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 ...

The Arrival : Shaun Tan

Welcome to my blog! For my first post I read The Arrival by Shaun Tan. A silent graphic novel, The Arrival puts a surrealist spin on the immigration experience, inspired by Tan’s own experience immigrating to Australia. Tan’s mastery of illustration and research of real immigration stories come together beautifully in this compelling novel. Though The Arrival is marketed as a children's book, it takes a mature and eye-opening approach to its subject. The protagonist, an immigrant leaving his family to start a new life in an unfamiliar country, must navigate an unfamiliar place without knowing its language. The Arrival puts its reader in the same position--we must navigate the book without words. Instead of language, Tan uses character acting, panel setup, and the details he chooses to focus on to tell the story. For example, at the beginning of the novel Tan shows a montage of different objects around the immigrant’s home--a child's drawing of the family,...

The Killing Joke: Questions

Answers to the in-class reading questions. 1. What is your reaction to the text you just read (Batman: The Killing Joke)? I enjoy comics with more of a serious tone, and this was one of them. While I've seen the Batman universe portrayed pretty grimly, however, I was shocked by just how dark The Killing Joke gets--Gordon is dragged naked by a collar and is shown nude photos of his daughter after she was shot. This was much more sexually explicit than I am used to seeing with big name comics like Batman, too. I've seen sex scenes in these comics, but not sex used as the disturbing element it is in The Killing Joke. 2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect. One thing I enjoyed a lot about The Killing Joke was the pacing and the switches between the present and the past in the Joker's life. The comic set up a good mystery within both timelines that really drew me in and made me want to kee...

Lauren's Literature of the Graphic Narrative

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