March Book and Hip Hop Family Tree

It is so exciting to see real stories been put in the comics. When I am tired of reading nonfiction stories in real life, this kind of comics can bring some light to my reading experience.
March book is a comic about John Lewis, an American politician, and civil rights leader. The comic is about his political story. It is a black and white comic start with a protest on Edmund Pettus Bridge.
I surprised that I can see a comic about politics. I don't think it is propaganda of John Lewis. It might somehow publicize the Democratic Party because John Lewis was one of the lead creators for this book, but I do think this is more like a history graphic than propaganda. It is such an interesting way to represent a political story.

The second comic I read was Hip Hop Family Tree. It is a comprehensive introduction of Hip Hop history. I am a Hip Hop fans, so I enjoy the comic. I am definitely listening to old school Hip Hop when I was reading this comic. The art style is more like graffiti. I like the way it presents the culture, from macro to micro, from technology to background. At the end of the comic, the book mentioned a lot of Hip-Hop artist by using a different style of art to present their name. I like this part because it shows how different artist represents different kind of Hip Hop.

Maus

By only looking at the cover alone, it seems that this is just a dull, even naive comic novel. The first book is a pair of humanoid mice, and the second book is a group of mice that wears blue and white striped clothes, blue striped hats. The black and shiny big eyes may look cute.

However, the Nazi flag behind them is very depressed.

The cover of the books has been carefully designed. Before I recovered from the cover, I opened the second page, and the black and white image shook my heart. Even if I didn't read the content, I was impressed by the expressionless faces. I think I can’t feel the same as the survivors from the Holocaust.

The medium of Maus is comic. The author draws various animals to represent people from different countries. Germans are cats, Jews are mice, Poles are pigs, Americans are dogs, French are Frogs, British are fish, and Gypsies are moths. The faces of these animals are interchangeable, highlighting that the absurdity of assessing people by race.

There were not only Jews and Poles in the concentration camp but also many Germans. It emphasizes that the Holocaust is not just a shame of Germans or a disaster for Jewish, but also a disgrace and disaster for all humanity. 

Maus reminds me a poem written by Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Underground comics

Before I read these underground comics, I thought all of them are going to relate to drug and sexual. However, there are comics relate to drug and sexual, there are also comics like “Heroes of the Blues,” which is just an encyclopedia of famous Blues artist.

The experience of reading underground comic and standard comic is way different. The comics from DC, Marvel, and Disney usually have a similar style. Although they might have a number of comic artists draw the comics, the stories and styles are mainly the same. However, underground comics don’t give a damn about that. Tits and Clits are short stories about sex. The title of the comic already shows that directly.

I feel like underground comics are willing to show the desire of human. Some of them are pornography comic. I don’t know their relationship with the readers, but I do see the practicality of these comics. 

Will Eisner

Before I read Will Eisner’s comics, I already knew his name. He is revered as the "godfather of American comics," not only because of the great influence of “the Spirit” on the comics industry but more importantly, he has improved the artistic status of comics. The public accepted him for elevating comics from children's books to a new literary form.

I read his book Comics and Sequential Art. When I read the theory that has been put in comics, I always feel amazed. Especially the differences between comics with text and without text. Or the same bubble produces an entirely different meaning in different pictures.

The focus of the comics is the use of space and the sense of time. Every frame needs to be carefully considered. Gradually, the picture has become a story-telling art. This medium can express more thick emotions and more complex stories.

The comic “the Spirit” already has the prototype of the superhero comic. The style of the Spirit is very American. I kinda don’t like it because I have been seen too many comics like this.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The whole book begins with a wall full of photos of immigrants, just like the Esley Island Memorial. Some of them depict immigrants entering the customs and their passport photos. The landing hall in the book was also created based on photographs taken on Esley Island.The story in the book begins with a man who is carefully putting a photo of his family into a box. The time is morning. His wife and daughter sent him to the train station. The scene is the town he is about to leave, and the town is home for creatures with huge black tentacles. In the picture of the train station, We can see the sadness in the eyes of his little daughter. When he took out a paper crane from the hat to tease her, she smiled reluctantly. They hug and say goodbye, and then the train started. Mom and daughter walked back home in the shadow of the creature.From these pictures, we can appreciate the tremendous effort and think of the author in this book. In each of the works, there are details carefully designed by Shaun Tan, which allows the reader to look at the new world with the amazing eyes of strangers. The man was in the arrival hall, and before he finally entered, he silently accepted the health check, and the immigration officer asked him about his purpose.He found a new job, met new people, and we learned more about him and this new, quirky new world. The final scene of the story is that he happily greets his wife and little daughter. From the joy in their faces, we can appreciate how emotional their reunion is. In the last painting, his daughter is guiding the way for a stranger who just arrived. It is a comic for travelers. It is a comic for immigrants. It is for people who are far away from their home. I feel the emotion that the author wants to show. As an international student, I feel homesick when I read it.

EC comics

I read some EC comics, mainly military stories, and adventure stories.  

I never read EC comics when I was a kid. They are very unfamiliar to me because the graphic novels I read are mainly from DC comics and Marvel. However, once I read EC comics, I had been attracted by the stories I read in the comics.

One of the military stories that attracted me was a story about a lucky officer in a battle. He is very confident, and he can even avoid those bullets from snipers. He is brave because he dares to get out from the trenches and yells to the enemies when they are shooting. However, after his army destroyed an enemy’s base. When the checks on the base, the officer has been shot by a villain who has not died. The story is so ironic, and it changed my thought of comic books, especially graphic novels. 

EC comics make me rethink about the difference between a novel and graphic novel. It is the truth that graphic novel is not only a bunch of pictures that tell a simple story, or some superhero novels that create self-confidence. It can also provide a realism that influenced by real-life stories. I believe comic will be the 9th or 10th art. We can’t judge an art form by only its story, or only by its drawing. Comic artist is storytellers who tell the stories through comic, just like novel writers and filmmakers. 

The Comic Strip

In the library, I read the Tarzan, peanuts and Li'l Abner, which not only have a vary characterizes in art style, but also in the formatting of comic. The Tarzan is very artistic and illustrated. I was surprised by the fact that it doesn’t have any of those dialogue bubbles, in other words, that is not a conversation between characters. The only way the reader can only what is going on is through the pure-word description on the top. Therefore, I see it more like a novel with beautiful illustration than a comic. But consider the fact it is all in color, I guess it might seem the artist intends to remove the dialogue bubble so the readers can focus more on the image.

For the peanuts, I like it, a lot. The story isn’t that complicate at first glance, but if you think about it from an adult point of view, it is truly stunning and impressive. It’s like the author is giving some simple lesson about being ‘simple’ through these kids’ daily life in the comic. The art style isn’t that complete, doesn’t have many details, very easy to pick up and move on. All in all, I like it a lot.

Peanuts are using the point of view of kids to explain the world. The history of Peanuts also impresses me. The author of Peanuts keeps drawing the comic until he died. The characters are still young although the author was getting older and older.