Author Archives: Jessie Way

Respondants: Rating Books This Semester

1. Fun Home
I really enjoyed Fun Home. I was having a bad day and read it all in one sitting, and it was both engaging and thoughtful. I thought the end was really quite beautiful… it was a bit of a kicker somehow. Mostly, though, I think the narrative kept me on my feet. It was never dull or expected, and it used both the images and the words to full capacity.

2. The Dark Knight Returns
I think I liked the Dark Knight because it was the most obvious of the comic books on the list, and it still wasn’t what I expected. The art was engaging and the story teetering between comic silliness and disturbing psychological reality. There is also something really fun about reading Batman with such seriousness.

3. Maus
This is not the first time I read Maus, but I enjoyed it much more this time. I think it was a matter of working on the presentation for a few pages making me look harder at everything. The story is amazing, but the relationships are what are most engaging more me.

4. The Watchmen
Another one I’ve read before. Liked it then, like it now. There was a lot I gained from the class that I really didn’t know going into it either. It seems like a comic book for people who read comic books, and I appreciated the perspective I gained this time.

5. Uzumaki
I really liked the artwork in this. It was both creepy and attractive, though the story loses steam as it progresses, I think. It’s strange reading something that doesn’t end, but what’s there is interesting.

6. American Born Chinese
I’d call ABC cute, and not much else. It was a quick, easy read, but there was nothing really lasting about it, I don’t think.

7. Jimmy Corrigan
I don’t think I hated this book with the seething passion of most people, but it was a bit of a chore to fight through. I did have pity for Jimmy, though, and hope against hope that someday he’ll get his shit together. The diagrams and things are neat, though the book itself drove me a little nuts at times.

8. Persepolis
Read this before. Found it boring then too. I think the beginning when she is a kid is kinda charming, but it loses that as it goes on and just becomes something of a struggle to get through. It loses its spirit as Marjane does, I think.

9. In My Darkest Hour
Confusing, gross, confusing a little bit more… I appreciate the work that went into it, but ick.

Searchers: Fun Home

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/bechdel/

I thought there was lots of good stuff here. Some of it just explains why the book was written and that sort of thing, but the interview is interesting and the comments from other writers at the top is charming.

Just a nice read, I thought

Response: About the Monkey King

I found it interesting that so many of the responses to American Born Chinese were related to the Monkey King, and I have to wonder why. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the Monkey King story, but it didn’t attract my attention the way it did so many. For me the best part of that arc was easily the end, when he discover his disguise and how he used his story to influence Jin.

Still, the question is worth asking… why were so many readers drawn to the Monkey King moreso than Jin? He is certainly more fantastical (Monkey King vs. awkward high schooler is a pretty easy win for him, I’d say) which is more expected of the graphic novels on some level, especially after something totally different like Jimmy Corrigan. Still, that couldn’t be all there was to the appeal. There was certainly a sense of humor than came along with that story, and to some degree the Monkey King himself was also more likable than the awkward teens we deal with through the rest of the story. Even though he is making a similar mistake, he’s an ass-kicking monkey making an allegorical mistake rather than the more realistic struggles we see from Jin. Compared to the perceived lack of backbone from Jin, I can see how this is a relief for some.

It’s also interesting that so many of the responders recognized him from elsewhere. This familiarity may have also had something to do with why he garnered as much interest as he did comparatively: he was a flashback.

All that said, personally? I liked Jin’s story better, but that was just me.

Response to John’s Question

First reader John Yi asked at the end of his post if we really liked Jin in American Born Chinese. I decided to respond because it wasn’t a question I’d considered all that closely while reading.

Simply put, for me the answer is yes. I understand your complaint that he seems to be moving backwards or nowhere at all during the book, but I think it’s important to remember that the end isn’t really the end. This is a story of a young man. At the end even if he got nowhere it doesn’t mean he has nowhere to go.

Besides that, he’s a funny kid. Even if his lack of self-confidence is frustrating at times, he is likable. He definitely has redeeming characteristics that are worth at least some amount of merit.

Chin-Kee, on the other hand, does provide a problem. No one in that story is remotely likable. You feel bad for Chin-Kee to some degree just because he is such a terrible stereotype, but he is also supremely unlikable. Danny is certainly no better, either. He lacks any notable personality, and spends most of his time being embarrassed and/or horrified by his cousin. The whole story line is mostly just uncomfortable to read, and I agree with you there.

Searchers: Children of Holocaust Survivors

When I went to look for something to share regarding Maus, the first thing I typed into the search box on Yahoo was “children of Holocaust survivors” because, to me, one of the most interesting things about Maus is how much the events he is writing about have shaped Art’s life. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was something that had been studied and quantified, or if it was just a general idea.

The link I came up with is research on that exact thing.

http://www.aaets.org/arts/art96.htm

It seems that many of the problems Holocaust survivors face–PTSD, depression, etc–are also found in their children. I thought this was particularly interesting in regards to the mental breakdown we know that Spiegelman had in his early adulthood. It tries to explain why this may be as well, exploring the relationship between Holocaust survivors and their children and how they tend to differ from the control group.

All in all, it adds a pretty interesting dimension to the reading of Maus from a psychological standpoint.

First Readers: Regarding The Comedian

Reading through Chapter Nine, I found myself particularly interested in the developments of the Comedian as a character. Since it is his death that starts the book and his image (the smiling pin) that graces the cover, we know right off the bat that he’s obviously of paramount importance to the story, though he is dead in the comic’s active plotline–a fact that is mostly negated by the prevalence of flashbacks throughout the book anyway. Chapter Nine, however, reveals a side of him you haven’t gotten to see before this point.

Early in Watchmen we encounter Edward Blake as a symbol of a lot of the things that are frightening about superheroes: a power-hungry, forced-based individual with little qualms doing things that make him seem far more like a super villain than a hero. Now, though, we get a chance to see another side of him. He’s capable of what appears to be at least rudimentary fondness towards his daughter, and even perhaps the woman he tried to rape earlier in the story. His repeating of the “you’re beautiful… like your mother” line gives the sense that he holds Sally in some regard still, though their actual interactions are always rough in the books. Sally herself defends him some to her husband, saying that he was capable of gentleness towards her.

Edward Blake is not a sympathetic character. His insistence that he tried to rape a woman “only once” cements this again in the moment you might be tempted to waver a little and forget his horrific crimes. He is, however, a complicated one and an interesting one, striking a chord of reality that is a bit disconcerting. There are levels to him that his chapter makes you explore that make him less comfortable to hate him, and that just goes along with the genuine theme in Watchmen of nothing being entirely black and white… as much as Rorschach may see otherwise.

Respondents: Elaborating on Charlton and Watchmen

The idea that the Watchmen were very nearly existing characters (from Charleston comics, which I admittedly know nothing about) makes be wonder if it would have even been possible to tell this story with recognizable faces. If you took Rorschach and made him Batman, and took Dr. Manhattan and made him Superman, etc, could you get the same effect? My gut reaction is no. As Alex said, by creating characters from scratch he was allowed to make them exactly as needed. Still, the question is why? Why is it so vital to the success of the story that these characters being new and unknown and made exactly the way they are?

Again, I’ll take Rorschach (who, interestingly, seems to easily be the character people latch onto the most. I wonder why?) as a sample. Why does he work here when a Batman wouldn’t? Both are capable of cruelties, and you could argue that there is nothing Rorschach does that isn’t outside of Batman’s obsessive personality. The problem as I see it is a simple one: Batman is Batman. We expect certain things from him. He is, no matter how he’s written, already a protagonist simply for being who he is. Rorschach, on the other hand, is intriguing but also mildly horrifying. It’s hard not to he wary of him, as we don’t know exactly how far. While Batman could easily play the same role, that feeling of wary uncertain would likely be absent.

That sense of uncertainty is key to the telling of the story because without it the questions Moore raises about the moral ramifications of superheroes don’t hold the same punch. We need to feel the same unease with these characters as society in the book does, and this is much better accomplished by using new characters instead of recycled ones.