Author Archives: Lauren

Respondents — Favorite Books of the Semester

1. The Dark Knight Returns
First of all, this is my favorite not just because of the amazing dark artwork in it; but because Batman is the first character that comes to mind when I think of graphic novels (or comic books as the rest of us non-fanciful people would call them). As a kid I always wondered what would happened to superheros when they got old and if they all would end up in a superhero retirement home or if they would still be just as bad-ass fighting crime. The question has been answered by TDKR. Batman, still as kick ass as ever, starts to realize his mortality (as many middle-aged people do) and genuinely thinks of retiring. Also, I love that Catwoman is a Madame at a brothel in the book — so fitting.

2.  Persepolis
Honestly, this book was always on one of those “I’ll read it when I get around to it” kind of lists and I never got around to it. I loved the simplicity of the drawings and the lack of colors. The narrative began so strongly and it pulled at your heartstrings, but alas I was disappointed with the ending.

3.  The Watchmen
I was most familiar with this graphic novel when we started class  and by luck of the draw ended up getting to do my Pukea Mucha (joke.) presentation about it. I hated the movie, and that was the driving force behind me wanting to find out what kind of narrative could inspire such a god awful movie. Needless to say, the book’s much better.

4. Maus
After reading Maus several other times for other classes, I found this class discussion of Maus to be the most interesting. Not only did we focus on content, but we focused on the more subversive nature of the book — the art. Never before had I looked so closely at every detail in every frame. Its a heavy read but so worth it.

5. Jimmy Corrigan
Had a tough time reading this one, didn’t really like the narrative and could only relate/admire the intricate details in certain frames and pages.

6. American Born Chinese
Quick read, great moral. Simple drawings, but I couldn’t relate culturally.

7. Fun Home
I think this book would have better served itself earlier on in the semester. Its such a lush book with so many facets that placing it at the end of the semester when everyone is burnt out and stressed about so many other projects is a bad idea. Yes, there are a lot of literal references, nooks and crannies that can be explored (no pun intended), and  I would have loved to have spent more time reading into these details — save for the fact that I am inundated by multiple term papers and essay tests.

8. Uzumaki
Didn’t like this book at all. The drawings were detailed and the story was horrific but I don’t really like horror stories to begin with.

9. In My Darkest Hour
Tied with Uzumaki. I could grasp the fuzzy images and I hated the collage of different media types. I have bad eyesight to begin with and trying to focus on a blurred page gave me a headache.

First Readers: Persepolis Ending, Weak or Poignant?

Throughout the narrative of Persepolis, the reader is always moving forward. The narrative transforms and ages much like Marji does, therefore creating a unique connection between the reader and Marji. There are first hand accounts of acid trips, sexual encounters, and all-out disasters that are privvy to us and not to her parents. Perhaps returning to her homeland imprisioned her more than empowered her, but the ending of Persepolis was like an object at rest. There was a halt to movement, flow, and reason of the novel. All the while this young strong women is testing the limits and finding herself in a culturally mixed up world you would expect a stronger ending to come out of  it. All development was halted, as Marji was sent off again. I’m not expecting a happy ending with butterflies and songs, but a stronger statement could have been made. Yes, this is a memoir, and yes, that makes it inherent to Marji’s own life. But, as we discussed in class last week Marji’s life was defined by her country’s history — and a tumultuous one at that. Marji was such a  turgid teenager living in Austria that I personally expected her return to Iran to be one of political discourse, with power and uprising against what was being done to her country. Never did I expect for her to leave, especially after her parents wanted her back home so badly. This isn’t a narrow-minded rant about feminism or about revolution. It is merely a comment on a narrative, whether it be real or not.

Respondent — Leon’s “Persepolis”

Leon made a stellar point by highlighting that there are no “shades of gray” as it were in issues where gray areas may be held as opinions.

Leon says, “the black and white nature of the comics could draw a direct relation to how there are two sides to the conflict between Iraq and Iran. In the comic there is no gray area between this war, you are either for one side or another.” While I agree that the black and white drawings in the comic may often align with separate ideologies, I think that were there to be gray involved in the comic Satrapi would use it quite sparingly. She was very keen and contemplative with most lines and images she used. While patterns dominate many panels, I think that grey would detract from a lot of the strong images that Satrapi is trying to convey.  Reading Leon’s posts makes me think of many different scenes but the most interesting one is a panel we talked about while in class, the dicotomy of the two ideological women (for the veil and against the veil). The women, for the veil, were garbed in black whereas the liberated women, against the veil, were dressed in white. I don’t know what other comparisons could be made, but I’d like to see in what instances white and black is used to subversively make a point.  Another example is when Marji is in Vienna, arguably the darkest time in her life when she was utterly bewildered, she is sketched in all black, except for her face and hands. Maybe the colors, or lack thereof, are saying much more than we realize?

Searchers — Lauren J.

A couple of interesting links…

I believe that someone tweeted about Jimmy Corrigan being an activity book for adults, and I find it funny that there’s a blog called “Toy-A-Day” where there is a paper Jimmy replica. It looks like it was cut out of the zoetrope instructions from the book.

Jimmy as a paper toy.

Jimmy as a paper toy.

http://toy-a-day.blogspot.com/2008/06/day-33-jimmy-corrigan-acme-novelty.html

Also, there’s a line of Jimmy Corrigan action figures. They look a bit worried and dreary, but the likeness of Stewie is unmistakable. The “vinyl” dolls as they are called are no longer for sale on most retail websites, but is adorable and worrisome at the same time.

Finally, there’s an article speculating about the origins of the Jimmy Corrigan-esque Stewie. Ware’s quote is pretty funny, “”a little too coincidental to be simply, well, coincidental” but adds that he’ll try his best to shrug it off. ”If I let it get the better of me, I wouldn’t get any work done,” notes Ware. ”I’d just sit around and stew about it.” I imagine Ware sitting apathetically much like Jimmy, awkwardly laughing “haha.”

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,272303,00.html

Jimmy as a doll

First Respondents — Lauren J.

I have read Maus four times now. Every single time I take back a different emotion, sense, and overall opinion of the work. I agree with Pierce’s “first reader” comment that approaching Maus on the blog is intimidating, even a bit cold, because of the nature of the content. However, after reading this book in different contexts (for myself, for a history class, for English in high school, and now for graphic novel) I am still moved by the work every time. Some critics will say that Spiegelman chose to portray a horrible event such as the Holocaust through the character depictions of mice, cats, and pigs to further desensitize the event but I strongly disagree. There are certain panels of Maus that are so graphic, clearly not as graphic as the real thing, but they pull at your heartstrings nonetheless. In my previous readings of the work in addition to doing a ton of research, I have noticed that in Maus that the physical pen strokes made by Speigelman makes carry just as much emotional weight as the dialogue and images themselves. The stern, thick marks are as influential are the words. A lot of the frames appear to be overbearing with small text and images of despair but I find that the nature of the images bear the most emotional weight.

I will be interested to see how everyone else perceives the books after further discussion and a more in-depth look of the plot and text; and will be interested to see if anyone agrees with me.

Respondents: “Laurie as a “real” woman” — Lauren J.

Alyse — “I also wonder what kind of social experiment the book would have been if a woman had been thrust into Jon’s omnipotent superhero position rather than a man.”

That’s quite an interesting proposition. While I agree with you 100% about how Laurie may/may not be portrayed appropriately as a “real” woman; I think the book would have had a totally different tone with a woman as Dr. Manhattan. I think the theme would probably take a feminist spin and instead of the space time continuum and the folds of the universe being topics that plagued Dr. Manhattan’s time it would be a struggle between the affection for the Earth and sympathy for its people.

Why Dr. Manhattan’s character is such a conundrum and a headache to understand at times is mostly because his character is a man. We see him struggling with saving humanity or even caring seeing time as the definitive decider in life. Whereas a female Dr. Manhattan’s personality may be more centered around motherly topics.

I don’t think Dr. Manhattan as a woman would work for the plot or with other Watchmen characters. Even though Laurie is a handful and possesses some of the worst womanly qualities, she works in her own way. She’s inherited her mom’s fame and doesn’t like it – or maybe she does? She’s the cliché woman that can’t make up her mind, her emotions, or her relationships.

In most respects, I hate Laurie and Silk Spectre. She is easily replaceable and is needed for so little in the Watchmen. She serves to complete a point of the love triangle, but doesn’t have any other purpose.

Searchers — Frank Miller interview about The Dark Knight

We were talking in class today about  Frank Miller’s inherent cynicism/bitterness after the whole debacle with DC. This brief interview is, well, uber brief. Miller has about two quotes, and the MTV correspondent spends more time dwelling upon the flop of The Spirit rather than the genius that is The Dark Knight Returns.  Nonetheless, the snippet is about the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight and what Miller thought about it. And yes, it should have been called The Joker. But perhaps Heath Ledger’s death contributed to a lot of hype before the movie’s release. I would love to see a film version of The Dark Knight Returns under these stipulations: 1.) No Christian Bale. 2.) Frank Miller has a heavy hand in it. 3.) Elijah Wood is nowhere to be found.

Anyways, take a gander at the article here: http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/01/16/frank-miller-on-the-dark-knight-they-should-have-called-it-the-joker/