Graphic novel

Comic books are contemporary forms of art that touch in the categories of art, literature, and entertainment. From DC and Marvel (which are my personal favorites) to the other comic book companies and brands that are less known by the outside readers, there is a broad range of comic book characters and story lines. Like art and literature, comic books and their characters, styles, and icons change over the course of time. Similar to entertainment in general, these changes are made to better the…

Contrary to what people say we all judge books by their covers! When we look at comic book covers there is often a clear representation of a certain genre. The genres have varying art styles to match, along with color schemes, even certain words that trigger certain genre expectations. This is prevalent, especially in the 40’s with Plastic Man # 19 and True Crime Comics #2. The true crime genre was undoubtedly one of the most memorable genres of comics during the 40’s. It had highly deplorable…

The two comics, Wee Pals by Morrie Turner and Boondocks by Aaron McGruder, handled the issue of race in radically different manners. Wee Pals included many racial groups in addition to white and African American including Asian and Native American. Turner’s diverse group of characters take turns poking fun at each other with such gags as comparing the Rotary Club to a gang. While the comic started in sadly few papers, the popularity of this comic went through the roof after the death of Martin…

As I walked down the street to a local comic book shop, I thought to myself “what am I going to read today”. I walked into the store not knowing what I was going to get, so I started looking around and found several different brands of comics. There was Marvel, DC Universe, and Dark Horse Comics. I looked at them all and it was crazy there were so many good titles like “Deadpool”, ”Star Wars”,and ”Batman”. I was so intrigued by it all I must have sat there for hours daydreaming. It was hard…

Stigma: Comic Books There is no question that the nerd ethos is active as another summer approaches presenting a plethora of superhero movies. But Hollywood supremacy aside, there is still a stigma involved in this culture. I am going to discredit some of the stereotypes. The stigma I address of is what individuals normally think of as the “nerd of comic books”. You know the type: kind of an underdog, a Star Wars or comic book fanatic, unaware of the superior world around them. Superhero movies…

Before the semester started, I assumed everyone communicated with each other using the same language, or even body movements, but as time progressed with our fandom assignments, I realized the community that shares the same fandom can say terms or phrases and they will understand each other. For example, when I hear the quote “With great power comes great responsibility.” For most that share the Marvel fandom, the majority will be able to reply back where that quote came from, which is the…

A great comic book is a parody of the real world with its heroes and heroines behave similarly to how an ordinary person would behave if he or she was to put in the same situation. A great comic book takes place in a world that is similar to the real world but with an added twist which has a profound but believable effect on its world. With such a heavy inspiration from the real world, it is not surprising that the world of comic books has similar social issues to that of the real world. These…

English 204 Final: Question 1b In his essay Jack Kirby and the Marvel Aesthetic, Charles Hatfield credits Kirby for introducing an “epic approach to the superhero genre that was ‘mythic’ both in its scale an in its pantheonic complications” (149). Marvel’s comic book universe is a platform where writers can have characters from one narrative interact with anyone else in that universe. It opens up new possibilities for creative storytelling and can lead to large scale adventures with far reaching…

“Maus” by Art Spiegelman is a compelling and masterful story of survival told by Art’s father, Vladek Spiegelman. A Jew that lived in Poland during World War II. Vladek’s accounts are recorded and published in an odd manner. Instead of the traditional biography of a Holocaust survivor, like the Elle Wiesel’s “Night,” “Maus” was made into a comic book. Not only was “Maus” a comic book, but the characters are rendered very uniquely. The Jews are drawn as mice; the Poles were drawn as pigs,…

Superhero Comic Books Berlatsky’s article, “The Female Thor and the Female Comic-Book Reader” (2014), argues that girls are interested in reading superhero comics as much as boys; there has been a lot of speculation whether comic books were created to entertain only the masculine audience. In order to stop the sexism that has been going around in the superhero comic book industry, Berlatsky uses the logos Aristotelian appeal to inform the comic book audience that girls have been a fan of comics…