Fun Home -- Part 1

King (comics perspective)

There are a lot of interesting visual things happening in King that we have not yet seen in our previous readings. Ho Che Anderson is utilizing existing information to tell his narrative while artistically experimenting with the medium in a way that intensifies as we progress through the book. As we've spent a while discussing the narrative choices of the book I'd like to focus on the interesting visual choices Anderson makes in his work.

1. The most notable change in the artwork is the gradual change from the black and white stark ink illustrations and into the collage work in the latter end of the book. Aside from this color starts creeping into the book alongside the new collage work and photographic manipulations. What do you think Anderson meant by incorporating this gradual change in style throughout the narrative?

2. There are many panels that are repeated one after another while replacing the text inside. To a comic creator like myself this is cringe worthy laziness, but is also an amazing tactic to get work done faster, as well as usually being unnoticed by the reader. Scott McCloud in his recent lecture spoke about how humans are visually illiterate, so things like this can pass us by, but by doing things like this the content is taking over the form. One should not have to apologize for the other as he would say. In this case the text is becoming the whole narrative as the imagery is deemed unimportant as it isn't even recreated for following panels. My question is do you agree with Scott that this is an example of content subduing the form?

3. As mentioned before by professor Glaiser, characters throughout the story can be difficult to identify due to the art style. But some obscurity can be due to the fact that this comic is intended to be a historical recollection, and is as blurred as memory. Fortunately we can recognize MLK himself however he is illustrated. Were you bothered by this approach to the artwork, and/or do you think it was a thought out decision on Anderson's part?

4. What point of the story do you think had the best integration of both illustration and text? There are many bits in King where they seem to be separate entities, but comics is the marrying of these two forms, and in King, this does happen very successfully in an on and off pattern of clarity (in my opinion). Where do you remember things coming together the best in terms of the text and image?

-Alex Healey

King 100-end

King – Part 2

I wasn’t born yet when MKL was shot; many of your parents were more than likely not born either. I learned of the man and the events the same way most of you have, and while this pre-text might seem irrelevant, it is actually to the point. I have always believed that everyone adored the man. I was often surprised in this text to read about people who just wanted him to go away or shut up, and then there are the people who we still hear from today that are still riding his coat tails but have lost his message.

I asked my mom once what she thought about him and she said this, “He just wanted the same things for his kids that we want for you – a safe neighborhood, good schools and opportunities for you to succeed.” It sounded reasonable then, and it is what I read here again. This biography in the second half paints the picture of a man trying to be more than he is to build something better and lasting. He seems to doubt himself much more than I would have thought. Which begs the question of how much of this is real vs. creative retelling? Do you believe that this author is credible?

The second half of this biography is drawn differently than the first half, and not just the addition of color, but some of the pages are like paintings. For example page 156 and 157 these are chalk drawings. For me this was more interesting than the stark B&W images in the beginning of the book. How did this affect the story, does it help or detract?

Dialog bubbles – McCloud discussed the difference between different types of bubbles, how did the change in color and shape of the dialog bubbles help or detract from the flow of the story. Was it easier to follow the flow and speaker in the end of the book vs. the beginning?

Supplemental Topic

Hallo folks. Lot's of great discussion going on here. 

I saw this trending and I thought it'd be cool to draw on some of the issues of race that have popped up in our texts and apply it to this larger cultural conversation going on with Starbucks and their #RaceTogether campaign. 

Here's another article from NPR.

Again, I'm not sure if this is too off topic-- I'm just curious to see what my intelligent classmates think of this after our work this semester.

King 1-100 pt. 2

 Hope everyone had a great break!  King certainly has been an interesting read. I'm interested in hearing what you think of such a well documented story that most of us have heard in some capacity being retold in this fashion.  What are your thoughts on the acceptability of this style?  If you want a few more topics on which to speak feel free to grab a few below. I plan to reply to most of the blog posts by later on tonight, have a good one guys and girls!


1. On page 10 and 11 there is an establishing series of frames.  What did you think about this style of story telling. Did you hear the music, smell the air?  For a story so heavy in dark undertones throughout do scenes like this feel more vibrant?

2. What are your thoughts on the usage of real pictures subtly within King? For example on page 27, how do they break up the story for you? How do they give pause for thought?

3. Find an image that you found much more impaction due to color, explain why.

4. What are your thoughts on the reoccurring characters narrating the story?  How does the frame being drawn the same way effect the way the character is interpreted?

5. What are your thoughts on the different styles of speech bubbles used in this comic? One of interest being the ones broken up or cut off by the page itself.

(Ahem) Well how about that King, eh?

1. As mentioned by professor Glaser, King is a more challenging work than we have seen in our previous texts, where visual clarity is not Anderson’s primary concern. With stark shading and skewed shots of the action, there is a remarkable amount of ambiguity, particularly in characters’ faces. Do you think this ambiguity is intentional on Anderson’s part? If so, why do you think he made his characters harder to immediately identify? What impact does this have on the story?

 

2. Anderson uses a number of distinct visual styles in King, maintaining a consistent tone and emotional background between them. What kind of trends can you see in Anderson’s multiple styles of representation? How does he implement these different visual aesthetics (including the usage of color and photographs), depending on the context of the scene?

 

3. We haven’t touched on this a great deal in our previous books, and since King provides so many wonderful examples it would be a crime not to acknowledge it. A defining characteristic of Anderson’s work is its disarming usage of experimentation with time frames, as touched on in McCloud’s Understanding Comics. King jumps abruptly between scenes from panel to panel, making it difficult to know when we’ve entered a new context or timeframe in the story. Why does Anderson do this? How might this influence the telling of a historic, biographical narrative?

Fascinating comic about race, color, and drawing

Check it out here!  What do you think about the issues the artist/ author brings up?

King podcast

Listen to the podcast on King below:

Introducing King, by Ho Che Anderson

King, by Ho Che Anderson

 As you may have noticed, King differs greatly from a number of other texts we've read this semester--both in its visuals, its composition, and its storytelling choices.

Early in the semester, you had a great conversation about the differences (such as they are) between "high" and "low" art, and how comics is often left to straddle divide between the two.  This conversation questioned the very notion of constructing boundaries between mass and elite cultural production, even as many of you admitted that the ideas of high and low continue to filter into how we appreciated and categorize art.  (Think of visiting "Half-Price Books," for instance--how does the store's shelf categorization suggest something about the place of genre fiction (such as crime fiction, romances, etc.) as compared to what we deem "literary fiction"?).  How does King borrow from the conventions of both "high" and "low" art, as well as the vocabulary of film, to tell MLK's story?  Is King more like the sort of visual art you'd see hanging in a museum or gallery than what you'd usually associated with the visual universe of comics?  For those of you who have the big, "special edition" of the text, how does the "making of" section in the back of the book affect your sense of Anderson's project in constructing King?

Moreover, as I will outline further in my podcast, King differs from the other works we've read because it tells the story not of a random individual (as Maus and Persepolis do) or of a group seeking rights (as Stuck Rubber Baby does), but of an iconic figure that many of us have already encountered in written or visual form (t.v., film, photography).  How does the fact that King is about an iconic figure affect your reading of the text?  How does it affect Anderson's use of visuals and storytelling technique?  What do you make of his opening of the text with young MLK, his use of the "chorus" of commentators on MLK, the stark black and white palette (mixed with the occasional use of color) employed throughout the book, and his introduction of photographs, however blurry, into the text?  Perhaps, most strikingly, what do you think about Anderson's choice to show the darker side of King in terms of his extramarital affairs? Please use the space below to comment on some of these questions about King. 

I know this text is a challenging one, and I will use my podcast and some further blog posts to help us make sense of it.

Discussion post--More questions on Stuck Rubber Baby!

We began our conversation on Stuck Rubber Baby by talking about the links between gay rights and civil rights. How do you think Cruse develops the links between these themes?

In contrast to writers we've read in class, such as Marjane Satrapi or Gene Yang, who favor a more cartoonish style, Cruse chooses to depict the story of his characters in realistic terms?  How does that affect the story to come?  Do you remember Scott McCloud's scale of realism and how he suggests it influences audience identification with the characters? Does this scale help to make sense of Cruse's choices in Stuck Rubber Baby?  Do you feel sympathy for the characters in the text?

As the book nears its end, there is more and more violence framing the narrative.  How does Cruse's depiction of violence differ from that of Spiegelman or Satrapi?

Although Cruse's graphic novel was written a bit ago, it has been very influential on subsequent writers.  How/ do you see traces of this influence on some of the work we've read in class?

In the beginning of the semester, we discussed how graphic narratives/ comics are themselves a medium.  Do you think that the medium of comics is particularly useful for telling stories about difference, whether in terms of race, gender, or sexuality?  Would you have had the same response to the story of closeted sexuality and racial violence if it were in a conventional novel?  In what way does Cruse use images to make us feel sympathetic to the characters struggling with identity and equality in the text?

How does Cruse experiment with the size, shape, and placement of panels to tell the story of Stuck Rubber Baby?

Scott McCloud Talk Monday 16th!

Anybody interested in hearing a lecture by Scott McCloud this coming Monday, here's the information!

Monday, March 16, 2015,  Visual Arts Lecture

“Comics and Visual Communication”
Scott McCloud, Author and Comics Artist
Event Times

• 7:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium
• Q&A, 4 p.m., Bayley Auditorium

 200 W Ward St, Springfield, OH 45504


It's about an hour twenty drive for all those considering. I'll be going with a group of friends so my car will be full.
Hope to see some of you there!

-Alex

Discussion Post from Jesse

Stuck Rubber Baby pg. 1- 103.


So far our readings have been insightful, wonderful, similiar, and yet also completely different. One of the common threads throughout our readings so far have been that of discrimination and acceptance. Maus has been a benchmark for me personally in which I have compared many of the other readings. Vladek's characters has been one that has stuck with me so far through the class. Stuck Rubber Baby promises to have a similar effect on me by the end of the story. Howard Cruse's character Toland Polk is one of the best written characters that I have come across in a long time, and as an avid reader this is some accomplishment. Watching him grow throughout the process of the story so far has been rough at times, but completely filled with emotion. The asides where Toland speaks directly to the audience is what first draws a comparison to Maus. Art speaks similarly to the audience at certain times through out the series. Do you think that Cruse's increased focus on breaking the fourth wall works better, or do you think that Spiegelman's use of the fourth wall to create increased emphasis works better? The perspective of the racial tensions in the South from a closeted gay man is a particularly strong emotional story. Does reading a story about racial discrimination aimed at African American's make you think worse of Vladek's prejudices? Looking at Shortcomings do you see the similarities between Ben and Toland, what about between Alice and Sammy Noone? The pacing of this story can be erratic at times, and quite a bit frustrating. Do you prefer American Born Chinese faster pace to Stuck Rubber Baby's slower more intricate story? One of the more interesting comparisons that I have made so far is the similarities between the Monkey King and Toland. Both tried to become something that they are not. The Monkey King went to great lengths to join the immortals, and even tried to forsake his monkey heritage and subjects to become human. Toland tries the same thing through out the story. He looks at playboy's and holds to a regime of only pleasuring himself to the images of females for 3 years, though he doesn't restrain himself in wet dreams. Toland tries to become straight through being with various women, and forces himself to try and fall completely in love with Ginger. I do believe that Toland loves Ginger, but the type of love that he is truly looking for. I know I have asked a lot of question but feel free to pick and choose what you want to answer, and be sure to talk about what you think of the story so far.

Stuck Rubber Baby 1-103

Since no one has started a dialog about Stuck Rubber Baby to page 103. I thought that I would.

   This is an incredible story that I thought was an actual biography right up until the end of the book. I like that when Toland is talking to us Cruse draws off the page or opens the frame. It allows me the reader into the book but I know I am just an observer. It's hard to imagine a world where half the population is living an underground life, but I think that is exactly what must have been happening in the late 50's and early 60's.

  I am not sure if it is the same to compare what blacks faced in the 60's to what the LGBT community has faced recently, but then this book really isn't to recent if you think about it - being written in 1995. But, it must be noted that it is a compelling thought, and forces the reader to at least consider that gays and lesbians were, and in some cases are still forced to live double lives. Why only last year did the military revoke the "Don't ask, don't tell," policy.

On a final note this section of reading gives us a look at what it might have been like to stand near the steps of the Lincoln memorial and hear MLK give his speech. Only only has to read the words of his speech to feel like a better and more humane world is possible if only we allow ourselves to dream, and then to feel the horrible pain of what comes if we dream too freely. Cruse has done an excellent job of allowing his reader to soar and believe that we all have the ability to be a better self only to realize that self is the same one holding a bomb of destruction in our hand.

I know that any one of the paragraphs could end with a question mark, so please go for it and respond.

Stuck Rubber Baby and the Question of Rights

Civil Rights and LGBT Rights/ Questions about Stuck Rubber Baby

Throughout Stuck Rubber Baby, Cruse draws analogies between civil right and the rights of LGBT people.  Do you think this analogy is appropriate? How does the connection he draws help to illuminate the connections between race, gender, and sexuality? How does the theme of secrecy about sexual orientation in Stuck Rubber Baby relate/ not relate to the way Johnson and Pleece portray racial passing in Incognegro?

In order to help answer these questions and understand the timeline of what Cruse narrates in his graphic novel, please take a look at these links with the timelines for civil rights and gay rights in the U.S.

There's also an interesting NPR piece about the analogies between civil rights and the gay marriage.

Stuck Rubber Baby (an almost-banned book)

In 2005, along with other books with gay themes, Stuck Rubber Baby was almost banned by a Texas library.

Cruse talks about being a pioneering gay artist, among other topics, in this interview with the Comics Reporter, as well as this one with Publisher's weeklyupon the reissue of Stuck Rubber Baby. 

Here's Howard Cruse's site.

More on Cruse and LGBT identity in comics

Article on LGBT representation in American comics, Part 1 and Part 2

Discuss Post #2, End of American Born Chinese

From Austin Marck:

I really liked the way this story wrapped up, short and sweet, ending on a powerful note.  Not too much room for closure but it certainly gives the audience the feeling they'll be friends forever.

1.Did you expect the reveal on page 216?  What emotional impact if any did it have on you?



2. How did your' feelings of Wei-Chen Sun evolve at the end of the story after his identity was shown?



3. They are very clearly 2 different stories, drawn 2 different ways.  How did American Born Chinese "feel" different from Shortcomings in relation to the art style?



4. What do you think about the Monkey kings ability to practice kung-fu after reverting to a monkey again?



5. What "surface" messages of acceptance and relation between the characters can be drawn by the ending of the book?



6.  What overall underlying message about this story shines through? Acceptance, nepotism, racism, prejudice.

American Born Chinese Pages 133-233

The End of American Born Chinese was a journey. It started out with multiple stories living in their own separate universes. It felt like each story was a fragment of what it means to love where you came from, but was one focused on a single identity. The Monkey King strived to be more than a monkey so that he almost completely lost his past, Chin-Kee gave us a character named Danny who seemed to be dragged down by a part of him he deemed unworthy of what he desired his life to be, and Jin Wang’s story explored what it means to accept himself as a person. The end of the story reminded me of film. The three tales had been intertwined all along and they all converged into one final scene in the restaurant where Jin Wang and his best friend found acceptance for themselves. If this were a film, the climax would be Jin Wang waking up and seeing in the mirror that he was a new person. The flush of realization to the audience is what makes this story so amazing. Were you expecting the story to unravel in this way? Were there any obvious hints? Do you think that this story would of worked the same way if we simply saw each tale end on their own accord instead of having them all converge into one final scene? (The monkey king walking off with his new master for example- fade to black)

Seeing the Monkey King trapped underneath the weight of the mountain, I realized that Danny and the Monkey King were both in the same situation. To Danny, Chin-Kee was like the mountain. He was what was holding him down all these years and it made him ungrateful for anything in life. The Monkey’s constant desire to be more made him seem less of a person than when he began his journey. It wasn’t until he was saved from the mountain that he could finally see what he truly was meant to be. Oui? Finding out that the Monkey King was actually Chin-kee and Danny was Jin Wang, the story was opening up to many more possibilities. What was it that led Jin Wang to becoming Danny? Was it really the moment when Timmy told him that he wasn’t good enough for Amelia when this personality arose or had it always been inside him? With the knowledge that Danny was sort of an “avatar” for Jin Wang, what parts of Danny’s life were reflections of Jin Wang’s real life? Do you think that this was his internal image of normalcy?

American Born Chinese was probably my favorite among the novels we have read. The interwoven storylines kept it at a fast pace and it’s use of color and caricatures were refreshing compared to what we had seen with Shortcomings and Persepolis. Jin Wang’s situation of acceptance is one we all need to understand for ourselves and the stories coming of age tale made me understand life through my own youth. For my final question, because of American Born Chinese’s lighter tone, did it express the idea of identity and acceptance as well as Shortcomings did with a more serious one?

Stereotypes in American Born Chinese, and how.

I found myself very interested in the idea of exploring Yang's use of stereotypes and what he is trying to portray through them. Why did he have to create and assign such powerful stereotype motifs to the characters? 
For that fact did he have to create them or has he only pulled them out of the collective consciousness? 
This is especially apparent when we are looking at Chin-kee, why would/could we consider him the embodiment of the stereotypical chinese-american? 
And from this how/why does Chin-kee and the stereotypes he represents put Danny's story on a similar level as Jin Wang's? 
Are Danny's struggles with fitting in as powerful and genuine as Jin Wang's?
Or does Danny just need to buck up and grow a slightly tougher skin?
From here, why/how can we as readers reconcile the Monkey King's story as being equally painful and powerful to both Jin and Danny's despite there not (necessarily) being preset stereotypes for Yang to be playing off of?

Sorry for the post being so late folks, i have had some interesting days here with my daughter and didn't quite realize my day to lead discussion was at hand.
Thanks!

More on Gene Yang! In Technicolor!

I've really been enjoying your thoughts on Gene Yang. Take a few minutes to peruse some of this background information about the author to help flesh out your conversations!  

Check out this great interview with Gene Yang on the Millions.

You might also be interested in this NPR radio talk with the author. 

ALSO: One aspect of the comic we haven't discussed in depth is its use of color and the fact that the color was provided by another cartoonist, Lark Pien.  How does this "graphic novel"'s color scheme affect your reading? How does it contrast with the mainly black and white works we've read?  How do color comics invoke some of the issues about emotion that McCloud writes about in his sections on color in Understanding Comics?

3/2 American Born Chinese

Hello everyone. Do not panic! I am posting early so that everyone has plenty of time to read and respond to this post. It's not due until Monday, though. 

Thoughts on narrative and audience:

We’ve looked at Shortcomings that examined some of the tensions of racial identity and interpersonal relationships. I think it is interesting to pose American Born Chinese alongside this when we consider the fact that Yang’s work is shelved as a Children’s book. On Amazon, it’s listed with an age range of 12-17 years or for students in 7^th grade and up (see here) and is part of the curriculum for many high school students.
How does the form of American Born Chinese work to communicate similar themes of Shortcomings (or even Persepolis) but to a younger audience? For example, things like the use of color, the style of drawing, narrative content and the frame narratives all come to mind here.

Responding to issues of race and otherness:

I’m sure you all see it coming, but at this point in the book, where do you see the frame narratives converging?
All talk about a similar sense of not belonging with markedly different situations—On the divine spectrum we have the Monkey King being rejected because of his species, Jin Wang being uncool and othered in the American school system, and the sitcom character Danny’s reputation being wrecked by his visiting cousin Chin-kee (who is the butt of all jokes but apparently oblivious to all of it).
Why such drastic, contrasting scenarios where the characters all inhabit a different universe? What are the implications of otherness that is literally species against species (and cemented by the very will of god) and otherness felt by walking stereotypes (because even Danny is, really—the whole thing is a sitcom)  written by an unseen writer and spectated by an imagined audience juxtaposed together? 

image source

I’m sure you all have great things to say, and we’re only halfway through. Musing on the prompts above and/or some of the larger topics we’ve been grappling with in this course (the comic medium, memoir, race, gender, identity) what do you think?