Asterios Polyp

This graphic novel was really cool to me. The first thing that jumped out was the colors. The whole coic is just so eye-catching. The pinks, purples, and blues create a really fun, interesting, atmosphere for the story. The story follows a man whose house gets struck by lightning. He follows his instincts and just moves as far as his money can take him, It's about following your heart, and becoming who you are.

The art style in Asterios Polyp is my favorite thing about the novel (along with colors). It's simple, but interesting and eye-catching. The only thing that bothers me is the font choice, and color. It made it kind of difficult to read.

Manga

I was a pretty avid reader of manga when I was younger. The difference in Eastern and Western comics is really intriguing to me. Now however, I'm not that big of a fan. A lot of it just seems way too over the top, and honestly a little obnoxious. For this week, I read Buddha by Osamu Tezuka. It was refreshing and not what I had expected at all. It was the retelling of Buddha's life. Even though the subject matter was interesting and different, the fact that there was no colors kind of bothered me. Tezuka used black and white throughout. I don't feel like it was a great way to show the deep content.

The Nikopol Trilogy

The first thing I noticed about The Nikopol Trilogy was how awesome the artwork was. It's dark and edgy looking, which is something that I thoroughly enjoy. Every thing seems run down and grimy, which fits with the science fiction theme. It gets even more interesting in the second chapter, where photography and color is introduced into the comic. Also, text outside of the speech bubbles. It's something new. fun and interesting which is something I love seeing in comics. It's out of the ordinary and makes it even better to read.

American Born Chinese

I can't decide whether or not I really enjoyed American Born Chinese. It was okay, but the stories were easy to read, but for some reason I just didn't really get into it. The art style is simple, and flat. It's nothing special, really. I didn't find it too interesting, and it actually kind of bothered me.
Of the three stories, the second two were more focused on racial stereotype and fitting in. In the first story, Jin Wang, a second generation immigrant child is struggling to fit in in America. The story is a little cookie cutter, and predictable. You can basically guess the ending off the bat.
The third story is about an american boy and his Chinese cousin that visits him. Danny is often embarrassed by his Chinese cousin Chin-kee (chinky), as h posses many American stereotypes for the Chinese. These two stories are practically the same, but from different perspectives. It's perplexing how something like race can cause so many issues with self esteem, and such. The over all moral of the comics is to just be yourself, something I feel is kind of overplayed in stories like this, but is a message that a lot of the times struggles to get through to people.

Barefoot Gen

Wow. What to say about Barefoot Gen. It's definitely something I didn't want to watch at 8.30 in the morning. It's a very strong, heavy story. An autobiography of Keiji Nakazawa, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombings. The story starts out innocently enough, and to be honest I didn't get hooked until the bomb was dropped. It was like watching a car crash, it's horrible but you can't look away. I feel like this could be a useful tool in teaching people about the bombings because its an interesting way to show it, and it's very attention grabbing.

Underground Comix

These are absolutely hilarious. I read a lot of the Tijuana Bible comic strips, and I couldn't stop. They're obviously directed towards an older audience, as they're all preeetttty pornographic.
These comics combine sexuality and humor in a really easy to understand, humorous way. They made me giggle, but there really wasn't much depth to them at all. They were all very straightforward, so although they gave me a laugh, they're not something I would read again, at least not very soon. The idea of an underground comic is very appealing to me, much like Ringling's underground zine, ZigZag. They're a fun way to get out ideas and stories that would otherwise be overlooked or remain unpublished by a lot of other papers, and companies. They're fun, rebellious, and give the youth a sense of their own. They're really humorous, and fun.

A Contract with God

This graphic novel, in my opinion, was really really compelling. It sunk it's hooks into me, and I couldn't stop reading. I really enjoyed the gritty, dark nature of it, although it does get a little too intense for my tastes at some points. The way the panels are laid out with the white space, and the art style really lend to the mood of the novel. The ink work definitely sets a dark, mysterious tone throughout. It's definitely a different turn from other things we've been looking at, which have been fun and whimsical. Contract is definite proof that comics are NOT just for children, and can deal with some pretty heavy subject matter suitable only for adults.