Week14 Webcomics

I read 17776 or What Football Will Look Like in the Future, and Trash Mountain for this week, which I had a lot of fun.

 The 17776 or What Football Will Look Like in the Future comic is interesting. I did not realize that the characters are Artificial satellites for the first time. I also had fun with the range of formats; the calendar, text chat, gif animation, and YouTube video. Seeing different mediums in the story is interesting.

The Trash Mountain reminds me of a gif comic artist on twitter, who is Quick Obake. He(she) creates one or two panels comic with moving the main character. I think this half animation comic is very interesting to see because this is a contemporary comic style. It arrows to the artist a wider range of expression.

QuickObake via Twitter

My favorite work from this artist

 I believe comic is a kind of in-between media of word base media, such as novels, and film media, such as animations and films. Animations and films are telling stories unilaterally to the viewer while novels require the reader’s imagination. In other words, animations and films limit the viewer’s imagination, and sometimes novels are too hard for readers to understand what is going on. The comic is in between them. It still has places of arrows the viewers’ imagination, but at the same time, it shows the many or less graphic which helps the reader to get into the story. I think comics have the advantage of both media.

 I think webcomics have the next advantage adding to the point that I wrote above. The additional mediums added in the webcomic show what the author wants to be received by readers. The animation makes the viewer feel the detailed movement of the character, music shows more atmosphere, and more letters induce more imagination of the reader. When the author wants to tell some additional information or feeling to the viewer, I think webcomics are a great style of comics.

Week13 Reconsidering the Superhero

 I have a lot of fun with this story. The ordinal superhero story is mostly rewarded good and punish evil, but Batman the Killing Joke is the true antithesis of moralistic story. Also, this comic has a metafiction aspect at the same time.

 Most of the audience may expect that the hero (or heroine) will always a good person, always be a justice side when they start reading superhero comics. However, Batman the Killing Joke breaks this theory and refers us the possibility of different assumptions, which the hero could be a villain as well. Unlike the ordinal superhero story, which has a clear boundary line between protagonist and antagonist, this comic trying to make it vague, or even trying to taking off it.

 The reason, belief, and the past of the antagonist make the character much more appealing because it creates readers’ empathy. Normally, most people do not feel it with the antagonist, who just want to kill or destroy something without reason, because most people are not criminal or terrorist. Since the viewer does not have empathy at first, the reason and background story stands out and makes a strong impact on the viewers. Therefore, after finish reading this comic, the viewer may confuse that who should they cheering to be the winner, because both of them have their understandable faith. 

Batman refers "there is the end"

 Another interesting story structure of this comic is metafiction storytelling. Even from the beginning, the characters know the place they live in is a story. In the end, I felt that they are criticizing humans, I mean, every human who is reading or creating the story of Batman series. I think this is a type of personification because sometimes characters are talking about the world beyond their world, which they never should recognize. In this time, the characters are no more be just characters in a comic but more likely to be a human in the real world.

"It's all a joke", not real. Especially for us.

 To be honest, I feel like this type of story is getting more popular in several media for these days because it breaks the theory of hero/villain relationship, leads the viewer’s empathy to the villain, and makes the character more realistic because there are no completely good or completely bad people in real life. The story itself says that “this world is a fake, and we are imaginary existence”. But then, we feel them more realistic as the same human like us. 

 Therefore, if I had the opportunity to adopt this story to the other medium, I would like to choose either cartoon or animation. I found a lot of film structure on this comic, but I believe real-human actors cannot make the full aim of the structure within this comic. If the character already “human”, the personification structure and metafiction structure are not to be as appearing as in comics. To make this interesting structure and story, films are too realistic and too close to us. They stand out when the appearance and art style is beyond real life.

Week12 Comic by Women

 For this week, I read This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

 This story is designed to make the reader feel empathy with the main character, who is a little girl in summer vacation. She and her friend’s behavior and mindset are close to the actual children. Even readers have never had the same experience before, they should have the same feelings or behavior as they did in the story.

 Not only their behavior, but it also shows the bare children's mind. One of the elements of it is how vague of the feeling of the adults in the story, while the emotion of the children is easier to understand. There is no additional information about the adult’s thought other than the main character’s monologue. I think this is so realistic as a real-life child. This way of expression forces the readers to think as the main character thinks, which is a typical lack of though in childhood. 

 I also like the relationship and conversation between the main character and her friend. It reminds me of the past time of me and my friend. We were similar to them. Their conflict and how the reconcile are very similar to what we did. They did not have a big war, fight, or fix up a meeting, but they naturally came back to the original relation. I know this timing and atmosphere because it is the same way as us. 

 I think the theme of this comic is “as it is” because the characters in this comic are not exaggerated or decorated as ideal but more natural children. This way of expression attracts readers and makes them feel a lot of empathy with the main characters.

Week 11 Comics at contemporary literature

I have been shocked by the comic because it starts from the scene of the main character suiciding by throwing herself in front of the train. I think this is a great introduction because I was so attracted to this book and get curious to know how it will happen next. This became one of my best introduction to the story. 

This book’s name is Take of One Bad Rat. This comic is interesting to see for me because it uses several techniques from several different types of media. It is obvious to see when the main character is daydreaming or remembering about her past time.

In several times, there is a scene of her trying to kill herself. From the second time of her suicide, I realized that this shot is just her imagination. This type of expression is usually used in the film genre. I saw it in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The main character of this movie is also a daydreamer. In the beginning, there is the sequence that the main character uses superpower and save a dog from the burning building by the explosion. However, it suddenly turns back to the shot of an ordinal businessman standing at the train station. Viewers will understand the superman and special power is just his imagination. Therefore, the constitution of the suicide scene in the Take of One Bad Rat I is using the same structure that the filmmaker uses. 

 Besides the film structure, it also uses the expression that only comics can do, which is coloring the gutters. I realized that when she is remembering about her past time, the gutter is colored black. Of course, a gutter is normally not appeared in other media than comics, so it could be considered as the unique expression of comics. 

 I have a lot of fun with seeing this several expression deference by reading only one book. I think this comic successfully makes the great combination of the art of literature, film, and comic. 

Week10 Japanese Comics

W10 Japanese Manga

 I have been read most of all comics posted on the course site. I was so happy to have Ranma 1/2 as a reference because Rumiko Takahashi is my second favorite manga author. My favorite manga from Rumiko Takahashi is Inuyasya, a story about a high school girl tripped to the Sengoku Era, which is about 500-800 years ago. 

Inuyasya by Rumiko Takahashi

 Compare to Osamu Tezuka’s wide-ranged accepted manga, I think Rumiko Takahashi created the basis of today’s otaku (manga geek) culture because of the stories and characters of her manga have the strong characteristic. I mean, maybe too strong for a normal customer but acceptable, or appearing for otaku. For example, most of the characters from Uruseiyatsura are very strange. Or maybe none of the characters from the manga has “normal” characteristics. The main character looks ordinal high school student, but he is a lustful boy. His rival is handsome, good at both study and sports, and rich. However, the character becomes not cool when he is in either dark or narrow space. Female characters are so cute or so beautiful by appearance, but most of them are so strong, which is stronger than any male character. I found that it is very hard to tell why they’re so strange by words. Please trust me, they are all so strange.

 Rumiko Takahashi’s manga may not be accepted for normal customers, but great for a certain type of people, who called otaku nowadays. It because the gags and stories in her manga have some sort of violent, gross, or sexual elements that may create filthy and discomfort (I’ve never had such a feeling, but maybe because I am already otaku). Also, her works are much harder to understand than Tezuka’s manga because her gags are fewer reactions compare to his works. For example, when Black Jack did the superior operation, other characters react (or explains) how his operation is great every time. On the other hand, Rumiko Takahashi usually does not put reaction to every behavior of the characters. 

 For example, this is one of the pages from Uruseiyatsura. This is a scene of a rich family conversation between son, his young sister, and his father. If I roughly translate, it would be like this in English;

Sister: Then, brother, you’re going to do matchmaking…?

Boy: I will!

Sister: N, no…

Sister: Brother! You’re vulgar!!

Father: Because she is sensitive age…

 As you can see, there is no reaction about “the strength of the sister who can use a huge hummer” and “where she suddenly gets it”. This hummer is not just an expression of the gag, but this sister's character actually strong as she can use it. If it is Tezuka’s comics or even other authors’ comics, they may have some reaction from other characters about her strength which is far from ordinal people. Since these characters are family, this scene is obviously lacking reaction. However, many scenes do not have many reactions that other authors may have. These types of non-direct gags or metaphoric gags are one of the biggest characteristics of Rumiko Takahashi’s manga. 

 However, her works are appearing for not only otaku but also girls. Because women characters in her manga are strong and ideal for girls. For example, most of every woman's characters in Uruseiyatsura are much stronger than any male characters. Girls in Ranma 1/2 are famous for their cute costumes and everyone is really strong. The heroin in Inuyasha is an ordinal high school girl, but she has a superior power than the hero is. Rumiko Takahashi’s work is shojo manga, but girls are ideally strong at a certain point(s). In other words, her manga is shojo manga but kind of taking off gender gaps. 

Rumic girls

 These strong characteristics of her manga make me a fan of this author. Her works are awesome for both shonen manga readers and shojo manga readers. I highly recommend to everyone to read her works. 

Week10 Japanese manga -video-

 Of course, I have been looking forward this week a lot from the time when I saw the syllabus of this course at the beginning of this semester. I am a big fan of Osamu Tezuka, I believe you can see a lot of the evidence from my previous blog posts.

 I would like to add another information on video, about amateur manga and fan fiction culture in Japan. For these days, amateur manga and fun fiction manga is one of the biggest genres in Japanese comics. There are many events about it throughout the year. Even the biggest one, which is called Comic Market, is held once in each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Creators bring their artworks, most of the time it is manga but sometimes games and goods as well, and sell it to the customers or creators also buy or trades other creators' work. Unlike official publishing, they create a story, make an art, print, and sell all by themselves. This is an important place to communicate with artists.

Tokyo Big Site, the most famous place for Comic Market

 Not only the physical meeting, but the internet is also an important place for creators to sell their works. Pixiv.net is one of the most famous illustration SNS in Japan. For these days, many amateur manga artists became pro manga artists from publishing their work on pixiv.net. Companies and publishers also check pixiv account a lot to find a new artist.

https://www.pixiv.net/

 I already knew the most of the instructions that told in video, but because of that, I felt really happy with it. There’s no wrong information and any stereotypes. When I had the Game History class last year, I feel sad with the textbook because the instruction about Japan-made games was totally stereotypically wrong. In one section, it says like the theme of Japanese games is a sort of adult novel game. It is not wrong, we have that kind of games and it’s cannot be seen in another country, then it could be called as characteristic of Japanese culture. However, it is not all of us. The majority of the game genre in Japan is not the type of game. Also, there was a lot of spell mistake of Japanese names both in-person and titles. I know Japan is such a strange country for Americans. I appreciate the video class because that was the most accurate information that I ever had before.

Week9 French Comics

 I have a lot of fun reading this week's assignment. I felt that the French comics are not only comics but also an art. My favorite works are Moebius and Metal Hurlant by Jean Giraud. I have been so impressed how wide is his range of art stile in these works. The character design in Moebius is more comical and stylized while humans in Metal Hurlant are so realistic. Even their styles are different, I could see the basic knowledge of human anatomy in both of them. I would like to say them as academically well-studied comics. 

I also really like how he draws the background, especially machines. His works are a really good reference for my illustration works.

 This is my illustration. I like to draw complex machines with an inked pen. When I draw an illustration in this way, I am always focusing on making rhythm. Rhythm means the composition which is created by several components of artworks such as color, value, complexity and so on. Giraud’s works are great to learn these things.

 Machines are messy with buttons and codes, but it still clear to see because he made a rhythm. Some places are very simple while some others are so complex. When there is no color and no tone, the composition will be created with complexity for the most. I think I can learn a lot from his work.

I like Ciraud's art style. I think one of the reasons is the similarity of Japanese manga. Especially Metal Hurlant and Nausicaa of the valley of the wind are similar in its style of art. I think both of them are simply well drawing.