Understanding Comics Improved

I believe that Will Eisner’s description of comics as Sequential art fits very well as a simplified way to describe comics. In Scott McCloud’s comic book, Understanding comics he defines comics as, “Juxtaposed static images in Deliberate Sequence”, which he later uses to Segway in to words. This is definition is very specific, as a definition should be, but as he explains this can also be seen as the definition of the written word.  Such a definition I feel left me unsatisfied as a specific definition for comics, because this definition could in someway be used for almost all visual forms of communication. It just simply sounds too vague and general, but I understand his point. 

Understanding Comics provides an enlightening and refreshing take on the graphic medium through the very use of the medium it is trying to explain. I tried to imagine what reading this same information in a textbook would have been like and I don’t think the same message could have come across.  One point that I found extremely interesting was the reason why people are so connected to cartoons.  Scot McCloud illustrates that by using simplified imagery to represent complex ideas that we can connect better to it, because it closer resembles what our minds imagine when trying to break down complex scenarios. This explanation completely rewired how I think about cartoons and why people feel so closely connected to cartoon characters, sometimes even more connected then to people they actually know.

This type of way of thinking may also explain a lot or different things that deal with human connections and what we desire. For example, many times News stories will take a very simplified approach to a subject or a conflict in order to draw in an audience, even when most conflicts are much more complex then presented. According John Green, author of The Fault in our Stars and co-founder of the Vlog Brothers YouTube channel, the reason many News channels take this approach to the news is because the general public likes a simple story. Something we can easily process. I am not saying that cartoons are just dumbed down drawings of more complex forms, but that there simplicity are just easier for people to understand, just like a simple narrative with a news story and when it is easier to understand it is easier for us to connect to it. Unfortunately, simplifying the News comes with its own social ramifications, but that is an entirely different topic.

Lastly, the final portion of the book that explained the separation of form and content I believe was extremely well written and had a lot of insight on how greatness is achieved in the graphic medium or any craft or profession as a matter of a fact, but in the end there is a choice that needs to be made between form and content. When people master the 6 tiers of being a great artist they have conquered their medium and are able to use it as a tool to masterfully communicate and deliver a message to its audience. It is obvious that after reading this that Scott McCloud is one of those people and has delivered to us this masterful piece of work, that is Understanding Comics.

Web Comics

I read a few online comics this week but mainly Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran. What I found is that Web Comics are very similar to the episodic newspaper comic strips, but adapted to the modern audience and with contemporary sensibilities.  They are almost like diary entries that are shared with an audience just like a blog, but with a much more visual aspect behind them. The biggest change though that Web Comics bring to the world of graphic storytelling though, is the power that it gives to the individual. Now individual artists can create their own comics and for very little cost of their own, they can reach millions of readers.

            This form of comics was given birth through the development of new technologies, which include, the World Wide Web, the social network, as well as digital illustration. These technologies have granted the individual the ability to by pass any necessary publisher and bring their material straight to the consumer. The other day I watched a Big Think YouTube video, by Jeremy Rifkin, who explained how the Internet will cause a paradigm shift in world economics.  He explained that with the advancement of digital technologies and the Internet, people have begun to experience a revolution of new products that are being sold with zero marginal cost. As explained by Jeremy Rifkin, “Marginal costs are the costs of producing an additional unit of a good and service after your fixed costs are covered.” This can be seen in the cost of publishing a comic that needs to be distributed to a large audience, but with Internet. Marginal costs are near zero and almost anyone can reach almost any amount of people who are interested in reading their comic. Individuals are now able to do the work of large companies that were vital to the industry just a decade before.

            Also the topics that are discussed in many of these comics, but especially Octopus Pie, are very focused on the individual and the individual’s commentary on society and their views. With web comics we see the ultimate move to individual expressionism in the graphic narrative.

            

Watchmen

Reading watchmen right now in 2014, 27 years after it was published is still an amazing read, but I imagine it had a different kind of shock and awe that came with the virgin super anti hero audience from 1987.  These “heroes” in watchmen are much more gritty and take a much more realistic take on the idea of the superhero that took off in the earlier half of the 20^th century. It even uses the real history of the superhero as the background for characters in the comic.  The best way I like to describe watchmen is a gritty Film Noir

            Alan More when writing this is commentating on the concept of the superhero by depicting a reality with realistic superheroes that exist in the United States of America and how they behave in and with American society. Alan more repeatedly states in the story that anyone who is a “superhero” is probably, to some degree, “crazy.”  What I find most interesting is the ways that the story parallels and critiques the history of superheroes in comics. Historically superhero comics rose up around the same time the minutemen formed in Watchmen.  Superheroes in comics before watchmen where very pure and their behavior was unfortunately very much restricted due to rules instated by the United States Comics code, but Alan More wanted to revisit the superhero and provide the audience with, as he says, "Show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero."

            The most famous sentence from the comic, “Who watches the Watchmen”, is a perfect analogy for structure of this comic. The “superheroes” in this comic are not the heroes, maybe the protagonists, but not the heroes. They are the people who are in trouble they have found out that one of their own has been killed and there is a mystery that needs to be unraveled. Alan More takes the superhero convention and flips it on its head in a way that echoes though most all superhero comics today.

Diary of a Dominatrix

This week I read Diary of a Dominatrix, by Molly Kiely, which is an interesting tale to say the least and is extremely explicit to be honest. The work is categorized as erotica, but, at least for me, does not seem to be erotic rather then simply honest. When I think of erotica or something that is considered erotic I would think of something that is more fantastical and is based in fiction. This comic tells a story from the point of view of a dominatrix and her day-to-day life and struggles to live life as normal as “normal” is. Even if someone is into this Dominatrix fantasy I don’t believe it would be very appealing to that type of person either, this is definitely a comic meant for women more then it is for men.  Her day-to-day problems discuss topics that most women deal with and are not meant to be interpreted as something erotic.

            The thing that I find most interesting about this piece is that even though the protagonist is a dominatrix, someone who dominates his or her partner, she still has to worry about her image and how she is seen by the opposite sex so that she does not lose her image as a dominatrix. Being a Dominatrix is not considered normal to the average person, but being a women and dealing with image issues certainly is.

            I can understand why it would be hard to categorize this comic in genre that is appropriate with the subject matter that is discussed in the story, but being considered an erotica does not feel one hundred percent correct to me. I don’t know myself where I would place it, but it screams out to be something very different from an erotica, because in most cases erotica tend to objectify women and this piece the protagonist is brought to us as a human being who we sympathize for even when we find her trade maybe a little repulsive.

The Fifth Beatle

This week I read The Fifth Beatle, by Vivek j. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker. The comic is very new and just came out last year, 2013, It deals with Brian Epstein and his passion for the Beatles and helping them achieve fame, as well as his battles with addiction and hiding his homosexuality. I enjoyed the novel very much and it is wonderfully composed and the story is extremely well written. In the story there are a few fictional characters the writer, Vivek J Tiwary, throws into  the book to help personify the internal struggles Epstein deals with during his life managing the Beatles.

            I have searched online for a second opinion on what some of the fictional characters in the book represent or symbolize, but the book seems to be to knew or I am too bad at searching for me to find anything. What I think though is that moxie, Epstein’s fictional assistant, is a symbol for Epstein’s desire for heterosexuality, to be “normal.” During the entirety of the book she is drawn out as some sort of sexual interest for Epstein, yet we know that Brian is gay which makes their relationship quite conflicting.  Also there is a gay lover that Brian has when he moves to New York, he appears to be possibly represent Brian’s desire and fear of homosexuality, due to the fact that after engaging in this relationship soon after the man extorts Brian of a good amount of money. Also one thing I am not entirely sure of is purposeful, is in the beginning we see a sailor, who Brian looks at and then gets beat up by, who seems to look a lot like Brian’s gay lover in New York. This may just be coincidental, or it may represent his desire and fears shown in the book a lot sooner then when we see him in New York.

            I highly recommend this book, it tells a story I did not know very well myself, and I like to consider myself a somewhat big Beatles fan. The artwork is amazing and the story is fantastic.