Underground Comix

Underground comix were very influenced by sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. From a distance, it's pretty obvious these guys were doing lots of dope and LSD; a lot of the work from this period was very psychedelic and trippy and usually didn't have a very interesting story or relatable characters.

I read a bit of Tits and Clits before class and got to see some Zap and Dopin' Dan in class. Tits and Clits was definitely an introduction to this genre; nothing is censored and all the stories are very sexualized (obviously). I was not a huge fan of most of this work, just because I couldn't get myself interested in the stories. But there was one story that really caught my attention and that was I Was a Sex Junkie!". This series deals with a woman who's addicted to sex and turns to drugs to get the money she needs to pay male prostitutes. Even though the story was a bit strange and not really my style, I enjoyed getting some perspective from female characters. This character treated rape and drugs like it was nothing and it certainly gave me an idea of the type of people who would go nuts for these underground comics at the time.

I thought these works, while not taken very seriously and usually considered crude, are super important to understanding the people of the era and the work that followed it. Everything came back to the Vietnam conflict and the pop culture of the time.

Will Eisner's A Contract with God

I appreciated a lot of things from Will Eisner's work, especially his draftsmanship and compositions. In A Contract with God, I enjoyed the topics and themes since they were very real and rough, in a way. My favorite story was the first one, since I felt more for the characters and was a lot more invested in his story. I also thought it had an interesting take on one's relationship with religion.

I really wanted to know how the main character's life turns out after he becomes selfish and "evil". It was interesting finding out his original motive was his daughter, though, by the time I got to that point of the story I couldn't relate much to his character. I enjoyed going through it, mostly because I appreciated his style, but often I was brought out of the story because I could very easily tell when dialogue was written to teach a lesson. These lessons were usually very on the nose and obvious, which made me disconnect with the work.

Overall I enjoyed Will Eisner's work and I'm excited to check out more of it!

Classic Comics

This week I got to read some Krazy Kat, Popeye, Popeye, and Calvin and Hobbes, amongst others that we looked over in class. I've had a connection with these comics for a long time, since they were a big part of my childhood and it was very interesting to analyze them in a different context. 

I've always thought these comics, specially Calvin and Hobbes, were always very simple but had a very complex humor and wit to them. They always have this deeper context, that at first glance just seems like just a funny gag, but in reality it really exposes even more about the time and context it was written/illustrated in. 

A lot of the comics we looked at in class were fun and interesting, and others didn't hold up as well and ended up being very dated or boring. In a lot of them the characters felt really flat and one dimensional and the stories or gags never really hit for me, even in franchises I really love like Popeye. You can always tell the time period the comics were done in because of the types of issues the characters had or how far the racism and sexism went. I did notice something very interesting when i was looking through a lot of the comics. I noticed that none of the female characters were very strong or had any purpose to the story. Most of these girls, like Polly and her pals, weren't very engaging to read about. The only woman I was entertained by was Olive; which I found really surprising. I guess it's mostly because she's a working class woman, and no rules apply there! I'm glad this made it character trait made it all the way to the animated series! I think it's the main reason she still survives as a very successful character.