Comic & Graphic

MAUS  - Art Spiegelman -   Maus revolves around Art Spiegelman who is a comic artist, interviewing his father life story during World War II. Maus uses mice to depict Jews, which remind me of the establishment of the Comic Code leading to Donald Duck comic strips. Other race like German was depicted as cats and Poles as pigs. Art visited his father, Vladek Spiegelman, who he was not close to. Vladek tell him about the story when he married Anja, Art’s mother, who was from a very wealthy family. Vladek was given the opportunity to be a manufacturer with the help of his father in law. He later was forced to be a prisoner of war and tried to cross the border to reunite with his family. But the family had to split up and hide in disguise. When Art was twenty, his mother committed suicide without any notes. It was interesting how the story was told in two different timelines, one being the interview process and one being the flashback from Vladek past.  

UNDERGROUND COMIC I find underground comic very honest and interest. It is a story telling tool for anyone who want to share their personal experiences or thoughts. For underground comic, anyone can make comic because they do not need to be the most visually pleasing and well rendered images. It allows reader to get the stories from first-hand experience; and also, give minority a chance to speak up and share their stories. Underground comic artists don’t glamorize the plot; they simply deliver the story in an honest way. Not just the heroic side, but also the flawed and weak side because this is where we all can relate to. And in order to do this the artist has to reveal their ugly side, which we all have; but not many has the courage to show them to the world. But when the artist let down the wall to publish the spontaneous and weird stories, their comic become more unique and intriguing. Because the stories being told aren’t something we can share with everyone.

CONTRACT WITH GOD - Will Eisner Will Eisner, who is the father of graphic novel, is amazing at capturing the right emotion in a short period of time with line work. His style is simple and gestural making it easy to read. He is so knowledgeable in body language; he could convey a person’s emotion just by drawing their backs. Emotions can be shown through the shoulder, the spine and the direction of the head so even a simple silhouette can show emotion. The word bubble he created also allow the text to be more interactive with the illustration. It is almost like you can hear how the characters say their dialog from how the bubbles and the words are drawn. The most successful graphic novel are biography comics. The one I read was Contract with God by Eisner. It shows the stages of a relationship between man and god as he progresses through hardship in life, dealing with war, lost, and morality. It shows the struggle of being good and nice in a rough life.