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Understanding Comics Ch. 1-2 & Comic Book Nation Ch.1

To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics.

In Comic Book Nation, I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies" and strangely-themed "pulp" works into more sophisticated and accessible forms. It was also very interesting to find out about how Superman (and later Batman and other heroes) shaped comics from then on and became a champion both of the common man and anyone experiencing oppression.

Comments

Aubrey said…
I liked the fact that the book "Understanding Comics", was in fact entitled that. Before I even started to read it I felt that I knew what I was getting myself into and was glad there was this book to help me understand comics since I am not a reader of them. The way that the writer/artist of this "Understanding Comics" comic, explained what exactly a comic was made up of and how there are many ways to read, view and interpret them was easy to comprehend and I enjoyed the humor that they used.
January 18, 2008 at 8:22 AM
Aubrey said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 18, 2008 at 8:29 AM
Aubrey said…
Reading the book "Comic Book Nation" was not as easy as the "Understanding Comics" comic. There was a lot of information thrown out in these thirty pages. For someone who is only familiar with a few of the comics made into movies, it was difficult to retain a lot that was said in this first chapter. Given that a lot of the information in these pages was interesting I wasn't able to enjoy and absorb it because as soon as I was beginning to figure out what one creator had done, or a certain company represented, it threw out more names and/or jumped to another topic or comic. It was amazing to realize how many comics there are actually out there and how so many of them were made to relate to what was going on in society at the time that comic was written and that the end of each comic almost always had a solution to the problems that the public was dealing with. The reading, although a little confusing, made me want to learn more about comics.
January 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
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