American Born Chinese

I found that American Born Chinese is a fantastic graphic novel, which delivers a powerful message through the telling of what seems to be three separate stories.  What I found to be most ingenious about the book was that it was able to show three different points of view on personal identity, but still tie all the stories together at the end to give a great final message.

            When reading the book it felt like I was watching a well-done cartoon that I would see on TV as a kid. That may be because of the way the story was drawn or maybe the moralistic story that was being told.  The story that was told though, was much more complicated then something I would find on Nickelodeon.  This speaks a lot to the cultural undertones of the comic, as the artwork seems very American and Chinese at the same time. I am not sure if the artist intended this in his work, but it may speak more to his upbringing and how he was influenced by American and Chinese art and aesthetics alike.

            This book is offered a lot and I think what I enjoyed the most from of this story was the truth that is communicated in the story. Even though many things in the book are highly exaggerated, especially Chin-Kee, but the exaggerations still hold a lot of truth; the truth is just exaggerated along with the drawings. I even got uncomfortable looking at the image of Chin-Kee and the way he is depicted. I am not Chinese or Asian, but I guess I feel some sort of shame of the fact that people may see Chinese people like this.

I cannot say this book was an eye opener though. I have heard similar immigrant stories before, but the way this one was told really gave a lot to the more depth. We see not only a perspective of a young Chinese boy trying to adapt in America, but also the perspective of a “white” high school student, and a traditional Chinese deity. These perspectives made me think about how to look at the immigrant’s story.

Maus

Maus, by Art Spiegelman was an interesting book. It is a graphic novel thatI found very straight foreword and telling. I found it is interesting to see the images of animals used to represent different races of people. It shows how people used to see each other as different species and people would segregate themselves into groups. Also the ways the mice are represented tell a lot about the character of the Jewish people during the holocaust.

            When reading a New York Times interview with Spieglman I found an interesting tid bit that he used to work for Zap comix under Robert Crumb and he originally wanted to draw the mice to represent black people being oppressed by the Ku Klux Klan. The use of mice to symbolize the oppressed seems to be common theme throughout history. This may be due to how the oppressors depict the oppressed. I know during World War 2 that there was a lot of Nazi propaganda that depicted Jews as rats and vermin. This maybe where the significance draws from.  What I do not completely understand though is the depiction of the Polish as pigs. I guess pigs are neutral when it comes to the battle between cats and mice, but it just seems a little bit of a negative way to portray a group of people. Although that may be my own western biased view towards pigs and symbolism.

            Another thing I noticed was that there is very little mouth movement in most of the characters. I am not sure if this is what the author intended, but when the mice talk to each other, you rarely see their mouth open to show that they are talking. This may represent the Jewish people’s ability to vocalize their problems to the world, or maybe it is simply an aesthetic choice.

            All in all, the story was very realistic and the characters where extremely personable. Sometimes I have a hard time connecting with characters in certain novels and comics, but in Maus every character seemed to be like a fully rounded human being, but while looking like animals. The writing was amazing and the graphics are great.

Underground Comixs

This week I read some underground comix and found a large variety to read. What I found interesting about these comics was their variety in subject matter as well as visual style. Somewhere very cartoony and others more serious, and others just straight up pornographic. What I read was a little of Gay Comix, Tits and Clits, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Yellow Submarine. When comparing these comics to above ground comics as a whole is a little hard to do when they are so varied, but one thing I noticed is that the story telling for a lot of the underground comics did not seem that different, relatively, to the above ground comics; the main difference is the content of the comics.

            It is not needed to be said that underground comixs dealt a lot more with graphic, sexual, and generally taboo subject matter while above ground comics where written with clear censorship of such topics. Yet even though content wise they are very different the comics themselves still seem somewhat similar. This is probably due to the fact that both are written in the episodic comic book style which limits that complexity of the story telling and the types of conflicts that arise in both. An example of this can be found in the Fabulous Furry Freaks and Geeks where they are trying to bust guys out of prison, The entire story is more graphic, but I could see a small comic of Donald Duck or some one else also trying get some one out of a ridiculous situation and finding in the end that it was all just a dream.

            The underground comics though could be seen as helpful in some aspects as well, because as above ground comics are censoring certain subject matter. Underground comix are embracing it. Comix seemed to promote more diversity in their characters and situations and in normal Comics everything seemed to be very white washed.  It can be even hard to find a single black person in archie comics, but in underground comics you can find people or all races, genders, and sexual orientation. By today’s standards comics back then seem sometimes less politically correct then the underground comixs.

The Graphic Novel

This week I read Blankets by Craig Thompson. This was a dramatic shift from the comics I read last week as I found this story was much more complex and adult when compared to the stories of tin tin and Scrooge McDuck. Comics seemed like short stories and Blankets was definitely deserving of the title novel. It is not a novel particularly due to the length of the book, but rather the story that it told.  We can see in the book overlapping story arches, motifs, and themes that are common to most literary novels, but can be hard to get across in short form comics.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the complexity and relatability Craig Thompson portrayed in the characters of the novel, not to say comics a good comic writer can not do the same, but many times due to the episodic nature of comics you need to follow the story through a couple of issues to really to get the full grasp of the protagonist’s character. The graphic novel though has the benefit of being able to tell a story in one straight run and I did not have to pause the story for a month to figure out what happens next, in the graphic novel I was able to dive right in.

The quality of the comic felt a lot more cinematic as well, when compared to the comics of previous weeks. Of course the amount of evolution that occurred in comics between Scrooge McDuck and Blankets is gigantic, but the nature of the comic almost make me feel as if I am watching a television show, and the Graphic novel feels like a movie. I am not an expert in story telling, but it seems that when more time is given to tell a story the fundamental principles of telling the stories take a subtle shift, for better and for worse.

The Comic Book

When exploring some of the original comic books I saw a huge sift in story telling take place when compared to the comic strip. With the comic book the narrative of the comic is able to evolve in much more complex ways. With the rise of the comic book medium, authors are able to bring a lot more to the table when it comes to the narrative.

As I read “Uncle Scrooge Back to the Klondike” by Carl Barks I found myself whole fully engaged in the story to a degree that I found surprising. I did not expect to find myself deeply interested in an old Donald duck comic from the 50’s, but I was wrong.  I was expecting a line of cheesy gags, but Scrooge McDuck’s story was extremely well paced and leads me through the story in a manner that grasped my attention. What impressed me the most was the comics ability to move back and forth between flash backs seamlessly with out any confusion on my part on what is going on. It almost felt like watching a movie. What probably gave me that feeling was the ways Barks transitions between panels. The way the panels where organized seemed to follow the many of the rules applied to good film editing. Which includes all aspects of cutting to continuity.

In the visual sense many of these comic book panels reminded me of a story board for a movie, but the writing pushes narrative so well that it feels like reading an actual book or novel, hence “comic book”.  I would love to know what the writing team looks like for one of these Donald Duck thrillers looks like, because the story must have to go through mill a few time to get it so polished.