Persepolis

Again like Palestine, a history i have never followed or known much about, so again i found it interesting.

When i first started reading it, i had to start over and read the beginning again, because i was so confused about the whole profit aspect and Marji talking to god and believing she was a profit, i thought she was crazy... only once i read it again and further i realized it was just childhood ignorance and high self opinion.

Also again like Palestine this is another novel that depicts an area of the world that in America we are feed negative opinons about constantly and lacking the idea of they are people just like you and me... but that is how war works i suppose. I love how she shows Marji (herself as a child) being a kid having opinions making jokes going to parties and being into "punk" style so many things that are just like here in the states that so many people ignorantly assume is only here and could never happen in a place like that.

Her art work was very easy to see and understand, i have heard people say that" aw well the story it good but the drawing is mediocre", well they are welcome to their opinons but i like the drawing style in this novel you can easily follow it and i feel in a sense it makes you realize in the beginning anyways that you are following a young persons thoughts and feelings through this experience.

I enjoyed this novel and i plan to watch the movie soon enough. I have lent the novel to a friend as well who was raving about the movie but did not realize it was a book first.

Saccos Palestine

First off i would like to say that i have never really followed all the news, history, debate over Israel and Palestine, so to me this was very interesting. Also i feel as we have discussed in class that in America or other places too even im sure we have this negative image of people from middle east constituently shoved down our throats an so many grow up with this typical image of an evil man with machine guns and a women in a veil with no important opinions. I feel this comic shows that yes those people do exist but more often then not most the people are just people like everybody just living through different struggles then we do and struggles that honestly most of us probably couldn't bare.

To go over the "comic" aspect of the novel i found it easy enough to follow the panels through the story, and most the time it was easy enough to see the imagery with the exception of a few panels where it got very busy, but the busy was for a purpose, like to show the darkness in the story when the man was in a room when arrested in palestine and he was hallucinating his child dead due to lack of food water or sleep. Also after you pointed out that he signs somewhere on most every page i couldn't help by go and look and try to find them in all the pages, some were very obviously placed at the bottom corners but some were hiding in their.

I liked that Sacco told stories that he heard from others while their and drew them out. Even though he was not their and can not specifically know how everything appeared i think it added a lot to the story to hear these stories from the families and people he met during his time in Palestine.

Also as discussed inc lass as well, the conclusion very inconclusive as said in class. weather that was for a purpose i do not know if it is to show that the story really is not over, his time in Palestine may be over, but everything- he has seen and heard will continue to happen

"Roy the Roach Rides Again"

First off this was great because of the work put into the cover and shape to make it look like a roach, even though it is a little bit grose.
Stylistically the art is great its easy to follow and read. I enjoy this style of comics because it can be followed and the design is friendly and fun. You can tell Claire put a lot of work into this comic on the cutting of all the pages and cover and all the drawings that had to of taken a long time. All the line work on the final spread is well done but not too over powering to where you cant read or see the imagery.
She utilizes a lot of facial expressions to showcase the emotions of the characters and to understand where the story is going and how the people are feeling about the situation. on the second page i like the utilization of the roach to split the panels, also the roach has a different shape speech bubble so you know that it is more of a thought then the roach actually speaking, her interpretation of what the roach would have been thinking.

All and all you can tell that Claire has put a lot of hard work into this comic not only with drawing the book, but the construction of the boo.

Mini Comic Self Reflection

This project started out with me very excited about the concept of creating my own comic when it was initial mentioned. Once I realized it had to be based on a true story I was not quit as excited because I struggled to come to a decision on a story I was willing to share, and that somebody else wouldn’t get offended I shared with the class.

I went through a few stories in my head I could use and discussed it with my father to find the most interesting story to use for the assignment. We were discussing one of my friends from childhood “Mandy McGee” and some of the strange things she did. We agreed it would be the most interesting story to tell so I called her and got her permission to do the story, as I said in class she said she wanted me to change her name , so I did just that.

When it came to actually creating the comic I had initially wanted to had draw the strip, but when it came down to it I just didn’t have the time to hand draw the entire thing. I can be such the perfectionist when it comes to drawing I could imagine me not sleeping for days trying to make all the images come out perfect so I decided to do the digital Adobe Illustrator format for the mini comic.

I started by illustrating Mandys face (and I am no illustrator) I decided to go away from making it actually look too much like the person the story was about also and make her look fairly like the generic “goth” or loner kid in school. After finishing her face I had the idea to take mockup clothing I had for previous projects in Viscom and live trace them and use them as her clothing. From there I started understanding the word iw ould use to tell the story and understanding how to make the story fit on the page and not drag on for too long, which was a challenge to shorten it down and not let it drag for too long because I would not have had the time to make it go on for pages.

I had a general idea of how to start it and the idea of the last 3 panels and from there filled in the reaming panels and made the necessary information for the story to make sense fit in between the beginning panels and he end panels. I then went and found existing imagery for the other characters and took them into illustrator and live traced the images and placed them with in the panels where threes roles would be played in the story. I added all the dialogue and text panel at a time as I added the imagery.

Also when ti came to choosing the type and the speech bubbles I felt it was a good idea to give Maxwell his own typeface and a different shape speech bubble to stronger emphasize the concept that Maxwell was not a real person.

All and all this was an interesting and enjoyable project and iw ish I had more free time to have been ablel to commit to the project and make it exactly what I had wanted. I had hoped to have an actual book style hand drawn colored book to show, but itw as just unrealistic to fit that sort of project in with my schedule.

MINI COMIC

Maus I

I found myself not noticing the imagery and having to force my self to pay attention to the imagery in this story because i was so drawn in by the story that was being told.

There seems to be points where paneling choices or setups make sure you pay attention or draw your attention back to the drawings as if he anticipated people possibly not noticing all the art work as much and at point knowing he needed to draw you back to that part of the book. for example like when his father would draw maps of where he had hidden bunkers under the coal.

Also it ends at a point where you absolutely have to go and read the next one, obviously they survive but you want to understand how. I have already recommended the story to a few people its an interesting take and way to show the story.

GOOGLE

Check out the google title for the day :)

http://www.willeisner.com/