Lit. of Comics & The Graphic Narrative

This week I read the graphic novel,  American Born Chinese , by Gene Luen Yang. It follows three storylines that connect at the end. Each storylines focuses on a similar theme of being judged. It explores how each character has to deal with the typical Chinese stereotypes and how they are insulted and judged because of it. The use of stereotypes  can be necessary because they may be needed to prove a particular point/idea. Stereotypes doesn't have to be offensive, instead it can be used to just inform people of a particular group and how they are being represented. In this case, the use of stereotypes show how it affects people both mentally and physically when they have to deal with it. It tries to show the other side of it and hopefully influences people to change the way they think and approach this situation. While reading this graphic novel, I could really relate to it on a personal level. In America, there are many stereotypes for each asian culture, such as Chinese a...

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...

Most underground comics are intended to be offensive and push the borders of taste and propriety. These comics may include nudity, sex, violence, racism, sexism and pretty much anything considered to be offensive.  For this week, I read Robert Crumb's  Mr. Natural #1  as well as  Whiteman . While reading  Mr. Natural ,  I found myself looking at the images more as it was hard to follow a bit.  Mr. Natural  was interesting to read and was less disturbing to me than  Whiteman  was.  Whiteman  had some sexual and disturbing scenes especially since it was about a human and a creature that I believe was Bigfoot. The images and the actual text made me very uncomfortable that I couldn't even finish reading that section. I had to skip that part and read ahead and I honestly feel like that scene wasn't necessary. It was the only sexual part of the comic and I feel as though it didn't even need to be added.  ...

Habibi  is a graphic novel by Craig Thompson. It is about two runaway child slaves, Dodola and Zam, and the dangers and adventures they have to face in a fictional Islamic country. Thompson tries to present themes of environmentalism, anti-Islamophobia, racism, rape, and slavery through the use of visual and thematic cues from both the Qur'an and the Bible. The illustrations brings a lot of emotion as they try to portray designs and patterns of the Islamic culture. While reading there was something that made me a bit sad. The fact that the girl is only nine-years old and is sold into marrying a much older man and he rapes her, was quite sad to me. This affected me because, like the Islamic country in the story, there are a lot of child marriages in India. This isn't common now but while reading the story, it made me think about being in that position and how it would feel. My great grandparents and grandparents had a child marriage but luckily it wasn...