...romance to satire, drama to comedy, and poetry to graphic novels. Comic books or graphic novels do not have a higher standing in the literature world when it comes to character, plot development, and is targeted towards a more youthful audience. In fact, Scott McCloud had at one point believed that comic books were just bright, colorful magazines with poorly drawn pictures and silly stories of men in their tights. Later on, McCloud became a comic book artist and begun to have a deeper appreciation for the medium(McCloud, 2). In his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, McCloud gives graphic novels a different definition: Sequential Art. The term was coined by the late graphic novelist, Will Eisner and defined it as an art form that uses images deployed in sequence for graphic storytelling or to convey information (McCloud,5). With regards to this topic, this can also be seen in Art Spiegelman's critically acclaimed graphic novel, Maus....
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...The most common art forms artists and writers utilize to express their ideas and creativity are fine arts, novels, and films. They are widely accepted and pedestrian. All three have renowned awards ceremonies for the best in their field, displays in galleries and museums, recognition in the news through the media, and have classes teaching or analyzing them in schools. Against traditional media that have already achieved international public acceptance, a relatively new, and different art form like comics, does not stand a chance in gaining the respect it deserves. However, there are some people who have tried to build a reputation for comics and help others better understand them. Scott McCloud’s work Understanding Comics is his audacious attempt to address and overcome the general public’s ignorance about comics. However, the various characteristics of his book such as the comic book format, dialogue, and tone prove to effectively convey the definition and understanding of comics to a younger audience such as teenagers and college students rather than older adults, the parents and grandparents of the younger audience. If only certain groups of people are likely to accept McCloud’s method, then his intentions of establishing a better reputation for comics have failed. At first it may seem that creating a book enlightening the reader about comics in the comic book format is an exceedingly clever method. If the reader could easily comprehend what McCloud was trying to say about...
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...Research Paper Comics & Politics In December of 1940 almost a year before the U.S. would enter into WWII, Captain America Comic #1 was released with the cover showing the super hero punching Hitler (Aiken, 41). This is only one of several different examples of politics being present in comics. No matter the political issue comics have not been afraid to express their views on politics. There is no denying that politics are present in comics, but the real question is, do politics belong in comics? Mainstream comics sole purpose is to make money, and companies will do write about anything if they think it will sell more comics. In this instance the comic book companies are using politics to gain interest and sell their product. Without the presence of politics in comics many story lines would not have been as strong, and many characters would not have been created. Atomic Warfare and the Regan administration both were heavily displayed in comics and both had a significant effect on comic books. When President Harry Truman ordered for the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and revealed to the world the power behind atomic warfare, soon followed an onslaught of controversy whether this technology belonged in war. The world had never seen such power and soon the world began to debate this topic. Comic books soon began to publish stories, mainly involving superhero’s, with atomic related stories. As the years progressed and the U.S. entered into the Cold War with...
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...introduces three concepts in understanding the medium and construct of comics. These three concepts are the icon, closure, and panel-to-panel transitions. These concepts, introduced by McCloud are illustrated in the Japanese anime Yotsuba, created by Kiyohiko Azuma. Yotsuba follows the precocious adventures of a seriously strange kid named Yotsuba, who moves to the city with her father and manages to get herself into familiarly hilarious situations. The frames I chose deals with Yotsuba being introduced to a playground swing by a fellow student. Anime presents, through a progression of panels, how this comic illustrates the communication of information, ideas and experiences through various mediums (words, symbols, illustrations, etc). Upon analyzing this comic strip, it illustrates ways in which the medium’s message will change due to styling, point of view, framing, and closure. The artist’s use of medium reinforced the idea that the message of any piece of art, specifically comics, is not communicated solely through words, but through illustrations. One element of Azuma’s comics that illustrate how the mediums message is communicated through illustrations is the use of the Icon. Azuma’s drawing style is simple and therefore moves itself from any possible complexity within the characters, because a style that possesses realistic images can become more objective and can remove the image from the viewer. Within the medium of comics viewer identification is an important aspect to the...
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...Case Study: Online Comic Book Retailing Case Study: Online Comic Book Retailing Much like a lot of retail businesses the sale of comic books and related items has both grown and moved from the brick and mortar shops to online. In some cases this is to expand their customer base. In others it is a way to reach customers without the overhead of a physical shop, which carries various levels over overhead. My case study will look at three businesses, Mile High Comics, (milehighcomics.com) Midtown Comics, (midtowncomics.com) and My Comic Shop .com (mycomicshop.com). These three shops have different backgrounds and different levels of web presence. I’ll consider each to these things in the case study of online comic book retailing. I chose online comic book retailing as its something that I have familiarity with. Once upon a time I was a manager at a brick and mortar shop in St. Louis, Missouri. The Comic shop that I worked at was a family owned business and had been around for 20 years. The time away near the end of the 90’s and we were beginning to see a decline in sales Like many comic book retailers. You see in the early 90’s the comic book industry saw a boost in sales. Young readers were picking up comics for the first time. Many were getting into comics for the first time many were returning. A big reason for this is was that the large publishers, DC Comics and Marvel, were making efforts to bring new readers in different ways. One of these ways was to begin making collectable...
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...Although often overlooked due to their use of the comic book format, the graphic novel is a unique form of literature that can touch upon serious issues, relying on a combination of both visual components and verbal text in order to convey meaning. Graphic novels have been especially successful when it comes to helping readers understand complex ideas, social relations, and abstractions that are often too difficult to put into words. One of the most famous graphic novels to date, Maus by Art Spiegelman is exemplary of this characteristic, seeing as it sheds light on the horrors of the Holocaust, one of the most difficult historical events to conceptualize. Using the unique format of the graphic novel and the literary elements of symbolism...
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...I think Makayla starts her literature review with a strong lead. She starts off saying “In the world of graphic design we are still searching for the past.” That sentence grabs my interest and make me want to read more. Makayla does use a quote in her essay. She uses one quote which is “the history of graphic design has been scattered among the pasts of arts, printing, typography, photography, and advertising.” Her essay does go into detail about graphic design but it does not really talk about the job itself and what you should expect if you are to go in Graphic Design. Makayla’s draft does not include every part of the essay yet. The only parts she has in this draft is her title page and literature review. There was only one part of her...
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...Japanese Comics and American Comics A form of entertainment for many people has been watching T.V, drawing, playing videogames, and reading. In particular reading novels and biographies has applied to most, but a growing fad has been comics. From Marvel to DC as the big names in America, to Shojo to CLAMP in Japan, comics has grown to a worldwide fascination, as conventions and costume competitions broke out for the new comics emerging and for the old classics the fan base grew. There are many common and contrasting things that both types of these comics have. Being a comic artist myself I find it fascinating when the style of art depicts the type of comic it is, my particular favorite comics are from Japan and in the category of Shoujo. This means that the have larger eyes then other types of Japanese comics, the story revolves around a love story instead of a round of the main story that could be fantasy or a school setting the look of these types of comics have soft lines and many emotional senses in Japanese comics known as FullMoon o Sagashite, and Time Stranger Kyoko. Bold out line, dark black shading, and aggressive emotional faces, shown in Batman and Spiderman comics. American comics have a very one toned color scheme, meaning the back ground could be a variation of blues and reds depending on the time of day in the scene. Also these bold lines show the intensity of the scene. While with Japanese comics otherwise known as Manga, has sparked an interest in American...
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...Persepolis and Maus: Two Survivors and Their Stories. Of the many items that help enhance the horror of the Nazi Holocaust, one of the most notable is what it had of systematic and bureaucratic. Not only killing people, which would have had already been enough, but precisely being made in a quiet and civilized way. It is not strange the image of the Nazi leader quoting his favorite poet while sending to death hundreds of people, belying the myth that culture and education make people better. The Holocaust was primarily an act performed with such rationality that could only become insane. It almost seems that it could have been avoided by appealing to the same reason as well served to run it. As indicated by the subtitle, Maus is the story of a survivor, as told to his son, who in turn transcribed into images and led to comic books. The father and son Vladek Spiegelman is Art Spiegelman. The story, like all of its kind, is bitter and full of cruelties. The work is structured in two levels. In one, the son tells the complex relationship with his father, a survivor of the Nazi camps, while collecting notes for the completion of a comic book that will have the experiences of the war. In the other, we see the story itself, that of a young newlywed couple immersed in the Nazi tumult. In contrast, contemporary events show an apparent visual poverty that hides repressed emotions in really classic and neat little vignettes, in which the author struggles with quiet desperation to...
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...“Disliking Books”, written by Gerald Graff, tells the story of how he went from a child that disliked books and reading, to a teacher who read anything and everything. Gerald grew up a Jew in a racially mixed neighborhood and was often picked on because of this. He had refused to read anything other than comic books and sports books as a kid because he did not want to be picked on for being a “bookworm” too. By the time Gerald reached college he hadn’t known what to major in and he defaulted to majoring in English. Even as an English major student, Gerald found it hard to read “serious” literature. He found it hard to relate, he “saw little that could resemble his experience”. An interest in reading had started sparked to form in Gerald after he had read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. He was intrigued to learn that there had been a disagreement over the true ending of the book. He was tasked with discussing the ending of the book with his classmates and there he found his confidence. Discussing books made Gerald go back, re-read books and discover things he hadn’t noticed before and to view his literature from different points of view. Gerald later on recalls that it was the “critical conversation” he needed, that held him back from fully accessing literary text. Leaving Gerald alone with just the literature wouldn’t allow him to get “deeper” or more into the text, instead its different interpretations and theories that allowed one to truly immerse themselves in literature...
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...Ahmed Hassan English 11 Introduction: Hook: Deprived of food, sleep and family? Maus by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel, that takes the reader on a journey through the holocaust and WWII with Vladek Spiegelman, the Father of Art Spiegelman. Context: Vladek was separated from his wife and was just recently placed in Auschwitz. He was working as a tinman. Vladek is working at the Auschwitz tin shop, though he has never been trained in this profession. During this time, Anja is at Birkenau, a larger camp two miles to the south. Whereas Auschwitz is a camp for workers, Birkenau is just a waiting area for the gas chambers and crematoriums. Thesis: Spiegelman uses Perspective, Imagery and contrast to emphasize what Victimized people go through. Body Paragraph 1 P: Contrast is pivotal in Graphic novels it helps add emphasis to drawings and naturally gives more meaning to many different aspects. Contrast is used a lot in the E: The middle 2 panels. E: Through the use of shading the black background is contrasted to the white characters in the foreground. The black colour is dark and scary and there is a lot of it in this page, it highlights what the Jews were faced with. The pure white Colour of the jews in the foreground highlights the innocence of the Prisoners. This has a positive effect on the reader. By Contrasting the jews and Nazi’s it helps the reader understand the main Character and the plot of the story more. L: This links to the theme...
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...Hey, Facebook and Twitter friends and fellow comic enthusiasts. I’ve just discovered a new web site where you can contact comic legends and up and coming stars in the comic industry. Virtual Inks Inc. was founded by legend, and 29 year veteran artist/inker Mark McKenna. Mark has worked for Marvel & DC and has inked and penciled over 500 comics in his career. He’s been behind some of our favorite characters' greatest appearances. His lines are fluid and contrasting; they refine any pencils he is inking. He has a knack for making anything he touches simply better. The studio includes artist Victor Castro who is new to comics, but has a style that is reminiscent of the modern age of comics. He uses a blend of many artist of that genre, including John Byrne, Walter Simonson, John Romita and Sal Busema. Victor is a man of many talents, he has the capabilities to be able to take a project in any phase and bring it to completion. Victor is working now on the Hero’s Initiative project “X-Men Battle of the Atom” Finally there are two up and coming artist that will someday be the glue to the comic world. Whether it be through web comics, digital or print you will soon know their names. Nikkol Jelenic is an up and coming female artist whose talent is raw but refined. She’s an amazing young talent who has a bright future. Her style is like that of a young Rob Liefeld or Erick Larsen. She has a raw grit like David Mack. The final artist in the studio is Michael Openhiemer. Michael is...
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...Watchmen has many important characters, including the strong and important Laurie Juspeczyk, who also goes by her superhero alias: The Silk Spectre. Superheroes must have many qualities in order to endure all that they do. Having a strong character is an essential asset amongst others. Laurie demonstrates having a strong character throughout the entire length of the graphic novel. To start off, fighting crime takes a lot of strength. One must be physically strong enough to fight criminals, and it is seen that Laurie is no exception. Her fight against the muggers with Dan proves that she can hold her own (3.12-14). In addition to having physical force, one should also be mentally strong in order to fight for the greater good without any insults,...
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...“When first I came home it looked exactly so as before I went away… (74),” Vladek begins recalling his past experiences to his son Art. In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art is the son of a Polish Jew who writes and records his father’s memories of the horrendous holocaust. This ability to create multiple perspectives is known as frame narrative, allowing the readers to learn more insight about the characters such as thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Although the comic itself is seen through Art’s eyes, words, and sketches, it is Vladek’s story that is being represented. Art Spiegelman did a wonderful job of incorporating numerous smaller narratives into one graphic novel with his constant use of two very important literary devices. The use of...
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...Surviving the Holocaust as a Comic Book Art Spiegelman’s MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale is uniquely suitable to study the holocaust and literature because of its innovative qualities such as a graphic novel, its detailed biography of a witness of the Holocaust in Poland, and its complex sroey of that witess as a survivor in the United States. MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale gives readers new insight into literature because of its form as a graphic novel. “We don’t need more genteel synonyms. We need to examine and redifine the words we inherit” (Spiegelman “Eyeballs”). Emotion is being assigned to abstract icons, it has become a predicament. The word “retarded” symbolizes a mental disorder, but it has been over used, and now carries a meaning of offensive criticism. “…Working relentlessly to sharpen students’ reading skills…hopes the graphic-novel rage at the school had something to do with it” (Solomon). Schools are hoping that reading comic books will help students in school, and they are preferred due to their illustrations. Also, reading, even comic books, will help improve FCAT scores, which will help the school. Cartoons are especially effective since people can recognize the drawing and characterize it into someone by age, gender, ethnicity, intelligence, and feelings (Spiegelman “Eyeballs”). Comic strips were made from stereotypes. Stereotype means to give a solid form to, and was invented as a way of making relief-printing plates. MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale also serves...
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