Panel by Panel

Illustrated comic series are indeed illustrated. First of all, they are amazingly beautiful. The Flash Gordon's characters all look so anatomically perfect, like from the student anatomy books.  I want to take some images to study anatomy and great posing.  But not only bodies of the characters are amazing. The whole way the artist paints his comics. They are very colorful, with exciting color choices. The artist could not take the mixes of the colors and only the pure, clean colors and think about how to place them together.  That is how sometimes the ground can become blue and the sky pure red. This is very unusual and interesting. But I think it fits the story because the story goes from Earth's planet where everything can happen. Dinosaurs, monsters, lion people, the underwater realm, birds people, and more and more.  And this fantasy sci-fi combination makes the artist use bright colors that fit the story.  It is interesting that to the comic's end, the art...

Calvin and Hobbes -  It is a four-panel comic strip. This time characters here are more pronounced from the very begging. A father and his small boy with a vivid imagination think that his best friend's tiger toy is alive.  And based on this characters characteristics come all the funny situations.  Comparing with the "Peanuts", I would say that "Calvin and Hobbes" are less fun for me. But the style of the drawings I enjoyed more with "Calvin and Hobbes." This style is just more straightforward to read. I think mostly because of a lot of free white space around the characters. It allows the audience's eyes to breathe a little and make the overall comic to read better.  As for the story, I liked those characters, but not as much as with Peanuts. I think this is a very personal subject. I enjoyed Peanuts character's more just because I can relate to some situations. For example, I have a dog too. And Peanuts dog reminds me of him. And for Calvin ...

 Peanuts I read the early comic strips of "Peanuts" from 1950 and more late ones from 1985. There some significant differences I noticed.  Artists developed his style and style of his characters. Their big heads are still significant, but some features are now very recognizable. Like the shape of the eyes, nose, or the way they walk. The more significant change happened to the dog. First, he was just a small puppy, and he was like a side character. But in more later comics, he became more significant and now a fully developed character independently.  The structure of Peanuts is genius. And it stayed the same throughout the history—four panels in each story, black and white drawing with no shading. Very fun and easy to read and fast to draw, that is why there are so many of them. Thought the style might seem very simple, it is tough to make a complete joke in just four shots. But Charles Shulz makes it amazingly. Sometimes jokes are verbal, as the moment with Charlie Brow...

 Major Ozone. I think that Major Ozone is one of the uniquest characters I have ever met in comics.  He is just a simple old man who wants to enjoy the fresh air. That is it. And around such a specific and unusual situation, the artist creates a lot of hilarious comic strips. Most of them are based on slapstick or action humor.  The character gets hit, gets into a heavy smoke, or falls into the water—all drawn in a hilarious and expressive cartoony style.  But the funniest situations for me were when they are based on verbal humor.  Like strip when Major Ozone sits near the open window, and in the next window, his neighbor smokes a very smelly pipe. Major Ozone says that the man's pipe smoke smells fantastic. He kept saying that until the man closed his window, not to make Ozone smell this "beautiful" smoke. The last comment of the major Ozone made me smile.  He said that that is what he calls Diplomacy.  This is amazing how many situations you can mak...

 Comic Strips.  Out of all the massive amounts of comic strips in the collection, I enjoyed the most - "Buck and Roger"  and "Prince Valiant."  I thought that the panels were very colorful, with attractive color choices for a space tale. The style in both comics is fantastic. Looks like book illustrations. And for the first case, it was interesting what subject the author took - the space adventure. This sci-fi genre in the artist's imagination of the early 20th century looks very interesting. All the designs look futuristic but old at the same time. The costumes reminded me more of the fantasy book, somewhat the sci-fi space genre. But it is more interesting that way. It was also fascinating to see the female astronaut character—something I wasn't expected to see in such early comics.  The paneling I thought was pretty modern for the early comics. Some panels have no borders and flow one into each other, as some modern comics do.  Overall I am truly amazed...

 Little Nemo.  I read the "Little Nemo" comics from 1905 and 1910 years.  I noticed that in the 1905 version, there are bubbles with words of what characters are saying. But also a panel under each image, explaining what is going on. Because of that, the reading is slowing down significantly.  In the 1910 version, there are only bubbles. It looks like the artist understood that it is easier to write everything in bubbles or show it in images. I would say that the 1910 version is more comics like than 1905 because of that.  In the 1905 version, all the stories are separate. They all are telling about a boy who sees a weird dreams and every time wakes up, sometimes in bad situations. Each story is a story with the beginning, middle, and an end. And in the 1910 version, all the stories are connected. They all continue each other and tell a story of the same boy. And in his again peculiar dream, he is now traveling on his airship and sometimes helps people and creat...

  I always wanted to create a small and simple comic strip for my father. He has a super cute puppy. This dog is adorable but awkward and often gets into funny situations. I always thought that he is an excellent subject for comic strips.  And after reading "Peanuts", especially the early ones, I got inspired and did four small comics in the "Peanuts" format.  I enjoyed the simplicity of "Peanuts", and that many situations are very understandable even without words.  Plus, a super simple black and white art style help the audience read these strips fast without hesitation.  I did wordless situations that happened to my father's dog and made these comics in two styles. Black and white and colored with some old print tone effect. I thought that this is also an excellent reference to some colorful early comic strips by other artists, like the comic strip of "Little Nemo."  I also found that animals are an excellent subject for comic strips situa...

1) I think that at the beginning of the Archie phenomenon,  Archie's comics were popular among teenagers, especially among girls. Of course, I might be wrong, but I believe that such stories about teenage relationships are more popular among girls than boys. But now, I am sure that everyone who is already in love with these characters can relax and read it no matter of age or gender.  I think that as soon as you get familiar with the characters and with their simple full of funny moments of life, you fall in love with them and want to read more.  For some people, these comics might also be very relatable. These stories are usually light, simple, and funny, so you can relax while reading them.  2) Archie's comics have main characters, and all the situations that are happening are all happening with these characters. And this idea is repeating in every comic. Each time there can be different situations, from simple relationship misunderstanding to the second world war,...

 Reading the "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud was a delightful experience.  I want to be a comic artist, and since 16 years old, I was drawing comics for fun. I have never been taught how to do that. And I never was thinking how good am I doing it. I was looking at art and idea and was paneling intuitively without thinking. That is why it was exciting to discover in chapter three, six types of paneling.  Moment-to-moment, Action-to-Action, Subject-to-Subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and Non-sequitur.  I looked at my comics and found out that I was rarely using type 5 and 6. But I found these types interesting, so I will try to implement these types in my paneling. I think it can add a lot of depth to the atmosphere and story in the comic.  Then in chapter 4, I discovered something that I wasn't thinking about either. That by changing the shape of the panel, you can make the time go slower and faster. This is such a brilliant idea that I have nev...

 It was tough to come up with some logical story in my mind after reading Max Ernst's "Un Semain de Bonte." The first part about the rooster laughter is very surrealistic, and many pictures don't create a clear idea in my head, but I think that is what the author wanted. This novel should be personal to every reader, and everyone will "understand" something in these pictures that only they can assume. What did I see in this story? Well, in every picture, there is a rooster, a small and normal one, or a human-like one. And it looks like women are afraid of these roosters. In some images, they are standing close to the woman's grave. In another, they take a woman by force, and in one, they even are torturing them. So it might be a story about witches and the inquisition that was catching, torturing, and killing a lot of women.  Another idea is that these roosters are like attitude, bad ideas, events, or thoughts inside human brains. That makes people act a...

 "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan very impressed me!  First of all, I have never read s full comic book story without words. I thought it would be very unusual for me, but it was an excellent decision for the new place's atmosphere where you don't know anything or anyone. Even a language for you is unknown. So the fact that this comic had no words significantly helped me understand the main character's feelings.  As an international student, I am very aware of everything the hero of the book was experiencing. The memories of a home-place by some details or fragments. The painful family goodbye. The anxiety of the passport control on the border. Even finding a place to live and settle down in the new and exotic for your location.  It is fascinating how well the artist conveyed all the stress and the excitement of moving to a new place into art.  The gray scale with brown tins is perfect for this type of story, making you feel uncomfy but interested. Realistic drawing...

The  Comic Book History of Comics  by  Fred Van Lente  and  Ryan Dunlavey  is a smart and exciting way to find out more about the favorite media.  I would not say that this comic was easy to read thought. Usually, when you read a sequential art, you are exposed to the main character and follow his/her adventures. But in real life, history is made by a lot of people. That is why it was a bit hard to follow the story in the beginning. But as soon as main "characters" as Jack Kirby, William Eisner, Stephen Ditko, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster, and of course, Stan Lee, the story began to come together in my head, and it was now easier to follow. I guess this is understandable. In the beginning history of comics, there was no one storyline. There were trials and errors to make a new massive media that no one believed will become a significant part of the art.  It is particularly amusing how publishers could not realize why their Action Comics were sel...