Respondents-Favorites

So, like others before me, I will elect to do the favorites things. Here it goes, ranked from favorite to least:

1) Watchmen- Had to put this as number one, just a life long favorite of mine. I Just love how it flips our perception of the ‘super hero’ around in a very intelligent and deliberate way.

2) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns- Anything Frank Miller deserves to be near the top of any list. I just loved the brutality this was drawn in and what it brought to the Batman franchise. The story of the aging vigilante battling his inner demons, a sensational use of color, and a splash of Joker = awesome.

3)Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest Kid on Earth- What brought a lot of people to dislike this novel is what made me love it. Sure, it was a tad difficult to read, but for me, being that way made me read this a lot closer and get more out of it. There was such awkwardness and despair in this story and I found it fascinating. Believe it or not, I actually felt a small connection with Jimmy (odd, I know).

4) Uzumaki- I’m not a huge fan of manga, but this story was just chilling. There was tons of symbolism here that made it so much more than just your typical horror novel. Loved the grotesque obsession with spirals, which in turn kind of made me rethink my perception of spirals.

5)Maus- I thought the retelling of this horrific time with mice, cats, pigs and dogs was brilliant and I can understand why this won so much critical acclaim. The theme of family history and trials one much make to keep that together was moving. The simple artwork said a lot without a lot of detail.

6) In My Darkest Hour- Maybe something is wrong with me, but I didn’t find this as disturbing as everyone else thought. I just found the main character and his struggles annoying. I do though, find the artwork stunning.

7)Persepolis- Much like Maus, I though the simplistic artwork/drawing said a lot without extreme mastership/detail. It was really interesting to see a young girl’s journey to adulthood in lieu of a country exploding from within. Not really what I go for in a graphic novel though.

8)Fun Home- I feel like this story got lost in its own narrative. There was just so many references to books I’ve never read that I was thoroughly confused at some parts. After analyzing this front to back for my presentation I quickly got sick of it. Still, the drawing is extremely detailed with little use of color (One of its few attractive qualities)

9) American Born Chinese- Being at the bottom doesn’t make it a terrible graphic novel, it just really wasn’t my thing. I found it boring, too short and sort of childish. There were a few bright spots though, I Liked the bright coloring and thought the main character’s struggle with his own race was interesting. Still, I intend on selling my copy of this somehow.