Watchmen - Alan Moore

A few weeks ago I read a chunk of Watchmen. Having watched the movie first I have to say it sticks pretty close to the novel. (As far as i've read) Many of my friends who have read it entirely and watched the movie disagree with me completely. Visually the movie might be more appealing in my opinion. The colors used in the comic are solid, flat and make the world a bit static. This is probably the only thing that bothered me about it. The content itself is great. It's incredibly well written and reads like a really good crime/mystery novel. Even though i've seen the movie the comic gets deeper into the situation the heroes are in and gives you a closer glimpse into their psychologies and personas. I liked how they included pages from the fictional novel from the old Nite Owl, "Under the Hood", to develop the story more. I also like how actual historical events were influenced by the characters in the novel. Overall this is a more adult and sophisticated super hero comic than most out there and I can't wait to finish it in the future.

My New York Diary by Julie Doucet

My New York Diary is an illustrated memoir of the author, Julie Doucet. Its about moving to New York with her "boyfriend" and reliving the events through her eyes. The story starts off in Quebec, in the art school Julie attended. Here we get to know the character better and can relate to her. Julie is a shy and anxious pessimist and is really only concerned in fitting in and talking to boys. Her character to me was of an immature and weak person and the dialogue was boring and simple as well. This is probably why i didn't really enjoy the book.
The drawing style was very cartoony, (big heads, little bodies, exaggerated features) and all of the drawings were crammed into the small panels which was confusing at first but then I became accustomed to it by the end.
Some of the more dramatic scenes of the book were the most interesting as well. The scene in which the boyfriend wants to kill himself by slicing his wrists is suspenseful and the most entertainment i got out of this book.

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

Asterios Polyp has to be the most sophisticated and pleasant comic to read. This was my second time reading it and it asserted itself once again as a phenomenal work in my opinion. The strong and interesting characters like Asterios, Ursula, Stiff, the hippie musician guy and Hanna had all unique personalities. They were opinionated and the differing opinions created great dialogue and scenes. One example i'm thinking of is when Ursual and Asterios were talking about the cosmos and astrology. There is so much to talk about this book but another great thing about it is the art itself. Mazzucchelli created and clean, and simplified caricatured world that had graphic impact and used a limited palette. The subtle purples, yellows, and precise line work give the work a modern look that is suiting to the content.

The question that is asked by Ignazio (Asterios's dead twin brother) above brings up a really interesting idea. I found the way that Mazzucchelli handled this visually was genius. Its simple but yet delivers the idea of different people experiencing life subjectively and thus creating their own realities. Using different styles he uses this technique throughout the book. For example when Hana and Asterios are arguing over something Hana becomes red scratchy marks while Asterios is portrayed as cylindrical and rectangular prisms. Also when they flashback to when they first met in the party Mazzucchelli uses this technique again to differentiate all the different people in the party.

Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey into North Korea & Persepolis(Movie)

This week i read and watched some works relating to two of the scariest places to live in the world currently.
Guy Delisle's Pyongyang was drawn like an editorial or political cartoon but was full of quirky and witty information about the totalitarian state. The lack of privacy and the total devotion and obsessive admiration of the brainwashed people of North Korea is portrayed in somewhat of a light hearted way. I think this is because of the style of drawing i mentioned before as well as the panel above. Overall the book is an easy read with some funny moments and good information of a current issue happening in the world today.

I also watched the film Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It is a coming of age, autobiographical story of the author. The difficulties of being a girl in a fundamentalist Islamic country and just being a teen are the main focus of the film. The film does a very good job in teaching a bit of the history of Iran and it does so in a beautiful and powerful way.

Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka

Ode to Kirihito was awesome. It had great a great storyline, art, and dialogue. It was the complete package. I never thought too much of manga before. But this book definitely makes me realize that no matter what medium of art, there are a few greats that give it a good name and make it worth to check out.
Tezuka creates many intricate plots that follow different characters besides the protagonist. All the plots occur simultaneously and help the story develop and add extra suspense.
The book is really a cinematic experience that unfolds like a Tarantino movie on steroids. The brutality of some of the scenes that occur in the book are masterfully contrasted with the meticulous and beautifully drawn landscapes of Japan.

Fun House by Allison Bechdel

Fun House is a very smart and well written comic-memoir or graphic novel. In the story the narrator and main character, Allison Bechdel, a lesbian, struggles as a young girl to be feminine and is more inclined to be tomboyish. She admires rough, muscular, strength of men as well as men's fashion magazines, not for the men themselves but because of their traits and fashion. At the same time her father, Bruce Bechdel, is secretly an in-the-closet homosexual living a straight man's life. He is obsessed with antiques and treats his furniture like children and children like furniture.

Bruce always pushed Allison into dressing more girly and encouraged her to act her gender. This is a big theme in the book, gender confusion and identity, and is a frustration in Bruce's own life because he himself is a homosexual/bi person vicariously living through Allison. 

Alisson is also living her desire to be masculine through her father. She advices hes father on men's fashion secretly seeing herself in the clothes. I think this was an important moment in understanding what both characters are really made of and how similar they are.

Maus - Art Spiegelman

Maus was a great read in my opinion. It was informative and entertaining. I was intrigued at first as to how much of the atrocities of the holocaust they were gonna depict, especially since Spiegelman was using cute mice and cats as the main characters. The book wasn't too graphic in content but it definitely delivered some tragic and bleak moments.
It is Art Spiegelman's father's first hand account of the the holocaust in Poland and his stay in Auschwitz. In the story Art is a comic book artist trying to get information from his elderly father about his time in the holocaust. Their relationship is at times frustrating for both of them. Vladek, the father, is a bit of a greedy and stingy old man and is constantly fighting with his second wife Mala. Art's mother commits suicide years before the book takes place.
The story is pretty epic and I felt it read smoothly and quickly. The reader is taken in a grim adventure through nazi occupied Poland.
There are many reasons why Maus was and is so popular. The reason why i enjoyed it so much was McCloud's idea of putting one's self in the cartoon's place. You really feel part of the story both in the supposed real world where Art in interviewing his dad and in the memory of his tale.
Something that really caught my eye was Art's comic about his mothers suicide. It played into the story well but besides that it showed the reader how personal this whole graphic novel is to Spielgelman. It was meant in my view to pull the readers attention through his/her emotions. It was also an opportunity to show Spiegelman's other drawing style. Another similar thing that i found interesting was how he used a photograph of his brother at the beginning of the second book and also one of his father towards the end.