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Week 9: A Wide World of Comics

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This week I read the graphic autobiography,  Persepolis  by Marjane Satrapi. The story depicts Satrapi's childhood and growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. The story helps remind readers of the “precarity of survival” in political and social situations.  The black and white format Satrapi uses to create the story is very powerful. There is a lot of dimension to the story as the text is very light and airy while the illustrations are very heavy and bold. This is similar to the graphic novel Maus, as Spiegelman uses a similar technique. In both instances, the story is very serious and has a dark tone, but the authors try to find a way to add a bit of light-heartedness while still not taking away from the main subject of the novels. Also, both Satrapi and Spiegelman use very bold and expressive black lines with no color added. This really emphasizes the story more but also creates a sense of hopelessness from the characters ...
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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 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

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This week I read  The Dark Knight Returns Tenth Anniversary Edition  by Frank Miller and  Batman The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. Superhero comics have been around for a while and each one has been adapted into a TV series or movie while still trying to embrace the traditional conceits and motifs of the comic book. I chose these two comics to read as there are a variety of Batman comics and each one has a different and unique story.  Batman The Killing Joke was interesting to me as most of the story was actually about Joker's life. It was different reading a story that wasn't all about Batman. It actually gave a new perspective of the Joker and why he is the way he is. It also shows how Joker and Batman aren't that different but are portrayed differently based on what life has thrown at them and the choices they decided to make as a result. On the other hand,  The Dark Knight Returns i s a typical Batman comic. Even though its mainly about Batman, I stil...
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