[Palestine, Joe Sacco]

The thing that gets me the most about Palestine is how so much of the information is new, and it shouldn't be. It really, really shouldn't be. Growing up (mostly) in the US has skewed my viewpoint on Middle Eastern conflicts without my even knowing it. I started realizing it after 9/11, and it's only gotten worse since then.

Does anyone else remember right after, when the press got released that the guys that hijacked the planes were Muslim? I remember interview with Arabic-American people being afraid to go to mosques, for fear of being attacked. There was a strong anti-Islam feeling in the air that exists even now, some seven years later. In America, it's only okay to be Christian, really. I noticed this was a problem then, when I was thirteen. How does no one realize what they're doing by living in fear of anyone Middle Eastern? The world "terrorist" is tossed around like nothing these days, and it's because if we're not in terror, we won't follow blindly.

The media here raises you sympathetic with the Israeli cause. I always read about how the Jewish were killed by Palestinians, but never the other way around. The death toll, though? Higher on the Palestinian side. When I still went to church, we learned about the "Holy Land" and how it was promised to the Israelites by their God (Zionists). And how that was right, even though that dream wasn't realized until the 1960s, and even today there's a wall and constant military control.

First of all, I could care less where your God says you can live; He's not everyone's god/s. No one can claim religious right to a territory, especially not one as profitable as the one Israel sits in now. I'm not denying Jewish people the right to a Jewish nation, but the thing is, most Jewish people have been victims of diaspora, and are spread all over the world. A nation, not a nation-state, is many people of the same heritage/culture/nationality living together. The land that's Israel has never been an all-Jewish area, and it's certainly not now, yet it's almost impossible for anyone else in the Middle East to travel to it.

More or less, it's even more people dying over land, which has happened since the start. Sovereignty and all that. Let's keep building walls, because we'll all obviously survive if we don't cooperate. It's not like the world's getting smaller through globalization or anything.

[still Fun Home, ch 1-3]

So, after careful review of what I said last time, it makes more sense to blog about Fun Home has an entire, cohesive unit on Monday. Instead, I have amusing comic book covers from Superdickery.

[Fun Home, ch. 1-4, Alison Bechdel]

I began to read Fun Home before the semester even started, so I've been excited to get to this one for months now. Quick note on it: from the very beginning, Bechdel uses text outside the panels, serving as a kind of voice over narration; I love this style. However, I'm going to hold off gushing over it until Wednesday, because I have Watchmen stills from the upcoming movie. They're next to panels from the original comics, so it's pretty cool to see how it's all shaping up.

Nixon poster

Newsstand

Gunga Diner

Treasure Island

No, I don't normally browse Maxim.com; I got linked to their Watchmen galleries through another site.

[mini comic day]

I'm working on a mini comic with Matt K, so here's a sneak preview. Matt had this great idea to take an alien and place him into our world. There's more back story than that, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything. The alien proposes social critiques without even knowing he's doing so, as he's praising our way of life here in Chambana. Besides take pictures around Champaign, primarily Green Street, here's how else I've been helping:

This is our little guy.



Here he is at a different angle.


You want to see him from behind, you say? Okay.



Or gesturing wildly?

(So blissful.)



He also sits down.



And has a prominent thumb in one panel.



Alright, looks like he's tired of this.

If you can't tell, I've been cropping out the page around him, and copying just his body onto a transparent (alpha) background. This allows us to copy/paste him into real life photographs, so we have mixed media, which is pretty sweet.

Hey, anyone own Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Part) 2? It was made in 1986 by Tobe Hooper and has Dennis Hopper in it. If anyone knows a way I can borrow it that'd be great! I have a paper on it, and someone else has it checked out from That's Rentertainment. I'd really love to not have to watch it at the Undergra/ound.

[ch 1-11 & ch 12-end of Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse]

This blog covers two days, because I forgot to update for last Wednesday, and I won't have any time to do it before Monday. I still don't have much to say about Stuck Rubber Baby except that I really can't take the art. If it was just a "normal" novel, I'm betting I could handle it. As is, I'm too distracted by the bad!illustrations. For instance:

pg 149

The men and women look the same! Her hair and dress is the only thing really separating them. All of the characters are the same brand of large and ugly. I like interesting, aesthetically pleasing art, not mediocre pointillism. I'm glad we're moving on to Fun Home soon; I actually like that one. I suppose you could rationalize that Cruse is saying something powerful about gender roles and sexuality by minimizing the difference between genders. I don't think he is, though.

Completely unrelated, The Hush Sound's new album Goodbye Blues came out, and Panic(!) at the Disco's (Pretty. Odd.) got leaked a week early. (I'm sure Trace is going to say something about this, too.) The Panic album isn't really noteworthy. I'm glad I downloaded it before I'll receive the actual CD by mail, so I won't be so disappointed. Goodbye Blues, however, is incredible. It's a stellar follow up to their previous albums, So Sudden and Like Vines. They're a small band from Chicagoland made up of young kids who deserve your support, seriously. I'm embedding their latest music video, for "Honey," below, and if you like the music, you should think about buying (not just downloading!) their albums. They play in the Chambana area fairly frequently, too.

[ch 1-11 of Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse]

Knowing I'll be out of state in less than four days is doing wonders for my concentration. This week, I can't help looking at everything as a To Do list, and as soon as I finish everything on it, I get to board a plane. It's a long To Do list, and it's hard to care about any of it right now.

For my Creative Writing class, I have a 12-20 page story due today. Mine's 17 and a couple lines. It's about assassins. Well, it's about a small assassin agency that's also an independent publishing firm (their cover). I cut it off at 17 pages, because a new character was getting introduced, and, really, no one in that class needs to read over 20 pages. There wasn't a good place to cut it off within three or four places at all, so I faked a lame ending. I feel like I need an author's note on the end or something, to explain that away.

The midterm for Post-Colonial Lit is today. I kind of studied. I'm not that worried, since it's predominately an essay test. You can BS your way through any essay test as long as you know how to write. Plus, the material we've covered so far isn't at all complicated. It an interesting class, I'm just used to 3- and 400 level English classes now.

Spanish is just Spanish still. The first paper for film was due last week, thank God, so I don't have to worry about it now. And in this class, I just have to read Stuck Rubber Baby and worry about the mini-comic. Since we're covering the same section on Wednesday, I'm not completely through it for today. I'm a little bored by it, too. I'm not a fan of historical fiction. I never have been. I always thought the American Girl historical books were so awful. I like history, and I like fiction, but the two together? No. Not my cup of tea.

I'm working with Matt (K) for the mini-comic, and his idea is really cool. We got some basic shots of bars, alcohol, kids talking, and Matt pretending to be a bum on Saturday. I have some fairly intensive graphics work to do for it tonight. I've been trying to work on it the past couple days, but I've been so swamped it's been impossible. It looks like it's going to all come together really well, and we should be completely done or at least mostly done by Break. It'll be nice to have one less thing to worry about.

Oh, and Daylight Savings Time?


By the way, has anyone else noticed that one of the suggest labels/tags is "scooters?" What the hell?

[Portraits from Life, David Collier & Paul Arthur, second half]

Thanks to "Easy-E," I've realized that I knew close to nothing about LSD. I knew mescaline had something to do with cacti, but all I knew was that LSD was acid. Wikipedia says that LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is, of course, closely tied with the late-1960s hippie movement, due in large part to doctors Leary and Alpert secluding themselves to study the drug. Instead, they became modern gurus, and coined the famous phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Before that, LSD was used to give religious experiences, or to study mental health. LSD can be swallowed, shot up, or blotted onto the tongue (using blotter paper). It is not known to be an addictive substance, and many people stop taking it due to "bad trips."


Children were given LSD as experimentation prior to 1967 (when it was still legal).


British soldiers were given LSD. I'm not sure why, but it's worth watching. Unsurprisingly, they have issues working both the radio and the rocket launcher.


Paul McCartney reacting to the backlash he received after answering a question honestly. He kind of bashes the media for spreading the story, saying that they're increasing the likelihood of fans trying LSD more than his honesty is.

[Portraits from Life, David Collier & Paul Arthur, first half]

I'm really not sure what to say about this book so far. My initial impression was, Oh, wow, this is boring. I hope I can make it through. I didn't, entirely. I've got a tiny bit more to finish before class. And yeah, it's still boring. The subject material just doesn't interest me, I guess. I'm not thrilled to read about old people and the Canadian wilderness. Sorry.

I googled the book, and I found out that, yes, these are real people that he's writing about, just with his own twist or opinion. It's a shame, too, because his grandfather is what "Getting Dead" is about, and he actually sounds fascinating. If the story was all about his time in the military, I'd be interested. I wouldn't be yawning my through it at 4 in the morning.

Just. It's dull. I'm sorry. Blankets had a different structure, and the story flowed smoothly and, well, interestingly. Watchmen had superheroes. V for Vendetta had anarchy (and explosions). Portraits from Life has nothing but old men and old-school Canada. I'm not bashing either, I just don't care about either, and I doubt I'm the only one. If this were a straight-up book, I doubt I'd've made it ten pages in.


In other scholarly news, I started to expand an old idea for a "short" story I have due Wednesday. It's supposed to be 12-20 pages long. I'm happy if I get 1000 words normally (four pages). It's going to be about assassins, eventually, and I want it to be a business. Like an assassin business. It runs like a normal office building, and has a front as a publishing company (I think), but, secretly, they kill people. It'll probably be black comedy, or something like that. I'm excited about it, but it's literally causing me to lose sleep.

["Book 3" from V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd]

On page 196, V quotes William Butler Yeats poem, saying, "This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos... 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart... The centre cannot hold.'"

I actually had to analyze the poem, "The Second Coming," earlier this semester for my English 285 (Post-Colonial Lit) class. Here it is in its full-text:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre*

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

We discussed its relation to Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, and to colonization's effects in general. Alan Moore didn't pick it wrongly, either; it definitely applies to V for Vendetta. The "widening gyre" bit can symbolize time falling in on itself, which is directly related to anarchy: the government in the novel is falling in on itself, as well as its hold on the people. "The falcon cannot hear the falconer" symbolizes that the people cannot hear their Leader/leaders. Obviously, "the centre cannot hold" is a direct reference to the central government being unable to hold together and/or to hold power.


*gyres (n.): 1. (as used by Yeats) two, spiraling geometic forms (cones, technically) that intersect; symbolizes the inevitable movement of time; everything (all time and space) is contained with the gyres; used to represent dualities (like peace vs. war) 2. (as used by Lewis Carroll) used in "Jabberwocky" and Through the Looking Glass; Humpty Dumpty says that a gyre goes "round and round like a gyroscope"

[Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, Book Two]

Of all the things that were changed for the film, I'm incredibly glad to learn that the Valerie bit is still in there. It's very powerful in the movie, the story of her and her lover, and it's important in the novel as well. Moore uses individuals to show what the changes to England have done. With V, Evey, and Valeria, we get an up-close-and-personal look at not only people with the letter "V" prominent in their names, but how the takeover has impacted everyday people. It makes the entire story more realistic (and thus scarier).

I might add more to that later. For now, check out this wicked graphic that took forever to do for my manifesto:

I had to go through and use a select tool to get all of the blood before I could desaturate everything else. This meant zooming in to 800x and hand-and-wrist pain. See, my wireless mouse won't work with my laptop, since my laptop is pitifully broken. Even if it would work, I don't want to go hunt it down. God only knows where it's run off from. The picture is a still frame of a dead Russian from The Boondock Saints. Those are pennies over his eyes (the fare for passing the River Styx, y'know?). He was shot in the back of the head, so the bullet exitwounds are through his eyes, just to be clear. It turned out pretty cartoon-y with the blood, which is good since that was my intention (cartoons to comics to graphic novels).

["Book One" of V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd]

Yes, this is a day late. Sorry! It's a discussion of Lewis Prothero in the graphic novel vs. Lewis Prothero in the film.

[ch. 7-9 of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud]

Since John brought it up, and it still relates to visual media, obviously, here's the Gnarls Barkley video for Crazy:


And yes, I am trying to psychoanalyze all of you, even though I don't know how to properly do so. I think some of the reason I don't stare too hard at the ink blots is because so many of them do look like insects. (I have a grave fear of insects. Not spiders, just bugs. We're talking phobia-level fear, here.)

McCloud is still his wacky and crazy self for this section. I have to say I feel bad for his wife (and child!) in the last panel, though. It's like, seriously? That's kind of sick. It looks like he's neglecting his family. Also, toward the end, he experiments with a manga-type style. I honestly like the manga style; I've barely read any, just what my friend(s) have forced on me, but it's prettier. It seems more well done than a lot of "realistic" American comics. Maybe I just like how're they actual books more so than comics? I'm not sure.

[ch. 5-12 of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons]

In honor of Rorschach and his experience in chapter 6 with the Rorschach ink tests, I'm posting some blot paintings Andy Warhol did. By the way, seeing Rorschach/Kovac's real face? Yeah, he should wear the mask, no question, and, hi, didn't need to see the dogs bloodied. Very unnecessary.

See, my issue with these is I never really see anything in them.

This one's a little Tim Burton-y. But still, I just think, Oh, hey, symmetry.

Yellow!

Seahorses maybe? Except not really, and I'm struggling to make anything of it.

More colors.

I don't know. I'm apparently not cut out for these. I don't think I lack in creativity, but eh. They're supposed to evaluate personality characteristics. So the fact that I see nothing in them means either, a) I have no personality OR b) I refuse to give anyone anything they can psychoanalyze me with.

Mostly I think the tests are creepy looking because of the crawling black ink overlapping again and again. It's like a flurry of movement trapped in some single moment.

What I really want to know is what YOU see in them? Can anyone out there actually make pictures out of the mess?

On an Ending of Watchmen note, I loved the scenes of utter destruction toward the end, in chapter 12. The apocalyptic nature of it all. Just that hopelessness, it's engaging.

[chapters 5-6 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics]



Scott McCloud giving a presentation. His PowerPoint is more interesting than me talking about his book. Funnily enough, it's also more interesting than the book.



A mock interview with "Scott McCloud." Around 1:45, the fake!Scott talks about people using Understanding Comics in classrooms. "He" then goes on to talks about why comics and graphic novels are important for people other than kids. It's pretty base knowledge, but it's interesting. (And Lovecraft is mentioned! I've read some Lovecraft adaptations, and they're pretty sweet.)

In chapter six, though, it gets a little cool, I have to admit, because he talks about showing vs. telling. As a Rhetoric/Creative Writing major, Cinema Studies minor, I'm pretty damn used to hearing "show don't tell." Of course, that means, with creative writing, that you're still writing, but you're showing how John is angry, not just saying, "John is angry."

Chapter five discusses the "art of the invisible" and images being able to provoke emotions. I don't know what to add to that, but there it is.

[chapters 1-4 of Alan Moore's Watchmen]

Has anyone else read Umbrella Academy? It's a new comic, just started in fall of 07, and it's last issue's supposed to come out this month. Anyway, I'm seeing a lot of similarities between it and Watchmen. It's neat to be able to see how things are inspired by basic thematics. The autobiography pages are replaced by dictionary pages in UA, but authentic memoir pages are used also, to look back from the POV of a used-to-be "superhero." Also, the idea of turning away from that life, becoming an outcast and an antihero, though, yes, widely used, is similar between the two. The funeral of a friend is another strong correlation.

Sorry, I guess I'm not really analyzing Watchmen, it's just, I take English and Cinema Studies classes all the time, you know, so I'm used to having to see patterns. My favorite thing about the novel thus far are all the political implications. Mentions of the USSR, Cold War, Arms Race, etcetera. It's all chilling, the idea of fall out shelters everywhere.

Speaking of, Altgeld is an official shelter, isn't it? I'd swear I've seen the metal plaque above its north door. It always seemed crazy to me, that constant paranoia everyone lived in during the second phase of the Red Scare. Children cowered under desks in drills, as though that would actually help in the event of nuclear war. We just watched On the Beach in my film class, which is about the nuclear holocaust. Australia has another six or so months to live, due to currents and air pollution (or something- it's never fully explained), so it's about the citizens coping with the fact that they'll all die soon. It's a great film, and interesting because it doesn't have happy ending at all- everyone still dies!

Even further, I think there's evidence of McCarthyism in Watchmen, which, in my opinion, is the truly frightening part of all of it. The unmasking of the superheroes is similar to the unmasking of all (personal) identity that went on. Everyone strove to be the same in the period, in order to not be labeled as "Communists."

Here's a clip from On the Beach at the beginning of the film; notice that it's Anthony Perkins, who goes on to become a Psycho.



McCarthyism at work: a completely useless tactic to avoiding being destroyed by a nuclear weapon.




And then there's this. Some kid's history project, where he based a McCarthy video off the theme song of Pokemon ("Gotta catch 'em all," and all that, I guess). I didn't actually watch all of this, but it's funny for a little while.

[this is for Jan 28, too; Blankets, by Craig Thompson, chapters 6-9 & Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, chapters 3-4]

Remember my last post, on the 28th, about how I'd just combine both days into one? And I said it was because I wanted to do the rest of Blankets justice? Yeah, somehow I thought we were supposed to finish the novel for Monday. Not true. Not what it says on the syllabus. I swear, though that I heard Spencer/our prof say, on Wednesday, "finish Blankets for Monday!" So I did. And didn't need to. I mean, it was good, and I'm glad to be through it, but I feel like an idiot for not posting on Monday now. Oh, well. On with the show, I guess.

I don't have much to say about McCloud. I've read it before, which I think I mentioned (new age cinema class, yeah?), so there aren't any new and/or brilliant thoughts leaping out at me. Mostly I think it's entertaining, but that it's largely self-explanatory. I've only read one series of actual comics, and I'm not even finished with that (part 4 of 6 right now). Comics are too short, too fleeting, too fragmented. I know McCloud discusses different forms of media, but since it's in the form of reading a comic... I think you understand.

I actually like Raina's character, an unpopular opinion. I think she's interesting and more realistic than other characters. We see her flaws and her perfections. She carries so much on her; taking constant care of her family and trying to take care of herself. At her age, 18(ish), she can't possibly be expected to take care of Craig, too. Also, it seems like Craig wouldn't let her. Craig idealizes (and idolizes) Raina. He twists his beliefs about lust/passion to make what they're doing "okay" in God's eyes. (Actually, that says more about Craig's fading belief and his willingness to break away from what he's been spoon fed.) All the same, Craig wants Raina to be this perfect angel, a goddess even, and she's just a kid, too.

This novel started out about Craig and Phil, and that theme continues, makes the story what it is. They are two completely different people, but that common thread of "family" is there. Phil takes everything more relaxed. He keeps drawing, finds someone he loves, and stays light-hearted. Craig doesn't seem to be able to do that until he moves out and leaves his Bible behind.

[pg 250 from Blankets]

These two panels are a great example of how different the brothers are, even as children. Their parents have a surprise, which Phil accepts, but Craig's just scared.

[pg 459 from Blankets]

The clear separation between them is shown and said beautifully in this image. And it's so true. As we get older, we do everything alone. When we're young, we bathe together, dress together, and sleep together. When we're older (high school+), we do these things with select others, the ones we choose to spend our time and privacy with.

The best thing, I think, about Blankets, and some graphic novels in general, is the ability to get so much across with pictures and little words. The next few panels are all great uses of no dialogue, yet an entire idea is portrayed with ease.

[pg 488-9 from Blankets; Craig finding Raina's note]


[pg 510 from Blankets; Craig trying to write to Raina, or even trying to draw. Mostly trying to "thaw."]


[pg 580 of Blankets (almost the end); Craig making a mark, even if it doesn't last forever]

Like my group was discussing a week ago, about how graphic novels make you imagine a story sometimes, or just words. As opposed to regular novels, which make you imagine the pictures. When I read an all-words book, it's like a movie in my head-- always has been. When I read Blankets, I fill in the words. Not many, because it's a quiet, spare sort of story, but some. I think of things that describe the snow in the last panels, for instance. Or I supply the verbs that are only shown.

The epilogue gave a nice closure, by the way. It wrapped up Craig's religious doubt and his ability to move on with his life. Past high school, past his parents' house, past the Bible, past Raina. It was far more hopeful than all the other pages combined, but not too much so. I believed that everything had changed, and that it'd work out for all the characters involved.

And that's Blankets, I guess.

Side note: If anyone was wondering, I wasn't in class Monday due one-part to illness and one-part to an impending show. See, I woke up feeling awful, and I knew I had to drive up to Chicago that afternoon and last all through a concert and driving again, so I fell back asleep through class. I suck, I know.

[Blankets, by Craig Thompson; chapter 2-5]

Blankets seems to just get more beautiful the more I read it. I want the time to sit and read it all in one go, but I'm glad in a sense that I don't have that time. I'm glad it's being drawn out like this, chapter to chapters. If I read it all at once, I'd be afraid of missing something, of not spending enough time with each picture, each set of words.

Raina, though, yes, not complicated, brings a sort of hope for me to the story. All of the religious prattle gets obnoxious. I have a distinct distaste for these kinds of Christan camps, as well as the adults that run the churches and know everything. I'm not religious and very not Christian, and very possibly an atheist, so I'm consistently annoyed at the tie to God and the Bible throughout the story. I see Craig turning away from drawing as a horrible thing. He squelches his creativity for awhile to please God, or something, and I find it sickening. If there is a God, wouldn't He praise creativity in any form? Our imaginations are the only things that truly belong to us anymore. Doesn't that, shouldn't that, mean something?

The language of Blankets is surprising. I guess I expect comics and graphic novels to be on a level below literature, like penny romance novels or something. It's a ridiculous concept, but really, you know what I'm talking about. But then, Thompson will go and write something like--

And the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "HUSH."

--and I'm kind of blown away. The language is maybe a little too elaborate at times, but it has a way of drawing me in, as if the actual drawings don't do that enough already.

I'm having trouble being literary-critical behind my coffee cup this time. It's easier to let the words fall out of me then to dissect the scenes today. All I can say is that this story reminds me continuously of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, only more hopeful.

(Oh, and I'm sorry about the lack of images this time. I don't have a scanner, and I didn't have time to get myself to lab one this time.)

Blankets & Understanding Comics

[Blankets, by Craig Thompson; chapter 1 & Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud; chapters 1 and 2]

Thompson's Blankets is a little heartbreaking. It's the kind of thing I inevitably read, whether it's assigned or not: all soft but cutting underneath. "Cubby Hole," the first chapter, tells the story of Craig (the author) and his brother, Phil. They say the first sentence of any piece of writing is the most important to the reading of it. Thompson's first sentence fits the mode, saying, "When we were young, my little brother Phil and I shared the same bed." Being three years apart feels like a lifetime when you're a child, and Craig explains the gap he felt and sequentially made wider between his brother and himself. The only time they were (felt) close was in drawing and in exploring a forest behind their home.

Craig is bullied at school, even through secondary levels, and tries to escape through drawing and dreaming (shown below). When he's older, though, he reads, "A profusion of dreams and a profusion of words are futile. Therefore fear God," from Ecclesiastes. He interprets this (wrongly or not, I don't know) to mean that "dreaming & drawing [are] the most secular and selfish of worldly pursuits." He burns all of his childhood drawing, and he tries to burn his memories with them. The chapter is bookended with Phil being locked in a hidden closet (the “cubby hole”) by their father, Craig unable to do anything about it (shown below).

[pages 42-43 from Blankets; Craig using dreams as escapism]


[pg. 65 from Blankets; Craig listening to Phil cry in the "cubby hole"]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

McCloud gives us a brief introduction to comics, spanning the background and different kinds. He also tries to come up with a definition. Staring with “sequential art” (shown below), he works off the two words to try to make comics something definable. He has trouble, in the form of a comic himself after all, and concludes that comics will always mean something different to everyone, every culture, and even every generation.

In Chapter Two, “The Vocabulary of Comics,” McCloud discusses icons and how they are used in comics to universalize the images (shown below). Humans are set up to recognize them/ourselves in everything around us-- to see faces and mouths when there art any; this is why there's a Man in the Moon. McCloud also addresses the relationship between writing a comic and drawing one. An artist and a writer must bridge that chasm to create an effective storyline. He presents an equilateral triangle, its base angles being "reality" and "language/meaning," and its peak being "the picture plane." Art is effectively the peak, nature the lower left, and "ideas" on the lower right. Artists and writers must find some feasible way of blending the three to create a comic without separating the words and pictures.

[pg. 5 from Understanding Comics; visual examples of sequential art and what they represent/what we read from them automatically]


[pg. 46 from Understanding Comics; how we arrive at iconic images from photographic/real ones, and how that also makes the image "universal," "subjective," and "simple"]