Week 15: Final Week

I really enjoyed this semester. I learned a lot about this history of comics what it meant to actually visualize the context of the comic world. This class has also made me widen my horizon as an artist and filmmaker with storytelling. The blogging every week helped me become more confident in showing my work to the world as well as my peers seeing it.

When signing up for this class I thought that we were actually going to make our own comic books by the end of the semester. I would have loved to do that. I feel as a class, creating our comic books would have inferred on what we have learned in the course. I really wanted to create my own comic with stories that I came up with on my own free time. Maybe I could even make some then post them on future blogs or even use them in my senior thesis.

Week 14: 21st Century Comics

For this week’s modern day comic I had chosen to read Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Before reading the comic, I had an obsession with the movie. Surprising or not, this is my first time hearing about a comic version of Scott Pilgrim. I was expecting a more detailed version of the movie with character background and gladly, that is what I got. The Scott Pilgrim comics are the most relatable to our modern day modern day generation to audiences who are in high school through college. There were many topics that were addressed such as relationships, social anxiety, and jealousy. 

This is the most visually written and descriptively conceptive comic I have encountered this semester. While reading this modern day comic, I came to terms of how the world of comics has evolved over time. The graphics were simple, but solid and stylistic. Most of the visually entertaining parts of Scott Pilgrim came from the overly descriptive parts such as the detailed visual of Scott and Wallace’s bedroom room which made bought more humor and narrative into the story giving us character background. Throughout all the concert scenes, there were the key symbols to the guitar for the viewer to imply the sounds of the music in their head. For many of the subtext images, there was just the descriptive image that was so visually accurate that it did not need a subtitle for it.

The story itself was gave me a better since of what was going on in the movie. There were so many background stories. The one that I found completely hilarious was the story of how Scott met Knives Chau on the bus with her mother. I see why this scene was cut out of the film for time and budget purposes, but when I saw this part of the comic, I just kept imagining it in the movie. I would recommend this comic to anyone that wants to be truly entertained with this humorous story.

Week 14: 21st Century Comics

For this week’s modern day comic I had chosen to read Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Before reading the comic, I had an obsession with the movie. Surprising or not, this is my first time hearing about a comic version of Scott Pilgrim. I was expecting a more detailed version of the movie with character background and gladly, that is what I got. The Scott Pilgrim comics are the most relatable to our modern day modern day generation to audiences who are in high school through college. There were many topics that were addressed such as relationships, social anxiety, and jealousy. 

This is the most visually written and descriptively conceptive comic I have encountered this semester. While reading this modern day comic, I came to terms of how the world of comics has evolved over time. The graphics were simple, but solid and stylistic. Most of the visually entertaining parts of Scott Pilgrim came from the overly descriptive parts such as the detailed visual of Scott and Wallace’s bedroom room which made bought more humor and narrative into the story giving us character background. Throughout all the concert scenes, there were the key symbols to the guitar for the viewer to imply the sounds of the music in their head. For many of the subtext images, there was just the descriptive image that was so visually accurate that it did not need a subtitle for it.

The story itself was gave me a better since of what was going on in the movie. There were so many background stories. The one that I found completely hilarious was the story of how Scott met Knives Chau on the bus with her mother. I see why this scene was cut out of the film for time and budget purposes, but when I saw this part of the comic, I just kept imagining it in the movie. I would recommend this comic to anyone that wants to be truly entertained with this humorous story.

Week 13: Changing Landscape and Licensed characters

For this week’s comics I started reading some of the Preacher series. I have to say that this comic was different than what I was expecting and more than what I bargained for when choosing to read this selection. From the title and the cover image of the comic, I was expecting a man to walk around saving souls, or facing trail and error while teaching the people good of the Lords way. Instead I ended up seeing the devil fucking his demons in the dark fiery pits of hell. The Preacher series sets itself on an intense storyline. One could compare the style of preacher to a pulp magazine or modern day Grand Theft Auto video game.

The story of Preacher is set around the character Jessie Custer who is possessed by a supernatural creature genesis, who has to face the obstacles of defeating the gores of evil. Jessie is not you average preacher man. In fact in certain parts of the story, I couldn’t really tell if he was for good or evil. The aurora of Jessie is unpredictable including his consistent mood swings and his will to kick some demons ass!

The graphics in Preacher are very well detailed and accurate. There were some point of over exaggerations in the characters reaction which amped the dramatic intensity mood of the story. Artist Steve Dillon, illustrator of Preacher, did not hold back on the detailed blood and gore involved with in the context of death and fear of the underworld. I loved many of the optical illusion styles that were used to create the religious and internal self-awareness isolation by making the descriptions effective to the story.

Overall, I would not recommend this comic to a religious based audience. After looking at the title, I was thinking that this man was going to save souls, but instead there were themes of sex, violence, and slurs that could come off as potentially offensive to religions. There was several references that stated “I could tell that the Lord was using my prayers to wipe his ass”. When I read this, I found it humorous, but it was very uncommon to come across this subtext. I did enjoy reading the story and would recommend it to others with an open mind.   

Week 12: Women in comics

This week I read the comic She Hulk. I’d have to say this is one of those comics you read on a Saturday afternoon as a treat. The style of this comic was very unique than the usual Marvel feature. The she Hulk comics give off a comedic mood in opposed to the obscene superheroes that we usually read about. The only thing that was different in the narrative was Jennifer’s [She Hulk’s] green skin. Everything else around her came off as things and situations we see and go through on a day-to-day basis.

I am really impressed how Marvel interpreted Jennifer as a common realistic superhero when she transformed into She Hulk, than sexualizing her to fit into the male gaze. Many companies, writers, and illustrators try to sexualize female characters in a way to where particularly the male audience is more focused on the body, than the women’s actual purpose of the story. When Jennifer transformed into She Hulk I clearly saw that this is a realistic accurate depiction of how a female hulk should look and that this is a powerful superhero that could strike down any male or female antagonist.

What I loved most about She Hulk was that she was a strong independent female character that sent a influential message to female readers. Jenifer in She Hulk did not need a man to take care of her and made a way to have her own and become a successful women. We all can see ourselves in herself and as she transitions into She Hulk. Jennifer takes no shit from anyone and dares to be crossed or disrespected.

I have mixed feelings about the mood of the comic. Some parts were comedic; others were either suspenseful or dramatic. I personally would have liked to see a darker side to the She Hulk comics in comparison to all the other Marvel comics. It would make me take a majority of subtext much more seriously, but overall I still enjoyed seeing Marvel expand into more feminist comics.