After reading Will Eisner's "Contract with God", I immediately noticed how distinct the overall aesthetic of the comic is. Aside pre-dating Disney's 2D art style which I enjoyed, partly because of how the story's tone gets progressively darker, but it compliments the body language constantly used through the stories. The first story sharing the title, has one of the best use of body language I've seen in comics and the way the heavy downpour is portrayed compliments the narrative. For all five stories, the use of cross hatch giving that sketchy feel makes everything more genuine, as it goes well with the stories told about the human nature. Whether they're mistakes, faults, or just regular screw ups, the art's direction conveys everything to a T with its distinct line of action, gesture lines, hatching, inking, lighting, and expression.
Craig Thompson's "Blankets" goes in a unique direction both narratively and artistically. The inking in "Blankets" notably uses paint rather than "Contract with God" using pen. The strokes used in "Blankets" varies in width and sometimes the paint is in the midst of drying up on the brush as the strokes have specs of white for interesting effects. In Eisner's work, however, there's more detail in the background, even in silhouettes far out in the background, all with finer line work. I personally prefer Eisner's art style despite Thompson's use of framing and perspective making better use of the medium overall. Page 11 panel 4 and pages 14 and 15 exemplifies this by how unique the perspective is made, since it's from two young brothers. Narratively speaking, "Contract with God" is an anthology, taking place in the same year and setting focusing on a wide range of characters whereas "Blankets" focuses on a single protagonist, smoothly transitioning to and switching back from various phases of his life to portray the innocence of his first love. Neither comic are afraid of showing adult themes, such as nudity, sex, and the condition of the human psyche.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Action Comics
Reading the original action comics that laid the foundation for the super hero genre, I have mixed feelings about them. The style of comics have interesting color as part of the printing process, which gives it that nostalgic feel. The narrative for many of these comics went in interesting directions, lore being used by the writer's full advantage, clearly a lot of passion was put into the overall story. My favorite style would be Batman 600: Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, where facial expressions are more apparent than that of anything Superman related, where at best, they're too subtle to have a wide range of expression.
Other than that style of Batman, however, the general realistic style isn't as interesting unless you've read enough comics to know the differences between artists, like inking techniques or coloring style. One technique I notice that's used a lot in action comics is used in Superman's "Captive of the Red Sun", page35 panel 3, I notice how perspective and framing doesn't work well with each other, as the rocket Superman is thinking about isn't in his line of sight. Regardless, it is fun noticing color errors, like Batman's boots not colored blue on page 22, panel 5. After a while, I'm more interested in the thought process of both writers and artists, because the dialogue keeps reminding me the target demographic are children. I somewhat hate how there's inner dialogue expositing to the audience the motives for the character's actions, particularly Superman. There's more telling than showing, but for sake of how many pages the staff had to work with, it made sense why, but still distracting at times.
Other than that style of Batman, however, the general realistic style isn't as interesting unless you've read enough comics to know the differences between artists, like inking techniques or coloring style. One technique I notice that's used a lot in action comics is used in Superman's "Captive of the Red Sun", page35 panel 3, I notice how perspective and framing doesn't work well with each other, as the rocket Superman is thinking about isn't in his line of sight. Regardless, it is fun noticing color errors, like Batman's boots not colored blue on page 22, panel 5. After a while, I'm more interested in the thought process of both writers and artists, because the dialogue keeps reminding me the target demographic are children. I somewhat hate how there's inner dialogue expositing to the audience the motives for the character's actions, particularly Superman. There's more telling than showing, but for sake of how many pages the staff had to work with, it made sense why, but still distracting at times.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Smithsonian Collection of Comics
As useful as the Smithsonian Collection of comics are in preservation of the comic strip dating back to the 1910's, the magnitude involves a lot of time investment. The only downside to this collection, however, is how the strip carried over, the scale likely affecting the font of the dialogue. There were times where I tried to zoom in as much as I could, only to barely make out what the words were. The insight given at the beginning of each chapter before showing the comics of the designated era adds an additional layer of intrigue to the history as a whole. With this established, I could not finish the collection all the way through due to time restraints, but what I could read is interesting to say the least. The fact that there are comics by familiar icons that aren't associated with comics as much alone makes things interesting. For example, Winsor McCay is known for his genius work in animation yet his comic series "Little Nemo" is underrated and even then people might not associate his name to his work, kind of like knowing the actor's role rather than the actor themselves.
My favorite comic strip I read by McCay is "Midsummer Day Dreams", where he brings up topics of everyday life that is still relevant today. My other favorite comic series is "The Gumps", by Sidney Smith, where the satire of a married couple complimented by dry humor. This made me think how well these comic strips aged, dating back to a little over 110 years ago, and the comics shown throughout the collection makes for interesting insight on the evolution of the comic strip as a whole. Most particularly, the serialized structure comics had in the 1910's and their own stories that carries the narrative shows the thought process of somebody before anybody's time.
My favorite comic strip I read by McCay is "Midsummer Day Dreams", where he brings up topics of everyday life that is still relevant today. My other favorite comic series is "The Gumps", by Sidney Smith, where the satire of a married couple complimented by dry humor. This made me think how well these comic strips aged, dating back to a little over 110 years ago, and the comics shown throughout the collection makes for interesting insight on the evolution of the comic strip as a whole. Most particularly, the serialized structure comics had in the 1910's and their own stories that carries the narrative shows the thought process of somebody before anybody's time.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
In Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics", many interesting points are brought up and through inventive visual cues, his points are clear and concise. Out of all the points he makes, my favorite is the apple analogy. McCloud mentions how there are six steps for an ideal comic, the idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, and surface. I find it interesting how he uses an apple to show the layers and their individual importance and how each layer compliments the follow layers. When he explains how the surface is the most noticeable at first glance, he bites into the most appealing apple, having nothing else to offer and therefore hollow. When McCloud goes further in detail by using various situations as examples, the easier these six steps' importance are put into perspective.
When re-reading this part of his comic, I related it to other comics I knew of, like Hiromu Arakawa's "Fullmetal Alchemist", Shaun Tan's "The Arrival", and Andrew Hussie's "Homestuck", it adds a few more new layers of appreciation and admiration for their work. When thinking about all the points mentioned with the apple analogy, it feels like a life hack to know how applying these six steps is like the underlying skeletal structure of story structure. Seeing the visuals used in McCloud's demonstrations explaining these six steps, there's a sense of motivation. When the years show all these creators and their breakthroughs, it doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any more fresh takes on anything. On the last pages of his book, McCloud shows the variety of vegetables, suggesting the endless possibilities of ideas and inspiration, creating an endless cycle of creativity. This makes me want to find other comics with all six steps and analyse those, appreciating the medium all the more.
When re-reading this part of his comic, I related it to other comics I knew of, like Hiromu Arakawa's "Fullmetal Alchemist", Shaun Tan's "The Arrival", and Andrew Hussie's "Homestuck", it adds a few more new layers of appreciation and admiration for their work. When thinking about all the points mentioned with the apple analogy, it feels like a life hack to know how applying these six steps is like the underlying skeletal structure of story structure. Seeing the visuals used in McCloud's demonstrations explaining these six steps, there's a sense of motivation. When the years show all these creators and their breakthroughs, it doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any more fresh takes on anything. On the last pages of his book, McCloud shows the variety of vegetables, suggesting the endless possibilities of ideas and inspiration, creating an endless cycle of creativity. This makes me want to find other comics with all six steps and analyse those, appreciating the medium all the more.
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