Antonio's lit and media of comics blog

Week 8: This week in class, we had an interesting lecture about stereotypes, and we were tasked with reading March. Personally, being American, I can't think of a more iconic topic to read about other than the civil rights movement. The week prior, I had read Maus and the works are very similar because they are about discriminatory stories told from a recollection of a character. I personally was a lot more invested in March because I found the line work much more appealing. The linework was a lot stronger and had more structure. It was also very bold and expressive, and that's what I  strive for in my work. So yeah, really beautifully illustrated the piece, and it really contrasts the not so beautiful and dark topic. My favorite aspect of this read, unlike the previous comics I have read, is the way they framed the drawings with a black background. I found it really effective for the storytelling because it was used during very intense or high emotion moments, which I l

Week 7 First off, Maus is fantastic. In animation, we talk a lot about taking stories and changing the character's appearance or anthropomorphizing them in order to amplify the story and clarity. For example, in Zootopia, they use animal species to get across the theme of how we racially profile people. Art Spiegelman did just that by taking one of the most famous conflict stereotypes, Cat and mouse, in order to highlight the conflict of Jews versus the Nazis. This helped us to easily identify the association of characters because if you were to depict a Jew in the way many cartoons caricature them, you would be quick to dissociate yourself with the character due to the unappealing way they are depicted. So overall, I loved the way he caricatured his character groups because it made them more cartoon-like, but also amplified the idea he was trying to send. What I also admired about the reading is the perspective from which we are receiving the information. I feel like if we

Week 6 Underground Comics Drool: So, I read Drool for my underground comics, and my two reactions were wow and confusion. Just to be clear, I said wow not because it was amazing, but because I was so appalled by the racism, sexism, and just its general depiction of everything. I am also confused by it because I feel like I am confused about who the reading is for. I say this because in a specific story, the one regarding president Nixon visiting the people of Harlem, both sides were depicted in shitty light. I say this because Nixon was caricatured as very goofy and oblivious, which is not how you usually depict the leader of your nation. Also, the people of Harlem were depicted as very animalistic and savage. The illustrator chose to show them as thieves, huge druggies, and very aggressive, which repulsed me. Even the way he caricatured them, they were shown looking like chimps. Pardon my french, but it was super fucked up. So, this is why I am very confused as to who the comic

Week 5  A Contract With God Blog: So, I decided to reread A Contract With God by Will Eisner, and it amazed me how the more you read it, the better it gets. There were many aspects that really caught my eye, but more specifically, the splash titles and the choice of framing. The splash titles I really loved because they really set the tone for the whole piece right away, which hooked me immediately. His style of shading in the splash titles, I thought, really amplified the stories because they had a very dark gritty feel to them, very much like the environments he was drawing. His choice of shot in these splash pages also reminded me of how in film, they use establishing shots in order to set the tone for scenes. It really felt that Will Eisner was inspired by cinematic elements, and this choice to include them really strengthened his storytelling. I was also very interested in his choice of framing. In many comics beforehand, in order to emphasize certain frames, you would jus

Week 4 Tin Tin’s Explorers on the Moon his week I was given the chance to read some Tin Tin by Herge, and I am glad to say that I was thoroughly entertained by it. There were a lot of elements that I thought would turn me away from older comics such as this, but they actually added to the charm of the reading. I'm used to reading more modern comics with a lot of rendering and extreme camera shots, but Tin Tin was drawn in a more simple style with flat staging. In all honesty, it made it better this way because I was able to quickly understand what was going on and then further able to immerse myself into it. It reminded me of the concept in Mcloud’s Understanding comics where if we are able to identify icons, we are allowed to get more involved in the comic.  I specifically read Tin Tins Explorers on the moon, and I thought this would bother me, but it was the lack of practicality and knowledge of space. This mainly had to due to the time period it was written, which

Week 3 The Peanuts This week I had the privilege of reading some old school comics, specifically the peanuts, and I very much enjoyed them. I did not find them like knee-slapping hilarious, but kind of the more haha, exhaling an excessive amount of air out of my nose funny. The humor was very surface level, such as the sign where it says to watch out for children,  and the kids were standing there looking for them. I think because they were so short and snappy, my attention was able to be easily retained. Something I really was drawn to was the style of drawing. Even though it was really simple, it had a high level of appeal, because it was drawn so simply and very very cute. It’s funny, in animation they tell us to specifically not draw with dot eyes because it is harder to identify with the characters. But, because they have dot eyes, its the concept of the icon where I feel like I am identifying with the situation more because I am focusing on the characters less. While re