Maus by Art Spiegelman - Review

Art Spiegelman's Maus was quite an entertaining and immersive read that focused on a widely historical concept. I think it was extremely interesting how cute and appealing anthropomorphized characters were used to tell a story about the life of being Jewish during the Holocaust. What I like about this is how it made reading the comic much more enjoyable, like how Scott McCloud talked about in Understanding Comics on the simplified cartoon style causing the reader to want to listen to the speaker in a comic, rather than detailed drawings of people. I feel like the cute characters also made me feel a lot more emotional towards their suffering, much like how a lot of people tend to cry more towards the death of a dog rather than a human.

Something that stuck out to me while reading the comic was the transition from the characters being mice with human bodies to humans having mouse masks. I noticed that Spiegelman changed the appearance to that when he was speaking from within himself, rather than telling the story. I see it as kind of an artistic intermission and I feel like it made the comic more engaging and refreshing from reading so much about Vladek's stories from being a captured prisoner.

In terms of the movie Barefoot Gen, I think both stories really nailed the personal experience of war through a character's eyes. Gen Nakaoka experienced himself the bombing of Hiroshima and the movie emphasized the solemn struggles of the time period, much like how Vladek told his stories of his and others' imprisonment. Some points of both stories showed very harsh scenes happening to innocent characters, which really caused a heavy emotional response from me. In Barefoot Gen, when the bomb hits, there's just a whole montage of watching peoples' bodies melt and burn from the impact of the bomb, showing some disturbing images that could really impact some viewers. The animation of it was also helpful in showing the effects of the bomb, since there was so much detailed included. The same goes in Maus, but a bit less disturbing, as you see the mice characters take off their clothes in a shower soon before you see a scene of them being gassed by the Germans. In comparison to a movie, it feels less emotional since it isn't animated, but I still understand the message it gave off. War stories are experiences that should be told to everyone, even today, because of how powerful their messages are, and I think using artistic media is a good way to accomplish that.

Mr. Natural by Robert Crumb - Review

Reading the Mr. Natural comics at first felt very anti-climactic with the idea of the underground comics being supposedly very offensive. For the first few strips, I thought they were simple little comics that just touched on a lot of young adult humor, that is, until I continued reading. Eventually I get to some parts where that cute little Mr. Natural has his penis hanging out like it's nothing, such as one part where a large, adult-like baby starts blowing him. I thought of it as pretty odd, but it honestly wasn't as surprising as I thought it would be. Today, there's plenty of adult comics that have well-known cartoon characters doing inappropriate things like in Mr. Natural. Most of them are all over the Internet now, so I can see these comics being released in print as an issue, but it's nothing really new to me. What I found rather especially interesting was the page in the middle of the comic that showcased the winners of the Mr. Natural drawing contest. Most of the entries were from a younger audience, one of the drawing I recall being submitted by a 13-year-old boy. I'm sure nowadays, a lot of parents would be complaining and causing hell over something like this. In summary, Mr. Natural was pretty open about being extremely inappropriate and offensive, but to be honest, I have definitely seen worse.

Contract With God by Will Eisner - Review

Will Eisner's Contract With God certainly took me on an interesting ride through such complex, yet simple short stories of the people living in the tenements. The first thing that hit me while reading this is how overall depressing and tragic each of the stories are. I believe three of the four stories ended up with the main character dead. Parts of the comic almost brought me to tears because of how sympathetic I felt for these characters. What made them feel so real perhaps is how human they act; the way they show their feelings is terrifyingly relatable. None of the characters were perfect, and the way Eisner drew them especially reflects that part of them. There was the young, thin, and beautiful flapper woman who had an unquenchable thirst for sex and money. There was the chubby, nagging housewife that lived with a grumpy cheater of a husband planning to leave his children for his mistress. So many characters were cheating on one another's lovers and so many of them had no other feelings other than the want for more in their life. The first story followed a good man who slowly turned corrupt with money. Another story followed a landlord who gave money to get a peek at a little girl, who stole all his money and killed his dog, his only best friend in such a dark world, which only resulted in his suicide when he was confronted by the police. What really hits hard the most is how all of these stories were claimed to be true. This comic displays the people as animals living in the dark zoo of the tenements.

Tintin by Hergé - Review

What I loved about Tintin in Tibet by Hergé was how filled with plot the comic was. It was very long, but the story was so interesting to me that I didn't want to stop reading. This comic follows Tintin on his long journey to find his friend Chang, who supposedly died in an plane crash in a very dangerous place in the mountains. Reading this comic felt like like an adventure from beginning to end, I almost felt like I was watching a movie. Even though every panel simply has the characters interacting with each other, there was a good amount of intensity sprinkled onto their situations in their journey that heavily develops the world building and the characters' personalities. In terms of art, what I found very odd was how cartoony Tintin looks compared to a lot of the other characters in the comic. Many background and side characters have more humanlike features like various noses and hairstyles, and then you see little Tintin with his cute round face, dotted eyes, rosy cheeks, and orange tuft of hair. A part of me feels like he was drawn this way to put emphasis on him, or perhaps create an attractive main character so you can't help but root for him during his adventures. The latter is definitely one main reason why I thoroughly enjoyed reading the comic. Seeing him surrounded by seemingly normal human beings almost makes me think of him as a foreign character to them, or everyone else is foreign to Tintin, but I may be overthinking it a little bit.

Peanuts by Charles Schulz - Review

For as long as I can remember, Peanuts has landed a huge impact on my life, as well as many other kids in my generation, and hopefully more to come. I've grown up reading the strips in the newspaper and it's a tradition for me and my dad to sit down and watch the holiday specials. Schulz really nails the experience of childhood in his strips with such relatable characters with how they interact with each other, even down to the deeper thoughts that kids would have, such as being afraid to grow old or worrying about what other people think of them. Peanuts is one of the only comic strips that I can truly understand because it has a simple sense of humor that I could get in on, even if I was still a kid. It has this sort of strong nostalgic charm to it that really brings me in and wanting to read all the strips for hours. The essence of childhood causes me, as a young adult, to reflect and think about how pleasant and carefree, yet how terrifying growing up is. What makes these strips so successful in that concept is how Schulz implements a part of his childhood life into his comics. Childhood is something that a lot of people share, and it can be such a sweet thing to talk about. And that's one big word I can describe Peanuts with. There's something sweet about the comics and that's what makes them so lovable to me. They're like a small slice of life that everyone can connect to.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud - Review

As someone who spent a lot of my time reading comics and graphic novels since forever, I never would have looked at reading them in a different perspective if I never read this book. Would it even be considered a book? Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud took me through such an entertaining form of education by discussing so many in-depth concepts hidden between the panels of comics. What I loved so much about this book is how it uses visuals in the style of comics to provide clear and concise information. The topic the book talks about that really stood out to me the most is when it starts to dig deep into the idea of pareidolia in comics. In other words, how every reader is capable of identifying faces and expressions despite them not really being there. I honestly thought it was mind-blowing when I noticed that we see two dots and a line in a circle and immediately see it as a human face, despite it having no nose or intricate details that imply that it is a human face. It's incredible how comic artists have took thought into a psychological phenomenon just to tell a story for entertainment. It's almost as if art has turned itself into a type of science. Another thing that I found interesting in this book is how the author explains how cartoon styles cause the viewer to see themselves in the characters they see. It's because of how we see other people in realistic faces and our childhood fascination with cartoons that people see characters this way. The author really nails this explanation by showing a side-by-side comparison of his cartoon persona and a realistic portrait of himself, asking the reader if they would listen to what he's saying if he looked real and less stylized. I love how the author really gets in on the psychological aspects of comics and the book as a whole is extremely self-aware since it's drawn as a comic itself. After reading it, I feel like I have a whole different perspective on comics and graphic novels other than them being a form of visual entertainment.

"The Arrival" by Shaun Tan - Review

I feel “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan really sent me through an immersive experience with so much detail in every panel in this wordless comic. The comic has a very mysterious and whimsical environment around the main character that his story almost felt haunting, yet at the same time nostalgic. Many full page panels have surreal landscapes that thoroughly establish the emotion the main character is feeling as he travels throughout an unfamiliar land as an immigrant. Looking at these different environments makes me feel like I’m reading an old children’s book. With such symbolic scenes and unreal creatures, I felt so lost in this world building and leaves me wanting more out of the story. The imagery in every panel is fantastic and fills me with tons of curiosity of what is really going on in this foreign city that Tan illustrates without any context at all. I think the comic having no words especially adds to this experience of wonder because it leaves so many questions in the best possible way. Imagining this “untold” story with written words would take away so much; the world is supposed to be confusing and unfamiliar, and I feel like context would result in the comic losing its charm. What makes this comic especially beautiful is the use of body language between characters in this story, because it creates a kind of movement that develops character relationships and absolutely no dialogue is needed. It almost feels like Tan is tapping into the concept of human nature and illustrating people’s actions that we are familiar with. Body language is the biggest point in this comic because it is something anyone can understand without words.