Oct. 5 “Maus” by Art Spiegelman

     "Maus", I have to say brought a new perspective to my attention. This comic is so strongly simplistic in its style that it seems to appear like a children's novel but actually carries a darker meaning. The comic is a story of what once was peace leading up to sadness, loss of hope and something we should never forget that happened so long ago. It really surprised me to see that Spiegelman happened to use his own father's experience for this comic. The Mice (Jews) in the comic parallel him and his father in a way that brings some sort of invisible connection with the reader. Personally, with me, I felt a sudden connection once I realized who these characters actually were. The characters become that author and his personal life. He wants us personally to have a connection with him and what better way to create a style that catches your attention in its smooth simple strokes and pacing without even realizing this is major. "Maus" as you read along starts to become more fast-paced and etchy in its layouts as we start to get to the main focus of the comic. More black starts to cover images as the Holocaust and prison camp start to make their appearance. I started to realize this just got deeply personal. I started to feel concern, especially with learning about the Holocaust every year during high school, I felt anxious, hesitant because I knew what was coming. Intense splots of black and white suddenly became not so fun. This comic really just reminds me that this is something that should never be forgotten, yes it was dreadful, but even life's simplicities have their complexities.

Oct. 12 “Underground Comics”

      Looking through some of these comics it became sort of uncomfortable and very vulgar is some detail. The style can be very blunt in its content in trying to convey what the world is like in a negative light. Characters that are involved show a sense of not caring, no moral value, and a rude nature and personality. The title this type of genre or style is given now seems to make more sense in realization. The title "Underground Comics", referring to the word Underground, no wonder the content seems to match up with its genre. It's a genre that is so disturbing that it has to be hidden away in a place where its only "Adult" material. Occurring themes seem to appear here, such as the blunt sexual themes and sexual subjects of focus. The author puts this theme out as something he wants the audience to focus on. Mainly the audience and author do not give a crap what people think about what they see or include. Underground Comics say here it is, this is what I think, I do not care about your opinion, this is truth and this is what the world is accept it! Personally, it made me feel very uncomfortable and disgusted, but its something I can not change. The world is like this and without the negative stuff, there would not be any positive stuff. The authors of this genre throw out the truth, they do not glamorize out, they joyfully bring it out capturing the adult audience in what they find relatable. Back then this would definitely have been strongly despised. Does the author agree with these points or is he just going along with the crowd? Honestly will never know but either way, it still carries a strong sense of sad truths of this world we live in.

Sep. 28 “Mr. Natural” by Robert Crumb

     “Mr. Natural” was something I never expected to be so disturbingly true in its context. The author gives the character Mr. Natural a very crude, very blunt, and disturbing personality. His character is someone that spews many pithy observations that are sadly, and generally the truth. The things the character says is mainly to be so blunt about his opinions on the evils of the modern world and the salvation to be found in mysticism, and natural living. Even though Mr. Natural has a straight way of talking, it can get him into many amounts of trouble. The design given to him by Robert Crumb seems to be a little similar to a shepherd or a prophet in the sense. He is seen with a big white beard and long cloak. The thing that makes me feel uncomfortable is just the amount of strange sexual obsessions Mr. Natural seems to have. He is just a really strange man that frightens people with the truth making them feel dumber than some people would say they are. He refuses to abide by the world and its rules, and instead lives off anything he can get in exchange for the so called “wisdom” he tries to display. The one thing that caught me was the recurring theme in the “Mr. Natural” comic. The United States, including people like me, have a hard time trying to connect to the subjects being displayed on the pages. It comes across as “hard truths” but our minds still can not seem to wrap around the story or main point these comics are trying to convey.

Sep. 21 “A Contract with God” by Will Eisner

     Will Eisner’s work in “A Contract with God”, really focuses on the elements of frustration, fear, disillusionment and powerlessness some people face in their everyday lives. A fascinating thing is that he bases each little story off his own memories of certain individuals, even himself. Someone he barely knows he can [G1] even take and make a whole story based off what little he knows. The whole set of stories has an amazing sense of impressionistic memory. Impressionistic memory meaning memories that are based on or involve impression as distinct from expertise or fact. Eisner also seems to emphasize the urban setting, that surrounds the tenements, with very monochromatic colors. It becomes more dramatic, lonely, and the audience such as me becomes a part of the story. I begin to wander through his experiences with him and it becomes unsettling and in no doubt disturbing at some points. Each frame, I have noticed, consists of words that are put into large text and becomes part of the piece, it does not crowd the space but gives each story more emphasis. Not to mention his illustrations are vertically placed on the pages. He allows the length of the stories to develop based on their content. While the text gives more space, Eisner allows the focus to be more on facial expressions while we still get the idea of what's going on. Eisner also seems to mix melodrama with realism, that mainly derives from his personal memories growing up in the tenements in the Bronx. He prefers to keep his style of cartooning within realistic limits.[G2]   Reading theses stories I was a little uncomfortable, but it does have some truth to put into it. It is sad to actually be reading this and that is what I assume Will Eisner wants the audience to feel. None of the characters in these stories are neither good nor are they evil, they all desire certain things and they get thrown into the mud. “A Contract with God” really explains the idea that what choices we make we are still going to have consequences. If we allow it to get to use we end up hurting ourselves, and restrict ourselves from ever being happy. Will Eisner really brings that to light through these little stories.[G3] [G4] 

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