ENGL 300: The Graphic Novel

When I first started reading this Graphic Novel I didn’t know what to expect. As I went along I actually started to get into the story and the characters pretty easily. I like the fact that the father’s writing and speech is related to how someone like him would speak. Another thing I was entertained by was the different animals. Mouses were Jewish, Cats were the Nazi’s, Pigs were non Jewish, and the Dogs were American. I really loved the fact that us Americans were the Dogs! It could be an insult but I saw it as we are above the Nazi’s and that they were our enemy as well. This novel does have a very sad and dark story to it, but it cuts off scenes that might seem too gruesome for the readers. Like the scene where the Nazi slammed a little kids head into the wall. The random extra comment strip in the middle of volume one of Maus confused me a bit. I wasn’t sure why that was there and if it was needed. It had a little bit of a different styling and it had humans in it. Overall the Novel was quite enjoyable and had a very interesting way of doing it.

ENGL Group 1

*Professor, my apologies for my absence this afternoon, I was feeling pretty sick. I took the opportunity to play catch-up on my assignments now that I know how to navigate the site.*

Feb. 1-3 God’s Man / 1st Readers

In our class discussion, it was speculated that the Mistress’s brand was a metaphor for her obsession with wealth and status. I, however, had initially taken it to be marking her as, literally, a whore. The deal she had made with the portly man earlier had seemed to me very much like a business transaction, and I’d read it as he had bought the artist an ‘escort’, so to speak.

Another interesting thing I’d noticed artistically was that the scene in which the mistress’s true intent is revealed has some strikingly similar images to when Death reveals his true face. Both revelations occur as the artist has set up his canvas and just began to paint; the face he makes upon witnessing Death is identical to when he finds his harlot in the arms of a sailor — black and haunting. The slumping pose he takes as he falls off the cliff at the end is also remarkably similar to the morose stance he takes after finding the Mistress cozying up to a police officer.

Feb 8-10 Batman / No Task

Feb 15-17 Nat Turner / Weekly Roundup

The moment I chose to highlight in Nat Turner was the tossing of the little baby to the shark. Upon first reading, I found it to be atrocious. I’ve always been one to value the sanctity of life, regardless of the current quality of life. To end a life prematurely ensures that that life has no chance to improve; it robs one of all potential possibilities for the good the future might hold, and asserts that the life is so unpleasant it’s not worth sustaining. I was initially unable to relate to the scene in any way; the idea that life could hold so little joy was a baffling concept to me. It began to illuminate to me the plight of the slaves — for one to believe so strongly that the child was better off dead certainly speaks volumes of the quality of their living conditions. It isn’t hard to conceive that someone with this hopeless a view of their life would go to any lengths to change it, including bloody revolution.

Feb 22-24 We3 / Searchers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Rovers

I know I mentioned this in class, but after rereading We3 I still can’t help but be reminded of the 90’s cartoon Road Rovers. There are some fascinating parallels, despite the disparate intended audiences. Both include anthropomorphized animals in robotic suits, used by humans for the benefit of mankind. (which is in itself a bit ironic) The animals of each are capable of speaking English (the proficiency thereof differs between the two) The Rovers report to a scientist known as “The Master,” while the We3 gang report to scientists they refer to as “Boss.”

When not engaged in crime fighting, the Rovers return to their respective homes and their respective masters. Despite the fact these animals are fully sentient, capable of communication, and possessing superhuman abilities, they are still owned by humans. We3 also perpetuates this notion to some degree, implying in its ending that the animals are home once they ‘belong’ to a human provider.

Obviously the tones of the novel and those of the television show are vastly different; after all, Road Rovers was intended for children. It doesn’t attempt to delve deep into the effects of human alterations on nature, it simply seeks to entertain. The question of why such advanced animals seem to inherently crave human dominance, however, is prevalent in each. Perhaps it’s a commentary on the extent of the domestication of our modern day pets? Loyal to a fault.

This interview by G4 was posted June, 19 2009.  Blair Butler, host of “Fresh Ink,” interviews Frank Morrison at Meltdown Comic Store in California.  He talks about how he is writing a screenplay to turn WE3 into a movie.  He seems really enthusiastic about the movie, and thinks that turning WE3 into a movie will actually make the story stronger and will make it a lot sadder.  He also point out that he could add a lot more to the movie that he couldn’t necessarily fit into the comic book.  I know that in class that we pointed out how the story didn’t seem that sad, or how there was a lot of missing information from the beginning of the story.  Morrison seems to almost agree with our in-class analysis and thinks that his new screenplay should address these issues.

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.

I have combed WE3 a couple of times and have noticed that the majority of this graphic novel is like an action movie.  At least three quarters of the story is focused on destruction and mayhem, while the last quarter felt like an attempt at making me care about these cyborg animals.  I am left wishing this last part was developed more.  These animals were abducted by the government and turned into killing machines.  That act is suppose to make me question the rights of animals and how far should biological engineering be pushed. However, the characters weren’t developed enough for me to actually care about them being chased down. The missing posters are there to try and make me care about them, but having never had a pet in my life it didn’t really hit home. I think they should have included scenes of the actual abductions. But instead all I have to link to the past of these animals are 3 pages written by a few 5 year olds.

Maybe the whole purpose of this story is just to show these high tech mechanized pets doing what they do best, which lead to some of the sweetest action spreads I’ve seen in awhile.  I just wish there was more depth to the characters and the story in general.  I felt cheated walking away from the story with the lessons of “if you militarize something and it messes up; just throw some money at it and move on with your life” and “pets should stay pets.”

            I noticed that the three main characters 1, 2, and 3 are almost always moving from left to right, often on rectangular panels. I think the panels were designed to signify how fast the animals are always moving. Also, it is important to note the panels show that 1, 2, and 3 are almost always moving forward. There is a two-page spread where the cat is tearing apart a group of soldiers. The panels are broken up into eight rectangular panels that are vertical. Together they form a large horizontal rectangle, and the cat is literally jumping into and out of each panel, killing each soldier, from left to right.

            In addition to the panels, there are two sections (full-page bleeds, each one is actually compromised of two pages), where the three main characters are illustrated as moving from left to right. In one two page spread, the dog, the cat, and the rabbit are shown at a sideways angle. The section shows the animals seemingly fly through the starry night. I think the page captures their freedom to move past their initial imprisonment and enter the open road. In another section, the main characters are also moving from left to right, but the angle is more shifted to give readers a more 3D feeling. Also in the upper left hand corner, you can see the helicopters firing at the animals. So, this page really gives you the sense that 1, 2, and 3 are being chased.

            I also want to point out how the artist often makes the background setting kind of blurry. This effect definitely made me feel like the animals were going really fast. For example on the two-page full-page bleed where the animals are running away from the helicopters, the bunnies that are being mauled to death become blurry as 1, 2, and 3 race through them. Also, the trees are blurry on the second half of that section as the animals pass. The blurry background gives you a sense as to how fast they are going.

There were several interesting points that were brought up during the discussions of Nat Turner.

First, there was the use of outside imagery.  Someone pointed out that one of the images from before the slave revolt was actually a metal etching from the Granger Collection of Art.  It was interesting to see that Kyle Baker had chosen to use this image as the basis for his interpretation of the image of Nat Turner.  We also noticed that there were several images that were taken from actual photographs, like the pictures of houses at the tops of the pages or some of the real background images with pictures drawn over the top of them.  This may have added a sense of reality to a semi-accurate account of an actual slave revolt.

Second, there were issues of heroism throughout the course of the novel.  We discussed that Kyle Baker seemed to justify Nat Turners actions by mirroring action from the white community.  For example, a black baby was killed on the voyage to America, and one was killed during the slave revolt.  These types of actions occurred several times and were perpetrated by both whites and blacks throughout the course of the novel.  It seemed to be more of an eye-for-an-eye story rather than glorifying Nat Turner’s actions.  This is seen again at the end of the novel where Nat is lynched.  From the non-white perspective, he is shown with beams of heavenly light shining down upon him.  But from the whites’ perspective, he is seen as somewhat grotesquely hanging from the tree with no light.

Third, we had the issue of knowledge as power, or as a weapon.  As someone pointed out during their presentation, images of books and weapons were both illuminated throughout the book.  Also, as Nat Turner learns to read, he gets the idea that he is some sort of Messiah for the slaves and that he will free his people through bloodshed.  Ultimately, this leads to the slave rebellion and knowledge leads to violence.

This week I think the most intriguing thing that happened this week was the debate on whether Nat Turner could be viewed as a hero or not and in what context do we see Nat Turner as a hero or not. I think there was a lot of good discussion about it in the groups and I think that we generally came to the consensus that the story of Nat Turner, showed both heroic and unheroic attributes. While some of us agreed that being heroic meant that you were supposed to stand up for your beliefs and your values, the way that Nat incorporated his vision of fighting back was to murder many people. In the end we decided that it was more  of a gray area between naming Nat Turner a true hero due to the violence to which he inflicted on people, including others that who were not directly involved in Nat’s slavery situation, such as the children. It seemed that to Nat, the ends justified the means, but even though he did not fully realize his revolt, the institution of slavery did end later though there were a lot of backlash against slaves after the Nat Turner rebellion. However, it is more of a question of how we perceive the issue of slavery and how we feel that it should have been eradicated. We know from history that eventually slavery came to an end with the Emancipation Proclamation but it was only because of the Northerners victory from the Civil War which was the bloodiest war fought on American soil. Therefore we can see how the issue of slavery and revolt against it would be seen as a gray area in the sense of how you fight back against it. The story of Nat Turner is something that is even shaded today as some textbooks, specifically in Virginia seem to pass over or ignore the story of the rebellion. However, with the re-imagining of this history in a graphic novel, the old issues controversies still arise as to whether Nat Turner was a hero or not.