Cat Leivonen - Literature of Comics & Graphic Narrative

 Reading & Writing: Comic Book History of Comics 3 pts The Arrival 3 pts Understanding Comics 3 pts Smithsonian Collection 4 pts Comics Journal 3 pts Life on Another Planet 3 pts Blankets 3 pts Maus 6 pts Attendance: no absences for 7 class sessions Cosplay: Twilight Sparkle Elastigirl Rapunzel Belle Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)

 I was surprised by how willingly Vladek recounted his horrific experiences, which normally people with PTSD might try to avoid because it could trigger a negative reaction. Maybe he had some therapy or time to process in the 30 or more years between the end of the war and when his son wrote Maus. However, he still exhibits small habits as responses to his experiences. For example, he grew sensitive and irritable, causing him to argue with his second wife a lot, especially about money issues. Because of the scarcity he lived through in the Holocaust, he didn’t want to waste a single bite of food or money on anything not immediately necessary. He pinched pennies even to the point of exchanging mostly eaten food at the grocery store in the second volume. Anja, Vladek’s wife, must have always had a more sensitive disposition, and surviving that ordeal likely drove her over the edge to take her own life; this seems like the overarching theme of the books since Art Spiegelman asked so m...

 Life on Another Planet by Will Eisner differed greatly from Blankets by Craig Thompson. Although the Eisner work represented the sci-fi genre it felt more like a political drama with lots of gorey assassinations and murder, while the Thompson story showed the life of a teen in a very lyrical way. Even though Blankets technically had more pages, it seemed easier to read because it had a lighter mood and more approachable narrative. Besides the tones of the stories, the two artists employed drastically divergent styles. Eisner used a lot of mid-tone grays, but Thompson used only black and white with hatching to create tone. In Blankets, Thompson also drew his scenes very whimsically, with lots of interesting figurative backgrounds. On the other hand, Eisner made his character’s faces much more realistic looking with more literal settings. Both artists made good use of panel frames with interesting diversity to keep the reader engaged. Each story also had a romance element. Thompson ...

 Jack Kirby uses his street-fighting and military experience to bring a sense of reality to his characters, especially in the fighting scenes. Readers can really tell that he knows his stuff because we can see the landing of the punches and their effects on the victim. There’s a scene from Foxhole that shows soldiers crawling on the ground and one man throwing a grenade, like Kirby probably saw during his time in the Army during World War II. In this interview, Kirby reveals his childhood in the streets of New York’s lower east side where he experienced what he called “climb out” street fights because people would take to the roofs in their brawls. Gang fights also inspired his use of groups in his story-telling, like the Boy Commandos, Boys’ Ranch, Boy Explorers, and later Fantastic Four. He was so used to seeing groups working together that this idea found its way into his comic books. Kirby recalled how he often incorporated things he saw in real life to add a sense of truth to ...

The end of chapter five in this collection featured Thimble Theatre by E.C. Seger, which has two main titles: Sappo and Popeye. While the Sappo strips could go together to form a continuous narrative, they can definitely stand alone. Meanwhile, the Popeye comics left the reader wanting more, like the story wasn’t finished yet, so when it was first published they’d have to wait a week to read the next part of the story. Each character in Popeye has a strongly defined and iconic character voice and they all play off of each other to great comedic and dramatic effect. This is especially noticeable in the interactions the namesake has with his sailor pal Ol’ “Salty” Bill Barnacle when they first greet each other with playful violence. The characters in Popeye became so popular this strip even got adapted later into an animated series; Popeye’s famous spinach strength started in the Seger comics of Thimble Theatre. Sappo had a lot of humorous sci-fi elements, like the repeated use of the li...

I don’t entirely agree with the definition for comics given in this book. Therefore , I’m still not entirely sure what a comic actually is . Sequential art has existed since the dawn of time. Even cave paintings show progressions of events. Do these count as comics by Will Eisner’s definition described on the first page? Scott McCloud addresses this a couple of pages later by acknowledging that meaning’s shortcomings when defining what qualifies as a comic. “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence” could still refer to certain languages, like Egyptian hieroglyphics or ancient Chinese kanji, which use pictures for words. Even today we have the use of emojis. Some could say the same about certain fine arts paintings, like the Aino Tragedy triptych, but no one would classify those as comics. Adding the phrase “intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” still doesn’t clarify the definition’s vagueness. Words , pictures, an...