Week 15 - week 13 redo

I choose to redo my week 13 entree because I kind of focused more on the movie we watched and didn't mention the comic I read haha. Sorry, I got a bit carried away with my feelings. Anyway, I read Hellboy that week and found it to be pretty interesting. I really enjoy the art style that they use for Hellboy, its very crisp and stylized and is very effective. I read the volume: Savage Dragon and was alittle confused at first, as this one kind of takes up the story as if I knew what was going on before? Kinda hard to get into and then it was pretty cheesy with Hellboy killing Hitler lol and the bad guys preserving his brain and putting it into an apes body contained in a glass of liquid (Mojo-jojo? Which came first I wonder haha.) But It was pretty interesting. But apparently, this mini-series or volume is about the character Savage Dragon, who is a green green-skinned humanoid whose powers include super-strength and healing. I dunno why video games and comics think lizards have healing powers haha but I guess since they can regrow their tail (and mind you, not all lizards can.) that means they are good healers? haha Not really, based on the amount of poor squished babies I see on the side-walks here at Ringling :/. But whatever, hes pretty cool and there are some really interesting drawings of him in super dynamic angles that are pretty cool. He also apparently has amnesia (so original hahah.) but also effective as it does add a nice sense of mystery for characters and we get to learn about the character while the character learns about himself. It was a pretty cool comic to read and found it entertaining.  :)

Week 14

I've been reading this webcomic for quite a few years and it updates soooooo slloooowllyyy :'( I don't even remember the last time. I just checked it out again for the first time in at least half a year and it looks like theres only about 2-3 new pages? Yikes. It's still a fantastic webcomic, with beautiful art and coloring and an amazing story to boot. Though, its been so long that I hardly remember the over-arching storyline, so I had to go back and re-read it.

Part of what I really love about reading webcomics like this, is watching the art evolve, its really awesome. This does happen with comic artists who get their work printed, but the difference is very subtle and a lot of it I feel like comes from technology getting better and not so much the artist getting better or improving their style. So, its always cool to see the artist grow with these webcomics. For instance, there is this other webcomic I read called Two Kinds (http://twokinds.keenspot.com/index.php) its basically a furry comic haha so it's a little embarrassing, but I really enjoy the story, its well done. But, the art at the beginning and the art at its current moment are so astronomically different, its sooo crazy. I really love to see this sort of thing happen. :)

Week 13

That movie was disgusting x.x; Maybe not I'm not Fine-artsy enough to appreciate it, but it made me feel sick for a while. Anyway, the author, Alan Moore was pretty terrible too. I get that hes "out there" and whatever, but it kind of tarnished my opinion of the stories he wrote by him being a whack-o. I really loved V for Vendetta and I enjoyed The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but then seeing him talk about it, was just so irritating. His opinions about his comics are so dated, like how he thinks that its because of HIS comics that governments started putting camera up in cities, uhm no, they did it for safety, they're not try to 'watch us for no reason' its not like people sit there 24-7 watching people do boring, regular crap all day x.x they only look for you when you deserve it. Then there was his opinion on his comics being made into movies, ugh, I hate when people think they're stuff is so good no one else can touch it, its like that with the current owner of Dune, there hasn't been a remake yet because he doesn't think anyone can do it properly, and at least with this, I can somewhat sympathize just because hes not saying no completely, but blah, I dunno Alan Moore take on things was just annoying. Then there was that Wizard thing -_-;
(Also, I choose this picture cuse its weird looking and hes weird. >:( )

Week 12

This week I read Arabian Nights by Lillian Chestney. This comic was super fantastic. I loved the story of this one and it was pretty hard to put down. The art style wasn't great, it was pretty cluttered and a little hard to understand some times, but it wasn't all bad, it was flowy and delicate and I did enjoy the color in it. But the art wasn't bad enough or unappealing enough to stop me from reading, like my last weeks comic. The story was inticing and interesting. I loved that it was a story with a story, with the wife of the King telling tales so that she won't be killed. Granted, I don't understand why he wants to behead her, that's a little confusing, does he just like to marry women and then cut their heads off lol? I don't know, but she's pretty clever to stop him from doing this by keeping him occupied with stories. The stories are interesting too, the Ali Baba and the 40 thieves is the story that i believe Aladdin was based off of and it was pretty cool to read this version of the story. I don't think this is the original version of the story? But maybe? Regardless, it's a very neat take on it. I loved that the best character was the slave girl, she was super awesome to read about. She's was like, not having any of that shit form the 40 thieves ahahah. Really great characters and a really fun read!

Week 11

This week I read, Eightball by Daniel Clowes. This comic was honestly, really weird and messed up and I can't say I really liked it that much. Maybe that's close minded of me or ignorant. But, I couldn't get into the art style, I don't really enjoy the way he draws, his stylized and hideous characterizations are hard to look at, even though I get why he did it, or at least I can guess the reasons. I assume he did this to emphasize the imperfections of humans and to show people how they really look, gross and disfigured, unattractive and awful. And while I get that point and I see where he's coming from, from a fine-art stand point. That doesn't make me enjoy reading the comic anymore. It just isn't my cup of tea, I want to be visually attracted to the characters and to feel good looking at them. When I look at these characters in Eightball, it makes me want to cringe away or avert my eyes. But, maybe thats what he was going for ahaha, if that's he case, he did pretty darn good. But yeah, I didn't read too much this comic, about as much as I could handle. It was a strange story and stranger art.

Week 10

This week I read Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. I was really excited to see this option on the list of comics to read, as I had watched this anime a few years ago and I really love to read the Manga's that came before animes. Honestly though, I didn't LOVE Death Note. When I first started watching the anime, I liked it, the first about 5-10 episodes, but then the story takes a weird turn and the ending is honestly super lame in my opinion, I hate how Light Yagami(AKA Kira) goes out like a whiny bitch. It was really frusterating, cuse I love characters that 'predict things' and are always 'one step ahead' its really fun. But then he gets cornered and whines like a little wuss and then dies. So lame. But in general, I love the concept of this story and in character interactions and I enjoyed reading the Manga. The anime did pretty darn good to be honest, it gets really close which I enjoyed. This week was a good read and while its super lame to say, I prefer to read animes then regular comics, but maybe that just sounds ignorant. I just like the intense stories and art styles they use. Granted, a lot of the comics we've been reading have been just as intense and had just as good art styles, I think it's just easier to get a hold of Manga stories and more people read them because of the animes. It's good to have taken this class so my horizon can be broadened. :)

Week 9

Persepolis:

This reading was interesting and powerful. The comic futures the problems that a young girl faces in a country that is at war with itself over the government. Her first issues she faces are the struggles against school rules; they want them to wear a veil but being a young and naive girl, she doesn't understand why this is important and doesn't want to have to do this. This part was so interesting for me, because it is something you don't often think of. I've seen the women with veils plenty of times and never once have I actually wondered, when they had to start wearing them. It would be very frustrating to a young child to have to wear something like that when you just want to run around and play without something hanging around your head. Later, she has to face the difficulties that come when she lives with parents that are against the government and are protesters. All the issues she has to face are so real and really impaction because its never something you think about often. As witht he veil notes I mentioned above, I've seen riots (like the one going on in Ukraine) and you see those people and I've never thought about how what they're doing affects the daily life of their children. Children, who are naturally very impressionable at such a young age, copy what they hear they're parents say or play games that reenact recent events and they can get in trouble for those things, even though its not as though its really their own opinion. I really enjoyed this weeks reading.