Origin stories are the staple of any superhero character. You could know nothing about the plot of the comic or the name of the creator, but its almost a guarantee that someone will know the origin story of a major superhero. Almost everyone knows that Superman was the last surviving person from Krypton who crashed landed on Earth to avoid… Read more →
A rather concerning theme that can easily be spotted throughout the comic genre is the female body being shown in a hypersexualized manner. In an industry that is primarily run by males, it is common place to see women in comic books being shown to have body types and figures that the normal women reading these comics could never achieve,… Read more →
In real life, we do know that the answer to this question is yes, biologically we can change a man into a women. Does the same apply for changing the gender of a well known, iconic figure in superhero lore. Marvel did just this in 2014, releasing a female Thor comic into the public. I ,for one, say its about… Read more →
A self-proclaimed feminist comic, Kelly Sue Deconnick’s Bitch Planet began making waves from the release of its very first issue, with the cover sporting the question, “Are you woman enough to survive?” above the image of a woman with both middle fingers flung above her head. The new series, produced by Image Comics, manages both to reflect and criticize old prison exploitation films, all the… Read more →
If you were a young girl in the 90’s, chances are you would have encountered Sailor Moon, and loved the ever-loving moon out of it. Most kids were introduced with the anime show, which aired from 1992 to 1997, but it originated as a manga, the Japanese word for “comic,” by Naoko Takeuchi and ran from 1991 to 1997 in eighteen volumes.… Read more →
“Never judge a book by its cover.” This little moral often gets told in order for a person to not judge according to first impressions. While it is a good idea to do so for the sake of finding diamonds in the rough, reality does not always coincide that way. The biggest reason is that people do not always have… Read more →
In reviewing many of the comics we’ve been presented with in class, such as Watchmen, Sandman, A Contract With God, and Die Stadt, I’ve noticed a reoccurring theme of rape. In Watchmen, Sally Jupiter is the victim of attempted rape from one of her fellow heroes. In Sandman the Greek muse Calliope is raped by one of her captors. In… Read more →
In her webcomic, “Hark, a vagrant!” artist Kate Beaton uses a unique style of both art and content to create one of the most popular online comic strips today. Her simple art style consisting only of pen over pencil sketches, nevertheless show emotion and depth of characters throughout. Each webcomic is a different historical, literary, or pop culture reference. I… Read more →
Popular graphic novels have been adapted to film for decades, and it makes a lot of sense. When a story has been successful in one medium, why not put it to the test in others? The very format of conventional graphic novels lends itself so beautifully to conceptualizing films. It’s a script with pictures. Shuffle some things around and you’ve… Read more →