I don't think comics that aren't about superheroes are something that cant be done or are rare. I mean, the sunday comics aren't always about superheroes. Most of them aren't. Y the last Man isn't about some superpowered alien who fights criminals, but it is one of the best comics I've ever read. The Walking Dead too, if you could count that. It does involve zombies, but thats about as close as it gets to being like a superhero comic.

LAST WEEK! :(

So this weeks required reading was fun.
Sandman the Wake is one of my favorite story arcs in this comic. then again i love the entire comic so saying that really isn't hard.
as for the recommended readings i didn't get to all of them but here's what i did get to.
The spirit i think will always confuse me, i'm not really a fan... sorry...
Anything Batman is awesome, though my favorite in that collection will probably be the "Robin dies at dawn" story Arc its hokey in places but still cool to see Batman kind of out of his element.
I really liked the artwork and storytelling of the 'best crime comics' though i don't understand some of them they where some of my favorite comics we read this semester.
Over all i think there where a lot of really good comics chosen to read and i am planning on reading them all over Christmas!

This weeks readings....

This weeks readings where a lot of fun!
I love starman, or at least Jack knight as starman. its great because it takes the reluctant hero to a whole new level! I haven't read through all of it yet, (though i plan on it) but what i've read so far it super cool! I really like how Jack Admits he's a coward and runs way quite a bit in the beginning only to run back. And how he doesn't have this superhero thing down at all, its all elbows and knees with him just plain awkward.
Bone was super cute, i really liked the story telling and artwork was so simple yet very detailed at the same time. and poor Fone Bone! he keeps getting the short end of the stick!
I couldn't find Sandman on the shelf, though hopefully it will be back their tomorrow, But i have read all of Sandman before, And its great work! i never muched liked how they switched artists for every issue, but the story telling and artwork in general was amazing. That and i just love Morpheus's character! he's such as Ass in the beginning! and kind is till the end too... i also really love Daniel, but i wont spoil any more if you guys haven't read all of it!
The best crime stories was interesting, i didn't really see what the whole point of the story was... the artwork was amazing though...
The only thing i have to say about the War stories is this. "War's a Bitch..." "Roger.."

Week 10 Readinggggggg

I love Cerebus. Really, I know that Dave Sim ended up a nutzo woman hating jerk, but most Cerebus is just so well done. Somehow, every time I pick up any of the Cerebus books, Sim does something that I've never seen done in comics, and it works! Its just not right...
The way that he solves the problem of conveying an echo in this story just freaks me out because its so simple of an idea but so effective and confident. Sim seems like he can just will something cool (that most people would struggle with)  into existence and its no big deal. Its all so well paced and the writing and characters are so fluid, I hate it. It drives me crazy. The pages are designed really well, but dont feel gimmicky, it just adds a really cool element to the story.
*sigh
Moving on...
Talking about Vignettes will make me feel better. Jim Valentino of Image Comic land. First off, I was bothered by how, in a couple of comics toward the beginning of the book, people only have 4 fingers. I dont know... it just freaked me out. Other than that, most of the stories were really fun to read. I found myself thinking about how I can relate to a lot of moments. You can see Valentino grow and progress as an artist. When thinking about personal comics, I tend to think of comics that are a little more depressed feelings and dont really look at all of the ridiculousness that Valentino shows.
Swamp Thing: Um, yeah, Alan Moore and Steve Bissette (who a friend of mine in Vermont knows). Um yeah, this is awesome. The way that Moore tells a story is so rich and complicated. The way that he uses the end of the story to start it, and then extends the story from that spot, very cool. The art of Bissette really compliments the story too. Moore writes kind of spooky and "out there", which is what Bissett's art kind of looks like anyway. I thought that the way that Moore explains and revitalizes Swamp Thing, makes the character interesting.
The Batman comic was good because of the epilogue. I just feel like all of the other comics that we read felt more dynamic and interesting. Although, I did like the addition with some science fiction (or string theory, or whatever) added in with the extra dimensions. I just thought that how Batman and Robin traveled was really hokey and easy. It was all worth it to find out that Bruce would end up as Batman even if his parents were saved.

Readings

Honestly, I think that the Jim Valentino book was one of, if not the best thing we've read this year. It's pretty hard to get me to laugh at things like movies or books, but Vignettes did. Also, you could tell what mood he was in during each of the comics he drew. When he did the strip about his divorce, and the one about the death of his grandmother, the tone was much darker and he drew things much more realistically. I sat down for 2 1/2 hours straight and read through it. I really couldn't put it down.

I think I would have enjoyed Swamp thing more if I had read some of it before hand. I felt like I got thrown into the middle of the series and was kind of lost as to who was who and who did what. It was well written and drawn beautifully, but I just think I don't know enough about the series to have enjoyed it.

The Batman story where he went back in time to stop his parents murder in another dimension was hokey to say the least. not much going for it. I mean, he got Gordon to not arrest him because he asked him to search his feelings and that they had met in another time. Seems like that would have guaranteed him getting the cuffs slapped on him.

Cerberus was nothing special to me. Like I said with swamp thing, I felt like I had no clue what was going on. We were kind of just thrown into the middle of the story.

What Are Our Suggested Readings?

So, I'm supposed to email our list for required readings... and I don't know what they are. SO, if you could, figure out which books you want to suggest and post it up here, that would be swell.
I have a list:
Milt Gross
Scribbly
Art Out of Time
Legion Of Charles
&
Cerebus
What do ya think?

Week 8

First off, the Legion of Charlie creeped me out. The audience was definately not my generation, but I could still get the message for the most part. The art was very creepy and gross. Very much my style. With the Batman story, at first I wasnt looking forward to reading it, as it is set up like an actual book. When I started to read it, it turned out to be very good. It told the narrative in a way you couldnt get with a comic in my opinion. It was a sort of fresh look into Batman's head.

STARMAN!

I wish that was assigned...
anyway-
The reading for this week were, interesting...
The Batman issue was cool in that it was more like reading prose with pictures every once in while. I liked that, and how it wasn't over explanatory and detailed. it gave you just enough to know that He's the damn Batman and that alone in enough of an explanation. The story was really cool to. i like to think that they didn't give you a lot of pictures because it was about a blind man....
The War Comics Legion of Charlie was kind of a WTF moment for me. the story was funny But REALLY wierd, and very CHARLIE....
I also really liked the best of Creepy comics too. the artwork was amazing, and the story was interesting in the fact that what the main character did is something that alot of people do and will do for money. its kind of an everyday thing now, taking advantage of others and getting all the credit. and the fact that he died in just an outlandish never going to happen in real life-way added to the ending note of what he did was something you should never do.

I loved the MAD archives readings. I loved how the symbols on Superduperman's chest kept changing to really stupid stuff, like 100% cotton. Also, the part with Batboy where they he's getting shot at point blank range and isnt getting hit because, as he says, super heroes never get shot.

The greatest batman stories were as fun as usual. I thought it was really weird how much Batman relied on Robin to save him. He was yelling his name in his sleep, which creeped me out a lot. This week, i read all of The Dark Knight Returns, and going from that to the classic Batman was an interesting look on how things change with how the characters are treated and to whom they are targeting their material to. From my perspective, comics now are being directed at the people who grew up reading the older ones, so the material matures along with the audience.

BAMF's reading were cute, and I wish I had more time to read more Melvin the Monster.

It was a sort of classic cheezy cartoon, but it drew me in and I didnt want to put it down. The jokes were really simple, with Melvin's mom being a mummy, and he calls her mummy, or how since he's a monster, he should want to go to school and is a disappointment to his dad for wanting to get an education.

I liked the story with the fat kid who was a superhero in the Art out of Time book. He was like Superman, except he was clark kent twenty-four seven. It was kinda weird that it was ok to publish a kid's comic where the dad wants to beat the shit out of his kid. I would hands down recommend Melvin the Monster out of the two BAMF had to read.

Reading Challengers of the Unknown is kind of like hitting my head against a brick wall still. I can appreaciate the art. It's Jack Kirby for god's sake. I dont see how a tiny, easily destroyable weather machine could threaten humanity, but ok, ill buy it. I love the weird logic to their plan of putting themselves into a force field ball to throw at the monster, pretty much knowing all of them out. I saw no reason for them to be in it in the first place, they could have kicked it at him or something. With the midieval mirage story, i thought it was weird they automatically jumped to the conclusion that they were in an alternate demension, and not just hallucinating. Gotta love it for the hoakiness though.

Week 6 Readings

I missed last week's readings but have been working on catching up this week. I read all the assigned Challengers of the Unknown in one sitting and was surprised to find it going really quickly because when I first skimmed over it, it seemed text-heavy and boring. It was actually one of the best (and even if it was unintentional, funniest) readings of the week. Each adventure was stranger than the last one and even though they were all completely ridiculous, they had a way of drawing me in and keeping me interested that I couldn't quite pinpoint. I also liked the design of all the monsters; they were outrageous and a lot of them reminded me of Pokémon! The addition of a "lady daredevil," Jane the scientist, was pretty cool to see, but I was disappointed (though not surprised) when she was immediately tossed aside as a mere 'honorary' member of the team. I was really excited to get to see a woman Challenger! Damn!

As for the MAD comics, they were just not my cup of tea. That kind of humor is annoying to me because it seems to be trying SO HARD to be funny that, in the end, it just isn't. I admit I enjoyed the spoofs of superhero comics, but they didn't make me laugh out loud and they weren't particularly memorable to me.

I wasn't able to find Melvin the Monster on the shelf, so I'll keep an eye out for it tomorrow and try to read a chunk of it before class.

The section of Art Out of Time we read was really amusing and I liked the style it was done in a lot. The idea of a lazy kid who's actually a super-hero is awesome and funny! When he goes to visit his grandpa (a near-identical fat man) is one of the best parts of the story because it introduces a lot of humorous points, such as his supernatural powers of flight, underwater travel, etc., his equally fat and lazy grandfather, and the utility belt of lollipops. One thing,though--was it just me or was the Loch Ness monster's head eerily phallic?

I have mixed feeling about the MAD spoofs on batman and superman, and i think the other one we were supposed to read was Lone Stranger, though the numbers were off....
anyway, they were funny in some ways it seems a little over the top and it was hard to get into.
Batman: Robin dies at Dawn, was ... interesting. I liked how they showed batman with a weakness of emotion there, being so distraught that Robin might have died he can't preform and then risking it at the end to save robin's life anyway. Its a cool idea, and even if it has been used a lot.
I really liked Melvin the Monster, it was probably my favorite in this run. The story line was cute, and inventive when it came to the monsters and what they do as a everyday thing that we would take as very weird. i also like how innocent Melvin was. he didn't really care what people did to him, he all thought it was a game. Like when the little girl let him out of the cage at the 'zoo' and helped him escape only to find him back in it the next because he 'liked the food'. hee

Readings

I really enjoyed the Best Crime Comics that our group had. I thought the style the artist used for the store owner story was interesting. The people were in kinda wonky poses and had very exaggerated hands. The one about the kid had a great narrative and kept me wanting more after I had finished it. For both, they used the "villain gets his comeuppance" ending, which we talked about in class last week. Two-Fisted Tales also did the same thing with the story with the Korean General. Looking back at Batman makes you realize how far characters have come. He started off as a murderer, then things started getting really goofy, then serious again today. Shazam is always really goofy and corny though. Thats kind of his thing. I could tell Challengers of the Unknown was heavily based off of Doc Savage. Just the look of the character reminds you of him, and also, one of them is a professor. Anyway, John Carter was a strange one. He just magically appears on mars and gets super strength and starts killing aliens for a war he knows nothing about. For all he knows, the aliens could be good and the humans could have been evil. Lastly, the Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics. Although I can appreciate them, I didnt find them that interesting. They were good and had fun stories, but I just couldnt get into it. Plus the duck broke his fishing pole. He could have sold it! I mean, he wasted 10 dollars. Considering the time, I think that was quiet a bit.

I totally agree with Greer on this one
The old super hero origins stories ROCK
They were super entertaining and even if a little out dated, made you want to keep reading.

Captain Marvel was my favorite too, mostly because of its tendencies to over explain everything, kind of like the Stardust superhero strip. kind of like what Greer said it was almost like the artist didn't expect the pictures to explain anything at all so they had to tell what happened as well. I was talking to friend about this and we decided it had to do with Radio broadcasts and how things where pretty deeply explained there as well. Either way it made my day on cheese factor alone.

I also really liked Plasticman. I've only ever seen him on random batman episodes from when i was a kid, so to see his how he started out was fun, that and he's an awesome character with pretty sweet abilities.

i regret to say i wasn't able to read Wonderwomen, every time i went to the library i couldn't find in on the shelf or in the hands of a fellow student, SO i'll have to see if i can find this this week. though i would like to know what YOU all thought of it?

Let me begin by saying I loved reading these old superhero origin stories. I love origin stories in general and I'm glad to be learning more about superheroes and the superhero genre in general since I feel like I know virtually nothing about it (and I really need to for my paper!)

First, I read the origin of Superman. I thought the first page was hilarious--is this old couple SO old they don't realize the baby they're looking at is in a weird rocket capsule?

The rest of this comic was also fun to read. On page 61 Lois tricks Clarks so she can steal his story...I thought this was pretty clever and I was glad to see she went out and did something after her boss's sexist comment ("This is no job for a girl" p.60). Throughout the comic there are other small actions/lines tossed in that are entertaining. For example, Superman whizzes past a speeding train, saying "Hello...and--goodbye!" (62)

The dialogue was also pretty funny in some places, though perhaps it wasn't intended to be. I noticed a lot of exposition going on in this and all the other Great Comic Book Heroes stories; characters would simply state what was happening, how they were feeling, etc. Instead of the pictures SHOWING the reader what is happening, the characters TELL us what's going on through mono/dialogue, often comedically directly.

The Captain Marvel strip certainly won the prize for most interesting origin story. Shazam tells the young Billy, "Merely by speaking my name you can become the strongest and mightiest man in the world--Captain Marvel!"

Powers just from saying some old guy's NAME? Too cool. It feels very tied to mythology and I'd like to do some research on that.

As for the Batman strips, I enjoyed them a lot but can't compare them to later Batman since this was my first time ever reading a Batman comic! I heard some other students found it to be weird and totally unlike modern Batman comics.

I thought the Joker was the typical evil villain in this, stating his plans very clearly and expecting no one to interfere (if he could just keep his mouth shut, maybe he'd get away with it).

Just as in the Superman strip, the artwork is supplemental to the dialogue and written parts of the story because characters are always blatantly stating their feelings and what is going on in the world around them. Makes it easy to follow, but it also feels a little dumb.

Also: forgot to mention this last night but of all the readings we've had so far, I definitely want to recommend the Smithsonian Book of Comic Strips to the rest of the class. I really liked this collection because it had so many different and interesting things in it. It's quick and fun to read; if there's a strip you dislike, it's not so bad because you don't have to read too much of it and you can move on to a strip you might enjoy more.

To be honest, I was actually mildly offended by the Prize Comics #3. Those were blatantly racist, without trying to hide it at all. The Power Nelson comic seemed to embody the whole Yellow Scare that was happening. The evil ruler and his son were both depicted as scrawny, bucktooth cowards. When Power Nelson comes back from outer space with the cure for the big plague that was happening, the ruler's son, which he had to drag along and babysit the entire time, took all of the credit for it. So now they are depicted as helpless liars. Jaxon of the Jungle was just as bad, if not worse. The big strong white man, taking advantage of the black people. He also at one point fools one into believing his lighter was magical so he would burn himself. I mean, seriously? Storm Curtis wasn't that bad. didn't see anything major going on with it. It very much reminded me of Doc Savage, without the whole being 7 feet tall with rippling muscles thing.

The story we read for Pappy's Golden Age Comic Blog was funny as hell. An evil scientist who controls a hollow tin can robot to rob banks, and no one can seem to just follow it back to the scientist. It also showed how the whole "Rich playboy superhero" is also completely unoriginal. My personal favorite part of the comic was when the main character hid INSDIE the robot to follow it back. Apparently, completely hollow robot minions are the most reliable. When I saw that, I thought of Bender from Futurama, with his door he has on his body.

The team reading I have to recommend is is The Great Comic Book Heroes. It gave an insight into the actual origins of Superman and Batman, and much much more if you kept on reading. I thought it was interesting that even though they were so hokey, they were perfectly fine with brutally murdering people, like the Joker did. The string of robberies he pulled were damn clever, doing them the night before he announced it to make himself seem like some mystical criminal genius.

I had a hard time following along with the transcripts for if only because I had no real idea as to what the entire lawsuit was about. the website had the transcripts, sure, but it didn't say why they were taking place and exactly what for. Other than that, if was pretty crystal clear.

Week 2 Readings

Krazy and Ignatz in Tiger Tea was by far the best read of this week! I loved the style of images in the book (last panel on p.37 was just gorgeous).

The phonetic spelling of the characters' speech really appealed to me as well. It was very easy to become immersed in the characters themselves; I could almost hear their individual voices. I also really liked the names of characters that were puns, such as Dr. Y. Zowl (wise owl, get it, get it?)

The storytelling, too, was funny and often made great social commentary. The very first strip (p. 29-30) made me chuckle and they just got better from there. As for the catnip/tiger tea in the story, I immediately thought of this as a drug reference but doubted myself for a few more strips ("No way is this about weed!") but when the characters begin discussing different variations of catnip tea, "kitten, kat, wild kat, kooger, panther and [...] tiger" (p. 62) it became pretty obvious that this was definitely a reference to drugs, if not specifically marijuana. I did a small bit of research on this and found that marijuana became outlawed around the 1930's and 40's in America and was misunderstood as having effects similar to cocaine. What I'm unclear on is towards the end of the story, Krazy is having trouble getting anyone else to drink his tiger tea, though throughout the story earlier everyone wanted some. Why is that? What does this represent?

And on that topic of representation, the scene with the ill tiger lily and the violet stood out strongly to me. I wasn't totally sure what this symbolized, other than the lily is generally a desired North American flower and the violet (also a North American flower) is sometimes considered a weed in gardens. If anyone has other thoughts on this, I am really interested in knowing what you think.

As for the Disney Treasures, I didn't enjoy these strips as much as the first ones I read. The Donald strip was pretty funny, I especially liked how Donald is always getting falsely blamed for the antics of his nephews. I was not fond of the strip written entirely in (sort-of) rhymes; I found it a little boring and childish for my tastes. Well, what do I expect from Disney?

Milt Gross was visually very interesting to me (is that photo-emulsion screen-printing?) with the layered CMYK palette. Some of the jokes made me chuckle, like when Doc is poking fun at Dickens, but a lot of the humor was really slapstick, something that doesn't appeal to me too much.

Can't wait for next week!

Readings

Our group was assigned He Done Her Wrong, and I was honestly impressed. For not having any words in it, its was able to convey its story clearly and keep the reader engaged. Tiger Tea was also fun to read. I do have to agree with the author, I believe Tiger Tea was a marijuana reference. There were times when it was hard to understand what Kat was saying, due to his completely broken English, but it wasn't difficult to figure out. It's generally hard for me to laugh from something that I read, but there were a few times in both He Done Her Wrong and Tiger Tea that gave me a good chuckle. Seeing Hal Foster's work in The Comics Before 1945 was pretty cool. compared to other strips of the time that we have seen, his backgrounds are stunning. I stared at the scene with Prince Valiant on his horse before the castle for a good while. Also, seeing the action scenes he did for Prince Valiant, you can see how action has changed in comics. When he cuts down the viking, nothing is really shown, but it shows enough to be dramatic and interesting. Sometimes, the most impactful things are what you don't see. I believe that things can be more graphic when it is left to the imagination as to what has happened. Anyway, that's my take on the readings.

Walking Dead

Hey guys. I know this has nothing to do with our readings, but I was curious anyway. If any of you are familiar with the comic The Walking Dead, you'll know that there is going to be a TV series of it on AMC. Robert Kirkman, the writer of the comic, is on board for the project. Is anyone looking forward to it as much as I am, or do you think it is going to flop?