Victoria Provost_LMST 340: Literature of Comics and The Graphic Narrative

Blog Post #3 The Comic Strip             Looking at the older comics such as Little Nemo and Krazy Kat I noticed that they have very different styles. Little Nemo has a very complex comic style using colors, dialogue bubbles, and descriptions for each panel. Reading the Little Nemo comics is very confusing because of the way the descriptions on the bottoms of the panel and not knowing if it is necessary to read the bottom of the panel first and then the dialogue or read all the dialogue at once and then the descriptions. Krazy Kat is a simpler comic using four panels and line drawings and very little dialogue. The comic strip Krazy Kat makes some jokes that I don’t understand but it could also be the humor of the time. There isn’t very much story in the Krazy Kat comic strip but it gives me a feeling of an early version of Tom and Jerry or Snoopy and Woodstock. Looking at some newer comics such as Peanuts by Charles Schulz wh...

BlogPost#2 “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud Reading “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud I think for me it did the exact opposite for what it is actually supposed to do. In his explanation of the different features of comics some of the aspects I understood but then there were some that didn’t make sense to me. The breakdown of aspects that I know from comics I thought was very helpful such as some of the terminology and the concepts of simple abstraction like getting rid of details but we still have an idea of what it is supposed to convey. One example he used was the two dots and a line and we can recognize it as a face. His comments about how something as simple as that of the face or the three circles that we instantly connect with Mickey Mouse allows users to identify with the cartoon and not just observe the cartoon but we become it. Another comment about comics that I found interesting is when he talks about the gutter or space in between panels causes us as hu...

1st panel: A street performer seems to be trying to dance to collect money. 2nd panel: There is a bird-like creature looking over the woman who is possibly the street performer from the panel before. 3rd panel: Two creatures one that is rooster like and another bird-like figure that are either burying a dead or attempting to bring her back to life. 4th panel: The creatures are searching for a way to bring the women back to life in a ritual using dark magic. 5th panel: A man with a rooster head has found someone who he cares about dead possibly the dead women in the 3rd panel that is being buried laying on the bedroom floor. 6th panel: The women seem to be in a sleeping state moving around in a strange position possibly being controlled by the rooster creature. 7th panel: Two women seem to be talking with the rooster creature asking for something they desperately need and want. 8th panel: Two women possibly from the panel before are hiding from the rooster creature who is sea...

Week #1 Blog post The Arrival by Shaun Tan              “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan has the ability to tell a great story by just using illustrations without words. The focus of the story is about an immigrant who is leaving their home to escape some issue that is affecting them. Shaun Tan said "In Australia, people don't stop to imagine what it's like for some of these refugees. They just see them as a problem once they're here, without thinking about the bigger picture. I don't expect the book to change anybody's opinion about things, but if it at least makes them pause to think, I'll feel as if I've succeeded in something." The use of the illustrations in the story and not including any words allows the reader to insert themselves in the character’s positions instead of reading through words how they feel. I think this is something that the use of just the illustrations helps convey this feeling of being in a foreign place to the re...