Week 15

These stories told by Will Eisner have shown a more serious side of comic subject matter that up to his point has not yet seen. Most of the stories we have read in class so far had to do with more light and very cartoony stories and characters perhaps with the exception of Tales from the Crypt, but even those stories were pretty over the top and silly for the subject matter. The problems were one dimensional with it usually being how will the villain be thwarted by the. But with a Contract with God we see very real and mature themes shown in these stories, many of them dealing with the members of the jewish people and people who lived in early 1920s New York poor tenement apartments . He shows in the first story a pretty compelling tale of a rabbi who turns his life from being a rabbi to a real-estate tycoon after God allegedly breaks the contract they had. He eventually forms a new one by making other rabbis at temple write out a new one, the second story has to do with a supor who everyone hates that has a thing for younger girls. This gets him into so much trouble he kills himself at the end and nobody cares much. The final tale was young people falling in love and deceiving each other for money and power. All these stories were very well told, interesting to read and visually gorgeous. But more then that they told stories that aren't too different from what we see in the news and hear about today. These stories show all aspects of human nature from greed to how society wants you to live out your religion. The focusing in on a marginalized people, in this case the Jews, gave a unique look into the lives of a people that don't typically get media based on them. Will Eisner had a unique voice in the comics world and reading A Contract With God shows how well he could tell stories that were character driven as well as a visual delight to look at.

Reconsidering The Hero

For this reading I decided to read one of the alternate readings which I had always been meaning to get to reading which was All Star Superman. Not alot of people like Superman they think he's boring or some kind of goody goody boy scout. But when I see Superman I think of him more as an example of what we could all become if we were the best of ourselves and thats what I think Superman is an analogy for an idealized version of what all humans could be if we wanted too. But All Star Superman shows the feats Superman has to do before he dies at the end of the story. It shows what Superman feels he must do and what he feels he owes to the people he cares about, his adversaries, his acquaintances, other lifeforms and the world as a whole. It has really compelling writing and makes the reader think about what Superman has to deal with, the scarifices that come with the power he wields and what he feels he must accomplish in the time he has left to live. A very good read even if you aren't a fan of DC or Superman    

Contemporary Comics

One of the contemporary comics for this week that was on the resource page that I read was Neil Gaiman's Sandman. A very strange but well told story about one of the 7 entities of the afterlife. In the story some of the  cultists are trying to capture and own death, they accidentally end up catching the sandman instead, and end up becoming eternally tormented after the his release. The story follows the Sandman trying to re obtain his power, and encounter his brother death. The story is actually very initiative and easy to follow,, but its pacing is strange, it is always making callbacks to itself back together every other page. As a reader it made me feel pretty empowered to recognize when it was happening and remembering it . Which i think is something thats very powerful to use and have in a story. The images were everywhere, and it felt like a strange retelling from Dr. Seuss due to the abstractions and creative shapes in the art. The story seemed dark in both humor and telling, but had fairly vibrant colors. I would very much recommend anyone who hasnt taken a look at The Sandman to do so as soon as you can.

Manga

I've been a huge fan of manga for some time now. I will be honest that I wasnt a big fan of many of the reading choices for this week. I had read Death Note some time ago and while it has an interesting premise behind it, the execution is a little over the top for my tastes. To many convoluted plans turning out to be right kinda push the bounds of my patience. The others Bakuman was a bit more interesting, I like the premise of something being slice of life and following the life of wannabe artists trying to get published was a pretty apt analogy for what alot of us are trying to do in our time at Ringling. Scott Pilgrim I thought was an odd choice to be put in the category or manga but it makes sense. I wasn't a big fan of Scott Pilgrim, the story was kinda dumb in my opinion, the callout to comic books and video games were ok but they never really went anywhere besides a "oh I remember what thats from".So all in all this weeks choices were mainly manga I havent read but were ones I was not interested in at all.        

Wide World of Comics

For this weeks assignments I first took a look at Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. I havent seen any of his works but I was interested to see a western persons perspective on North Korean life. He went there to help with animation which I found interesting as I did not know they did animation in North Korea. But the comic chronicled him working in the office building and the very few times he was allowed to venture out. I saw how he thought the North Koreans acted, which to my surpise was fairly normal with a bit of paranoia to be honest. But he showed what it was like for a foreigner to be in a almost completely sealed off country. The other comic I read was Blacksad. At first when I saw it I thought 'oh no a furry comic' but I couldnt have been more wrong. It was a very very well drawn detective story with lots of crime noir influence. The different races are represented by different animals which I thought was pretty clever and the setting seems to be sometime in the 1950s/60s. It takes place in America with the protagonist Blacksad helping out his clients as best he can. I really recommend this it was a great read.  

Stereotyping In Comics

As a black individual I'm no stranger to stereotyping. I see it in literally every piece of media out there; film, music, video games, TV and comics. And Im very much against the use of these to try and characterize someone or something. It cheapens the character and leaves no room for growth or interest. Games always have a character that is just black man. He is loud, joval talks in slang and has dreads or has some kind of jewelry, these attributes are the whole of the character he is one dimensional and never becomes more then a sidekick or comic relief. I dont feel that stereotyping is necessary to portray people of color or women or someone that is non white. There might be some things that you could take from culturally but not to the degree to make that character an obvious stereotype. And as a black guy in America I have been affected by the ways people stereotype blacks, people have seen me come into a room and change the way they talk and even put on hip hop cause they thought I would like it.        

In Class Writing

Prominent symbols. There are alot of prominent symbols throughout Preacher, one that is unique to the main character of Jesse is that his subconscious is personified by the image of John Wayne. You find out later in the comic he came up with this after his very rough and tumultuous childhood and it serves as Jesse's spiritual guide and confidant. There is an over arching theme of old western movies and how they involve chasing down someone. 

Connections? The only connection I could kind of make was that of how Jesse became tired with his vocation of being a preacher. I sometimes become fed up with certain aspects of my life and wish to voice my true opinions especially when it come to religion and how I eventually left the faith I had since i was a child.

Adaptation. I feel this story would be interesting to have on TV, maybe something like HBO or if it needed to be on network television AMC. I would probably tone down some of the more graphic depictions of heads being blown off if it needed to be on network TV. I might change the design of some of the angels cause they really feel a bit generic and typical. I'd also take the time to make the depictions of heaven seem more grandiose because heaven in the comic looks like a big empty house which is kinda boring.