The idea of a futuristic, dystopian society has been toyed with in media for ages. With such a huge focus on electronics and robotics, it was only natural that Japan’s appetite for future-tech would roll over into the manga sphere. Akira was one of the most popular out of this trend in manga, along with Neon Genesis Evangelion and Astro… Read more →
Although Charles Schulz was first denied the publishing of his comic “L’il Folks” in 1947, he decided not to give up on his dream and kept pushing it. In 1950 Schulz dream came true and published his comic under the name that would become a culture sensation, the “Peanuts”. The “Peanuts” have had many Iconic characters in the past 65… Read more →
Steampunk as a genre is a hard subject to trace. There are a number of works that have elements of steampunk, but all of them predate the word itself. Works by Jules Vern and H.G. Wells are often cited as some of the first “true” works of steampunk, but even that is an arbitrary outlook as they built upon… Read more →
Ever since we talked about paneling in class and we worked on our own webcomics, I’ve been really interested in how panels and speech bubbles can change a reader’s experience. I even wrote a post about the topic earlier on the blog when all of the groups were actually creating the webcomics for class. Mostly it was just information to… Read more →
In our discussion of what makes a comic/graphic novel, we looked at several definitions, some of which seemed pretty solid. Scott McCloud, in Understanding Comics defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” This is a rather serviceable, if simple and in the case… Read more →
When you pick up and begin to read a prose book, the characters in the story are inherently formless. The first time you run into a character, you only have a few distinct descriptors to hold onto–”a tall redhead,” “a stern-looking man.” As you continue to read and the character takes more action in the story, more little pieces of… Read more →
When we remember things, we aren’t aware of how much are representations of the past can be altered by time and the discourses surrounding us. Art Spiegelman’s Maus deals with autobiographical recollections of the past. Specifically, Art Spiegelman’s father Vladek provides a narrative about his hardships in Auschwitz. Art presents Vladek’s memories by remembering what his father told him about… Read more →
Many times when we read comics we don’t take the time to pay attention to the colors that are associated with entities in the comic world. We sometimes lose ourselves in the plot and tend read at such a pace that we lose sight of the detail that is in the comic. It’s hard to step back and look at… Read more →
Despite the freedom that the American people have, a depressingly low percentage of people understand the fine inner workings of our legal system and the extent of the freedoms they are extended. In order to obtain a better grasp on this knowledge, Nathan Burney started an informative and entertaining webcomic that addresses the workings of our legal system entitled, “The… Read more →
When we began our discussion of Fun Home, we talked about the rating system of comics. I want to extend this conversation more to some points we did not really go into as much. Being introduced into to graphic novels and comics solely because of this class I had no idea of the rating system. Yes, I knew there was… Read more →