GERTIES GREASE PIT(ORIGINAL)
by: Flaherty

Rancid, Squeamish, and grotesque.These are words that I would use to describe the comic gerties grease pit.  
Flaherty takes you to last diner you would want to attend and plucks you right in front row and scrounges around in the alley to serve up a steaming pile of spit and grime in every panel.
This comic plays on the little fears and discomforts that we all may have when it comes to dining ,filled with shady individuals, less than desired cooks and meals made to order in the time it takes to flip a coin. Flaherty does a good job at making you rethink your breakfast, shocking your sense of taste and smell. Leaving the reader queasy and strangely exhausted at the idea of food. 


Probably a higher dosage than what your used to, Gerties Grease pit serves up a full helping of sludge and smeck lining the panels a moldy roach infested interior peacefully coexisting with itself  ,This was the overall feeling i get from reading this comic, I guess i have some enate interest in seeing food and the establihment being tarnished and slobbered up. I feeel Gerties does that well. introducing a mashup of zits and exaggerated features playing into the visual of unclean and rancid portait. this is the icing on the comics in the underground scene for me not to much of the bottom of the barrel in terms of jarring images and overly sexual content this comic charms and turns stomach with its comfortablyity with mess and slime. I dont really think the text leaves much to compliment the visual but adds a nice buffer to escape the dugenon. Overall a nice gem that I would like to return to after awhile. 

IN class assessment (Pretty Deadly)

1.What was your reaction to the text you just read ?
I really appreciated the cinematic quality of the text and how it ties in visually with the characters and the setting of the story. You can tell this story was very well thought out. I think the pacing of the comic helps push the feeling of the comic really well helping to make it more alive and ferocious and action packed.  The tone of the comic utilizes the area to breath very scarcely which adds even more suspense and intrigue to the characters and their environment. 

2.What connections did you make with the story ?
I think I connected more with the story's use of animals as metaphors for skills and character, I think more and more each day I want to learn more about nature and sorta how it relates to my life and what i can contribute so any type of story this badass mixing the elements of human capabilities and natural phenomenon makes for a very compelling comic visually and contextually.
One of my friends is a huge lover of birds and nature and through her Its allowed me to be more open to the subject, as much as it is interesting in fiction it really makes me think now more than ever because of the state of the planet the mortality of all life and how we are all one in the same at the end of the day we all are on one planet and despite conflicts and misunderstanding and miscommunication we can find a way to sort of dawn the mask of nature and have a better understanding and healthier relationship with nature.

3.What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium?
I think i would add more complimentary scenes of nature's violence, and compassion and cycles  along with some of the scenes that are portrayed in the comics.
The medium I would chose would be film mainly because their isn't a lot of sort of unique or underground comics films that I've seen that deals with  elements of nature and the personas derived form the environment and not a lot of films that have female leads, I feel like this type of adaption would be very entertaining and important.

This week's featured reading is Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. Everyone should read this work to be prepared for class discussion

Mazzucchelli knows exactly what he's doing with that clean, cartoony style and his generous use of white space — he's inviting the eye, drawing the reader in. And once that happens, it doesn't take long for Asterios Polyp to reveal itself as a daring experiment that succeeds without seeming experimental, a multi-layered read that uses every tool available to the comics artist to engage us on a deep level.

Asterios Polyp is an architect who has built a successful academic career on the power of his theories alone. Casually arrogant and infatuated with the notion of duality — he is never happier than when imposing his simplistic, black-or-white worldview on others — Asterios finds his New York City apartment destroyed by a lightning strike. What happens next, as he leaves his old life behind and builds a new one in a small Midwestern town, is the familiar stuff of contemporary literary fiction — how it happens, however, is what makes Asterios Polyp such a singular creation and a quintessential example of what the graphic novel — and only the graphic novel — can do.

 Read at least one work by Osamu Tezuka—Karma (Phoenix Vol. 4) (or any other Volume from the Phoenix series), or any volume from the Bhuddha series or the Adolf series for example. Those who want a more advanced insight into the history and culture of manga should read A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Also read some of the manga in the list to the right.

For this weeks post i read Bhuddha and Battle Angel. 

Both manga i enjoyed maybe Battle Angel more than Bhudda mainly because of the ending ,I felt as if the story was very cinematic and enthralling and invinting but the pay off was left much to be desired. Battle Angel gave me huge ghost in the shell and Akira vibes. In terms of knowledge of Manga and Anime's that is about where my knowledge rests  I only recently have seen Akira and have started to revisit the series that i watched as a kid and later on like Full metal alchemist ,ponyo, naruto to see what kind of inspiration i can draw from the Japanese aesthetic. 

I have a few japanese artist that i admire but they are mostly fine artist and painters. 

This week we are considering other traditions of the comics, especially the work of European artists.  The American magazine,Heavy Metal, was instrumental in bringing a number of European artists, especially fantasy illustrators, to the attention of the American audience. These artists had a great influence on the development of graphic science fiction and fantasy worldwide which has been especially apparent in movies. 

This week i read tales from Heavy Metal by Jean Guirad Moebius and this is not my first time reading this collection of non linear comics, I thoroughly enjoy Moebius' work his legacy and art should be something all student illustrators should at least familiarize themselves with him, he has become such an influential figure in the comics world and the conceptual art world that his vision has spanned across multiple mediums and platforms propelling his work into the mainstream locally and internationally.
I personally am attached to Jean Guirad's work for the lifelike characteristic he maintains in his images the range of techniques he masters from the minimal line work and natural color palettes he so masterfully commands to the more textured and involved works. 
In some of the interviews ive seen of him he talks of his work as not so much of an escape but and journey of pleasure and excitements that are marinating in the misty gaze of normality with a twist of science fiction and fantasy aspects. 

What is your opinion about the use of stereotype in comics, animation and gaming narrative? Is stereotyping ultimately a necessary strategy in character design and representation?  Do you think you have personally been affected by stereotypical representations?


In my opinion the use of stereotypes in media stems from a lack of curiosity and willingness to understand other cultures, religions and people in general. It can be perceived as tool of storytelling to help further along the narrative. But in most cases and the what the general creatives in the past have done is shortchange the entire audience and cut corners to appease an easy story for whatever reason. The problem I feel now is that now we have an abundance of access to knowledge around the world that it would be harder not to research and explore other cultures. In this day and age any type of discrimination and misjudgment is cast out and quickly corrected and i feel this is due to the misrepresentation and saturation of stereotypes over the years in media there has been countless documented represeentaions and demonizations of  entire races that have had very destructive impacts on these communities. I know for a fact that i have personally been affected by the negative images and media that has attempted to portray me and people who look like me for nearly 400 years. 

At first glance "Maus" is a biographical graphic novel about the father of the author's survival of the holocaust, but I think at the heart of this narrative is the effect that adversity and loss can have on people and their families. In a story dealing with such events as the Holocaust you would think that the hardship of the horrific event would be the main conflict, but this story in my opinion focuses more on the after math of such an event as it's effects creep through time into future What struck me the most by this story, is its ability to tell a difficult and serious story, in a way thats palatable for younger audiences. Perhaps Art Spiegelman is successful in this because of his use of symbolism in representing characters. The individuals in the story are human-like, but not human. Spiegelman uses cats to represent nazis and mice to represent jews. This clever portrayal dehumanizes a sensitive subject. The reader is still struck with incredible emotion while reading, but since the subjects aren't human, the images don't seem as graphic. The author represents himself in the story, as he interviews his father about his experiences in the Holocaust. In this presentation, the story feels more personal and it allows the reader to put themselves in Art's shoes I couldn’t really take some of the concepts seriously due to the fact that the characters were mice. It felt like I was looking at a Tom and Jerry cartoon sequence.

Underground Comics

GERTIES GREASE PIT
by: Flaherty

Rancid, Squeamish, and grotesque.These are words that I would use to describe the comic gerties grease pit. 
Flaherty takes you to last diner you would want to attend and plucks you right in front row and scrounges around in the alley to serve up a steaming pile of spit and grime in every panel.
This comic plays on the little fears and discomforts that we all may have when it comes to dining ,filled with shady individuals, less than desired cooks and meals made to order in the time it takes to flip a coin. Flaherty does a good job at making you rethink your breakfast, shocking your sense of taste and smell. Leaving the reader queasy and strangely exhausted at the idea of food. 

Blankets (religion,art,and life)

"Blankets" is an auto-biographical graphic novel about the life of a fundamental christian as he grows up and battles the conflicting emotions between following the faith and following his dreams. After reading the novel I found it to be an extremely rich and thoughtful account of the authors life. He tells the story of his life from an artistic angle that is easily digested and engaging. I feel that this novel is an example of how interesting someone's personal story can be after some self reflection and analysis. The author shows me that a character that is based off of real experience is often much more fleshed out and relatable than a character that you were to just make up. I feel that this is a huge part of art and in my own work I think of every character as being a piece of me, I don't believe there is a way to disconnect yourself from your artwork and if there is than that's a sad way to do art in my honest opinion. I have always felt when the debate over representation in media comes up that the author of any work cannot create things they do not have experience with. I would say that without extensive research and real life experience that it would be very hard for me to write a compelling story about the life of a Korean child seeing that I have never experienced that directly. I feel like this is where alot of stereotypical and archetypical characters come from. Asking for a compelling story about the plights of a black man from Atlanta from a white man from Boston doesn't seem like it would work out well to me just based of the fact that the man from Boston has never experienced the life of the black man from Atlanta. My conclusion from "Blankets" is just to stick to what you know and not in a negative way, but in a way where you celebrate your own experience instead of suppressing it for storylines and characters that marketing people think will resonant with the audience. This novel is straight up fantastic, a must read for anyone interested in story telling.

For this assignment I read Charles Schultz’s Peanuts and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. While reading several strips, it became very apparent that these were designed with adults in mind. 

Although I know many people who associate newspaper comics with children. Because of current associations with children and comics in our present day. But while reading it, I was presented with jokes or punch lines that only an adult would understand. 

The two comics share a large part of their charm together. There about children observing the world with a ‘I don’t quite understand how the whole world works yet, but I am observing it how i see it’ charm. Meaning, you can make snappy judgment about how your life is going to turn out when you grow up. 

While Calvin and Hobbes was much more adventure, imagination, and childhood fun. Allowing the reader to remember the good old days when they had stuffed animals, tried not to go to school, and their worst part of the day was going to bed. 

Peanuts had kids doing kid things with simplistic humor with children hanging out and making jokes that adults, the intended audience, would find funny such as the kids making jokes about taxes, or having one-word comebacks that usually link to an adult term in the work force. 

Understanding Comics

When reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, he most interesting thing I found about it was the small discussion about character design.

The idea that he portrays is that the human race is so conceited, that when looking at a simplified human face; such as a default smiley face J we see ourselves in it. And because of that we are able to sympathize with the information or the emotion better because we are now imaging ourselves in the story. With this technique we are no longer observing the story, but instead extending ourselves into the story and fully immersing ourselves into the story’s lore.

His example of this was the very way he drew himself in the comic. Instead of seeing him as his own character, we are instead seeing him as an extension of ourselves. Instead of someone else explaining the terms and ideas in a comic book, we are using the little voice in our head to make him talk and move around on the pages. He brings this up well when he draws himself as a realistic man instead of the simplified person. When doing this it gave his drawing a personality outside of our own. Forming a stranger on the page that we don’t know anything about, and the mind is quick to wonder whom this person is. But when he was simplified we didn’t care about who he ‘is’, because he was just another piece of the viewer.

I have heard this theory before but put in a different context. Some believe the reasons Groot was such a hit in the movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, was because he had an extremely simplified face. Although the character said one line throughout the entire move, we understood to his emotions and could see ourselves in the character. Unlike the other characters that formed a personality of their own, you were able to put your self in Groot’s possession and sympathize with him the easiest.