Author Archives: Sherell

First Reader: Strangeness of In My Darkest Hour

This was such a strange read for me. I had to read it twice to understand what was going on. Everything from the characters to the illustration is so different, but at the same time, it all felt very realistic. The coloring of the panels in the beginning against the similar color of the illustration was harsh on my eyes, but I could see the simplicity of the brush strokes Santiago uses in the illustrations. The other thing that struck me about the art style was the way some things like signs, logos, or magazines that are widely recognized are much clearer than the surrounding illustration as if they were shrunk into the frame instead of drawn.

The character Omar seems so miserable throughout the book. He hates his job and doesn’t see it helping him get anywhere. He’s terrified to commit to a career path that will get him away from his job like culinary school or art classes. I think that commitment problem also extends to his relationship with his girlfriend Lucinda. Even though they’ve been together for two years, he continues to flirt with other women and downplay his relationship. His drug and alcohol consumption seems to be the only thing that makes him happy. It seems like he only uses to help ease his depression for short periods of time. I found myself waiting for Omar to come to some tragic end since he seemed to going in this downward spiral for most of the book, but I was happy that didn’t turn out to be the case. Omar’s inner monologue added to the realistic feel of the novel as a whole. His musings have a philosophical tinge to them, very contemplative about the world and people and why things happen the way that they do and what it all means. He tries to make sense of the world as if he thinks it’ll help him make sense of his own life and figure out who he is. It makes me wonder what happened in his life that we don’t see in the novel that got him to this point. I know people like Omar who have reached that crisis in their lives where they are unsure about what direction they want their life to go in and end up at a standstill trying to make sense of it all and failing. I think that realization helped me in my attempt to understand the story better on the second read.

The last thing that grabbed me while reading were the random letters and blurred images thrown together on some of the pages. I thought back to when we read Jimmy Corrigan and thought maybe these were supposed to be glimpses into Omar’s skewed idea of reality like how we saw Jimmy’s dreams. I was most curious about the references and images to Christianity splashed in the novel. I wondered if he had a religious upbringing and strayed from his faith and now that he’s lost, the references are his mind’s attempt to get back there in the hopes that it’ll help him.

Respondent: The Return

I agree overrall with cbrownv that Marji’s grown a lot. Her experiences in Austria definitely helped that happen. She tried to fit in in a country that was mostly foreign to her and adopted a new family of sorts in her efforts to figure out who she is. She fell in love and had her heartbroken and then lived on the streets for a few months. She matured because of those experiences and returned home to Iran to finish what she started in Austria. I think her going home was a clear indicator that she realized that she had to make sense of who she used to be before she could figure out who she’s becoming so that she could recognize the difference between the two. She seemed so unwilling to believe that she had changed, that she wasn’t the prophet-aspiring Marji who had all these beliefs. I think she really wanted to believe she was still the same girl and she was taking a detour for the moment and could easily go back to who she was. It wasn’t until she went back home that she understood that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I think we see Marji grow even more in this particular chapter because she is now looking at her origins through more realistic lenses.

She’s looking at the world through an adult lense at this stage in her life, not “realistic”. I only say adult instead of realistic because I think Marji saw the world in a way that was realistic to her at that age. Her innocence lead her to view the events happening around her in that sheltered way that children do. In this chapter, her perspective about the events of her childhood and the state of her country then and now have definitely shifted.

When she finally arrives home she is more reserved and quieter in her approach towards her parents as well as speaking about current topics in Iran.

I thought a lot of her subdued behavior could have been due to her feeling ashamed that she wasn’t as involved in her culture as she used to be. On page 193, she talks about how she was distancing herself from her culture because she was trying so hard to fit in her with new friends. In the lower panel, she mentions that speaking to her parents reminded her of her cowardice and betrayal. That part of the book was the first indication I picked up on about the identity crisis she eventually developed. It was easier for her to be outspoken about what was happening around her in Iran because she knew what she was talking about. She was much more informed before she went to Austria, but after she stopped following TV reports about the situation and had less discussions about it with her parents, the less she had to say about it. When she returned home, I felt that the change in behavior was fitting.

Searcher: Yang and His Life Experiences in American Born Chinese

I stumbled upon this photo gallery during my research for this assignment. Because it’s presented in a photo gallery, I thought it was a much more interactive way to learn more about American Born Chinese. The questions and answers are from an interview with Gene Yang done by America.gov. It won’t let me embed, but if the link doesn’t work, it can be found at:

http://www.america.gov/multimedia/photogallery.html#/4110/gene_yang/

I particularly enjoyed learning more about Yang’s background, which I was curious about after he mentioned in that youtube interview Laura posted that he drew from his own life experiences when creating the stories. I thought his website Humble Comics would have offered enough insight, but I think the questions asked and his responses are interesting. He mentions specific instances in his childhood that inspired parts of the novel and the role religion played, a point Moriah brought up in a First Reader post. Yang also offers his view on modern culture and the impact he thinks it has on the Asian-American community. Towards the end of the gallery, he talks about comics as a medium for self-expression.

First Reader – Maus II: Art’s Relationship with his Parents

In the second book of Maus, we as readers get to explore more of Art’s strained relationship with his father. As miraculous and interesting Vladek’s story in Auschwitz is, so many of my questions about the reading revolve around Art’s relationship with his parents. Early in chapter one on page 14, Art says he’d choose to save his mom from the ovens if he had to choose between his parents. I think this speaks volumes about his relationship with both of his parents.

Respondents: Do you think Art’s decision stems from regret over not having a stronger relationship with his mother before she committed suicide or out of disdain for his father?

I found it interesting that Vladek chose to lie about having a heart attack in order to get Art to come see him rather than flat out telling him that Mala left. Art’s behavior towards his father has made little secret of his feelings towards him (as evidenced in the first book) and Vladek’s acknowledgement of those feelings is really evident in this act of lying. In Vladek, I see the same desire for affection and companionship in his behavior that I saw in my grandparents and sometimes see in my parents. Knowing his time on earth is shorter as his health deteriorates and the years go on, Vladek desire to spend the last of it with Art, the person that matters the most to him, grows immensely. Throughout Art and Francoise’s visit, Vladek drops hints about them staying longer or him moving in with them, but Art is insistent that neither will happen.

Respondents: Do you think Art doesn’t want the responsibility of caring for his father because he feels guilty about the way he treats him?

On page 22, Francoise suggests to Art that Vladek’s experience in Auschwitz is the reason for his anxious behavior. Art’s answer of “maybe” and explaining his father’s not like any of the other survivors makes me wonder why Art is so unsympathetic to his father’s past and how it’s affected him. Later on page 46, Art expresses his hesitance to draw Aushwitz to his shrink and I wondered if it was because he was afraid of it bringing him closer to his parents and their experience, specifically his father.

Respondents: Why do you think Art feels so hesistant to draw Aushwitz? I think it’s possible that he would not be able to blame his father for his feelings of inadequacy compared to Vladek and his brother Richieu if he understood his father’s perspective.

Respondents: Thoughts on Vladek and His Accent

Nathalie Asked–Respondents: What do you think of the usage of dialect? Is Vladek the only one to speak in accented English? Is it effective? Confusing? Offensive?

I, for one, am a huge fan of Spiegelman’s usage of dialect in Maus.  Mostly it’s because of how it helps me to immerse myself even further in the story being told. Usually when reading literature where accented dialects are heavily featured, the reader must imagine the story since the information is consumed through words. Maus, in its comic form, gives you a visual to accompany the words. For me, the accented English provides a distinct voice to the narrative and completes the picture. The dialect is an expression of Vladek’s Jewish heritage and that helps to make the story that much more realistic. It’s a constant reminder to me that we’re relearning about the Holocaust through a survivor’s eyes.

The difference in speech also helps distinguish between the present and past at times while reading. We bounce back and forth between the two throughout Maus and just like the change in the shape of a bubble or frame helps to signal to the reader whether it’s a thought or speech, I think Vladek’s accented English pulls you back to the present with Art and away from the story’s setting in the past without being too huge of a distraction. As far as I can tell from what we’ve read so far, Vladek is the only one who speaks in accented English. When Art talks with Mala on pages 92 and 93 after Vladek goes to rest, they are in the present, but her English isn’t accented despite her being a survivor as well. Though we clearly know which character is speaking because we can tell by looking at the illustrations, if one was to erase the bodies of the Art, Vladek, and Mala and leave only the speech bubbles, it would be easiest to figure out which one was Vladek due to his accented speech. I find that especially interesting since, like we discussed in class, the characters all look fairly interchangeable due to the vagueness of their illustration.

Methods of Coloring Comics

 After reading chapter eight in Understanding Comics and knowing the visual assault of color I was facing with Watchmen after having read it a few times, I thought color in comics would be a good topic to find a resource on to share with everyone. In my search, I came across this article in a blog post titled Make It Loud: Comics Color, Kevin Nowlan, and Cosmic Depth by blogger Frank Santoro in Color Comics Issue #2. It was posted on the blog for Comics Comics Mag just over a year ago. Like McCloud in chapter eight, the article discusses the three additive primary colors used in comics, red, blue, and green, but the article elaborates further by addressing the process in more detail. Santoro interviews comic artist Kevin Nowlan, who points out some interesting differences between the older methods of coloring comics by hand and the mainstream methods of today such as using programs like Adobe Photoshop. I had a better understanding of the press and plates operation involved in coloring comics and the job of a colorist and a separator from the article and thought it tied in nicely with the reading for Tuesday.