Maus

After picking this up at a Borders a few years ago, I've always meant to read the series in full, and finally had to. I found it hard to put down, just as everyone said I would.

I think what I enjoyed the most was the artist's decision to portray his relationship with his father as well as his father's story. Like Spiegelman mentioned, it grounded the story. Such insight into the artist's struggle with portraying it, and just dealing with his father on a day to day basis gave me a connection to the characters. It wasn't just a story, because by representing himself, it removed the distance that narratives sometimes have. It's hard to describe, but I think that it is what ultimately gives the piece its power.

I also enjoyed the active commentary on making the book. Talking about the difficulty of portraying the holocaust, or especially that he was concerned his father would come across as a stereotype. Best of all was his father's discovery of an older work, and that that work was sampled in Maus, to bring the reader further into the situation. Much like Blankets, the

Though certain parts of the humans being mice was awkward (Such as the human body with whitey tighties and a mouse head), I thought it was effective. It lent the narrative greater power..The simplicity of the designs meant that it was less about showing what had happened, and more about the experience. Kept it black and white (no pun intended) and gave the reader a better read. Sometimes comics are too concerned with the perfect drawing, with trying to portray exactly what's going on with the drawings alone. Maus is not and allows Vladek's story to rule, unchallenged by the art style.

Underground comics

This is based solely on the bit of comics on the class resource page. Underground comics are not very interesting or pleasurable to read. The style is ugly, and the plots aren't quite nonexistant, but rather just not compelling. Gosh, a woman addicted to sex, (five or six of these) or a handful of coming of age stories. Or that one with the cat? Some of these seem to be very feminist oriented, something I've hated with quite a passion for a long time. Ones without the feminist slant still stubbornly refused to be interesting, though.

Judging by the yellow background and the haphazard drawings, these were never meant to be quality creations. however, there's something to be said for a collection or all black and white comic creations. The different styles contrast each other greatly, but it was at least interesting to browse them. None really caught my eye as being very pleasing, but rather different ways of using ink and paper. Seeing as I work in black and white a lot but have never really considered myself very good at balancing values,it was good to look at different techniques, in the least.

It's shallow to judge on looks alone, but in a medium where half is visual, it's important. It's what draws us in, and hopefully keeps us running, if not the writing. None of them drew me in in either of those ways. I'm not sure what else to say.

Blankets Craig Thompson

While I didn't connect with the book in quite the same way as others have said they had, Thompson kept my interest up, and if not for classes in my way, I feel like I would've finished the book in one sitting. The characters were convincing, the art was beautiful, and the pacing was perfect.

Thompson's ability to let the lines flow and not to over correct them allowed Blankets to have a great energy to it. With out this style, the story could've been very boring. Even though the character rarely looks exactly the same, we could identify him with the simple shapes Thompson put together. And the same is true through out the rest of the book. I think the style is what I enjoyed the very most.

The simplicity of the characters had great power, (if we're sticking to the theory of the simpler faces being easier to project ourselves on) and I spent a lot of time marvelling at the skill it takes to get such expression out of button eyes. In particular, the bit in which the main character is faced with a pastor saying an art school made his relative "full of sin" or something, by becoming gay. The look on the character's face is the perfect description of the awkward moment, of being unwilling to debate a matter, but disagreeing so heartily. Thompson accomplishes these complex sort of expressions so easily that reading page after page wasn't trouble at all. It kept the characters interesting to follow.

In particular, I loved the girlfriend's dad. Such a real character, and exceptionally well portrayed.

Not to mention it took place in Michigan and Wisconsin, and being from Michigan, the landscapes and the people were familiar. It was my home, and so just reading it for that was a treat. The lose nature of the brush strokes really brought it to life, as well as his descriptions of the weather, and the people.