The Graphic Novel

Alright, so as I realized that this is my last blog of the course and I had no idea what to write about except that it had to be fun and interesting. I searched through countless Cracked articles, Google, and etc. and found nothing really interesting, until I stumble upon two Filipino comic’s who have been adapted into movies. They are Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah and Flash bomba.

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When I first picked up Brian O’ Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, I was confused. It looked like Manga, at least drawing style wise. The content of the story was even Manga like, but it didn’t open like a regular Manga novel nor was it made by a Japanese author. It looked like a western version of Manga and that made me question its style: does it really count as Manga? Can I honestly call this comic Manga, even though it is not made in Japan?

As I asked these questions to myself, I didn’t realize that many others were having the same discussions just more publicly and online. I decided to try to find my answers through Google and as I searched online, I encountered many discussions on whether this comic could be called Manga. Specifically this online post, and the conversation that followed it, seemed to highlight the difficulties that people were having with calling this comic, Manga: http://www.earlyword.com/2010/04/09/manga-or-not-manga-that-is-the-quest....

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Kids act like my Guerillas, dont listen to your parents

I am sure most of us have heard of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela who holds a pro-guerilla and socialist regime. Chavez seems to want to change his country from a socialist-democracy to a supreme dictatorship. He recently ratified the constitution of Venezuela so he could run in definitely for presidency. He also has been known for wanting complete control over the media as well as lashing out violently against those who dare speak against the government or his policies.

chavez popularity, real low and full of scandals (yes he used the english word, full)

In class Professor Whalen asked , “How Asterios Polyp has been influenced by the other comic books” Well as I flip around the comic, I notice many similarities, now I don’t know how much of it is influence, coincidence or comic norm.

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First I have to say that Asterios Polyp, like Contract with God has a heavy sense of some greater divine power, that seems to influence the character’s life choices. For instance, the lightening scene at the end of a Contract with God, were God smites Fremme for defying him and turning against him, well Asterios has similar random attack by some otherworldly element. In the beginning of this comic, his house sets on fire as if it was an act of God. Then at the end when everything seems to be going well, in his and Hana’s relationship, huge comet is seconds from destroying them. It’s as if Asterios is stuck in a giant Greek tragedy, no matter his journey, he is meant by fate to die. Not only that both comics seem to be heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian religions, Contract with God has aspects of the Torah and Asterios quotes or references St. Francis of Assisi frequently.

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In my quest to search for blogging material, I found Section 8. Section 8 is a DC based comic book that takes place in Gotham City, specifically the Irish section of it called the Cauldron, and it compares to a Batman Comic like pink does to Darth Vader. Though the two seem to be based in the same city they are completely different. Batman is tamer, and that is saying something. Section 8 allows for insanity to fight against crime. This world gives the ridiculous and the disturbing a chance to be "superheroes." It’s like being saved by the local drunk hobo who resides in the alley next to your work place; it’s unsettling, and shocking but also completely gratifying. Like your local hobo or extremely disturbed neighbor, these heroes don’t exactly have powers. They instead have exaggerated vices or weird personality quirks that allow them to fight crime. It’s almost as if a bunch of Arkham Asylum’s patients escaped and decided to start a group to fight crime, and that their main crime fighting tool would be their insanity.

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I know that in class we have discussed in length how Watchmen is so interconnected what with the use of the same nine panel format, the red and purple color scheme, and Rorschach’s symmetrical face mask. I could see how Moore controlled and linked all the major characters in the graphic novel, but it was not until I reread it a second time that I could see how much detail he but into controlling all aspects of this world. He made sure everything, and I mean everything, was linked or foreshadowed the main catastrophes’ that happen in this novel. So, I decided I’d try to catalog some signs, themes or words that repeated in the first half of the book up to chapter VI.

Dont they see the signs?

As I was researching “Spanish comic superheroes” for blogging purposes, I came across four unexpected characters. Originally, I was looking at La Liga de Plato, an Argentinean comic that is kind of like DC’s Justice League. But then I stumbled across a Cracked article that had to do with six of the strangest comic book characters ever written and that made me curious. What are the strangest Spanish characters ever written? I decided to hunt them down and what I found were stereotypes wrapped in the weird and implausible. These oddballs are Vibe, Extraño, El Gato, and El Gato Negro. They are all created by American based comic book companies and they each seem to have flourished in the eighties and nineties, but some have survived the millennium. I know that comic books tend to stereotype especially minority groups and women, but at least three of these four characters just seem way too extreme and just plain wrong.

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Comic book companies such as DC and Marvel, I believe, have gone into a decline. There aren’t as many readers who are willing to invest time in comic books that have so many back stories that in order to grasp the over-arching theme, you must buy an exorbitant amount of previous comic books. Though these companies are the producers of many famous icons such as Batman and the Justice League, and many other comic book characters who have transcended the comic book medium into film and animation, they are not the ones that are in high demand. Surprisingly, enough in North America one of the most read comics is in Spanish and is imported from South America. Condorito, a comic created by Rene Rios, is about a condor who lives in the make believe town of Pelotilhue, in Chile and deals with everyday life. Condorito has immigrated successfully into North America and is thriving in many newspapers who want to appeal to their Latin readers. There are over, “forty three million Hispanics in North America (Universal Press Syndicate)” and that is why many editors have ‘translated’ this Latin icon into English and published them in newspapers. Though some newspapers have decided to keep the strip in Spanish, this comic strip is “in just over 100 newspapers, in both North and South America (Universal Press Syndicate).”

You can buy the “Condorito Revista” (Revista, literally translated: magazine, but can mean comic book) not only in stores that cater to Latins, but in your local supermarkets, dollar stores, on Amazon, and places like GoComics.com. It can be in either Spanish or English.

English version, more tame jokes