Week 12: Women's Comics

Since I never got around to reading the new Ms. Marvel, I'm glad that I was finally able to read it. Having never read an issue of even the original Ms. Marvel comics, I'm glad my first experience with this series was a memorable one. This reboot takes a major step in not just comics, but in today's society. The new Ms. Marvel is a young Pakistani girl, Kamala, who lives outside of Manhattan with her Pakistani family. In today's current politics/society, we are taught to look down upon these people and their cultures because of how the media portrays "all the ethnicity," specifically Muslims.

Everything from Kamala's postmodern mindset (she's a super heroine who reads superhero fan fiction) to the elegant line work makes this a comic for the discerning reader. The reboot was written by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona. Wilson, who is a Muslim, distills the enormity of the culture shock into a few potent incidents. A notable example, "Your headscarf is so pretty, Kiki," a blonde princess tells Kamala's best friend. "But, I mean...nobody pressured you to start wearing it, right?...I'm just concerned." Alphona triumphs too, giving Kamala an expressive face and a normal girl's physique. Kamala has no use for the typical heroine outfit either, finding that the original Ms. Marvel costume givers her "an epic wedgie."

Wilson, has plenty to offer readers; she cleverly folds Kamala's Muslim heritage and teen angst into her emerging hero identity. With the comic's delicate color washes and wildly varying realism, the art bears far more resemblance to "alternative" comics than to typical superhero books. This issue is largely dedicated to establishing Kamala, sketching out her life and family and documenting her transformation. Aside from a few intimations, the "big bad" doesn't make an appearance until the very end. This individual, dubbed The Inventor, is suitably horrid. Kamala's personal struggles with her parents, her friends and her own body are simply more compelling than the archenemy. I enjoyed it, and appreciated the fact that it wasn't just another same old superhero origin story.

Week 14: Web Comics

I'm not one that's big on reading web comics but I thought that Johnny the Homicidal Maniac was a different, interesting read. Everything from the art style, lettering, and story, it's all different, which stands out the most to me. I wouldn't say that I like the art style and the intense lettering, but I do like that it's different from other web comics that I've seen.

The art style, along with the lettering, is very intense, with very wild, sketchy, hard pen strokes. While appealing to the eye, it also can be distracting to someone who is picky about certain art styles.  The art style seems reminiscent of Invader Zim with it's sketchy, creepy appeal. It's easy to comprehend what's going on in the panels, though the lettering is at times somewhat difficult to make out: more so when a certain word is bolded.

The overall story is downright creepy, but that's what sells it. I'm personally not a fan of these kinds of comics. In one segment, a woman calls Johnny "wacky looking." I thought this was ironic since all of the people in this universe looked "wacky." This comic is very weird and at one point, it seems to be serious but then turns comedic when Johnny threatens the woman that called him "wacky," with a spork; the woman responding calmly, "my taco is getting cold," not worried at all for what's to come. The scene turns into this crazy outrage with the panel showing the taco restaurant with screams coming out. Vaguely, you can see two people standing by the taco place and one of them says, "let's get pizza."

This comic is an overall great read, specifically if you're looking for something different and maybe even on the creepy aspect of things. If you miss Invader Zim, then this has all the vibes of it.

Week 11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

For this week, I read Strangers in Paradise. This comic feeds off an Archie/Riverdale vibe, style wise, but for a more mature audience with crude humor. The art is decent enough for the "newspaper funnies" type section that it seems to be going for. This is odd for me to say because I'm not someone who particularly likes certain styles, but this one works well considering the type(s) of story it holds. I'm also not one for reading black and white comics since sometimes it's hard to differentiate what's going on in the panel because either all the black values are too close to one another or there's too much white value, not enough black. This comic balances that issue quite well. It's not that the art is specially fancy, or eye-catching, but the fact that the artist, Moore, has a knack for conveying enough emotion through facial expression, which is something not often seen in these types of comics.

That particular skill is key for this kind of story. The story is all about the relationships between a handful of characters. What's more, some of the tension in the story comes from the fact that the relationships are non-traditional (gay, lesbian, polyamorous, etc.) The characters in this story have problems. Real emotional problems that they're trying to resolve. They have people the love, and they're trying to have good, healthy relationships in spite of the emotional baggage they're carrying around. They're often confused, they treat each other unfairly. And it is, honestly, a lot like what people go through in real life.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading something like this that deals with real world problems instead of a typical nonstop violence book; even though that's something that I tend to gravitate more towards, but this was a treat. The comic isn't preachy or anything, it just shows people trying to have relationships and struggling, and some of those relationships aren't boy-girl relationships. Truthfully, the story stutters a little bit early in the series, and I think that was just the author's way of getting his sea legs, learning to write.

I definitely think it's worth a read. It's especially wroth reading if you want to see something different in comics. This is one of the great indie classics in genre, in my opinion.

Week 9: A Wide World of Comics

For this week I read Ranxerox, a futuristic, punk style story about a robot that was programmed to have emotions. In one panel, his supposed girlfriend states to a man who eventually kidnaps her, that she can control her boyfriend if she wanted to. Ranxerox is more so a futuristic version of Frankstein's monster, and with the underage Lubna, they are like a bizarre Beauty and the Beast. She proceeds to take off the top of his skull and unplugs a switch that turns him off.

The art style is very edgy and kind of off putting with the amount of shading; the coloring looks very blurred and gritty, which complements the story/genre really well, but is otherwise unpleasant to look at. The story is unusual and somewhat disturbing. There's a scene with a young girl who is handing out flowers and she offers one to Ranx and he crushes the young girl's hand. Bystanders applaud the robot for crushing the girl's hand.

This kind of comic is very wild, over the top, can be a bit silly at times, and overall, it can be offensive. Though I find that the comic is close to how the world is, such as dealing with drugs, violence, and sex; though I find that comics such as this were a bit of the norm in the early 80's considering a lot of things that were going on around that time were "weird" and "new." Though it's not for everyone for it is a sick, twisted, humorously dark comic, if that suits you, then it's definitely worth a read. As for me, I'll stick with the classic/cheesy superhero comic or anything of that norm over something like this.