Whatever happened to the man of tomarrow: assesment

1. Whatever happened to the man of tommarrow was a telling of the ultimate tradgdies in the superman universe. the what happened if pretty much most of the lives of both superman and clark kent came crashing together in a terrible cataclism. if it really wanted to end the entire telling of the great hero superman. it could have done just that everything was tied up in such a neat ending with just the right hints of mystery and intrigue that if there were to be something after that than it could pick up where it left off but if there wasn't there would be a pretty satisfying ending for most.

2. the element of tradgy and surprise were to enrapturing elements that the story pulled on pretty hard. suprise being that of just how deep and dark was this story going to discend before it was going to come up for air. tradgy being an tie in to that as well seeing as the more the story went on the more toxic and agnsty it seem to get with superman suffering one tradgy after the next.

3. I would adapt it into a small independent animation probably it seems the type of story that could benefit from a a particular style of animation. probably something similar to the hellboy animated films which had a pretty angular style. not that silver age comics are ugly I just don't see them as being very maluable when it comes to the expressions they put forth. as for what changes I could make probably make the note of superman crying or being in a depressive state alot more vocal. superman showing negative emotion of being down troden makes him that more fleshed out of a super hero making things he does to the cost of him self or others stand out all the more.

How to draw

there is nothing I hate more than how to draw (comic style) books. not to say there isn't anything you can't gleam from them when it comes to instructions on basic fundamentals of art. how ever most comics/manga/ whatever you want books are usually for drawing a certain style a certain way and sometimes not even drawing it very well.

say what you want about personal prefernece but there are something that can't be defended by that and the disreguard for visual fundamentals is one of them. don't get me wrong I've seen art styles and comics that are ugly and don't look very good, some of the animators of today make note of that (take for instance John r dilworth) 

for all intents and purposes not exactly an appealing style but still there complication and understanding of some form of structure and visual sophistifaction. most how to draw books to me play off the juvinile need to improve and believing that books or something you can buy will help you improve upon you art. 

Perry bible almanac

these are the types of comics that are circulated around the internet for a number of reason. some for the sheer rediculousness of the materials and others for just how dark humored they can be. all done in a minimalist style that is very telling of the new age. infact I'm pretty sure I've seen a number of comic artist follow after this style of story telling. setting up to be your average comic panel only to pan out with a terriable narrative

 

the sort of simple reason for them being funny in the first place is that there so terrible that it's almost a panic response that we can't help but laugh. 

or they could just be funny because there pretty well written jokes as well. 

Hellboy

hellboy has always been a favorite of mine, from a more graphic art style to the fact that it plays around with mythology from various different cultural background. to it's protagonist who is morally pretty straight but realistically so Hellboy is such a good time to read. on many levels Hellboy knows it's a comic and thus has no qualms with being absolutely rediculous at times and playing into the culture of hidden societies and conspiracies.



hellboy is one to almost always poke jabs at conspiracy culture and how ludacris something like. the son of a hellish demon fighting the creator of the third reich is. (just about as silly as anything that happens in comics).

the addition of hell boy savage dragon is no different.

with a conpiracy of the visage circle having done something or another with the brain of hitler once again comics have no qualms with playing around with comedic and serious narrative.

Ice haven

A lot of these comic are very hard to place. even within the confines of contempary literature. they are weird, very deep thinking, strangely written and explorative with their construction. some of the comics are throw backs, calling back to different styles and story practices that are decades removed from the times they were written.

 

Eightball is another comic that seeks to be anything but escapist entertainment. the narrative is disjointed by not be accident. the style is constructively appauling with a style thats nostalgic but also very much so made for a new age. not making fun of a certain style in particular more so calling attention to themes and practices within the confines of it's narrative. 

I honestly can't say weather I like it or not? while I don't hate it I don't find my self going out of my way to read it but I also find my self wanting to know more about the story i'm reading. 

Astro boy and the start of manga

while Japanese comic books have been around for quite a while just like with western animation there was a start to where things for complicated case in point Astro boy and his creator Osamu Tesuka. the father of modern magna and the start of the only sizeable competitor to western comics.

Astro boy is the atomic punk story of a robot boy by the name of Astro (or the Mighty atom). made of circuits an machinery but with the soul of a human boy he is the union of everything humanity has to offer and more.

created in the image of a scientists son astroboy is the embodiment of the hope for tommarrow, a attitude that with the creator raised in post world war two japan, an audience was very much so in need of viewing. even with that being the case astro boy has an extraordinary appeal that spans widely across many different cultures.

even with american audience the comics of Osamu seem to both appeal and inspire with later words such as My life as a teenage robot or whatever happened to robot jones.

Amarillo an exploration in to human story telling

One of the biggest things comics has taught me is how to tell a story. in particular how to tell a story about humanity and people with out actually using humanity or people in it, by putting things and concepts into different settings your able to play around with the narrative it self.

Case in point Amarillo while the choice of the animal actors might be something of a personal tough to the art medium. simply the artist wanting it to be there for the sake of wanting it to be there. that isn't always the case.

take for the case Maus, while it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the narrative it self the power level of cats vs mice with other animals looking on in terror of this internal struggle. it's an intergrle part of making a statement between the intereactions of these different factions.

In amarillo it seems to be something of an abstract, nothing to really do with the narrative but more or less using it as a point to abstract their narrative. the story becomes less about how people look or what they are and more about the interactions between each other.

Amarillo does the same with it's narrative being told via the characters interactions rather than their outward perception of eachother. now some of the characterisation is some what revealed as one reads more into the comics. certain animals affect aspects of each characters personality. the feline characters have a level of regality to them, the hyena character is somewhat jovial 

March another hard hitting and low blowing member of the autobiblography graphic novels.

Just like Maus March is nothing to sneeze at when it came to the media and storyline it portrayed. one of once again the racial prejudice of others and the transition from a life of one kind of grief to another. it was pretty intense seeing the feelings and emotion of the narrator play out as he talked about his transition into a man and the person he become today thanks to his trials and tribulation \

Maus

Maus is a graphic novel that I have yet to shake it comes to "graphic novels that keep popping up in my life"

Maus the graphic novel of the transcription of a man's fathers time in the confines of world war 2 europe is shaking to say the least. I first read maus when I was about 12 or 13 far before I was suppose to learn about world war 2 in school but seeing as comics are written off as childrens media for having pictures in it. it was somehow in the library and me being the ever curious child I was picked it up and asbolutely drowned in the test. I wasn't even sure what I was reading at first but the further I got into it the more I was enraptured by the realistic tale of suffering and life lost. I was maybe able to get through it alot better than I was say Anne frank's dairy just because I knew there was some kind of happy ending to it. although the main protagonist in maus was force to enfure horrific torture at the hands of the third reich he still managed to end up alive enough to sire a new life in america.

a graphic novel is the perfect blend of visual and physical narrative as your imagination is left to the numb choice of filling in the blanks. instead it's given the visual of suffering and expression that comes with a storyline such as this

Underground comics

Underground comics have always bee a subject of intense debate (as far as there reception in popular media)

comics about everything from sexual perversion to deep fatalistic dread. they stand as a complete outlier of what can and can be done with comics. under ground comics are what video games are to 3D media as in, they serve to show what's exceptable in art form and what isnt'. and even when it is unacceptable how it can be made into something that isn't just a grotesque display of "just because you can doesn't mean you should"

the comic "Gay comix" was the text I choose this week, one that was written by and about the life in times of gay people in america. it's not some particularly hedonistic display of balls to the walls sex most of the comics. it's done with poise and a lot of humor that doesn't come at the coast of the social group it's portraying. alot of the comic is about them being gay but it's also not. not all of it is a joke it's the story of different peoples lives and how their LGBTQ'ness has affected their lives.

Blankets

blankets is a coming-of-age autobiography, the book tells the story of Thompson's childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood. The book was widely acclaimed, with Time magazine ranking it #1 in its 2003 Best Comics list, and #8 in its Best Comics of the Decade. Blankets is a step into the emergence of the graphic novel which is if it isn't clear enough by the name very different from juts your average comic book. 

comic books are written with a balance of words and actions but with a bit more focus on visuals and more simplistic concepts, graphic novels however are a complete step into the world of sequential art. playing around with panel structure and speech bubbles they become far more complicated in both art and story as they take on more of a bite of substance than just Comic books. Blanket takes this on in spades as the panels inside are very expressive of a far more illustrative style not stuck within the confines of panel structure and page limit but allowed to explore it self as an artistic medium. 

Super hero comics and more

Superhero comics are in a way the way we have most of the modern comics industry. finally a  mid ground of causal and intense story telling it a fair union of relaxed and intense plot points with action and intrigue but also comedy and general laxness to confrontation

In general comics around this time seem to be focusing more on the syndication of a general character rather than the more exploration indie comics. the industry was building it self as a business and comics like tales from the crypt, superman, and the disney comics show just that

 1970's comics are pretty iconic in their art style. there doesn't seem to be a very large middle ground of realistic versus a few abstract/cartoon style. so you've got comics like the peanuts where mostly everybody is made of a few simple shapes and than you have something like prince valient or flash gordon or dick tracy where everything's pretty realistic despite a few artistic choices here and there. the story telling differs greatly from each other as well.

peanuts tends to be very episodic with simple punch lines and jokes so there style lends to there need to an easy storyline



meanwhile a comic like dick tracy had over arching comic elements that  could last an entire issue. overall I appreicate both types of comic for there diversity in delivery and story.

Understanding comics has always been a point of contention for myself.

the comic on comics it self is a pretty down and grit commentary and instructional on the construction of comics them selves. it gives the information it self in various visual examples of how writers have been building comics since the media it self arose. it's pretty masterful in it's attempt to boil down the information it needs into a couple of panels per concept. my contention usually come with how western-centric the concepts of storytelling gets. that and how it tends to get pretty narrow minded when it comes to the concepts of comics in general.

Frank in the river

Wordless comics

the comic I chose to read this week was 'Frank in the river'

the comic in question is very surrealist in both it's art style execution and story telling. it goes deeper than just your average tale of some sort of woodland creature going about doing odd jobs. as seen by the fact the beaver goes from simple cleaning this temple of sorts to murdering a small group of terrifying animals. And this isn't your average every day cartoon violence it is very clear that the protagonist in question is hurting and extinguishing the life from these supposidly maleviolent creature. to all of the way of the beaver creating a small army of him self through the magical dwellings of some oddly cryptic barrel of water.