March

For the Class lecture on stereotypes in comics, I decided to read "The March" by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. It is a three part graphic novel about the civil rights movement from the perspective of U.S Congressmen John Lewis.  It jumps back and forth in time weaving together two points in history. Both time lines are progressing forwards side by side. It is a very powerful historical drama about the forefront of the student movement into the civil rights movement.  It did a great job of chronologically showing the events that really launched the movement as well as how it progressed and the obstacles that they had to face. The beautiful black, grey and white illustrations reflect the seriousness and powerful subject. If it was super cartoony it would have separated it too much from reality,  Nate Powell found an graphic and powerful way to visually tell the story. Each panel has a great composition, as well as the page lay-out.  moving away from the visuals of the Novel, I wanna relate it back to the lecture on stereotypes. This novel does a great job of not using stereotypes, every character who is in the novel was based on or representing a real person.  The creators of the book are often times in pictures standing next to Congressmen John Lewis.  I am not sure if he had a hand in this project, but his support of the novel gives the work validity.  It is more of a visual history, forcing on the events then it does focusing on the individuals. Even so all the the characters have a grounding in history. It pushes back on the long history of stereotyped blacks in comics.  The best art is created when the artist has a personal connection to their work and knows where they are coming from.

Maus

I have a fair amount to say on the graphic novel "Maus", by Art Spiegelman.  It was a very well done and thought provoking read.  After finishing it I had a very interesting  conversation with my Mother (like art is a Jew from New York).  In this essay I am going to relate my mothers and Art's experiences with growing up with survivors of the holocaust, as well as my own experience when reading this novel.

My mother was raised Jewish in a very orthodox community in the middle of Queens.  She was surrounded by survivors of the holocaust, and grew up with their stories.  Her experiences are in some way very relatable to Art Spiegelman. I am part of the second generation of Jews that are separated from the holocaust. My direct grandparents were not in Europe during the holocaust, but I do have more distant relatives that lived through it as well as perished in the camps.  I was talking to my mom about reading this novel and much to my surprise she read it when it first came out.  This shocked me, because my mom does not read comics. The idea of her voluntarily picking up this one was amazing.  The book really did achieve reaching a new audience, just like Art's father states in the novel about how Art's comic would. Unfortunately, my mother didn't finish the comic, she remembers that the Art did not believe his father.  This idea stuck and she put down the book, I personally don't understand why she thought this.  If anything, he was mad about his father burning up others stories, such as his mother’s diary and the letters to the French prisoner. When I was reading it, there was a lot of thoughts that both my mother and Art shared. Most of these thoughts are about about of survivor’s guilt.  There is a great scene where Art and his wife talk about how he fantasizes about being in the camp with his parents so he can truly understate as well as having guilt about having it too early in life in comparison to the hard ship of his elders. I have had similar discussion with my mother and I have a feeling that a lot of the generations of Jews that came after the War have had similar trains of thought.  The Holocaust has changed the voice and culture of the Jewish population.

Reading "Maus" took me a couple of days to get through. There are a couple of parts  in the Novel that got to me and I needing to pause in order process the situation fully.  The most impactful part of the Novel for me was when he was recalling his experience on the train.  I can't describe my horror and deep sadness when reading about how he tied up his blanket and hung above 200 other men in a 9 by 4-foot box with only a few small windows. The whole description from the starvation, bartering food for snow as well as the body count just really hit me.  I can't mentally grasp the whole horror of this.  I have experienced feeling so cramped to can't move, but not for days or weeks. I have experienced hunger, but not to the extent that Art's father talks about.  I can only imagine living in once own filth as well as being surrounded by the dead and dying.  All of this on its own is horrid, but it’s the fact that the Germans would open up the doors every couple of day and have them kick out the dead.  The majority of the book had hardships like this, but that one really sticks with me.  I also grew up hearing the horrors of the holocaust but they to me at least until I got older felt more like cautionary fairytales.  When I was little I couldn't comprehend the idea of millions of people, just like me and my own family suffering to such an extent. It wasn't really until I started to get bullied at school for being Jewish until I realized that this event was not that far in the past.  That people still are very anti-somatic and genesis still happen today.  I really enjoyed the levels that Art put into this book, not only the story of his father survival but also his own relationship with his father.  Over all it gave me a lot to think about and be thankful for. 

Gay Comix #1-#3

Gay Comix #1-#3

The gay culture is more or less excepted in today’s mainstream media, Unlike the case in the 70s where it was more of an underground don’t ask don’t tell policy. When we were assigned to read underground comics, we were warned that it would be offensives and crud. The Gay Comix’s that I read was a bit on the racy side but overall it had a positive and normalization of gays in society. From stories of a son being finally excepted by his mom in a lude but supportive post card to a life story of love and lose. The comic is a collection of stories, some are short jokes poking fun at gay culture at the time and others where little slices of life, more often than not being very down to earth. I did note the similarities and differences between the culture of the 80’s vs todays culture. A lot did stay in vogue like vide of gay bars the fascination of young love. There are also social issues in the gay community that still persisted today such as the acceptance of transgender into the community.  Where they belong in the community and how in some community don’t except them based of their sexual preferences not in the same way as their own. Another issue that the comic hit on it the black culture and Racal preferences/ sexual preferences in a partner.  The stories just brought up these topics and personal stories but it ended without a solution as well as an option on what is right in wrong. It just pointed out that situation. Even though these comics would be more scandalous, but a lot of the topic and stories are still relevant today. You could take most of these stories and transplant them into todays and it still be relevant to the modern day gay culture.

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

Absurd, offensive and hysterical sums up my feelings about the "Freak Brothers".  It is a tale of three brothers that only real goal is to get one hell of a good hit.  This leads to mayhem and hysterical  events, sepecally when they have my quorums with trick or hating other to get what they want. In one of the story one of the brother gets hunger after a hit, but there is nothing in the fridge. So after crashing his brothers out with a butcher knife the brother run down the street and into a local midnight grocers.  One of the brothers tricks once tucking in his hair tricks the owner, telling him he is on candid camera TV.  The grocer believes him, and lets the hunger brother completely trash his story and eat everything in sight. The two other brother take what every they can stacked tall on the tummy of the brother who ravaged the shop and run off into the night.  Its at this point there is a whole page of the store owner looking shocked and waiting for the "hidden camera man" so come out.  It is at this point it the story I personally had to stop and go back because it was just such a bad joke.  Between the hair being tucked in, the hystarical faces and get timing for the jokes. It was quit a fun read. :)