Fallout

The graphic novel Fallout did not intrest me as much as the other graphic novels we read for class. This is probably because, I am not into science and reading about science. I did however enjoy the movie because it captured emotions better than the graphic novel in my opinion.

Persepolis Part 2

Although most graphic novels are in color, I believe that because of Persepolis lack of color it makes it a great graphic novel. Satrapi’s Persepolis; the Story of a Childhood is an outstanding example of a graphic novel. Unlike most graphic novels that use color as a “formidable ally for artists in any visual medium” (Understanding Comics; the Invisible Art, Scott McCloud), Persepolis; the Story of a Childhood, does not use any color throughout the entire book. Scott McCloud claims that “[because of color] we become more aware of the physical form of objects than in black and white…” I believe that although color can help people understand comics better it is not needed in Persepolis; the Story of a Childhood. Satrapi’s writings are a superb piece of work; they do not require color to catch the reader’s attention. Like McCloud states, “In black and white the ideas behind the art are communicated more directly…” McCloud hits this topic right on the nose. In Satrapi’s work her words are more directly “heard” because her work is in black and white.

Persepolis-By Far my favorite book!

I loved this graphic novel! I really enojy stories that are told from a females point of view and what better way than through a childs eyes?

“Guns may shoot and knives may carve, but we won’t wear your silly scarves!” (page 76 in Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi). This one sentence can give a person a very good outlook on the entire graphic novel. In this novel we learn of the life of Persepolis as she grows in a world consumed by hatred.

Joe Sacco

To understand more about Joe Sacco’s graphic novel Safe area Gorazde: the War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-95, we need to learn a little more about Gorazde and the war in Bosnia. Gorazde was a so-called United Nations-designated safe area, which was nonetheless surrounded by Bosnian Serb troops and whose people were suffering desperately. The war was unusual in that so much of it was fought not by professional militias but by regular people taking up arms to protect their own homes and towns; the result was chaos, and civilians all around subjected to every conceivable form of abuse and atrocity. Sacco's book is filled with testimonials of Bosnian Muslims who remember years of peaceful multiethnic cohabitation in Gorazde that turned when the war broke out. They loved their Serb friends and neighbors and knew that they were loved in return.
"Before the war, everyone had everything, cars, food, and jobs. They had a good life... and then they started shooting. Never in my life will I understand why. They destroyed our lives, the Serbs, but also they destroyed their own lives."
What happened to this peace? What caused the Serbs, who for years had shared celebrations and gatherings with their Muslim friends and neighbors, suddenly start shooting them, torturing them, and executing them? Sacco shows how this intense hatred and violence was begun; this hatred was instigated by the fascist Chetniks. Sacco uses both words and pictures to describe this horrific incident:
"I was an eyewitness when the Chetniks brought two families -- both families had three kids -- and killed them behind the bridge.
"They cut their throats and pushed them in the river... The Guso and Sabanovic families.
"And I was an eyewitness when a Chetnik cut off the breast of one of the mothers, who was trying to protect her kids."
When I read this I could not help but vision women and children being slaughtered just for the fun of it, this vision angered me and scared me all at the same time. Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde is not a pleasant book. It shows and describes things most of us will never experience, things so brutal and cruel most of us cannot conceive of how they can happen.

Watchmen

In this blog I am going to write about my favorite character in Watchmen, Rorschach.

Rorschach a.k.a Walter Kovacs had a hard childhood that made him into what he s now know as. His mother was a prostitute; one night he found himself coming to his mothers rescue from a man he thought was hurting her, but instead found himself a beating. He was taken from his mother in 1951 after viciously attacking two bullies who were making fun and him and his mother, and stayed in a group home. He then became a garment worker in 1956. At this garment factory, we learn about how Rorschach selected the mask that he would soon wear to protect his identity. A young girl ordered a dress made out of material that Dr. Manhattan invented. The girl never came to pick up her dress because she found the dress hideous. Rorschach took the dress home and experimented with the fabric and eventually cut it into the mask that he would wear. When the woman that ordered the dress, Kitty Genovese, died while others just watched her being raped, tortured, and killed Rorschach became almost obsessed with justice. In 1964, he took up the identity of Rorschach. In 1965 he partnered up with the second Night Owl. Rorschach experienced a dramatic change after investigating a child kidnapping. Before this kidnapping Kovacs just used Rorschach as an identity to protect his real identity as Walter Kovacs.
Rorschach is a key character in Watchmen, if not the main character. He is the one who tries to figure out who killed the Comedian, even though his initial guess is wrong about the masked killer his investigation eventually leads to him uncovering Ozymandias a.k.a. Adrian Veidt’s plan to destroy half the city of New York. It is in his point of view that we see a majority of the story.

Understanding Comics/Watchman

This blog should of been the first blog I posted. It talks about how Understanding Comics and Watchman have to do with eachother.

Comics: 1. Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce and aesthetic response in the viewer (chapter 1). Comics are in fact images put in a certain order to convey some sort of information, but I think that comics are something more than that. Comic books help people live out their fantasies through the characters in the comic book and provide entertainment. In most comic books people their can do things that we cannot. They can fly around, rescue pretty women, and much more, because they can do things we cannot comic books are so appealing.
In chapter two “The Vocabulary of Comics” of Understand Comics the Invisible Art (Scott McCloud) we learn about icons. There are many icons used in the Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) one of the most obvious is the blood stained smiley on the cover page. This smiley face really isn’t a face but icons we call “pictures” or “images” designed to resemble a human face. Even though this smiley face is simple when you see it you think human, although it does not even begin to look like an actual human face. When you think of a human face you think of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth that is why the basic smiley face can represent the human face. On Page 51 of Understand Comics the Invisible Art we learn of “The Picture Plane” where the basic smiley face represents language. Another icon commonly used in Watchmen is the all-to-famous dooms day clock. This clock represents the countdown until dooms day, which is the end of the world. Another common icon used in the Watchmen is the sound noises “ ,” they are not really sound, but letters representing sound. There really is no sound here except that which you give to it.
The artist uses this sequential technique with gutters to show the order of events to tie in to the overall story line. In Understanding Comics the Invisible Art we learn about the categorization of sequences that can be seen in a comic. The most common forms of sequence that the Watchmen uses is action-to-action, subject-to-subject, and scene-to-scene. Because Watchmen is primarily about masked vigilantes, action-to-action is the most common type of sequence. The gutter space allows for this sequence. Without the gutter space we would have meaningless action taking place, that the reader does not need to know about to understand the comic. On page 25 of chapter 6 of the Watchmen we see both action-to-action and scene-to-scene. We see Rorschach lighting a man on fire and the action that takes place, but we also see the scene jump from the past to where Rorschach is presently at in the comic book.
“Comics are a mono-sensory medium. They rely on only one of the senses to convey a world of experience,” the eye. We “hear” sound through word bubble when in reality it is nothing but letters put together to stand for sound. Within comics we can only convey information visually, which leaves our other senses to wonder with our imagination about what we are seeing visually.

How to Blog?

I have no idea how to blog! I thought blogging would be easy, I was WRONG! I have had this blg "Watchmen" made for awhile and it took me a long time (and help from a friend) to figure out how to post. I never really needed to know how to blog before so I guess you can say im a blogging virgin.