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.

Week 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

As a long time superhero fan, I was glad to have finally read Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke. I've heard so many good things about this work from friends and comic book writers alike. As I'm sure like most people, I saw the animated feature of The Killing Joke when it premiered in theaters a year ago. It was definitely quite the experience, as this feature was rated R and from what I've heard from my friend, it's pretty accurate to the comic.

What really makes this comic stand out, is the artwork and it's way of telling of story with storyboard imaging with no words in the intro of the comic that shows Batman arriving at Arkham Asylum to talk to the Joker.

As the story continues on, it shows to be very dark and violent. More so towards Barbara, Jim Gordon's daughter. The Joker arrives at the Gordon residence unannounced and has a gun at his daughter who answers the door. While smiling that sinister smile that we all know, he pulls the trigger and the bullet hits her waist. Joker takes her father while she's suffering/gasping for air on the ground. Later we learn that the Joker not only shot Barbara, but he also undressed her and took pictures of her.

I really enjoyed how they touched base on the Joker's past; how he, a once sane person, became to be the infamous serial killer. Not only do we see who the Joker was before becoming insane, we also see him and Batman sort of meet for the first time where Batman mistakes him for the villain Red Hood. It isn't until after Joker falls into what seems to be an acid tank, that he is revealed to be a new person: the Joker. I thought it was clever how in the past, the Joker wanted to become a comedian and now since his horrific accident, he's hysterically insane, a lunatic, and is always pulling "pranks" of all kinds; anything for a good laugh. It's ironic that he's achieving his dream of being a comedian by becoming an insane villain that's always laughing with his really dark sense of humor.

The ending of this story will always baffle me. The fact that the police are on their way to get the Joker, and here's Batman and the Joker himself, face to face, laughing hysterically. I still don't know if the Joker slipped something to Batman that made him laugh so hard or if that was actually Batman laughing. He's fought the Joker for so many years that it's not hard to believe that he would snap with laughter from trying to take him down and keep him in Arkham. I think that this story is important because it shows how strong Batman and Joker's twisted "relationship" is with one another. Batman doesn't kill, but if certain circumstances come to that, he will.

Questions:
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
Answer: The text of this comic opens up wordless, with Batman arriving at Arkham Asylum to visit the Joker. The text is subtle when Batman is talking to who he thinks is the Joker.

2.What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story in which you were able to connect.
Answer: What really stood out was Barbara getting shot and the Joker undressing her and taking pictures of her. This is a representation of rape/humiliation of someone when they are out cold/drunk. But in Barbara's case, she was shot and thus will remain paralyzed from he waist down. There are so many consequences/effects this one scene has and tells so much from just one showing. The writers' way of discussing rape and its victims was well executed and a good subject to focus on since we live in a time where so many people, young women especially, are being raped while they are out cold and then humiliated with pictures/videos of the innocent. Barbara, however, becomes useful for Batman; even though she gets permanently stuck in a wheelchair for life, she is still useful with her amount of information for discovering the truth about criminals and where they are and why they did what they did. She doesn't become useless; she doesn't become one of those characters that disappears after something horrific happens to her. She's determined to show the Joker and everyone else what it is that she can really do.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
Answer: The only changes that I would make to the story is to get rid of the unnecessary song that Joker sings after he kidnaps Jim Gordon. When I first saw this in the theater, I thought it was unnecessary and a waste of time. As a Batman fan, I understand that it's the Joker, he's always gonna do something crazy and different, but to me, this song just seemed out of place. Instead, I would've had the Joker just show pictures of Barb that he took of her undressed after she was shot to show how "looney" he is, instead of just singing about it like a really weird Disney film.

Week 10: Manga and the Japanese Comic Tradition

For this week, I read Battle Angel Alita "Last Order." This particular series reminds me of another robot/cyborg series Ghost in the Shell. Battle Angel follows a strong female lead named Gally; the interesting thing about this series and its main character is that Gally isn't overly sexualized like most manga female characters, especially lead characters. She doesn't have an insanely busty body, she's more muscular and lean. I think it's good that this series is approaching a different take on the stereotypical female role in a manga.

During action sequences, the style becomes very loose and fast paced with dark line marks representing motion. It's very interesting how manga pursues motion and sequences; not many American comics nowadays show that fast paced line of action during fighting sequences. Back when superhero comics were just starting out in the late 1930's, there was more of that line of action represented during action sequences. American comics are more so close ups of the hero/villain's faces and looks like that they're just standing still facing each other when really they're moving. Manga action sequences are all over the place, that sometimes tend to drag out but otherwise keep you interested because of the ever changing scenes and dynamic line of action. Little to no talk can be seen when they are fighting when compared to American comics, hero/villain tend to "talk about the fight" while fighting. One thing that bothers me about manga, is that when they're in action sequences, they show close ups of their body parts which is sometimes hard to tell what that body part is and what's exactly going on since there's also multiple dark line marks representing the amount of motion that's going on in the fight.


Another thing that I've noticed about manga, is that a lot of their characters, preferably males, tend to look like girls. I remember when I was younger and read Naruto, I noticed that one character looked entirely like a girl but was actually a guy. I find that Japan has this fascination with making guys look like girls and making girls look like guys as a way of saying that society "doesn't need labels." In this issue of Battle Angel, Gally is fighting another cyborg. This cyborg has really long, flowing hair and a slim, muscular body. At first glance, this character looked to be a guy, but until another character asked the main character if they were sisters, it through me for a loop since this new cyborg isn't busty at all.


I'm not one for reading manga or watching anime, but this was definitely a surprise for me. The story was very engaging, lots of twists from the characters and information pertaining to the story as to how they accomplish the cyborg.

Week 8: Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation

For this week I read the first book of March by John Lewis himself. The book is about the Civil Rights movement that took place in the 1960's. It starts out in an office on the day Barack Obama is scheduled to be sworn into office, a historical day for everyone. John Lewis is seen getting ready for the big day when a woman and her two young boys come knocking on his office door to learn about John Lewis's legacy. The entirety of the story takes place in flashbacks starting off when Lewis was a little boy on a farm in the south. He talked about how he loved chickens and how when he grew up he wanted to be a chicken farmer but instead decided to grow up to be a pastor because he was passionate about the word of God.

The issue continues on with flashbacks of his journey to how far him and his fellow African Americans have come to gain the same freedom white Americans have. The story is really well outlined and is explained in great detail of each historic event that took place in the 1960's with the rising Civil Rights Movement.