Lines and circles

I enjoyed the book Asterios Polyp. Well, I’ve actually enjoyed all the books we’ve read so far so that really isn’t saying much. Anyway, I haven’t read many graphic novels, but I enjoyed the way the author used panels to show speech and action in the book. For example, whenever a character is talking over someone else their speech bubble (or in the case of Asterios his box) overlaps the other persons. He also used the panels to show how we sometimes drown out others when we’re focusing on something else. An example of this is when they’re at the parade and Ursulas speech is shifted just out of frame when Asterios is looking at something else. I also liked how Mazzucchelli turned characters into their views on life. What I mean is that Asterios was drawn with just circles and squares and Hanna was drawn cross hatched. He used this technique to show when the characters were getting close (i.e. at the party they’re drawing both cross hatched and in circles and lines) and when they’re arguing (i.e. when they’re arguing…). The story was very enjoyable and was told anachronistically.(I love Memento, 500 Days of Summer, and Annie Hall are movies that I love. So this was just down my alley.) While I did get confused a few times—I always do—the book did a great job in using it to tell the story because it could get very confusing and jumbled if not done right. The ending of the book was…depressing. I guess. They’re happy and together, but, you know, dead. Or at least about to die.

A glimps into how she made it

Here is a clip of Alison Bechdel talking about how she wrote the book. We touched on it a bit in class on Monday, but I thought it was an nice video clip to watch of her actually talking about how she went through the process of making the book. You can see her posing for the panels and then how she makes every panel through photoshop and drawing.

we3 is killer…

The graphic novel is one of the goriest I’ve ever read. Than again, I haven’t read many graphic novels, but still. The text in this graphic novel are kept short, which helps move the action and the book along pretty quickly. This graphic novel felt like I was watching a Guy Richie/Jason Statham film because  there was a lot of blood and action. The book also starts off with a twist that made it a lot more entertaining to read because at first all we see are feet running and  red glowing lights which almost always means that something is going to go wrong. Then what I thought were bugs completely massacare the humans who were inside the house. Of course we later learn that they were bad and that the animals were the “good” guys. The graphic would have lost some of it’s mystery if it would have started off with some scientist explaining who and what they rather than teasing us along. The best part of the book, in my opinion, were the six pages where there were eighteen  panels that don’t say anything, but just show the action. I liked the repetition technique that they used in those six pages where they would zoom into the computer screen just a little bit until the word SAVE took up the whole panel. I thought that it was a brilliant way of moving the action and suspens along.

It’s all about the Benjamins

I’m responding to Daynee’s post on why hollywood hasn’t made a movie on Nat Turner yet. While I agree that it would make a great film, Hollywood is very picky about what it makes. It’s funny to think that shitty movies that come out every year are the creme of the crop, but for the most part it’s true. Any way, those movies that come out are usually cookie cutter movies that have the same plot and are guaranteed to make a lot of money. That’s why this year there are 27 sequels coming out. It’s because Nat Turner is not very well know that there isn’t a blockbuster made about him. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be a good idea to make one (I think it would make a great film), but that’s not hollywoods game. It would make too much sense.

Six Novels in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward

Here is a story I found on Lynd Ward’s full works being printed into a a two volume set by The Library of America. I found it interesting that The Library of America is publishing it because on their website it says that they’re about the need to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s best and most significant writing in authoritative editions is as strong as ever. I guess they deem Lynd Ward as influential and important as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and mark Twain. The relevance of this article is that since we’re reading Ward’s book God’s Man I thought it was interesting that they were printing his life work into a two volume set.