Panel by Panel

 I love listening to the Beatles, and for sure, I never knew that the famous four had a fifth element of the group. And perhaps if not him, we would never hear any song from the Beatles.  The story about Brian Epstein feels very warm and comforting. But with just one element that keeps going through the entire comic, the story doesn't make fully relax. The fact that Brian is always taking his pills to rest makes you feel uneasy.  But you try to forget about it while watching how Brian dresses up the dirty, messy Beatles boys, how he is giving them a style, a recognizable look. How he teaches them like a kind father how to behave, not to swear. How he fights for their music to see the light. How he believed in them with his whole heart and was saying all the time that they would be more famous than Presley. And how terrible it was on him their decision to break to stop recording. How he could not sleep and took too many pills and fell asleep forever. In some ways, we, as a...

  March I love such types of comics like March - the non-fiction comics.  This is an excellent way for all the people who don't like to read or for children to learn science or history. Usually, autobiography or history books are boring to read, especially for young adults. When this topic is transformed into a graphic narrative format, it becomes much clearer and much more fun to read.  And with March I think this works very well. Politics history is complicated. And most of the time, it is tough to make people feel the event through blank text. But when visuals are involved, the story makes you think and understand situations and problems you even don't associate with. And with some topics, it is essential to know how others feel in certain situations, and pictures with great expressions and poses are helping people become more emphatic. As an international student, I don't know much about US political history, and it was interesting for me to discover the life of such ...

Classes attended - 7 classes Classes missed - 0 Week one - "The comic Book History of Comics": 3 points, "The Arrival", "Un Semain de Bonte": 1 point = 7 points Week two - "Understanding Comics": 3 points, Archie's comics: 4 points = 7 points Week three - My comic strips ( Comic track: ? points), Little Nemo: 2 points, Comic strips: 4 points, George Herman comic strips: 2 points,  "Peanuts": 2 points, "Calvin and Hobbes": 2 points, Case 3: The illustrated Comic Strips: 2 points = 14 points + comics track Week four - Jack Kirby "New Gods", "The young Romance", story boards: 3 points, E.C. Comics "Weird Science 07", "Weird Fantasy 22" and 13: 2 points, Carl Barks: 2 points = 7 points Week five - "Blankets" and "Contract with God" = 6 points  Week six - Zap Comix No 0-5 : 5 points, Arcade Nos. 1-7: 3 points, Middle - class Fantasies No 1, Complete Crumb Comics Vol.1 ...

Maus is a massive graphic novel that is hard to read. Not only because of the hard theme but because of how it is drawn.  The drawings are black and white, without any shading. Just thick, heady lines and a lot of small panels per only one page. These thick lines made me feel that the artist had a big hand while drawing his comic.  The way panels are packed makes the reading process slow and hard.  And think that no matter if this is the artist's style or he made this artistic choice, this way of drawing adds more feelings to the story. The story is about a young artist that wants to make a comic about his parent's story. About how they survived the horrors of Nazi Germany. While he is telling his father's story, he is also trying to figure out why the war made his father this way and why his mother killed herself.  This is a personal story that is told by the events that touched millions.  I liked this graphic novel, even though it was a challenging experience....

 Zap Comix No 0-5 After reading Zap Comix, I had a feeling that I came back to the old comic strips panels style. The art style of a different artist, just like in early comics, is very whimsical, in some parts sketchy, not accurate, and sometimes disgusting. The paneling style stayed the same. Some even frames on the page tell the story or not tell it at all, but just give us bits of information. The story style sometimes is peculiar but innocent, but most of the time extremely adult like. Although for me, these themes about sex, lust, and laughs because of it are not adult ( I think adult stories are maybe simple in themes but at least a little deep), but the opposite. I had a feeling that people who were doing these strips were more children if these themes are the only ones they could draw about. But I guess taking the times these comics were made, it was an act of protest for these people. A gesture to show everyone that they can do whatever they want, and they are not afraid ...

 It is interesting how it was much easier for me to find both Will Eisner's "Contract with God" and Craig Thompson "Blankets" in my country bookstores than Superheroes comics or Peanuts.  I think my country was first introduced to the world of comics starting with graphic novels and only then later with something else, at least that is I remember it since my childhood.  Maybe that is why it was much easier to read these two novels then Jack Kirby's comics or comic strips.  Something about this style feels right to me. It may be the art style, pacing, paneling, or just the fact that the story is told more like a real novel. The pictures read like a novel.  The art style of both Craig Thompson and Will Eisner is simple yet very beautiful. Even though it is much more cartoony than the superheroes art style, it feels more real. More clear. All emotions are very clear because of the style, all the body poses are very expressive, each drawing with its expressions,...

It was so lovely to read such appealing and easily comics books by Carl Barks.  For me, reading his comics was almost the same experience as watching a cartoon with just a little be more words. Maybe it is because of the characters I mostly saw in the TV series or the great clear and cartoony art style. Or maybe because the was author tells the story is just very clear and straightforward. Yet stories themselves are interesting to read because most of them are adventures and give me Indiana Jones vibes.  Plus author uses some story elements that you can't often find in the comics that days like, for example, parallel storytelling. When in the 'Prize of Pizarro," characters are moving forward to find the treasure, and in the meantime, the villagers are trying to stop them. Still, every time unsuccessfully, so the main characters can't even see them.  The mains characters themselves are very interesting. I really like how the author introduced us to the main character fe...

I really enjoyed reading "Weird Science 07" And other Weird comics, like "Weird Fantasy 22" or 13. I found myself genuinely caught up with the story and wanted to find out what will happened next.  I noticed that in many stories, the end keeps unclear or with the question or unshown horror or mystery.  For example, when a scientist went to the fourth dimension and had come back with a look of horror in his eyes. And authors just leave us with the question - " I wonder what did he saw in the fourth dimension that scared him so much?" I love how this idea just leaves unshown because the author knew that audience's imagination would draw the bigger horror picture in their head on their own.  The same thing happened with the story about scientist's love. He was hiding her from his wife and turned her into a statue with her device.  His wife broke the statue, and the scientist picked up the pieces to make his girl come back, but at the very last second,...

 I decided to read the "New Gods" by Jack Kirby because this is a universe and the characters I didn't know before.  It is hard to say something new about the art of Jack Kirby's work. It is just brilliant—godlike looking characters. The line art looks just right with the line width and the amount of it in the image. By looking at this art, you may be sure that the artist who drew it had an excellent line control. The colors are very bright, but they all work together perfectly. It is okay for the ground to become blue and for the sky to become red. It will still read as ground and the sky. And I like this simplicity in colors. I think it brings more creativity to art.  But not also art is excellent here. I really enjoyed the universe and characters that Kirby creates. The world seems complicated, significant, and yet understandable. The good old fight between good and evil is now takes here in planetary masses.  The most fantastic thing is the main character. I was ...