Assessment

The Killing Joke - Assessment

1. I find that The Killing Joke works as a self contained story that I think is well written in the deconstruction of the relation between Batman and the Joker. The philosophy behind the words is something that I feel is distinctively Alan Moore, especially towards the end. I did find its treatment of Barbara Gordon to be unnecessary, taking away her agency within the story to further Joker and Batman's story. I'm not entirely sure if Alan Moore/DC comics had intended this story to be canon, but writers had tried their best after this story to give Barbara her story back through Oracle. Over all, I think the artwork and the uses of visual transitions between the present and the "past"was effective in communicating the story.

2. The connections I find within the story is Alan Moores social commentary (especially in regards to poverty) with how the Jokers "origin" story plays out- in reflection to how he is able to twist his words in order to justify his actions (much like how he said in the documentary about being magicians). The unreliable narrator coupled with an ambiguous ending is part of the dystopian aspect of the story in which the visuals don't always match up with the words being said, connecting to what Alan Moore had said about doing things that only comics (and not film) could do (even though there are cinematic transitions when going into flashbacks). The coloring of the story blends the surreal, almost pop art version of the comic with the grittier realism that was dominant at the time. This connects the work to previous incarnations (1960s Jokers design pops up on the monitor).

3. If I were to adapt the story into another medium, it would be animation, as I find that the adaptation of superhero comics works better in animation that live action. I would not, however, take the not super great route that DC had done. I would give more story agency to Barbara, or at least make her arc more important at large than just tacked on to continue to excuse the point that she doesn't do much later on aside from furthering everyone else in the story. Or, focus on a different crime that the Joker could commit that furthers his "point", and drives that narrative to the ambiguous ending. I would keep as close to the artwork and transitions as possible, as I find the work to be visually strong enough to hold its own. I would also change some of the carnival scenes/characters, or at least try and explain where they came from? Because they just showed up out of nowhere? Having goons that are carnival themed is fine, but I feel like it should have been established sooner.

Maus

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a hard read. Not in the sense of understanding, or from the palatability of the drawings in relation to the subject. It’s a hard read because it’s not afraid to be ugly, nor is it sugarcoating the first-hand experience, and the strain between the father and the son. Maus switches back and forth between the past and the present, as Art wants to create a graphic novel based on his fathers, and mothers (to an extent, he would have gotten her stories from the diary that ended up getting burned) and we see that graphic novel spill out as the father narrates. What is perhaps really interesting of this account, is how Spiegelman composes each narration as a conversation in the present, before only the fathers side of the conversation takes over. The father himself is contrasted between how he is portrayed in the past and how he is in the present (though his narration remains constant). We see how what had happened to him changed him as a person (a change that not even other survivors could comprehend). But that is where the disconnect between the father and the son are very apparent. It’s not a matter them yelling at each other, it’s the matter of the son questioning why his father never spends money, or why he couldn’t just buy a new wire rather than keep one from the street. Even though the father indirectly explains the reasoning for this change in behavior (through his stories of his past), the son doesn’t seem to entirely grasp the event. Is that entirely fair to Art? No, not at all. Even the feelings of comparison between himself and Richieu. But the comic itself (and Art Spiegelman) never gives us a direct answer to this. In some ways, the double autobiographic nature of this novel gives us no distinct “right” perspective and “wrong” perspective. People are people here, even if they are drawn as mice, pigs, or cats. 

The literary nature of Maus makes the graphic novel feel more like reading a written novel than just a comic strip. Events are foreshadowed from the beginning, and the specificity of the character’s words and actions makes the work feel relatable. You’re right there with each story, and there were many points where I felt my skin crawl and tears in my eyes. It hurts, because Art Spiegelman made sure that the people being depicted were as true to life, and that you felt like you were right there in the story as well. It’s subtle, but built beautifully. 

Maus is a body of work that is important not only artistically, but also culturally. It approaches the Holocaust with steady realism. The art is illustrated with a simple render, and the black and white crosshatching gives the work moments to depict the bleakness with harsher and darker pen strokes. It’s a rendition that speaks to us at the highest concept, and for that Maus  does earn the regards as one  of the best graphic novels ever written. 

Underground Comics

The underground comics movement revels in adult humor and topics. Reading Zap and the Gay Comics collection, it’s apparent that the underground comics allowed creators that weren’t straight, white, and male to have a chance at letting their voices be heard (at least in the Gay Comics, Zap leaned more into the racism and sexism). The range of styles (from highly detailed to cruder drawings), and of the stories (from coming out, to humor, to dealing with internalized homophobia). While sex may have been a large focus in those comics, they were never really depicted as something abnormal, or at least they were shown to be in support to what the writers and artists were trying to express. In contrast to Zap, the sexuality of the characters was used as mainly a fodder for jokes that relied on stereotypes. In all honesty, I didn’t find Zap to be funny, and instead gravitated to the stories that were written by those who didn’t necessarily fit societies norm. Did I also find some of the stories funny? No, but I did appreciate the sincerity and dry wit that made the stories more compelling. 

In terms of the nature of the underground comics, I find that the strips who try too hard to be offensive (one particular one is from Tits and Clits, in which the artists try to juxtapose the rape with almost romantic undertones, that did not work at all), to be almost less bold than the ones that try to add some form of subtleness into their stories. It might be a matter of taste situation, but one thing is certain. The cultural impact of the underground comics might have helped pave the way to loosening the fear of the comics code in creators. And to ultimately fight against the censorship that society has put in place. 

Eisner and Thompson

The works of Will Eisner and Craig Thompson are sometimes non-existent, but sometimes uncannily parallel to each other. The similarities between the two graphic novels (Eisners Dropsie Avenue and Thompsons Blankets) are mostly due to Eisners lasting impressions in the comics world. Both graphic novels take a more autobiographical approach (Blankets more so), which makes both stories seem like documentations of a past they are trying to comprehend. The structure of both stories is set up in a way where the drawings support the text that is given. The drawing approaches are similar in construction, but not in design. Meaning that both works tended to break out of the confines of the panel, but are drawn in styles that are unique to the artist’s hand. For me, this makes the work feel more alive and in the moment, as each drawing bleeds into one another. The subject matters for both stories are also more mature. Violence (especially in Esiners work), and abuse are laid out to the audience in a way that can be stomached but not necessarily ignored. This gives the body of work a sort of message that Eisner and Thompson feel needs to be said. It makes both Blankets and Dropsie Avenue feel like a concentrated place with relatable and very realistic situations. There’s no real sugar coating, but the works don’t drown in complete cynicism either. There are moments in Dropsie Avenue where people are happy (getting married, etc.), and there are moments in Blankets where the fondness of a person and a memory are explored (his brother, and the girl that was his first love). These moments are what bring a dimensionality to the work that wouldn’t exist without them.  

The Early Comic Book

The early comic books stretched across many genres, and the beginnings of the comic panels laid out in a format that wasn’t solely duplicated boxes was beginning to emerge. Text in the early comic books were still largely heavy, but the art was becoming more dynamic and synonymous to the text that was happening (nothing was just gag related or drawn out illustrations). Each panel is gaining more depth, with the drawings adding a layer of depth. The use of color as a means of storytelling becomes more experimental (especially in Tales of the Crypt as a means of injecting more horror into the story). 

The biggest difference that emerged between the comic strip and the comic book was the condensed serialized stories that came within an issue rather than waiting for the next installment each week in the paper. 

Tin Tin is an example of a contained story that mixes gags with a story that also mixes a small form of drama (or at least a conflict that provides multiple challenges for the protagonists). For example, the story Explorers on the Moon has multiple space related gags (the whiskey turning into a ball, the idea of anti-gravity, etc.) but is grounded in the rocket and the conflicts that can arise from it.  EC comics, on the other hand, rely on very little (to no) gags, and instead the conflicts are rooted in the horror genre-where non-graphic violence is depicted in a way that was not meant to be a joke (as opposed to the more rubber-hose slapstick violence of some comic strips).

The early comic book was experimental. It pushed genre, and narrative boundaries that seemed to mix the drawn-out stories of the likes of Tarzan, with the visual appeal of more humorous strips. 

The Comics Strip

The comic strip is usually about a page or a few short sequences on roughly a page length. Generally, there is a set-up, a rising action, and then the pay off. Krazy Kat, Peanuts, Little Nemo, and Calvin and Hobbes, are four examples of popular comics news strips of the 20^th century. It should be noted that the comics news strip is largely reprinted stories today. 

The comic strip relies on a basic premise that is then exaggerated or used as a joke within the story. An example of exaggeration would be Calvin and Hobbes and Little Nemo (in Slumberland), with both of which focusing on a mundane aspect of life (In Little Nemo’s case, sleeping, and consequentially dreaming) and using surrealism to capture a childlike-or dreamlike moment. On the flip side, stories like Krazy Kat and Peanuts, while uses some form of exaggeration (especially with Krazy Kats surrealism), relies on structure to tell a joke. Krazy Kat is structured around the same joke with variations, while Peanuts uses simple aspects of life to form a punchline by the end.

These two sort of groups of comic strips are kind of what makes up the appeal of the comic strip. Many of these strips were placed in newspapers, and cultivated this appeal of the everyman, or at least it finds some grounding in the real world. The comic strip was, in some cases, a place where dry humor and wit could find a home, and where the characters can exist in a world vaguely our own, thus allowing us to place ourselves in their shoes.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

  Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics explores how to read and process the visual narratives of comics. Towards the end it also explains the creation process, essentially the idea and fundamentals of a comic outweighs the technical skills of writing or drawing. This process is very similar to animation (in which story is king).

  However, a major point that McCloud made (though much of what he talked about is inherently important to the functionality of comics) is the “visual iconography”. McCloud explains visual iconography as a way we view and distill images through a sequence of events. Our brains are able to connect two similar events within two separate panels. The idea of visual iconography also relates to how we perceive what a face is, with the simplest version being the most appealing-if not the most iconic. A reasoning for this is because our own conditioning to see faces in everything (all of which we put our personal selves into to relate, as Scott McCloud states), and from a modern perspective, growing up watching cartoons has impacted how we expect faces to be drawn. The way we interpret visual imagery is described by McCloud as, “received information”, in that we can instinctively understand what we may be looking at (as long as it’s clear and iconic). This is contrasted by writing, which is “perceived information”. Whereas art is a more universal construct, writing depends on language-context-and even social norms.

  This point that McCloud makes is important to understanding comics because it’s a concept that isn’t really thought about as being a way to reach an audience, or which audience you would want to reach out to. Knowing whether your story should be rendered realistically, or not can determine how your audience will relate to the characters (i.e. watching the character, or placing themselves into the character). It is also important to know how to bridge the gap between the written word and the visual language of comics. Communicating how simply a drawing should be done, for instance, can make the comic more cohesive as a whole.