Literature of Comics and Graphic Novels

“The Killing Joke” While reading the comic, I really felt like the text/dialogue really does a service to the emotions of what the characters are feeling in a given scene. Everything from Joker's stammering and stuttering when a character, especially the Joker in flashbacks, reacts to what he has to think about the crimes he’s about to commit. There are points of stopping, and slowing down, then counting trying to connect the dots on what he’s going to do with the mafia. Another aspect I noticed. In the dialogue is when a character is said or, a certain way a word is said but a character, the text becomes bold. I just felt like this was emoting very interesting to point out. I see it in a lot of comics and is often used in the medium to address a character or situation. I related the story of a the joker’s origins to that of pretty much anyone who feels they can’t really get the kind of life they need or want. Personally, I feel that trying to make something of yourself can be

Week 13 “Kingdom Come” by Alex ross and Mark Waid The week, read Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. It really puts these classic heroes of DC Comics into a new way that I wouldn't have though of, but seems like the  I really feel that this really subdues superheroes. It makes them real and feel like they could live in the real world we live in. That’s what so incredible about he stunning and realistic artwork of Alex Ross, and the writing of Mark Waid. I also feel that putting the story though the political landscape and having these heroes be put through scrutiny really adds dimensions onto the classic, and godlike heroes we all know. What I really enjoyed while reading were the images of seeing the city being saved by superheroes. I believe that having a perspective, and seeing what its like seeing the heroes doing their job in plain sight in the middle of the day. I believe that adding that gives the scenes realism and believability. Thats one of the beauties of Ki

April 16: Anya’s Ghost For this week’s reading, I read Anya’s Ghost . The main reason why I was intrigued by Vera Brosgol’s story was that it tackles subjects of relationships, combined with them of death. I just feel that it was interesting to have the main character fall into a well, the ghost of  different people, including that of a girl who had trouble in her relationships. I really feel it’s an interesting angle at friendship and relationships. I never really read story where the main character could use the skeletons of the dead and help them out. This story kind of makes Anya feel like she is deliberately making the events troubling , from inadvertently taking Emily’s skeleton, to going over people’s papers in an exam, but I feel that her doing this is her trying however she can to help solve what had happened to Emily. I just think she is persistent. This gives her a bit more dimension to me. What I also like is when we look at what happened to Emily through Anya, Brosgol m

“Every Girl is the End of the World to Me” The book begins with describing each girls and each for eerie relationships to the main character. It really plays out linearly The story is very much set in real life and doesn’t really have any fantastical elects to it. It feels like we are all just living out the memories of this character The story could also be just a recollection of the the author’s relationships with various girls he was with. We feel that the story id based on his real life. Much of the story consists of conversations between characters. “Why I Hate Saturn” Each page has a frame around it, giving it a museum look to it. There are not dialogue/word bubbles for the characters who are talking. Each person’s dialogue is at the bottom of the page, or below a character. This very different from usual comics. The characters, interactions, and art style is similar to Ghost world. The characters are always talking like real people would. Both of them have this m

April 9: The Smartest Kid on Earth For this week, I read Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth . The first think that jumped out to me was the art style. I really like the flat, graphic and angular art style of the visual storytelling. I also felt that it gives the story more of a my timely feel, which actually goes with the type of story told. I really can gravitate to reading comics that have a specific art style that cam jump out to me. I really feel that having a style can help someone get into it. Once the reader gets the interested in the artwork, the story that is included can help the reader get interested even more. I also really think that the layout of the comic, being very bold, and stylized with its uses of black outlines and certain colors is another way of the novel being able to jump out to me. Looking at the story of Jimmy Corrigan , I really got entangled with the emotion behind the story, from the multigenerational storytelling through the different times

April 2: “Death Note” For this week, I chose Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Tekashi Obata. I was already familiar with the name, including the plot, solely through the anima adaptation from the 2000s. I never actually read the manga before than, nor did I watch the anime adaptation, but I was well-aware of the the property, the story, and the impact that death Note has in the pop culture atmosphere. Just from the idea of Death Note was interesting and intriguing. Having the main character wield this powerful item with devastating power, aka the Death Notebook, that can kill anyone whose name is written into it I think it’s the kind of idea that can create such interesting storylines and is throughly thought provoking to me. I feel that having this idea in a story can really make people thing. By what I mean by that is that it can make some people think of what it would be like if they had that Notebook. It would lead people to want to do the awful acts of violence in th