So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, goodbye

Hello all, this is Tristan and I just wanted to add a quick little note.

This has been an great semester. From an ass kicking Batman to a son relating his father's incredible story we've had some fine talks about some fine books. Learning isn't always necessarily fun but I had a great time with this class and I hope you all have as well.

Oh, one last thing before I go. If you are looking for something interesting to read over break and you have some spare cash, go to this fine site where you'll find the 10 volumes of the series Transmetropolitan. In this line of stories we see Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo journalist who rages at the world and all it's injustices. Unfortunately for him this is a ways in the future and with so much media and advanced technologies at discount prices no one cares to listen. It starts with Spider being called back to civilization, having spent the last 5 years on top of a mountain as a hermit, to complete a book contract that he's been nice enough to put off. His money is gone and with the threat of a major lawsuit he decides to move back to the City to be closer to all the things he hates so that he can take his old life back. As the story goes on he begins reporting on the upcoming election and has a few interesting things to say about voting:

"You want to know about voting. I'm here to tell you about voting. Imagine you're locked in a huge underground night-club filled with sinners, whores, freaks and unnameable things that rape pitbulls for fun. And you ain't allowed out until you all vote on what you're going to do tonight. You like to put your feet up and watch "Republican Party Reservation". They like to have sex with normal people using knives, guns, and brand new sexual organs you did not even know existed. So you vote for television, and everyone else, as far as your eye can see, votes to fuck you with switchblades. That's voting. You're welcome." ~Spider Jerusalem

Admidst all the illicit substances and gratuitous swearing hilarity ensues and much entertainment will be experienced by all so please, if you have any taste at all, read these books (There are 10 volumes in all, just go out and find the first, borrow it or buy it or read the first comic of the first volume here).

I'll leave you with this quote from Naomi Armitage "Jesus saves, Allah forgives, but Cthulu thinks you'd make a tasty sandwich."

"I leave and heave a sigh and say goodnight"
*this and the title of the post from the Sound of Music.

Thanks from Nathan

Thank you for holding this class Dr. Clemente this class was a great way to learn about good literature in a new medium. This class made me happy! Now I will never forget the definition of sequential art, I have a whole new appreciation of batman, I remember more clearly about what happened in the former yugoslavia area( safe area gorazde) and I have a bettter understanding of the Holocaust and that is something coming from a history buff.

Manga

We didn't get to cover much manga in class because the book store didn't get barefoot gin in stock. Manga is a very entertaining art form. The art is very different from america type art in some cases because of the big eyes and in other cases just because of the influences of society. You can see the differences between the two I posted not that it is a very wide ranging sample to draw a conclusion from it still isn't a bad one. Manga is also read backwards from what we are used to reading because they normally read right to left over there which does make the reading experience more interesting if you are used to reading it left to right it is funny when you get confused sometimes.

Maus

Maus was a great novel that showed us how a man survived the holocaust. It is inspiring to see a survivor, despite all of that Surviving doesn't necessarily mean heroic. Vladek survived yes and he was an amazing and a lucky person to do that. He was resourceful, intelligent, cunning, and lucky all are admirable traits. I admire him for what he was able to do and for the fact that through his son he was able to relay history to us for a point and time that he was an eyewitness. He may be a hero in our hearts for surving hardship and his ablility to persevere but the method of doing this not what normally comes to mind as heroic.

A history

Maus was powerful stuff. The thing is cruelty of that nature isn't a new thing. In a lot of cases there were not anywhere near that many people, mostly because in the past there may not have been that many people around in some cases. Take a look at the Spanish Inquisition for example this kind of blunt hatred against people is depressing. It even continues today not quite on the scale of the holocaust but genocide still exsits.

Splitting the atom and the power it's given us

While reading Fallout by Ottaviani, Johnston, Lieber, Locke, Mireault and Parker I got to thinking about a few things. One question I asked myself is "Exactly how much do we take things like nuclear energy and the process of getting that energy for granted?"

You've got to think about just how big
a deal this really is and was. When the
Manhattan Project got under way
splitting the atom and getting that covetted
chain reaction seemed an imposibility.
Everything ran on diesel and gasoline and
one bomb was never enough.

Then along came a few brilliant scientists

who wanted to do their part to help humanity along
as well as help a nation that stood against the likes
of Hitler.














After much hard work these men created something that was simultaneously an amazing source of energy and one of the most destructive things the Earth had ever seen.




Because of the works started in the 1930's we now have submarines that are powered by nuclear reactors, power plants that don't burn an ounce of coal and explosive devices that have the potential to ignite the very atmosphere of this planet.



When you stop to think about it, it's really quite impressive what has blossomed out of the Manhattan Project. When you get right down to it, all the government really wanted out of it was a new weapon that they might throw against their enemies. What they got was an unpredictable future where everyone has the same big gun pointed at everyone else just waiting for the right moment...

Distractions

During the class discussion of Safe Area Gorazde, some people seemed almost offended by the "Silly Girls," and their obsession with the Levi's 501s, comparing it to people who choose to pay attention to the trivial aspects of life today instead of caring about the failing economy and current war.

Newsflash: We (the people who like the trivial pursuits) are perfectly aware of the current situation. There really isn't any way to completely ignore it.

However, there really isn't a point in brooding about the unpleasant aspects of the world when there is life to be lived. Cowering in a corner, rocking back and forth like lost children does no one any good. To be able to ignore what is going on in the world, if only for a moment, is the only way to not have a nervous breakdown every time I leave the house.

In a way, I respect those girls. To still find a way to hold on to normalcy, even in the face of the horrors around them, shows a sort of level-headed attitude that should be admired, not looked down on.

The Women: A Response

First off: LOVED Persepolis. It reminded me at times of Kabul Beauty School, a memoir of how one woman (Deborah Rodriguez) worked to open the first beauty school in Afghanistan post-Taliban. I highly recommend it, not just for the story, but the deeper understanding of how frustrating the red tape surrounding aid to the Middle East can be. Just like Persepolis, it is a great way of seeing a side of a culture we are too ready to cast as a stereotyped image.

Next: My rant was not disregarding the books, or any other characters' flaws in either of the "Superhero" novels, but was instead questioning why two authors who have proven their ability to write extremely stong and brilliant female characters failed to do so in what are considered some of their best works. I was not bashing either of the books, the male characters, or men in general.

The Shrew has spoken.

Marvel vs. DC

Marvel vs. DC is always a big deal with comic book fans. Super man is unbeatable some say then others will say the hulk can take him. This conflict and others like it get solved in a few crossover comics. Some of the matchups come with objectionable outcomes (ex. Wolverine beats Lobo in one of these crossovers) but others just make sense. Is this sort of closure what we really need though. Most of the matches victories were voted in as well which explains some of the upsets. Lets say if I want the Hulk to beat up Superman I dont need my dreams interrupted by a crossover comic. What I am saying is making a comic like this takes some of the imagination of reading comics. For instance Lobo comes and kicks Superman's butt on a dare. In Marvel vs. DC Wolverine beats Lobo. That is interesting I dont think anyone in their right mind would believe that Wolverine could beat Superman. Yet he beats a guy who can beat up Superman. The Hulk kicked Wolverines butt too and he lost to Superman in Marvel vs. DC. These things are better left to the imagination.

Just throwing this out there:
WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?
Seriously. In Dark Knight Returns the only female character worth squat is Robin/Carrie. Selina Kyle/Catwoman is reduced to acting a a Madame for the greater Gotham area, something that should really piss off anyone who follows the character for crap. Kyle has a code of honor in the same style as Batman, and would not allow herself to be anything as ordinary as a glorified pimp-ette.
In Watchmen, women are demoted to the status of sex toy bimbos. Sally Jupiter is noted for being a busty slut of a stage mother, and Laurie has the interesting job of playing the harpy who sleeps with Dr. Manhattan. Not to mention the supporting cast of characters in both books who are nagging, unpleasant, or hookers.
It isn't an author thing though. Both Miller and Moore are capable of writing intelligent, brave, and interesting female roles. Anyone who has read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Sin City would know better. I just question why these two writers, who are capable of so much more, have done the ladies so wrong in some of their most noted works.

Fifty points if you guess who wrote this little rant ;)

Thinking about the Code

We discussed the Comics Code Authority today in class, and I found this website that has the full transcript of the 1954 Code. If you pay attention to "General Standards Part B," you can see how the code rather successfully killed the horror genre and the publishers that focused on that particular subject.
The section I found extremely interesting was "General Standards Part C," especially the section subtitled "Marriage and Sex." You can definitely tell the code was passed during the height of the "Leave it to Beaver" era.
Another major hit to the comics industry as a result of the Code was the income from advertisers. There was a ban on alcohol, tobacco, even fireworks advertisements.
One of the sources I read regarding the code alluded to it being more strict than the 1930's Production Code, also known as the Hays Code which is another link that is pretty interesting to look over.
The Code has been "liberalized" several times, sparked by Marvel Comics and Stan Lee's decision to run three issues of The Amazing Spider-Man without sanctioning by the Code, but was endorsed by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
In 2001 Marvel Comics dropped the seal entirely, favoring their own system that follows the system of rating movies and video games. Archie and DC Comics are the only two major companies that continue to run books with the "Code Approved" seal, though DC has been known to simply run books without the seal if they do not pass.

What is very intriguing about the Code is the lack of means for actual enforcement...
...That's right, people just let the Code run how they did business because of social pressures, many that continue today.

The Dark Knight Returns with some improvements.

I remember as a kid watching reruns of the original Batman tv series, the Scooby Doo/Batman crossover, etc. and thinking to myself "Are they serious?". Even then I had trouble believing that this perfect looking, overly polite, rich white guy actually survived in a city with even a semi-serious crime problem. His sidekick was this typical all american who used horrible one liners in a poor attempt at seeming witty and humorous and all the villains were a joke, never really causing anything other than a minor inconvinience. I was never really that into Batman.

That is, until I read Frank Miller's take on the Batman.

In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller takes a much more realistic look at into who Batman has to be in a real Gotham. In a real world, Batman would have to be a ruthless, vicious bastard to strike fear into the hearts of less than decent men, and that's just how he's presented in this graphic novel. No more goody goody, stop the bad guy before dinner with the family. Here we have a man who has suffered real loss. Not just the loss of his parents but also of his sidekick, Robin. We get to see a gritty old man give the seedy element of Gotham a well placed kick in the groin without stopping to ask if it's ok.

And amidst all this ass-kickery, we see that the Batman is still clothed in the traditional blue and gray. A very nifty touch.

I guess all I really want to say is I like this new direction with this established character. Batman is finally someone the readers can relate to (and considering the fact that he's a billionare who has anything he could want, besides his parents, that's a big thing).

Welcome!

You are viewing the blog of Mary, Nate, and Tristan. Since I (Mary) set up the account, we are now collectively "Mary and her Minions."
For anyone who just happened upon this blog, we are participating in a class revolving around the study of graphic novels. Everytime you check in, there will (hopefully) be a new observation about the book we are currently studying, or the style of comics we are reading, or our opinions about something involving the class.
Be seeing you!
-Mary