Maus

-->

Maus was a very wonderful and unique read. I love the way the main story, Vladek’s Story, was framed with Artie’s little visits. It was a very personal book. Vladek does not jump right into the story of the nazi oppression he first tells the story of his young life, of finding love, of the good times. Everything being told is significant to him. It’s also adorable that Vladek told his son not to mention such “private things” in his story. This also gives us a contrast to the rest of the novel.

            I am fond of the portrayal of Vladek because he reminds me of my own father. My father wasn’t in Auschwitz of course but he does do a lot of cycling. When you get older and your joints weaken walking gets harder. My dad started cycling a lot because it was an exercise that didn’t hurt his joints. I can only assume this is why we see Vladek cycling so much, and cycling as he tells his stories. Vladek also seems proud of his strength. It would only make sense that he continues exercising even in his old age. Vladek’s speech pattern’s is also a clear part of his personality. “It was so treasuring for me this package.” I loved that I could hear the Polish accent in my head as I read this.

            I also like that Spiegelman didn’t portray the characters as humans. Polish were pigs, Germans were cats, and the Jews were mice. For a brief moment in the sanitarium we saw even more animals such as rabbits, moose, and frogs. Cats and mice have a very clear relationship that was similar to the Nazis and the Jews. Mice are also seen as pests, much like how the Nazis saw the Jews. I also like that when the he was portraying his father pretending to be a pole he portrayed him as a mouse wearing a pig mask. By using anthropomorphic characters Spiegelman has made the meaning stronger. This is part of the visuals but it really adds to the story.

            The story is filled with heartbreaking moments. Everything you’d expect from a holocaust survivor. It was interesting to see how the characters dealt with the tragedies. When Vladek’s son dies he reacts in just a small panel but when Lolek decides to face the ovens there is an entire page dedicated to this tragedy. I thought about why his nephew death got a page while his son got a panel. It was because of Anja. Comforting his wife was what made the moment so memorable. She was a wreck but he wasn’t going to let her give up.

            Spiegelman clearly can’t stop thinking of his own mother as he interacts with his father. He wants her story. He also filled with guilt since his mother’s suicide. We see this in his comic Prisoner on the Hell Planet. He is a prisoner of guilt. He always asking his father for his mother’s diaries so he have the story of both his parents. When Spiegelman learns that his father burned the diaries he loses it. Especially when he hears that the stories were intended to be read by him. Spiegelman his furious that he doesn't have his mother’s story to tell. As a reader I am also sad that I don’t have her story to read. In a way the writer and the reader mourn the loss of a story. I also thought it was extremely clever the way Spiegelman ended the first Maus by calling his father a murderer. He also ended Prisoner on the Hell Planet by calling his mother a murderer. It is a wonderful connection between the two moments in time. It’s incorrect to say Maus is just about the Holocaust. It’s about the Spiegalman family.

Underground Comics

For the underground comics I read Greaser. It’s really strange comic written in the 70’s set in the 50’s. The comic starts with the main character doing the old hole in the bottom of the popcorn box gag on a movie date with his girlfriend. Through out the entire comic I have trouble finding the protagonist; I don’t think there is one. For a while it seemed as if the comic was applauding the greaser lifestyle since it was centered around it. We see the greasers terrorize people. In the end the greaser push some one too far. They both get their brains blown by a shot gun only to have their killer commit suicide. Who’s the protagonist? All the characters with a significant amount of lines are dead. What’s the point? Without a real story this comic seemed more like a freakshow. The comic would only be read just so people could obtain an offensive view of gender and Italians. The paneling was awful and art. It was clearly handled amateurs, but I guess most underground comics were. One strange thing that stuck out for me was on the back there and illustration of a greater harassing a woman, on the bottom it said sexism was out. I didn’t understand it all. Was the comic sexist and hated feminism? Did the comic not believe in sexism? Maybe the comic was actually against sexism and using the disgusting characters as an example of what not to be? I don’t know but I also don’t want to read Greaser to find out.

Sally Cruikshank’s work actually made me laugh. It was a little hard at first because the animation is low quality but it was entertain. Seeing Sally’s work I now know that the show Rocko’s Modern Life is must be based off of it. In fact most of Joe Murray’s work must be inspirted by Sally Cruikshank. It was very interesting to see the work of a significant figure of animated programming.

#4 Brief History of Comic Books

#4

I read Tin Tin in Tibet. In the class people said that the dialogue was tedious because the characters would unnecessarily explain the visual information. I didn’t get that in this comic. Haddock could get into crazy antics with and ox without anyone explaining it. It might be because it’s a later comic. Tin Tin was still a little tedious to read. I think it was because of the way the panels were laid out. There were about 15 panels per page all with the same height. Lengthy dialogue, such as reading a letter would be stretched out through four panels. If this were a modern comic it would most likely be fit all in one panel and the panel would be stretched to take half the page.  I also noticed that a lot of the panels would use the same composition or “camera angle.” This makes Tin Tin seem inspired by film composition. I understand why the Tin Tin cartoon was so popular. The comic really translates will to the silver screen. It’s like reading storyboards. I love storyboards so it was an entertaining read. It is interesting to see the clear line between Tin Tin and modern comics just by the way the pages are organized.

One thing I do love about Tin Tin is that it is an action adventure comic aimed towards children. It handles the audience and the genre really well. There is just enough comedy and just enough excitement. I enjoyed that all the characters have clear personalities, even Snowy gets internal dialogue.

            The EC comics were extremely entertaining. I can’t believe I’ve never read them before. The art is fantastic. The story and transitions are all done so well. The treatment of story reminded me of the Twilight Zone. The episodes had separate characters and plots but it was still the Twilight Zone.

            Carl Bark’s stories were also fantastic. I love how, unlike most of the newspaper comics we looked at last week, it was funny. The comedy is well thought out. This must be the point in time when writing started to get better. It’s a shame Barks didn’t get enough credit. He really did make a big impact.