense of speech, and further adds to the look of a total goofball thus making the character that much more lovable. Web comics as a whole are interesting. There's no direct deadline (unless you're popular, of course, in which you must keep up for the fans), and the series is solely controlled by the creator. The development of the characters, world, and conflicts/jokes are at the mercy of the writer's mercy, without need of revision from a second series of hands. Essentially, it's far more laid-back, but easy to get into thanks to them mostly being free to view, lack of physical paper to care for and carry, as well as the portable devices we have today. I really do love webcomics as they're easy to follow (and follow-up on), and pick in the archives in comparison. Often the editor or author can leave little updates or notes, which is incredibly fun to see such transparency. Overall, they're a nice outlet for graphic narratives if you find yourself wanting to read one but lack the bookstore nearby.

Superhero or Super-Neutral?

I've read and looked over the Watchmen series more than dozens of times. From this series, I learned that taking the concept of light and dark and making it all grey can be strangely interesting. Placing grey lines in morality, and making all would-be superheroes potentially in the wrong with their decisions or questionable choices makes the readers think of what we accept as an everyday superhero. I truly loved the depiction of characters such as Rorschach, and his need to bring violent, horrifying justice on those who do wrong in the city, having being based on the notion of an older super hero casting from the Cold War, and how he went from what you'd expect to be a dashing fellow with super strength and wits to a trench coat-wearing armed vigilante is just stellar. The strive and push of placing dark elements on the light side has always been a love of mine, and challenging the norms of not just society but fiction as well. The world is as real as the one you live in with the Watchmen universe, however the fiction plays in with the characters, and their development truly does them justice of why they took their motives and strengths to use on who they view as deserving of a beat down, regardless of reason or choice.

Women In the Industry

Today narratives have been written by a wide array of genders, races, and ages, but believe it or not, it used to be just men. Due to the past World Wars requiring more troops and drafting in many of the males who were citizens, women began taking the main role in many jobs that were normally classified for men only, such as writing of narratives, comics, and newspaper articles. From here, changes slowly began to be made, and women began to become opened to the graphic narrative industry. The Imposter's Daughter, by Laurie Dandell is one of many narratives to have come from those years of freedom to write and draw. Essentially the story is based on a girl who investigates a rather shady past of her father, and from it she discovers many lies and truths that of which she was subjected to of his life and her involvement. Essentially this paved the way to prove that women could also be capable of writing and developing graphic narratives, and since there was no opposition, they were free to make as much as they wanted, since there were so many open positions. From here upon the end of the wars, the returned soldiers began to accept this and allow for their involvement.

Graphic Novels and Contemporary Literature - Differences or Likenesses?

I've read the book and seen the video that is Persepolis, and it's nothing short of phenomenal. Understanding Marjane Satrapi's struggles growing up, and her cluelessness of what was going on for so long in her younger life really struck home to even my childhood and the events that partook then. How she struggled, managed her life, and dealt with the social problems and racial issues in the societies she moved into were not only intriguing, but also heartfelt in a sense. Why bring this all up, you ask? Well, Persepolis is a contemporary entry in the graphic novel area of narratives, and its use of real events, down-to-earth non-fiction is noteworthy. Most people turn to graphic novels for fictional subjects to escape the modern world and it's problems. This piece however contributes to past events, and the realism experienced in it. Marjane took heavy note of her memories and how her parents acted, how her friends and relatives took action when struggles rose, and how the world's problems became more real that the book you held. Yes, it's a rather darker piece as a whole when you look at it from a distance, but as you go through the pages, you'll learn it's not as overtly dark as the background events, and rather how she coped with them, and dealt with turning those times. Something about it is an enriching experience, despite the contemporary setting, and I deeply appreciate narratives that run much like this.

Understanding Manga - The Japanese Comic Style

Manga has been an ongoing style or art in graphic novels. It's widely accepted as a Japanese art style (or as some people refer to incorrectly as "anime") across the world, and is widespread and ongoing. Genre like slice of life, comedy, action, and the shonen areas are commonly found and still being made, and unlike the comic book's physical makeup of being magazine-like, manga is often smaller, easier to carry on the go, and paperback book-style, sometimes seeing hard covers occasionally based on specialty. Another difference is also that manga is divided into chapters, rather than issues. One series I've read heavily into was D.Gray Man, a series where an order of exorcists fends off the dark intent of the Millennium Earl, a demonic man who creates demons as a business to slowly take the world by storm. This series combines elements from action and comedy, but also provides a compelling story that continues across several series, and is ongoing still, seeing anime adaptations as well due to its spike in popularity in the past. Essentially, manga is a different approach to how we see graphic novels and comics, and personally I feel that its a welcome addition to the graphic novel family.

Bibliography Style Storytelling

I'll make it apparent in this subject - I'm a sucker for bibliography narratives. Something about the main character's recollection or looking back at past travels adds a sense of humanity to them, and more interestingly allows for personalization of their perspective, allowing for interesting details you wouldn't find in a third person omniscient narration. I've been a huge fan of that style of writing for ages, and personally I've seen it succeed so many times in conveying a story and learning more of the main character, allowing levels of depth it would take chapters to explain to a reader or viewer. Historical pieces much like Persepolis are incredibly intriguing. It's one thing to read or hear a person's struggle, but to hear them talk about it, how they felt, what they thought, or how they came up with a solution or dealt with it is far more interesting, story motivating, and free to generate character development for readers and viewers alike. Something about someone reading from their journal or telling how they escaped [insert name here] is more intriguing because they spin the tale with their experience, rather than weaving from someone else's shoes. To me, that's powerful, both in realistic and fictional settings.