Lauren's Literature of the Graphic Narrative

When I opened   The First Word of Patrick Farley's Electric Sheep comics , I was expecting a standard webcomic. I was very surprised that instead of formatting itself as a "normal" comic,   The First Word  is a sidescroller that uses simple lighting effects and motion design. This was entirely new to me–I thought standard webcomics were considered fairly modern, but this felt like something completely different. I enjoyed how Farley seemed to be playing around so much with new media to explore what a comic is. It really opened me up to think about what new possibilities might be with merging traditional storytelling and technology. The transitions were especially amazing to me, like the stream of different animals evolving. I did think Farley went very over-the-top with the lighting effects when sex came into play (I found the comic hard to take seriously at that point), but overall, the use of art was definitely something to study. One area where the comic f...

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 bec...