Osamu Tezuka Buddha and Chynna Clugston Scooter Girl

I read some volumes and discussed Buddha, a manga by Osamu Tezuka, with my brother. I could not find all the volumes of this manga series and knowing my brother he read them, he can give me a quick summary of the rest. We also talked about the characters and how the religion buddhism is represented throughout the series. How they include Siddharta, which is known the be the iconic buddha. He though is not really a big part in the series for that the is a newborn. The main characters seem to be the pariah Tatta, the brahmin Naradatta, the slave Chapra, and his mother. We do not actually learn her name in the series. The story focuses on their journey more then Siddharta's. Mostly Chapra's goal is to rise up from his slave caste, even though it is forbidden. The book is full of characters with interesting personalities and morality's. For example our heroes may be good. But some will kill if they feel it is needed. The General who adopts Chapra is shown to be a horrible person at times, but is also shown as a loving father who accepts Chapra, even when he learns that he is a slave. The book is very well written with a lot of drama as well as a bit of humor. The humor me and my brother both agree that it is kinda corny, so some jokes seemed not so funny. Also just to through out there is that the series to me seems like it has a lot of 80's lingo as well, making it out of date to know days. The art in the series is very clean and uses black and white correct, making it still readable even with the heavy use of black in some areas. Many little details in the clothing, characters, background and more. It is a great read that I had fun rereading.

Another quick manga I read was Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston. This was a disappointment. Everything about it kinda was a disappointment. The art in some panels was good, but other then that the manga was bad. Super cheesy plot line, predictable, and not humorous one bit. I had to really get myself to finish it and not slam my laptop shut and walk away. It was basically a typical story of a guy trying to get a girl, like cat and mouse. The only slight twist was that bad things start to happen to the main character, the boy, and believes the girl is a curse. For example his scooter gets ruined over, his dad becomes bankrupt, and all his friends start to hate him. Even though it had this twist I kinda did not think it helped, I thought it was actually out of place in this concept. I remember reading some of Chynna Clugston's Blue Monday work and that was a whole a lot better then Scooter Girl. Maybe going into this reading I had higher hopes and that made me more disappointed in the end. Overall I would not recommend this reading.

Stereotyping, March, and Exit Wounds

Before I get into the readings of this weeks, I wanted to touch on stereotyping. My view is that 99 percent of the time I do not realize stereotyping is happening in films, books, games, and etc. This is because I grew up seeing it thousands of times so my brain is register to think that it is normal. Though I do not agree with stereotyping. Being a woman I hate seeing a woman that is super skinny with a big butt and big breasts. Majority of woman are not shaped like that or presented as eye candy for men. Me being a woman I am more effect on stereotyping for women then African American stereotyping. Though how I feel about how women are stereotyping is probably the same way they feel about stereotyping. Its accepted in the world right now, but if the envelope is pushed to much I could see things going bad.

Now on to the reading for week eight. March by John Lewis is a book that will challenge you, that will make you think, and that will hopefully leave you a bit better after you've read it. This is a book that everyone should read, and then reread again. And then pass on to others to read. This is a part of history that we should not let die, remember, and honor those that created it.

Congressman John Lewis is an iconic figure within the Civil Rights movement, and the last surviving member of the “big six leadership.” He rose from being the son of sharecropper, to marching with Martin Luther King, and to the halls of Congress. This first book in a planned trilogy covers John Lewis’s youth in rural Alabama, his first meeting with Martin Luther King, the birth of the Nashville Student movement, and the battle for desegregation on the steps of City Hall. And it comes to an end all to quickly. I finished the book saying "but, but...I want more! I need the rest of the story now!" And that's such a great way to leave readers, clamoring for the next part of the story. It’s a powerful and moving story to see a firsthand account of the triumphs and sorrows of being involved in this time period in history.One of the problem that I normally see with autobiographical stories, is that they often try to give the reader to much information or even sometimes not enough information. They forget that we aren’t all familiar with the history of an individual. But this book doesn’t suffer any such problem. We move expertly between past and present, as John Lewis gives a tour to children from his district and explains his past. It’s a great way to set up the story. And more importantly you don’t ever feel like you’re missing out on something.

Nate Powell’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous. It’s done in his typical grace/style of capturing the human form oh so perfectly and it seems like this time he’s gone even further in his use of shading to give us the beauty of all different types of skin tones, each character’s is unique. His artwork is perfectly suited for this story capturing the range and intensity of emotions--the sorrow, the joy, and the fear that sends chills down your spine. That intensity, that feeling of life that he captures in their faces really makes them come alive.

You can’t help but feel moved by this story and you can’t walk away unchanged. The combination of story and art works perfectly in capturing this event and this time period. I’m predicting this book will be one of the best graphic novels of the year, perhaps even one of the best books of the year. I started recommending it to my faculty as soon as I heard about it. And one that I can’t wait for them to teach from. I defiantly recommend the book for someone to read, ten out of ten.

Exit wounds by Rutu Modan was another read I did for this weeks comics. Now this comic is one comic that I was kinda like meh with. Nothing really empowering and nothing really memorable about it. I am not bashing about on it, it was a good book, but compared to what I have read in this class it is probably on the bottom of the list. What happens in the comic is that a taxi driver in Tel Aviv is confronted with a mystery involving the potential death of his estranged father. In the process he gets to know a young woman who is the daughter of wealth.

Something that I did really enjoy about the comic were the illustrations. Modan's illustrations are crisp, and clean, with bright, stark color work. The characters are well fleshed out and absolutely imperfect. In some ways the story feels inevitable. In other ways it takes some unexpected turns. The character of the father comes to life in a somewhat surprising way. I would not really recommend this book, I would recommend reading the March over Exit Wounds.

Barefoot Gen

While watching the film Barefoot Gen in class, was like being on an emotional rollercoaster. I went through so many emotions, like joy, anger, and most the time sadness. I would not think this film would make me feel all of those emotions, for that anime style movies never really touch my heart like that. Yes, going in to this film I was not excited. One being that it was in the style of anime, not my cup of tea. Secondly, it contained subtitles during it, making it hard for me to follow along while also trying to read all the words being presented on the screen. 

The subject of the movie shocked me also, taking the view of a suffering family during the war and bombing at Hiroshima is different. Sure I have seen many movies based off that time and era, but never the way Mori Masaki did it. Since being born and raised in America, I was going in being on the American side, but I saw myself crossing over the the other side. I felt bad that innocent people were attacked and lost loved ones during that time. Even in the movie the father never wanted the war and thought it was stupid that the people started it. I really enjoyed how Masaki made me change sides during the movie and made me understand how even citizens of Hiroshima felt about the war. 

Now lets get to the art, since I am an art student. No again as I stated before anime style is not my cup of tea, though I liked how it was handled in this situation. How the characters a bubbly and playful, so when their upset you become upset. I think the film had a simplify style during the film, but had enough detail to understand what the object, place, and person Masaki was trying to represent. Now it does get graphic when the bomb hits and the after effect. How the boys slowly burn, fall apart, melt, and basically rot. How children in the river die because they can't swim. Walking burn victims down the streets. Also how the artist shows breasts a lot during the film, I know that really it is not a really big deal, but growing up in a Catholic home it is for me.

Overall, I would recommend this film.

 

Art Spiegelman's Maus

As a story about the Holocaust in comic form, Art Spiegelman’s Maus accomplishes the seemingly impossible. Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, and his experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. Running parallel to the story is the story of Spiegelman’s interactions with his father as he visits his father on numerous occasions to record his memories. All of the characters are represented as animals: the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Americans are dogs, and so on. Within this seemingly simplistic framework, Maus confronts the terrifying reality of the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of millions and millions of Jews carried out by the Nazi regime during World War II.

Maus is considered a representative work in second-generation Holocaust literature, literature about the Holocaust written from the perspective of the survivors’ children. As the critic Arlene Fish Wilner explains, “In the Jewish tradition, the transmission of familial and communal history from parent to child is a sacred obligation”. Inheriting and preserving their parents’ stories is a way for children to connect with their families’ pasts. This becomes especially important when you think about the fact that whole families were wiped out during the Holocaust.

Spiegelman exploits the comic form in Maus to unsettle the reader, playing with panel frames and arrangements and with his own animal motif to unsettle the reader’s expectations. Within the comic, Spiegelman reflects a lot on the making of Maus, inviting the reader to inhabit his creative process. In using a form of popular culture to talk about serious historical issues, and by reflecting on the form within the text itself, Maus is also considered a postmodern text.

I also liked how he used black and white instead of color to set the mood of the comic since it tells a more serious piece of work. Using rodents as people shows how he wanted to represent how jewish people felt like pest and rodents compared to everyone else during that time, basically alienated.

I would recommended this.

Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb's, The Book of Mr. Natural, has a main character featured through out the whole book, heck his name is in the title, Mr. Natural. At first appearance, Mr. Natural is a mystic guru who spouts aphorisms on the evils of the modern world, and the salvation to be found in mysticism and natural living. He has renounced the material world and lives off anything he can get in exchange for his nuggets of wisdom. Mr. Natural is always depicted as slightly overweight, bald with a long white beard, and wears a gown which makes him resemble a prophet.
Crumb's bearded guru is too unapologetic to be called a con man. Despite his renunciation of the material world, he's an unrepentant sybarite. His straight talk, while refreshing, can get him into trouble, as when he was kicked out of heaven for telling God it's "a little corny" in "Mr. Natural Meets God". The stories that contain the character Mr. Natural always seems to keep things fresh brining a wittiness to the pages. 

Need More Love, a graphic novel by Aline Crumb, was a fun book to read. For one thing, along with text, there were comics to read, photos and paintings to enjoy looking at. Aline Crumb had a totally dysfunctional childhood, with a father who did not hold a regular job, but always looked for a way to scam a buck. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, she explored free love, drugs and rock 'n roll. She had a baby when she was young and gave the healthy boy up for adoption. It does not sound like their paths ever crossed again. After her father died, her mothers wanted to share a flat with her, and she married a nice Jewish boy instead to get away from mom. That marriage did not work out. After attending college as an art student, Aline eventually moved to San Francisco so she could explore her craft. She got involved with such feminist artists as Trina Robbins. She worked on "Wimmen's Comics", where she wrote autographical comics, which was very new, especially for women back in the 1970s. Due to some conflicts with some of the other cartoonists, she eventually worked on her own comics with other artists called "Twisted Sisters." 

In San Francisco, she met artist Robert Crumb, who already had a great following as a cartoonist and they started hanging out. Eventually they lived together and got married. They lived in Central California for many years, worked on comics together called "Dirty Laundry" and had a daughter Sophia. During one of their many travels, Aline fell in love with France and convinced her family to move there. They are presently living in South France in a beautiful home. Aline shows off some photos of her home in this book. Robert and Aline are still very involved in their writing and cartooning. 
I loved reading this book and learning about Aline and her family. Aline has a great sense of humor throughout her book. She makes fun of herself, her art and she emphasizes how difficult it was at times for her daughter to grow up with parents who are artists and had such a liberal past. I highly recommend this book for a good time. 

Tijuana Bible Blondie, is a very graphic piece. I did not expect to be reading such vulgar things from a comic book. I just thought this would be a good comic book since I never heard of it and I wish I did not. I do not understand the purpose of this, it was like the comic version of porn. To add to it, it looked like a young boy drew the characters making it even more uncomfortable to read it. Basically if you have not gotten it already, I did not enjoy it and do not think there should be much to say about it.

Will Eisner's Works

Will Eisner's Family Matter tells the story of a day in the life of a typical family gathered for a birthday party. In the span of twenty-fours hours, the darkest family secrets are revealed. Long suppressed memories surface like betrayal, abuse, greed, incest, and worse. The strained family comes together, only to be torn apart. Will Eisner's novel The Name of the Game traces the parallel lineages of three Jewish families from the late 19th century to the 1950's: an old money family, the Arnheims; a more modestly striving family, the Obers; and the social climbers, the Kayns. By turns, it is poignant, maddening and sobering in its depiction of how people use marriage as an avenue to preserve appearances, rise in social class and sometimes just survive. While I seem to recall Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel novels covering some of the same territory, I found this deeply affecting and resonant. The Dreamer, another Will Eisner's work is a semi-fictional story of a young man who dreams of working in the world of comic books in the 1930s. Along the way he meets those who share his dream, and others who have dreams of their own. 

Blankets by Craig Thompson is wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith is a small description.Blankets in my opinion is the coming of age story of Craig. It's a story of love and self-discovery, and of family and parenting, and the scars the smallest of brutalities could make. But most of all It's the story of Craig's struggle with art, love, and sexuality on one hand, and his faith on the other. Blankets is, in short, about life. Craig's journey from the darkness of Plato's Cave, to the light of the real world; his liberation from dogma and ignorance, through love and reflection, was so relatable to me, since I went through a very similar journey.I never thought that a graphic novel could be this meaningful—not taking away anything from graphic novels, but the ones I read, so far, were more entertaining than anything else. But Blankets changed that very mistaken impression; it made me reflect on life, and feel so many emotions. Would recommend, if you can read more than 600 pages.

Art Spiegelman's Jack Cole and Plastic Man

Art Spiegelman's Plastic Man series of comic book bended the rules of a regular super hero. When going into reading this comic book I was expecting a generic super hero and a common scenario were this man saves the day. Though I was surprised to find out what this Plastic Man really was. Plastic Man is a man that can shift into anything that he needs. For example he can stretch him self like a rubber band from panel to panel, or he can shift into an object like a ball. He can even shape shift into a female. It was interesting take on a super hero, and how his powers changed out the layout of a comic book. It also gave leading lines and movement when he stretched himself, making the viewer know where to look next or where to look. It standard traditional color scheme did not hold back the red jumpsuit and yellow belt though. The reading was great, but my only negative about this comic was that its scenarios were border lining predictable and commonly seen in other comics. The new super power of this hero defiantly helped the comic in the long run. 

Herge created many comic book series of Tintin and his adventures. Tintin travels to exotic places in every comic book. Tintin is a famous reporter with Le Petit Vingtieme. In one of his comics he departs for the USSR with his faithful friend Snowy, a white dog. Tintin is on a mission to find out, and report to his young readers back home, in one of his comics, the state of affairs in Soviet Russia. This adventure was the birth of a legend and the first edition of the book that had achieved legendary status among collectors. 

While in class, we read a few comics of Carl Bark's work. Carl is the creator of all of Donald Ducks comic series and his adventures. In one of the comics that I read Donald and his nephews are competing on who can catching animals. Donald says he can catch anything and to prove it he will catch a fox. His nephews though decide to prank their uncle and have him catch a faux fox scarf he gave daisy. Donald though catches his nephews in their little act and decides to find a "wolf" from the pound and claim he caught it. The nephews are shocked from this catch and try to catch themselves one. Though Donald seems to get caught by their trap when trying to show his nephews that their trap stinks. When the nephews go for help they get caught in Donald's other trap. leading them later to be cut down later by bystanders. Then a mouse sales man tries to sell Donald a mouse trap and Donald does not find this funny, slams the door and leave the sells man confused. 

Carl Bark's gives these little critters many gestural poses and facial expressions that  bring the characters alive. The bright colors adds a cartoony feel, and less realistic colors like some comics we saw about wars or batman by DC Comics. The jokes found in the comic are generic, but still makes me crack a few chuckles here and there still. Lets face it you can not beat a classic joke.