Lit. of Comics and the Graphic Narrative

Today we live on a world of change. We live on an era that denies stereotypes and pushes forward innovation every day. This is no exception with comics. It is clear that the use of stereotypes has progressed throughout the medium. Personally, I find myself reading comics with strong female protagonists all the time. This I think is because growing up I would mainly see male protagonists all the time so its refreshing to see something different. One comic I’ve been reading recently that breaks a lot of stereotypes is Ava‘s Demon. This is a web comic that has a lead female character that is completely insecure about herself. I guess in a way I identify with the character, which is nice because the stereotypical male character is something I can’t really identify with. Overall I think The use of stereotypes has progressed for the better and that soon this will be an industry where stereotypes are nonexistent.

Maus was an exceptional read. Growing up my school's education system didn't talk much about the holocaust and the events that happened in Germany at the time. We would briefly go over excluding all details, this way we had more time for historical events that happened in our own country.  I remember growing up I didn't even know what a swastika was until I saw it on an american movie. So this specific historical period is specially intriguing to me. The best part about Maus is that is lets me experience it with new eyes. The comic is laid out so that you see everything from one characters perspective. This is what makes the comic so appealing. I can only imagine how relevant this topic was the moment this comic was "released". On the downside, I have mixed feelings about the art style used in this comic. It is nowhere near as good as the gorgeous art of blankets by Craig Thompson, but its not that awful. I definitely feel like the artwork gets simnifically better...

Underground comics are certainly unique. In my case, I had the chance to read WEIRDOM COMIX. It is just a serious o short stories that are incredibly different from each other. The connecting factor seems to be fact that they are “weird”. This of course makes sense because most of the stuff you see would never be seen on a “regular” comic book. A simple example in one of the short stories inside this comic called “The stoned wolf and the 3 pigs”. I think that name explains itself. I personally enjoy comics like this. You don’t need to read the previous edition in order to understand what is happening but it still feels like a short fully fleshed out story. Also the fact that they are “weird” is appealing because you don’t know what you are going to   read next. All the comics are different from each other. The continuing motif throughout the comic is that all the stories are ended with a sort of cliffhanger, but also give a satisfactory ending to the story. I...

Reading underground comics was a shock. They are incredibly different from anything I have read until now. Of course this is mainly because of their subject manner. Compared to other regular comics, that try to be subtle when dealing with similar topics, Underground Comics are not afraid to be as explicit as possible. Something that I notices is that most of the art was quite rough. This appears to indicate that most of the writers where either young or new to comics. This means that the rise of this type of comic inspired new artist to create, which is amazing. Besides all of this, listening to music while reading some of this comics was like going on a time machine. It really helps you get a feel of the time. Overall I enjoyed the experience and I might keep reading this type of comics.

For This week I tried to read both “Blankets “by Craig Thompson and “Contract with God” by Will Eisner. “Contract with god” only managed to capture my attention for a couple of minutes. Maybe it was because of the way the story is narrated, but it simply was not my cup of tea. “Blankets” on the other hand got me hooked instantly. Now that is an enjoyable read. Nothing like an innocent story with gruesome twists to keep you entertained. Not only that, but also the topics handled in the comic. More specifically, the way religion is handled In the story leaves you questioning your own faith. Which I personally think its an extremely powerful thing to do. I truly enjoyed this read and I will be reading more works from this artist in the future.