The Graphic Novel

Congrats to Asterios Polyp! Winning the L.A. Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels, as announced two days ago, it appears Asterios Polyp is starting to leave quite an impression in the world of graphic novels. But to me, this is something much bigger. The L.A. Times, for the first time ever, is giving out awards to graphic novels. The genre has slowly been gaining acceptance, but this is pretty big. Take a look around, and the signs seem to indicate that graphic novels are becoming more and more of a legitimate genre. And that, to me, has been the problem. Sure, people can accept graphic novels as a genre, but how legitimate was their perception? There have long been stigmas associated with graphic novels, such as that they are just comics on steroids, but there are now highly esteemed awards being cast out to graphic novels.

After the L.A. Times Book Review recently created a category for graphic novels, this proves yet another step in the right direction for graphic novels to be viewed as legitimate

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Nearing the end of our Graphic Novel class, there’s been a wide array of topics discussed. From superheroes to teenage girls and to space odysseys, we’ve traveled the full spectrum. Yet one constant that seems fairly obvious, and at times overt, is the broad use of sexuality. Yes, my male hormones may cause me to pick up on this a bit more than others, but sex is everywhere!

Okay, obviously sex sells, and that’s indisputable, but for nearly every comic to display it just seems a bit odd to me. So that got me thinking: why is there so much sex in comics? Heck, there’s even an anime fetish out there! Yet not wishing to veer into the world of comic porn, I’ll focus in on graphic novels.

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Truth be known, most every person in this world holds some sort of ideology. They may not know it, or may it may not be clearly defined, but more often than not, people cling to an ideology for one reason or another.

It’s no surprise either to see people push their ideology onto others at some point in time. Whether they do it indirectly or blatantly, there are people out there who would love nothing more than to have the majority of the world buy into their same belief system.

Take for example comic book writers. They have the ability to push their worldview in a very powerful medium and they also are able to praise it at the same time. These comic book writers have conservative, liberal and even anarchist positions on various topics and it becomes often fascinating to see how they can best glorify such beliefs.

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After listening in class to the criticisms of The New Yorker and its comics, I decided to take a look myself at what the magazine had to offer. Low and behold, the comics were a bit, well, bad. For some, I'm still at a loss as to what the author was getting at. Yet to be fair, some were rather funny.

Since perception is oftentimes reality, the held notion out there is that the comics featured in The New Yorker are downright horrible. Through an examination of some comics that are funny and ones that flop, we can judge more appropriately where the comics went wrong, or if maybe we're being a bit too judgmental.

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Okay, the very first thing when looking at Moonshadow is its obvious use of watercolors. Not even one word needs to be read of the graphic novel without looking at its such unique style of art. In fact it’s the only graphic novel entirely done by painting.

Yet what effect does this have on the graphic novel itself? I honestly can’t say it looks better than any other animation. In fact, I don’t like the watercolors. However, it adds a whole extra influence to the pages.

For one, the watercolors and painting bring with it a unique sense of flow. The strokes are all noticeable, and with that, it gives the reader a sense that we are in constant motion. There’s this sense of correct imperfection (total oxymoron, I know) we get from seeing all these strokes, and when it comes to discussing something that happens in the past, as is the case with Moonshadow, this is huge. After all, whenever one tries to recall something in the past, it’s never clear and it’s never all there. The watercolor styling completely represents this.

Notice each identifiable watercolor stroke. This adds what I call

After viewing Watchmen the movie, I knew it had to happen. In fact, I’m sure everyone knew it was going to happen. Never, except for maybe the Harry Potter movies, has a movie kept true to its book form. So surprise, surprise, director Zack Snyder left out some key things and also tweaked parts here and there, in particular the ending. Yet I’m sure those with a keen eye noticed Snyder wasn’t nearly that bad of a hatchet man, as he did in fact include several important facets of the book inside the movie, although they just weren’t as visible.

Now, to his credit and mainly to be fair, all that changing likely had to be done. After all, America’s attention span is less than an inch long and it’s tough for action movies to be successful while dragging on for three-plus hours. And hey, the movie adaptation could have been a lot worse (think Catwoman on this one).

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What's so interesting about The Street Singer is its unique way of intersecting both the lives of Marta Maria and Eddie.

For starters, both represent a lot of Americana in the time of the Great Depression. There was Eddie, who in his words was a "crummy accountant" (89), and then Marta Maria, who gave up her career as an opera singer due to her husband, who was a "drunkard" (73). With times tough, they not only lost their positions of status and wealth, but they both share the American dream of reaching the top.

What becomes so fascinating about the story is how Eddie and Marta Maria end up complimenting each other. Marta Maria, whose life was derailed by a drunk husband, intersects with Eddie, a drunkard and abusive husband himself. Not only is it fitting that these two cross paths, but this highlights a lot of the continual struggles of the time. Marta Maria wishes to find success, but only runs into the same type of person. Eddie, who shares in this American dream, is on a path to derail his current wife's life and in meeting Marta Maria, he is with almost a spinning image of his wife.

What becomes so evident in the graphic novel, however, is its ability to visually show this interesection on page 76 when they make love. In fact, they literally interesect! Again, this is something solely unique to the graphic novel which author Will Eisner captures very well. In a setting such as a standard novel, such visual intricacies would be difficult to capture.

In closing, both the dreams and failures of The Great Depression are exemplified here, and are highlighted moreso by the crossing of lives between Marta Maria and Eddie.

The initial crossing of lives between Marta Maria and Eddie.