Review of Donald Duck, The Master Mover by Walt Disney

As I read Donald Duck, The Master Mover, I really enjoyed how light and whimsical the story content was. I also enjoyed how right from the beginning Walt Disney established a character arc for Donald Duck, as a cocky mover was really good at his job. Disney laid the foundation for a good story by allowing Donald to be great at all of his moving jobs except for his last one. I did notice though that there was a lack of character development in Donald's nephews, but I don't have a problem with that though. Maybe Disney just wanted them to function as a group just for the sake of all of the emphasis going on Donald and the story.

I really enjoyed looking at the style of the drawings. I found them pretty interesting because of their flat nature mixed with overlapping forms to create depth. I think that this design choice really helped. I also thought that the color palette was really suited to this story because the idea of it was absolutely absurd and all over the place. Because of this, I feel that the wide variety of color fit the playfulness of the story.

I also found it funny that Donald retired the moving company, which was the only occupation that he was good at. I think this fact helped to bring Donald Duck back to his character arc of being terrible at everything else he does.  Overall, I thought the story was lots of fun and I would be interested in reading more. 

Review of Whiteman by Robert Crumb

When I read Whiteman by Robert Crumb, I didn't know what to expect. It started out with a normal family going on a camping trip. But there was so much more to meet the eye. This story was about a man who wanted to be free from the responsibilities and burdens of city life to just enjoy the simple life in nature. I don't think anyone would have been able to anticipate how this would take place.

I think what is true with most underground comics and definitely Robert Crumb was the desire to not sugar coat information. Robert Crumb told this story with such acuteness that he could not help but get his point across. Even though this story came with quite a bit of shock value and utter rawness, I find Crumb's point of view very interesting. He told a very convincing story not so much about how man grew to love the Bigfoot, but more about the simplicity of life that it stood for. Now who could not relate to that? I think that reading this comic helped me to overcome some biases that I had about the comic book and see the story beyond its surface level.

I think that the gritty art style really helped evoke the mentality of the 60's to tell it like it is and I think that this story is on of the hallmarks for this era. I also think that this story was a trailblazer for the movements in comics that would follow. Because of its lack of censorship, storytellers could tell more true to life and convincing stories that could be relatable to the reader whether young or old. I think that this work really helped expel the notion that comics were just for kids, but were for anyone who was interested in stories.

Review of Maus by Art Spiegelman

I really enjoyed reading Maus by Art Spiegelman for many reasons, but I think my favorite reason is that he chose to use animals to portray people in this story about surrounding a tragic event. It really put a twist on how the story of the Holocaust is portrayed. I think that Spiegelman who is Jewish used the animal representations so that the viewer would not identify with the specific characters and would not assume that the story of the Holocaust is going to be told in the same way. This made it easier for Spiegelman to tell his personal story and to allow the viewer to be more involved in his world. 

I think that this story is a layered masterpiece due to the fact that it is based on his father's experience of a tragic event in world history–the Holocaust. It showed how this event affected his shaky relationship with his father. Funny enough, it also helped Spiegelman to understand and empathize with his father more. 

I think that the storytelling device of him interviewing his dad in every day life was very effective. As a viewer, I found it effective for the story to jump back and forth from past to present. It really helped me to empathize with all of the characters with all of their flaws. There was an interesting excerpt in the second volume of Maus that shows Francoise, Artie, and Vladek (Spiegelman's father) riding home from the supermarket. When they passed an African American, Vladek started to express his hatred for them and his prejudices against them which sort of parallels the German's prejudices against the Jews. I think that if it weren't for moments like this intermingled with the flashbacks from the Holocaust, this relationship would not have been made for me right away. 

From a design standpoint, I thought that it was pretty cool that the style of the art mimicked the tone of the story as it progressed. I noticed that it was cleaner in the beginning, but as the story unfolded, it became grittier. This quality created a lot of visual interest and complemented the content too. It was interesting noticing that because the content was so weighty that Spiegelman chose a lighter art style.

I was intrigued by how this story was a triumph because Spiegelman's mother and father survived the Holocaust, but also a tragedy because of how drastically it changed their lives forever and created emotional barriers between them that caused their relationships to grow cold. This was a truly layered story and a wonderful read.

Review of Blankets by Craig Thompson

I thought that Blankets by Craig Thompson was a wonderful example of the emotion impact of the graphic novel medium. This coming-of-age story truly expresses the struggles of growing up and the issues that we run into physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. I could sense a tone of discovery of one's self and the search for own purpose. I could feel the sincerity in the emotional responses. This autobiography was so immersive and genuinely heartfelt. I also enjoyed how the story was laid out from the storytelling and design point of view. 

I think that Thompson set the story and its content up in a way that would give the graphic novel so much air and room for the viewer to be fully involved as the story develops. This can be attributed to the graphic novel form, which grants the author a lot more freedom for pacing and to just take his time with the story. I really like how the story unfolds in a non- linear way. It's like he progresses us through the story in a way that only gives us vital information about the past only when it is absolutely necessary to propel the story and add another layer of depth. I really was taken on a rollercoaster with all of the emotional ups and downs. Also, another tool I think that Thompson really used silence as a tool and it really resonated. 

From a design point of view, I am amazed that Craig Thompson wrote such a compelling story and illustrated it so beautifully. The drawings feel very direct and straight to the point. There is a sense of immediacy in his ink drawings to capture the moments as they were (or as he thought them to be) and the applications of his knowledge of composition made for really believable, thought provoking and emotional moments.  The drawings are very expressive and the perspective of the scenes is sometimes pushed to really stress the feeling of some of the moments. For example, when Phil was being dragged out of the room by the father, perspective of the father's legs were forced more to really get the motion and emotion of him dragging phil. Also. I think the wonky outlines of the borders of each panel echoes Craig's emotional instability. I also feel like the design of the panels was very personalized and creative. They were definitely used to propel the mood of the story. There was a particular scene in the beginning of the novel when Craig was being bullied and the page layout with the type was arranged in a way that they created a half page image of his bullies standing over him. 

I think that Blankets is a powerful, moving, must-read.

Review of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was probably one of the most comprehensive definitions and practical explanations of what comics are and how they can be used to effectively communicate ideas. The ideals expressed in this book are very evident in comic books today for the most part. In this work, McCloud introduces some interesting theories that he developed and utilizes some resources and terminology from Will Eisner's instructional book, Comics and Sequential Art, to define the medium in more concrete terminology and to create a guide to comic enthusiasts and creators in understanding comics as a medium. 

 Some of which include the action inside and outside of the panel, panel-to-panel transitions, closure, and sound time.

One of the terms defined in this book was panel-to-panel transitions. He mentioned that this term could be broken down into six different parts, which are action-to-action, moment-to-moment, subject-to-subject, aspect-to-aspect, scene-to-scene, and non-sequitur. He expounded on the differences between them and how they can be used together to form interesting stories and feelings within those stories. He gave examples from western and eastern styles of comics. He even described that difference between them was that the western style seemed to be based on more on the action-to-action sequences while the eastern style is more quiet and based on the more aspect-to-aspect with some non-sequitur sequences to evoke more personal reflection.

Another concept that I found interesting was the idea of closure to suggest time. He described that closure can be seen through the example that the gutter between two panels and the viewers imagination help connect two sequential images into a single idea and suggest continuous action. In addition, he also explored how words and sounds in comics can suggest the passage of time. Not only did the viewer have to consider the action taking place in the panel, but also the amount of time that it would take for all of the dialogue to take place. 

On a more abstract level, he discussed the relationship between the words of the panel and the image and how they can either work together or be totally opposite from one another based on the content. From this idea of the concept, he illustrated a scale in which the artwork can go from abstract to more realistic. This scale can lean in either direction depending on the weight of the content. He even delved deeper to mention that our identities are a part of the conceptual world and that they can't be experienced with the senses; they are merely ideas. Everything else is a part of the outside world. His point was that this idea of the tangible and the intangible can influence the balance the word and text and how it is presented. 

There are so many useful tools and terminologies that can be used and practiced from this instructional guide.

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