Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics

I had heard great things about Understanding Comics, but I had never gotten a chance to really sit down and read pieces of it. I've obviously always loved comics and cartoons, but I had never analyzed any type of formula on why this art form is so appealing to audiences. I thought McCloud had some very interesting points, regarding success and abstraction, some of which had come to mind before.

One of the "lessons" that really resonated with me was how a lot of successful comics have a very simplistic style, but very detailed backgrounds. I had mostly noticed this technique in anime and manga, and I had often found myself mesmerized by background paintings in some of my favorite anime shows/movies. Recently, my thesis partners and I have been addressing the backgrounds in our film and although we have very stylized characters, we decided to go with a more realistic approach. It was nice to see that technique boiled down, since it gave me a lot confidence in our decision. Hey, if Tintin can do it, we can do it too!

Understanding Comics was a very interesting read, and although I agreed with most of it, I had to disagree on his idea of the striving artist. To me, it felt like this hierarchy of dissatisfied artists was really a chart for a single artist's life. The first couple of stages could easily refer to students or entry-level professionals who are still trying to find their footing, whereas the later stages in his chart could refer to older artists or leaders in their field.

I can't wait to read more of this book later, I'm excited to hear what else he has to say!

The Arrival

Shaun Tan has an excellent sense of visual storytelling and does a really fantastic job of telling a story with no words in The Arrival. A story of immigration and travelling is extremely universal, even for people who may have lived in the same place for the majority of their lives. I’m originally from Puerto Rico, but every time my family and Iwould visit the US, I would discover something new from the everyday American life. I found the food strange and exciting and the TV channels at the hotel rooms to be more engaging and fun. I really related with the character in The Arrival, because, like him, I was experiencing this strange new world with fresh eyes.

Although the idea of experiencing a new culture sounds very fun, it can also be very scary and frustrating. I really related to the page in the comic where he is trying to interact with an immigrations officer and he doesn’t understand what the other person is saying. A couple of years back, I got lost in Italy and had to speak Spanish to some Italian officers and hope that they picked up one or two words from my hysterical cries. Shaun Tan’s drawings felt so true and powerful to me that I physically reacted to the page I was looking at. I think that’s what makes his work so successful; his ability to present a universal topic in a very relatable way. Speaking more technically, The Arrival also had very clear drawings. The artist was a very good draftsman, and was able to communicate ideas clearly; as an audience member, I never had to detach myself from the story in order to analyze what the drawings meant.

Max Urnst

A translation of Max Urnst's work:

1. Banish the chicken

2.  Healing the girl with chicken powers.

3. The girl died and chicken people are looking over.

4. Chicken people making more chicken people from the dead girl

5. Chicken people go collecting dead girls and using chicken to massacre them

6. Chicken people watching their prey

7. Chicken man is about to strike

8. Women are know aware of the chicken people race and their evil plans

9. Collecting skeletons for chicken overlord

10. The chicken massacre, they raided a train full of young women

11. Converting the new victims into chicken

12. Chicken feeding on people and torturing young girls

13. The girls go up in arms one defending the humans and one defending the chicken race.

14. The girls are killing themselves in order to avoid becoming part of the chickens

15. So are the chicken men. Or is it a staged suicide?

16. Chicken race has taken over France. The humans have lost their battle. Viva la chicken.