Underground comics are small press or self-published comic books
which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ
from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream
publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence. They were most popular in the United States between 1968 and 1975, and in the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1974.
Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and numerous other cartoonists created underground titles that were popular with readers within the counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter.
Long after their heyday underground comics gained prominence with films
and television shows influenced by the movement and with mainstream
comic books, but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics.
The comics that I read for this week were Arcade, Tits and Clits, Air Pirates, and Fat Freddy's Cat. I personally disliked all of them and want nothing to do with Underground comics. I find them rather boring and the style is unappealing.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Body Talk: Eisner and Thompson
One of my favorite aspects about comics and art in general is the concept of bringing through human emotions through the illustration of form and character. The concept of creating a sense of empathy through characters that are transcribed on paper rather than in real life spell bounds me. And no illustrators bring this concept across better than Will Eisner and Craig Thompson.
A Contract with God by Will Eisner It is a short story cycle that revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a New York City tenement. .
It demonstrates and showcases the frailty of faith, ideals and all of the smaller qualities that constitute humanity, and how they are affected by circumstances within and and outside of our own control. It shows a series of short stories, some about tragedy, others about prosperity, and how both our own choices and sad cases of serendipity can greatly affect our lives. I would highly recommend this comic book to anyone, if only for its strange sense of optimism in the face of sad stories.
Another similar story to A Contract with God is Blankets by Craig Thompson. As a coming-of-age autobiography, the book tells the story of Thompson's childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood.
I personally believe that this story takes the concept of storytelling through figure and gives it more dimension. The use of graphic elements, such as reoccurring shapes, thematic patterns, and significant stylistic representations of form and anatomical structure to assist in pacing, emphasis and theme. It also uses focus on particular aspects of the human body, namely the human reproductive organs and their significance as well as their generation for awkwardness and embarrassment during adolescence, to assist in story telling, while A Contract with God is more simplistic.
A Contract with God by Will Eisner It is a short story cycle that revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a New York City tenement. .
It demonstrates and showcases the frailty of faith, ideals and all of the smaller qualities that constitute humanity, and how they are affected by circumstances within and and outside of our own control. It shows a series of short stories, some about tragedy, others about prosperity, and how both our own choices and sad cases of serendipity can greatly affect our lives. I would highly recommend this comic book to anyone, if only for its strange sense of optimism in the face of sad stories.
Another similar story to A Contract with God is Blankets by Craig Thompson. As a coming-of-age autobiography, the book tells the story of Thompson's childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood.
I personally believe that this story takes the concept of storytelling through figure and gives it more dimension. The use of graphic elements, such as reoccurring shapes, thematic patterns, and significant stylistic representations of form and anatomical structure to assist in pacing, emphasis and theme. It also uses focus on particular aspects of the human body, namely the human reproductive organs and their significance as well as their generation for awkwardness and embarrassment during adolescence, to assist in story telling, while A Contract with God is more simplistic.
Monday, February 3, 2014
History from Barks to Hergé
I have not had the pleasure to truly sit down and review the works of Carl Barks or Georges Remi [Hergé]. I have enjoyed the exploits of Scrooge McDuck and Donald's nephews in Duckburg as well as Tintin's adventures through their animated adaptations. This will be the first time I have taken the chance to review their non-animated, original texts.
What struck me most about these two graphic narratives was how similar they were despite being so radially different. the styles of illustration between the two narratives are radically different, the organization of Tintin's comic panels are much more organized and less uniform, and the characters have very little in common on the surface, they share very similar approaches to story and characterization.
Hergé's series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in his signature("clear line") style. Its well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories feature slapstick humour, offset by dashes of sophisticated satire and political or cultural commentary. Although Carl Bark's stories take place in a more fictional setting, DuckBurg, rather than Belgium like Tintin, Donald's exploits all seem to share the similar adventurous quality to them genre-wise. While Tintin battles ne'erdowells in outer space, Donald and his nephews swashpuckle with pirates on the high seas. What's more, no two comics ever feel like they fall into the same adventure and are very varied with their tales.
Another similarity lies in the illustrations themselves and their use of masking: showing emphasis on a character through stylization while leaving the background illustrated realistically. While Tintin is a more realistic character-- despite his bravery and unbelievable wit, it would be more likely to find a spunky journalist in real life than it would be to find a talk duck-- he is very much stylized and is easy to decipher from the background. For obvious reasons, Donald Duck is double so.
What struck me most about these two graphic narratives was how similar they were despite being so radially different. the styles of illustration between the two narratives are radically different, the organization of Tintin's comic panels are much more organized and less uniform, and the characters have very little in common on the surface, they share very similar approaches to story and characterization.
Hergé's series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in his signature("clear line") style. Its well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories feature slapstick humour, offset by dashes of sophisticated satire and political or cultural commentary. Although Carl Bark's stories take place in a more fictional setting, DuckBurg, rather than Belgium like Tintin, Donald's exploits all seem to share the similar adventurous quality to them genre-wise. While Tintin battles ne'erdowells in outer space, Donald and his nephews swashpuckle with pirates on the high seas. What's more, no two comics ever feel like they fall into the same adventure and are very varied with their tales.
Another similarity lies in the illustrations themselves and their use of masking: showing emphasis on a character through stylization while leaving the background illustrated realistically. While Tintin is a more realistic character-- despite his bravery and unbelievable wit, it would be more likely to find a spunky journalist in real life than it would be to find a talk duck-- he is very much stylized and is easy to decipher from the background. For obvious reasons, Donald Duck is double so.
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