Briana's Blog

Women in comics is one of my favorite segments we've covered so far in class. One of the reasons being that I am a woman and enjoy seeing women succeed, but also because it's acknowledging just how far women have come as artists as a whole and how we found our place alongside the guys. Women were able to prove (and still are proving) that they can create cool, dynamic works of art that are not just confined to subject matters of love, domestic life and taking the backseat when it comes to saving the day. For this weeks reading, I took a look at Pretty Deadly. Just by scrolling a few pages in, it is just that. Beautiful imagery and lots of blood. Personally, I love how the artist was able to combine the two. I think what I already admired about this work was that the art spoke for itself. I din't care necessarily if a woman or a man did it. The art just looks amazing. I think was helps to separate it from a lot of work though, is the style and subject matter. It has this

Asterios Pulp was probably one of the most interesting comics i've seen so far. The way it is able to carry the reader through the story with such strong and visually pleasing visuals is something that I find to be incredibly impressive! There is this type of distortion that occurs quite frequently in this type. It's not only noticeable in the illustrations, but also the typography. For example, the title of the comics is handled in this manner. Color and line is expressed quite energetically throughout this piece as well. A color palette is also established and is kept pretty consistent through the comic as well. The colors pink, purple, blue and yellow are the colors expressed here. Large shapes further this strong, graphic style as well. Shape language can not only be seen in the characters, but also in the architecture as well. One of my favorite pages where it shows this is in the beginning where the building is burning down. The way the artists simplifies the shapes

For this week's reading I decided to read Astro Cat. I've never actually read Astro Boy, so I wasn't sure if I'd be completely lost in what was going on. Thankfully, though, there was a brief summary of how Astro Boy came to be, which pretty much filled in enough information for me. Because I don't have much experience with reading comics, I actually found myself reading left to right...it took me two pages in to realize that I needed to be going right to left. Ooops! Nonetheless, I was still able to understand the story fully. Astro cat is basically Astro boy, but in a cat body. I really enjoyed how they paralleled how astro cat was created with astro boy's story - they both get into a bad crash and someone dies and is remade into a super-being. Although it's a bit sad, I do enjoy how the characters are reunited in a sense and also can help save those in need. What I really enjoyed about reading this comic was the style of art and story telling. The cha

Ranxerox It didn't take much from starting to read this comic that it was definitely more for an adult audience. One of the first things that gave it away was the dialogue. Swear words and other vulgar language was used throughout the comic which definitely gave it more of an "adult story" feeling. In addition to this, though styles can vary and still be applicable to a wide range of audience, this style in particular seemed to be more grunge and intense. The way men and women were portrayed was very rough around the edges (literally) and the colors were not bright and happy. Things appeared to be almost dirty throughout the pages. Moreover, the characters themselves looked tired, oddly dressed, and greasy...I don't know why greasy came to mind but that was my initial reaction. Sexual themes were also spread out through the comic as well, of course a lot of it being directed towards young female characters. Violence was also very prevalent in this comic as well. A

Stereotypes are everywhere and they can affect everybody - at least to a certain degree. From my own  perspective and opinion on the topic, I view them to be mostly bad, but sometimes based on a percent of truth. The reason I say this is because in many ways, stereotypes derive from some fraction of truth. Obviously with a disclaimer of: Stereotypes, when handled in humor, should be handled at a VERY specific degree, and with the acknowledgment of the true  nature of persons belonging to the background the joke pertains to. In many cases, people belonging to the group that is being stereotyped can share laughs about these kinds of jokes. However, I can really only speak for myself. Recently, a friend asked me if it was ok to tell me a "racially insensitive" black joke. I said sure, because I was curious about what it would be and if I'd even be offended (typically I try not to let things like that offend me because I know the truth and am pretty comfortable in my colo

This weeks reading of Maus was interesting. It was a comic that told a deeper story even through its somewhat child-like cartoon style. To me, the overall style was what made this comic so impactful. Some of my favorite stories are ones that are told through simplistic styles of art with the compliment of a more serious undertone. I find that by doing this, there is a good balance between what the reader is seeing and what they're understanding. Sometimes I find that stories with complex details in the art can take away the attention from the story because the reader is so caught up in analyzing the visuals. In addition to this, it was interesting that even though the story was being told by animals, (mice to be specific), the reader still got the sense of human-like qualities from them. Personally, I was able to completely overlook the fact that they were animals and focus on the story with no problems. What was also interesting was the subject matter of the characters convers