Reconsidering the Superhero: Watchmen

This week I read the first issue of Watchmen by Alan Moore. I was surprised right off the bat by how dark and overtly political the comic was. Right in the opening scene, Rorschach talks bitterly about "the accumulated filth" of the city drowning in blood. For a comic from as big a publisher as D.C. to display such cynicism, I can definitely see how Watchmen expanded the genre in comics.

One thing I really enjoyed about Watchmen that I don't see in other comics is how dark the humor is. As we see in the beginning of the comic, Rorschach often delivers monologues via a diary he keeps. This is often where Moore's sense of humor can be seen. In one scene, for example, Rorschach spends a disproportionate amount of time talking about how many kids his neighbor has and how she is probably abusing welfare–it's funny because of how small an issue it is that Rorschach is devoting his energies to. Rorschach also comes across as a bit comedic to me because of how angsty he is. When he mumbles about how "no one cares but me," Rorschach almost comes across as a teenager.
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Although I enjoyed Allen Moore's unique spin on Watchmen, one part that did bother me was the length text in the middle of the issue explaining the back story of one of the characters. Although I love reading, and actually enjoy novels more than comics, something about expecting a comic and getting pages and pages of text bothered me.

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European Comics: Blacksad

Today I read the first book of Blacksad , an edgy French comic written by Juan Diaz Canales and illustrated by Juanjo Guarnido. The comics follow a panther detective through a series of anthropomorphic noir mysteries. I really enjoyed Blacksad . The story is a fairly standard mystery, but Blacksad's voice is engaging and authentic as a noir narrator, and the artwork is amazing. I felt that the art style was especially effective because it helps immediately establish character personalities--the criminals are rats and scaly creatures, the sheriff is a border collie, etc. I also tend to find that in noir movies or comics all the characters tend to look the same (all the men are square-jawed and serious, the women attractive and curvy) and the style of Blacksad helped prevent this from happening for me. Guarnido also does a fantastic job at using different shot angles and engaging acting within the panels. I enjoy this kind of visual storytelling much more than flatt

Manga: Bakuman

This post I re-read Bakuman, a semi-autobiographical manga about two boys trying to make it big in the manga industry, written by Tsugumi Obha and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Re-reading Bakuman was especially interesting for me because the first time I read it was early in high school when I was having big dreams and thinking about going into art school, and now that I'm reading it again, I'm a junior in illustration starting to actively look for jobs and internships. One part of Bakuman that I can especially relate to now is when Moritaka and Akito move from being the "big fish in a small pond" as the best creatives in their high school, to being a part of the "real world" art industry and having to make it among professionals. I was the best artist in my relatively small high school as well, and though it's easy to intellectually recognize that things will be harder in a larger art community, I think it's almost impossible to completely p

Legitimization of Comics: Maus

This week I read Maus by Art Speigelman, a graphic novel in which Speigelman interviews his father about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. One thing that struck me about Maus was how raw and unedited it felt. It feels like Speigelman didn't leave anything out in his interactions with his father--where many documentaries or other kinds of interviewing would portray a Holocaust survivor in the best way possible, Speigelman shows what feels like every minor quibble and annoyance between he and his father, like his father's habit of putting down Speigelman's mother. Speigelman does this within the Holocaust story as well-he doesn't cut out any of the minor events in favor of more important ones, he just tells it like it happened. I appreciate Speigelman's honesty with this style of storytelling in Maus , but I cannot tell whether I enjoyed it or not--it was honest, yes, but felt unnecessary at times. One thing I definitely enjoyed about Maus was the c

Lauren's Literature of the Graphic Narrative

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