Week 5 Contract with God

Contract with God by Will Eisner is about a man named Frimme Hersh who lives in a tenement at No.55 Dropsie Ave. in the Bronx. To be honest, I never knew really anything about Jewish culture, but I can relate the Hersh. He made a contract with God and lived his whole life being good but then has daughter died. I know its not a strong comparison but I can compare it to when you come to work every day and never late, you do everything you're supposed to do and you're up for a promotion and the person that is always late and never gets anything done on time get the promotion and you don't. It seems like the contract you made with your boss is broken, kinda like the contract that Hersh made with God was broken. I'm the kind of person that does what I've been told to do and sometimes you can see how it would be easy to react the way Hersh did.

Eisner's illustrations are powerful even though their black and white. For example, when he is coming home in the rain, I can feel the weight of his loss hanging over him and he seems to be beaten down with each raindrop. Also, the illustration of him sitting on the floor after he has put his daughter's picture away is fully of pain because he is so distraught.

I liked that they included the backstory of what happened. Anyone would be angry at God if their child died but he had a special form of hatred. The backstory really helped explain this. I can relate to what happened in a way. For example, during high school all my art teacher really like my work and would say how proud they were of the work I've done, then I get to Ringling and I realized that it didn't matter how good everyone thought I was because reality was a lot harsher.

Week 4 The Comic Book

I read Superman, Batman, and Captain America. All 3 are heroes who wear costumes and fight evil. however, Batman trained himself instead of having superpowers. All 3 use a similar format. Narration is in the yellow boxes to help connect the story. Both are filled with action but the bad guy in Batman and Captain America seem scarier than in Superman. Also, Captain America is more patriotic with lots of solders and Nazis. Superman seems to fight ordinary criminals but Batman's bad guys seem evil like the Joker. The color in Batman was the most vibrant and the images really showed action. They all showed the very first use of BLAM and WHAM. One of the funniest thing in all of them who be the ads. For example, in Superman you can order a costume just like his

Week 3 Little Nemo

Winsor McCay illustrated the series Little Nemo in Slumberland and Charles Schultz created Peanuts. These 2 comics were both about children but that's where the similarities stop. Since the story of Nemo takes place in his dreams, I love the whimsical aspect of the format. One double-page spread might be 3 columns on each page that extent for the top to the bottom. For example, he dreamed about riding an elephant and this long skinny format made the animals seem huge to little Nemo. Other pages might just have one giant image across the double spread. One image I liked was looking down at the multi-level staircase and his use of perspective gave a real sense of depth. On the other hand, Schultz's Peanuts doesn't have whimsy and is in a consistent format of 4 or 6 frames of the same size. Also, the content is completely different. Nemo is in a dream world and Peanuts is everyday life. The characters in Peanuts are like little adults and don't have the imagination as Nemo.

Week 2 Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was fun to read because it was written like a comic. However, it was difficult for someone like me to pick out the most important. As a graphic design major, the part I most enjoyed was his examples of layout. he broke it down into 6 different types. The one I found that was most interesting was scene to scene because it can take the reader through time and space. Another interesting design element is his use of B&W throughout most of the book, but when he starts talking about the use of color he injects the 3 primary colors. I must be honest, the design of the book was NOT reader-friendly. It was fun that he used a lot of different fonts and he played with kerning and leading and he loved jumping the gutter. Since it is a book about comics, it was great that he used a bunch of different artistic styles from ancient Egypt, early 1900, to today.

Week 1, The Arrival

My first impressions of the graphic novel The Arrival by Shaun Tan was that I liked the fact that there weren't words such as speech bubble or paragraphs so I could interact with the illustrations more and let them tell the story. The illustrations were outstanding and they tell the story very well. They keep on track of what they are telling and I don't get lost, plus I like the fact that the illustrations are realistic and not too cartoony or have that comic book feel to it. The artist's style is to imitate old photographs that had that brown-ish hue. I like the arrangement of the panels. For example, some pages have 1 big image, but other pages have up to 12 smaller images. I like the detail in the smaller images such as the hands holding the paper crane. But my favorite is the double-page spread with the crowd of more modern-day looking people looking out at the city skyline. However, he inserts two giant ancient figures who look like they come from a folk tale.

What really carries this story well and actually has it make scenes is the way the illustrator is conveying the emotions and the body language. For example, the despair on the man's face in the first part of the story is heartbreaking even though no words are being told what's happening, you can see it in his face. But later on, he meets a new family and his emotion starts to change for the better. The best part of all is that he makes enough money to bring his family to him. The author gives a satisfying ending when the daughter gives help to another new immigrant