blankets

Blankets is a very interesting piece of work, one I feel i could relate do in some way, it shows a lot of how the mind of a child works, or moreover what its like to be a bigger brother, and the interactions with your siblings, and how so much is in secret and stories that are only in your head that can't be shared, or interoperated by others. escaping into his imagination running away from the real world finding every way of salvation from the threats of the real world. I really enjoyed Blankets, the situations are so funny and humorous in the sense that they are true and I feel as if they are quiet similar to my own experiences, but not entirely the same in any way. I also really like the style that the comic is done in, its really cartoony and fun, i would recommend everyone to read blankets

maus

Maus is gotta be one of the most depressing and sad stories I have ever read, I myself am really sensitive to these topics about the holocaust, genocide and war. It is interesting how he tells the story from his fathers eyes. It almost like asking some old person to tell you a story about them and its particularly how the graphic novel is written. and to read about his fathers life, how well off he was and how his situation went from bad to worst, when he was in the concentration camps, its just over all a really depressing story. its really crazy how these terrible things happened and he doesn't even show the worst of it. also its interesting that all the characters are mice, and how the entire novel is drawn in a very crude style but it works for the type of story. over all i enjoyed reading maus, but it was to depressing for me, and its even worst know how it all went down from a persons own experience.

Kingdom Come

Mark Waid and Alex Ross have to be the most amazing individuals to have worked on Kingdom Come. it is one of my favorite graphic novels of all time. the semi realistic style that Alex Ross uses is outstanding each and every panel is like a work of art, its simply amazing. I really like the way Mark Waid starts out the story, how the super heroes are getting old, and the way they think is not how thinks are done in the present day, and so the public reappoints a hero to replace superman, which is Magog. Its cool how all the super heroes get disbanded after superman leaves to live a life of solitude in his fake futuristic park. And its really cool how Waid adds the third person view of the story how spectre shows around Norman, and tells him how the events are going to unfold. My favorite part was when the action started to esscalate and when the final battle rolls around and all the superheroes are at each others throats. and Superman goes up against Shazam! the most epic scene! loved every moment of it.

Little Nemo

Little Nemo is a very interesting comic strip, I really like the concept behind the hole thing. How little Nemo gets in his pajamas and is in his bed to go to sleep, and thats when Nemo enters the dream realm which is Slumberland, and how each time he goes on an adventure in Slumberland. Its interesting cause each the strips that are featured on the newspaper is like a different adventure that nemo had in slumberland. The ending of each of the strips is pretty clever in how at the end of every dream he gets himself in some kind of trouble, and ends up waking up because he started falling in the dream or hit something. Its a clever way of waking from each of the dreams in slumberland. I do have to say that some of the adventures are really bizarre, makes me wonder if Winsor McCay was on something every time he sat down to work on the little nemo comic strip. I think if the newspaper was still relevant today and people still read the papers, I could see myself reading little nemo every sunday

The Watchmen

The Watchmen is by far one of my most favorite graphic novels I love everything about it. I was only made aware of the Graphic novel after watching the trailer for the movie, I watched the movie before I read the Book because I heard that after reading the book the movie sucks. So I decided that I was going to watch the movie and then read the graphic novel so I can enjoy both mediums, and thats exactly what I did. In my opinion I loved the movie, the cinematography was amazing, the characters were a different sort of super heroes, So when I read the Graphic Novel I had a much better appreciation of the story and plot of the Watchmen. My favorite character in the graphic novel was Rorschach and in the movie they portrayed him really well, the way his character is, his attitude, he is simply the
coolest superhero character ever made. but I'm kinda sad that Rorschach gets kills in the end. 

Habibi

So for this week I read Habibi which I have to say is very well put together and has so much to offer in terms of the overall package and its contents. its rich with Thompson’s interpretations of stories from the Qur’an and stories from the arab culture. the intricate binding of the book and the inside pages reflect the story and history of the Islamic culture that resonates in the Arabia. the story itself was a bit confusing at first but as you read on it is pieced together as the memories of the girl Dodola unfold into a series of events. Which i find to be a very effective way to tell a story within the graphic novel format, its makes it seem very mystical, and at the same time we learn what she learns about the stories that revolve around the customs and traditions of the Arab land. stories that have been told threw the Qur’an about the prophets. The story itself was very interesting to me, its very depressing and as you read the graphic novel a history builds up between the two characters, very unfortunate things happen to both of them. They get separated and reunited after several years and so much has happened to Zam and Dodola. but over all I really like the story very interesting, but sad at the same time.

nov 3, 10th week

So this week I read the comic Eight ball by Daniel Clowes, which was the only one available from the course resources page. I wish more of the required readings were on the course resources page, I mean don't get me wrong there is a lot of material on there. But after reading Eight Ball I'm very much compelled to read some of his other stuff like Ghostworld. I just want to say that the compilation of stories  in Eight Ball are just straight up bizarre for me, I don't think I understood the story line at all, they just seemed like a series of weird events with a weird unexplainable ending to the story. on the other hand I found them very interesting to read. The stories were confusing, and intriguing which mead me want to read more. the one that really caught my attention was the Laughing Spitting man, I don't even know how to react to that particular one, like part of it was predictable, like when main character encountered the husband, but where it really got funky was when the guy started to turn into a practical joker without knowing it. I mean all of this stories had some weird attribute to them but that one was one that stuck out to me the most. also I did a comic last year that I think will be good for this post

Asterix the gladiator

Asterix the gladiator is a very humorous comic, when reading threw, it flows so seamlessly almost like a animated cartoon series, its just so well done. The only thing that I would complain about, would be the story, how the action builds up, its too slow from introducing Asterix and Obelix, to setting them in a time and place, in there everyday activity, and then presenting a problem for them to solve. its really well put together, but for my taste it happens very slowly. I think the pacing of the story could be a bit faster, but nonetheless, it is a very well drawn comic the characters like precisely the same threw out the series, and its just amazing how well they have the style down. I really enjoyed Asterix and Obelix, its really funny how the story progress though, it builds up slowly its very entertaining to see what kind of adventures and  situations they get into, and its funny cause they will get into some kind of trouble but they always get out of the situation in some humors way.

the adventures of tin tin

I love the adventures of Tin Tin, it was really awesome, Tin Tin and his dog Snowy, and love how the story progresses in the beginning, its funny cause its serious at times and then they have these moments filled with humor, the way the adventures of tin tin have been drawn and written it almost flows like a movie in your mind, at least for me that's how most graphic novels work. As for the technical aspect of the comic, it is very well drawn all throughout the comic it is so consistent in style and just flows really well together. Sometimes what will happen in most comics is the talking heads, which is only people talking from page to page, but with Tin Tin, the story is so interesting and suck you right into the adventure that, you sometimes you forget everything else and I think that's what makes a graphic novel so successful. I think I've actually acquired an interest for the adventures of Tin Tin.

I love how the adventure progresses, and stupid funny events lead to the next adventure in the story line its really awesome. whats even better is when something funny happens like when one of the characters get themselves into a bad situation they will only show what is about to happen and then they cut to the aftermath and they leave the rest to your imagination which make it really funny!
 

featured work

I did a strip and its was greatly influenced by calvin and hobbes just how they are very short and hummors and the last few panels are the punch line. I think the trick is to figure out how you can create a funny situation from only a few panels, so I think thats where the genius comes in. I also have tried to imitate this technique, its difficult to come up with a situation but I think the one that i drew is all to familiar to most of my classmates and teachers. the little nemo comics were interesting, although I felt almost bored by them, they were really slow and some what anti climatic, since we know how every strip would end, with him waking from the dream, its really cool but the strip i read wasn't captivating enough for me, i'll probably read a few more before i make my final ultimatum on little nemo. I think I'm much more of a fan of calvin and hobbes, theres also this great strip i'd like to share with you, it kinda relates to art students work flow. 

The Arrival

when reading the arrivals I was fascinated by fact that there was a book out there with only words, and the storytelling is just amazing like when they show the family in this place that is threatening there way of living like shaun tan all he had to show was a representation of something evil that lurked in the city and he did it with the creatures tale casting a shadow on the building and homes. and it was really interesting when he is crossing the atlantic ocean, and theres 2 pages which describe the days it took to get to there destination only threw the shapes of the cloud and how they were different each frame, implying that time was going by. Also the thing that blew me away was how he was a foreign land where he didn't know the language but neither did we so he was communicating with people only threw pictures, which is ironic because the book itself has no words in it, so that was really interesting that I found, over all the art work was just incredible. Also because I felt like I could some what assimilate to that situation on various levels, like my  family kinda went threw the same situation when immigrating from pakistan to Canada, and I didn't know any english so it kind of similar and since english is my second language and being a visual artist, I could never get a good grasp of language, never good at writing, but I could communicate with my drawings so one thing that I learn was, emotions will tell half of your story for you, so you have to be careful of what you show in each frame, and Shaun Tan knew what he was doing, because I think the way he told the story was at such a pure level that, you really begin to connect with the character.

Max Ernst pictures with words

Not sure what to write about the first panel, it looks like something coming out of the woman's dress. the second panel, is of a man with wings that go all the way down to his feet standing infront of a woman lying in bed, with a dark background with chandeliers. The third panel has a dead body in a coffin, and a huge wingspan on the left, with a  rooster coming out of the side pointing to a nude woman holding her dress, looking towards a another man with a rooster and lantern in this hand. the fourth panel has the same kind of subjects, 2 nude women, two guys with rooster heads, discussing something, in a church like setting. I'm not quite sure what the meaning behind it is, but its very interesting visually. The fifth panel is a little different, the setting is in a bedroom chamber with some one coming out of the sheets lying on the floor in a pool of blood, with a rooster on the bed and one on the floor in front of the dead woman, and a man standing in front of the door facing the woman shocked as to what had happen. The last Panel is two women  standing in front of the fire place, one in a dancing pose. he collages the images and rephotographs  the images to flatten them, and create this new technic.

First!

created my blog for Literature of Comics and the Graphic Narrative.