[Week 9] Blacksad

So for this week, I read the three available versions on the course share of Blacksad. Well, rather I read two of them, but Arctic Nation was pretty easy to understand, despite being in French! The extra book about the watercolor thumbnailing process was really awesome as well, even though it was also in French.

First off, the art of these comics is absolutely incredible. The realistic detail with the wonderful use of watercolor and lighting is just an absolute joy to read through. I kept going back to panels just to look at how the lines and colors were handled, especially so in A Silent Hell. The art also really helped sell the realism of the tense racial issues of the 1950's, even with everyone being animals-- the racism was still pretty stark and clear. Again, even though the characters are represented as animals, their writing and the way they're drawn just gives every character that you see such rich character-- even background characters I found myself wanting to know more about.

Secondly, for story content, it definitely didn't shy away from the gritty realism of what was going on during the 1950s, with that added flare of hollywood-esque mystery and murder solving. The interactions between all these different characters in the stories, especially with A Silent Hell and Amarillo are so scarily genuine and real feeling, despite the characters being animals. The plot "twist" in A Silent Hell was really good too.

Overall, Blacksad was probably one of the top comics that I've read so far this year, and I would gladly recommend it to people I know, if only just for the art its self.

[Week 8] The Fifth Beatle

So for this week I ended up reading The Fifth Beatle; and from a personal standpoint, I thought it was alright.

The art for this comic was really fantastic, if not a bit creepy at times, but the way they handled the figures and the way the backgrounds were painted were really really beautiful. When it comes to the story, I'm not entirely sure how much of it is true, especially with the whole "boyfriend" that kept trying to get money from Brian. I didn't really enjoy those parts of the story, because it was a depressing reminder about life, and I'm not about it.

Otherwise the comic wasn't so bad to read. It was very wordy, which I guess is fair for something that's supposed to be a bit of an autobiography.

When it comes to stereotyping, the only real stereotype that I can think of that could apply to this comic is the "kill your gays" trope, and the gay character being interested in fashion sort of stereotype. It's rough when this sort of thing happens, because I can understand feeling like as stereotype even as a person.

Would still probably recommend the comic to others.

[Week 7] Maus

For this week I read the graphic novel called Maus.

Where to even start with this one! I love any sort of anecdotal-esque comics that show the more personal sides of huge tragedies that have happened in history. This one was especially good to read, what with the recent climate lately in America, and being able to draw similarities to the attitudes and the sorts of clashes that are happening now.

The fact that all of the people are drawn as animals really lends itself to the story being "easy" to process and also pick out the different types of people that are in the story. The relationship between Artie and his father is both really funny and also one of the saddest things I've ever spent the time to read. The part at the end where his father was clearly showing signs of dementia was especially heart-breaking, and yet, relate-able.

The art style of the graphic novel really helps lend the grittiness and real-ness of the story as well, despite animals being used to represent people. The chunky lines with the expressive gestures, as well as the solid blocks of black to help with gaunt or distressed situations made it really interesting to read through. Sometimes the print for the text was a little hard to read, but otherwise I didn't have much trouble reading it. It would have been cool to see maybe some pages in color, but otherwise I really enjoyed how well the black and white line work looked.

As for the subject matter, this is one of the few Holocaust related pieces of media that I've seen, and I feel like it's going to stick with me for a while. I'm definitely going to recommend it to my friends, again if only for the relevance that it has today, but just for knowing the story of just this one artist and his father. I found that the way Artie presented his dad was incredibly real, and it was funny reading his own words in the comic that he thought his dad acted like the stereotype of the 'miserly old jew'. It's something that I always think about when I act certain ways with things in my own life! It's strange, feeling like you might be a stereotype of yourself.

Overall, a very chilling but enjoyable read for this week, and again something that I'll recommend for my friends to read.