Comics: A Better Means To An Artistic End
If a line of symmetry were to be drawn down the center of the paper, it would seem that each character rests within his environment about to collide with the other. Even without words, a vivid story begins to formulate in my mind, and hopefully I share the artist's vision.
Comic book art is the Pez dispenser of modernism. The aesthetics of this accessible medium walk side by side with pop culture. No other art form can reach so many people due to its incredible volume. Each Wednesday of every week brings new issues of titles that have been in circulation for decades. Despite the vast numbers that arrive at retailers each month and the respect they sometimes receive (like Art Speigelman's Pulitzer Prize winning Maus), comics are under appreciated in the literary world, but why? They use a clever organization of symbols to express concepts shared by all people in their own social environment, and provide more tools than conventional art to truly show artistic intention.
Comic artists choose to express personal thought with universally complex themes through a symbolic medium. No one refutes the idea that comics do not demonstrate realistic form. Comic artists do not attempt to portray the simple beauty of the natural world; rather, they try to relate a universal idea with a stylistic approach. Magritte's painting of a pipe with the inscription, "this is not a pipe," at the bottom demonstrates the way in which comic books are misunderstood. In his explanation of the art form, Scott McCloud uses pictures of various characters following Magritte's structure. For example, he draws a picture of a cow and states that "this is not a cow" (McCloud 26). The pictures only resemble what we a...
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... connection. A conventional expressionist must assume that the observer realizes the purpose of his or her art. Many people see a portrait as just a portrait, when the mood and the intricate detail of the face add to its meaning. Comics, on the other hand, are expected to be symbols enveloped in a detailed history that replaces the wobbling bridge between reader and artist with a strong one suspended by invisible messages from creator to potential viewer, messages anyone can see.
Works Cited
Carrier, David. The Aesthetics of Comics. University Park: The Pennsylvania State
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Crain, Dale, ed. Batman: Black and White. New York: DC Comics, 1998.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper
Perennial, 1993.
Thompson, Don, and Dick Lupoff, eds. The Comic-Book Book. New York: Arlington
House, 1973.
Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet. “An Historical Allusion In Cheever's 'The Swimmer'.” Studies In Short
Cheever, John. “The Swimmer”. Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary. 6th ed. Ed. Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
In the 40s, comic books had a large audience. There would have been at least a dozen people in your class who read comics, claims Chabon. A few years later in the 70s, there would have been less than a dozen but more than one or two people who read comics. Now, it is hard to find more than a few people that you know who actually read comics. If you read comics today, you are considered unique. Children are loosing interest in everything that stimulates the mind in a positive way. Chabon claims that the obvious decline in interest in comic books should make authors want to take initiative and fix the
Why comic becomes famous? Comic is sequential art or text. According to the Wikipedia, The Pride of Bahgdad is the graphic novel written by Brian Vaughan. This story considered as anthropmorphic story (using animals/ rocks/ flowers as symbol) books since Animal Farm. The four main characters in the story are Zill, Noor, Safa, and Ali. The Lady and The Tramp is the love story between Cocker Speniel Dog and Streetwise downtown Mutt that launched in 1995.
AShmoop Editorial Team. "Constitution FAQ." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
In the short story The Swimmer by John Cheever, one of the dominant themes is the passage of time. In this short story time seems to pass as reality does with us unaware of its passing. The main character is the protagonist hero, Neddy Merrill who embarks on a traditional theme of a homeward journey. The scene opens on a warm mid-summer day at an ongoing pool party with Neddy and his wife Lucinda. The pool is “fed by an artesian well with a high iron content, was a pale shade of green.
...his story the main message that life is short and he succeeded by using point of view, setting and symbolism. “The Swimmer” can teach many readers not to waste valuable time like Neddy did when drinking, caring about insincere relationships among social status, and taking his family for granted. Cheever’s usage of literary elements not only displays the theme of “The Swimmer”, but also organizes passages of events for the reader to experience throughout the story. John Cheever once said, “The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness” (Good Reads). He perfectly illustrates this objective in “The Swimmer.”
John Cheever uniquely crafted the story “The Swimmer” by using a mix of surrealism and realism throughout the story. Most people when they read “The Swimmer” they have to reevaluate it to comprehend what is happening. The reason for that is because Cheever shifts between surrealism and realism so much that the reader does not even notice. The story starts out with Neddy being so strong and youthful, but as the story goes on he weakens and ages. When he was youthful Neddy decided to swim every pool in his neighborhood. As he ages and weakens, the pools get harder to swim and the seasons pass without him even noticing.
Cheever, John, ”The Swimmer”, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. San Francisco: Longman, 2013.250-257
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
The Golden Age of Comics was perhaps the greatest era in comic book history. Many people loved the comics during this time period because they were all stories about good triumphing over evil. Many of these stories reflected over historical events over the time period. “Pro-American characters were popular due to the time period occuring mostly during World War II.” (PBS)
Literature has learned to grow and progress over the years, but still till this day graphic novels are having trouble with being accepted as literature. Good literature is a piece of work that can incorporate writing and illustrations that pulls the reader in and leads them throughout the book. After reading a couple of graphic novels I have to disagree with the scholars who believe that they aren’t a piece of literature. Each graphic novel tells a story just like “regular” novels do. They each capture your imagination and keep you interested. They may look childish to some, but you should never judge a book by its cover. “Graphic novels that succeed as literature escape the norm and invite critical discussion, analysis, and, often, comparison with text-only books featuring similar situations, climactic crises, or aesthetics” (Goldsmith). Graphic novels tell a story, draw in a different audience, and expands a reader’s imagination, so with that said, they should be considered as literature.
...in their respective Black (home) communities and the White (Georgia) dominated community they are apart of. Despite the fact that both of these communities are very different, these females are still heavily oppressed in each. While there is the ability to move out of class, the characters in The Color Purple are still placed in their social positions because of the intersection of their race, gender, and sexuality.
When students learn how to read in elementary school, teachers would teach students how to read comic books and as students we see that the comics would give the animals multiple human traits. Many comic books substitute animals and give them human-like characteristics, such as the ability to talk and walk upright. However, the debate rages on as to what type of animal makes a good character and what type of animal makes a bad character. Comic writers would often use different types of animals that are naturally seen in the real world and they would determine what type of role they would have in the comic book. Also the cartoonist would determine who should prevail, who should not, and their emotions towards one another.