Week 6: Comic from the Underground

Underground Comic

Nick Fury's Embraces was censored with a close up of his gun

     From reading the underground comic, I have noticed that all if not most of the comics adhered to the cartoonish aesthetic and art style of the traditional "comic" at the time. Irregardless of the comic, its contents artist or story almost all the comics presented still carried the overall art style of the comic strip. and in some cases, They parody other comics. Additionally he under ground comics are un-apologetically raunchy by nature, gone are the days of hard censorship of mundane things ("Strange Tales Vol 1 168) and instead we are presented with the uncut, raw nature of the comic and their artist. This was now a medium of expression in which censorship meant nothing. It was about the raunchy, gritty laugh of the story. Funnily enough this is what the parents of "reading comic will rot your brain" will shudder at the thought of the raunchy comic.

     This all in part can bee seen as the evolution of the comic as the underground comic can now tread new ground with a more mature audience opening the way for new stories and art-styles that cater to the more gritty. It went from one extreme of family friendly to the extreme of adult.

Week Two: Comprehension of Early Comics

 Early Comics

     Early depictions of the traditional comic where more or less a glimpse into the "normal everyday" of the people. I catered to the common folk and didn't depict grand overarching stories or multi-issued plots that needed multiple runs in order to tell a story. Instead I saw the early comics akin to that of court jester. A piece of medium for the average folk to view and relate to and even laugh at. Like the early comics of Hogarth, It was made not as a piece of art following the traditional "prison of rules" but instead viewed as a medium of expression and freedom. In some aspects it has the challenge of conveying an entire story all with in a single frame even. From cause to effect.Additionally the early comics didn't have words but instead expressed it purely through visuals and illustrations. This was possibly due to in part that the comic depicted relatable content to its readers.

Week One: An Arrival

The Arrival

   The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a very visual medium of story telling, relying solely on art panels to tell the story without any text or dialogue. From my perspective the story is similar to the stories of immigrants from Ellis Island. It tells the story of an immigrant without any knowledge of the culture or language coming to a foreign place in order to either escape persecution or to help provide his family with resources/income. 

It achieves this without any use of text or written narrative and instead conveys the story through "shared" assumptions/experiences. It makes good use of context to drive forward the story of the characters. Context is the key here as most of the panels by themselves aren't anything special as without context they become meaningless.

Additionally the comic makes use of share or assumed experiences. These shared experiences help in creating the context for the reader. From a man not knowing how to read the language of the new country to struggling to hold a job, to having conversations with people. For example the comic is colored in a sepia like hue that would be found in old photos drawings and newspapers at the time. This would convey the feeling of age and antiquity to those that have ever looked at anything old. Like this panel for example of a family having dinner together. To a majority of people this scenes conveys a sense of familiarity/connection to the readers that have experienced this/ watched this play out in other mediums. (Scene from the Godfather echoes the same feelings of a family dinner)