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.