So, I totally wasn’t going to write a favorite’s list… but I feel that I must defend the honor of IMDH.  Plus, I’m unoriginal.

1 – In My Darkest Hour – Where do I begin?  Omar is the perfect main character, because we love to hate him so much, and in the end, at least for me, we’re glad to see that some progress might be being made toward his redemption.  I guess the sheer morbidity of the book speaks to me, the futile struggles against attackers that are both readily apparent and not, but there’s also an aspect of karma inherent to Omar.  I have to stop before this entire post is consumed by my gushing for this novel.

2 – Jimmy Corrigan – Chandra you’re not alone.  The poetry that exists in Jimmy Corrigan isn’t always elegant, sometimes it’s not even beautiful, but it’s still powerful.  The impotency of the wordless panels coupled with the scripted beauty of those poetic moments forms an extremely evocative duality.  Besides, that page delineating the relation between Jimmy and his sis is the definition of Graphic Novel.

3 – Fun Home – I’m not quite sure why I feel so connected to Fun Home… maybe for its honesty and its quirky humor.  It obviously offers incredible insights on family life and relationships, but I find it extremely more interesting what Prof. Sample noted in class:  even after reading the novel we get little to no sense of Bechdel’s real personality.  Instead we get the iconographic persona… her struggles seem more real to me because of that, I suppose.

 4 – DKR – I never really appreciated Batman, this book remedied that.  I guess I felt that in other instances, Batman was more superhuman than human, and here I feel that that balance is shifted, and it makes him more relatable to me, as a non-superhero.  Hmm… there’s some sort of uncanny valley-esque relationship here, but I can’t quite grasp it.

 5 – American Born Chinese – The Monkey King.  If this novel were more devoted to a Journey West, and then related to a modern context, it would probably be at the top of this list … well, maybe second.  The Monkey King as a character is extremely intriguing, and how his rebellion shaped his destiny is extremely inspiring.  Also the art is nostalgic for me… and the deception inherent within this simply packaged comic that packs such a complex message is wonderful.

 6 – Maus – The juxtaposition of Art’s relationship to his father and his father’s own struggle makes this immediately more relatable than any other Holocaust story.  It’s a huge gap to bridge for me to imagine what it may have been like to survive the Holocaust, but reading about Art surviving the survivor makes it much more plausible and real.

 7 – Watchmen – The only character I identify with is Rorschach, which I imagine to be typical but I could be wrong.  To be honest, I’m surprised I didn’t like this more – to me, Nite Owl’s impotent paralysis is not as real as Omar’s, or as endearing as Jimmy’s.  Dr. Manhattan and the Silk Spectre are cowards, not to mention her naiveté, and Ozy is a megalomaniacal ass who takes the easy way out.  Rorschach may be paranoid and fighting a losing battle, but at least he fights.  And the alien ending… really?!

 8 – Persepolis – I liked Satrapi better when she was a child who just naturally assumed she was God’s Chosen.  The rebellion of Bechdel and the Monkey King are here and the strength and humanity of Batman… but I never felt as connected.

 9 – Uzumaki – Just not a fan of horror in general… more terrifying to me is the dystopia of Watchmen and Ozy’s ultimatum, or Omar’s paralysis and his inability to master himself.  IMDH is truly terrifying because we see the grotesque depths of a human soul, whereas Uzumaki seems more about the spectacle of those depths.  How to describe it… where Uzumaki is a haunted house, a façade of fear, IMDH is walking alone in the dark as a child – the real terror that resides constantly in the human heart and mind.

Pages 41-47 of Book 2, Chapter 2 have undeniably been my favorite pages of this story thus far.  As noted in my Response blurb last week, and echoed in some of my classmate’s writings, as well as in Maus, the Holocaust is nearly intangible to us, almost like a legend or old wives’ tale to conjure bad dreams and keep us on the straight and narrow.  The simplistic art and the fact that Maus is a memoir, I think, helps to ground the events in a more modern, or maybe relevant, to us, setting, and allow me to relate better to the story, not through Vladek, but through Art (ironic wordplay unintentional and inevitable, but nonetheless salient).

 The frames containing Art being bombarded by reporters and businessmen, etc., capture the ‘surviving’ from Art’s point of view and how different and insignificant that survival may be in comparison.  Here, Art is tackling the realization that whatever he accomplishes immediately means less in comparison to the legacy of those who came before him.  The frame at the bottom of page 41 is extremely potent, and I would use the word ‘favorite’, but that would be far too extremely morbid.  My ‘favorite’ panels aside from that one, however, occur on the next page, where we witness Art’s transformation in to a child, and his subsequent meeting with the shrink.

 Okay, a few more ‘favorites’:  page 45, the last three panels.  Great quote, even greater counterpoint.

Pages 41-47 of Book 2, Chapter 2 have undeniably been my favorite pages of this story thus far. As noted in my Response blurb last week, and echoed in some of my classmate’s writings, as well as in Maus, the Holocaust is nearly intangible to us, almost like a legend or old wives’ tale to conjure bad dreams and keep us on the straight and narrow. The simplistic art and the fact that Maus is a memoir, I think, helps to ground the events in a more modern, or maybe relevant, to us, setting, and allow me to relate better to the story, not through Vladek, but through Art (ironic wordplay unintentional and inevitable, but nonetheless salient).

The frames containing Art being bombarded by reporters and businessmen, etc., capture the ‘surviving’ from Art’s point of view and how different and insignificant that survival may be in comparison. Here, Art is tackling the realization that whatever he accomplishes immediately means less in comparison to the legacy of those who came before him. The frame at the bottom of page 41 is extremely potent, and I would use the word ‘favorite’, but that would be far too extremely morbid. My ‘favorite’ panels aside from that one, however, occur on the next page, where we witness Art’s transformation in to a child, and his subsequent meeting with the shrink.

Okay, a few more ‘favorites’: page 45, the last three panels. Great quote, even greater counterpoint.