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Test post for lit. of comics and graphic narratives

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Week 7: Maus and the legitimization of the graphic novel

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Maus is a black and white, graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. The story depicts the relationship between the author, Art Spiegelman, and his father Vladek.  Spiegelman is interviewing his father as he tries to understand his father better and his life in Poland before the Nazi invasion. Vladek also tells his son about his experiences in Auschwitz and Dachau before his liberation and immigration to the US. The story switches back and forth between the past and the present as Spiegelman interviews Vladak, making it an intense read. He is not afraid to tell all the details even if they are ugly and does not sugarcoat it. He makes the story raw and heavy as he wants the readers to feel like they are in the story. Spiegelman takes a creative route when sharing the story characters, with the Jews being depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, French as frogs, Americans as dogs and so on. This made the topic of the Holocaust more approachable. It was a very e...
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Week 2 - Understanding Comics

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Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud had many interesting concepts throughout. It talks about the history behind comics and discusses the many techniques artists explore in order to get their message across in the comic yet still be relatable to the readers. An idea that stuck out to me was, "Our identities belong permanently to the conceptual world. They can't be seen, heard, smelled, touched or tasted. They're merely ideas. And everything else - at the start - belongs to the sensual world, the world outside of us" (McCloud 40). He says that things we have experienced in life can be separated into these two worlds or realms. There's the realm of the concept and the realm of the senses. This idea of these two worlds was interesting as they change the feel and concept of the comic. On one hand, there is the physical world. For the physical world, an artist would use realism as it helps portray the beauty and complexity of the world. On the other hand, there...
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Week 11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

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Asterios Polyp  by David Mazzucchelli is a graphic novel is about a professor and architect who lives in New York. The novel follows his life with scenes from his past and childhood. The mix of past and present and showing Asterios’ life and personality, ultimately portrays how a person becomes who and what they are. The portrayal of who Asterios is and how he became like this is shown through the illustration style. Each character has thick and thin lines and seem detailed but not too detailed. An interesting aspect of this graphic novel is that the illustrations are not in black and white like how most graphic novels have been. I think the use of mainly purples, blues, pinks and sometimes yellows, makes this story unique and stand out compared to other graphic novels. I also think that the use of these colors adds emotions to the story differently. It makes it seem soft yet gloomy. Another thing I noticed is that each character has a distinct text bubble. It is in...
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