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WEEK 3: COMIC STRIPS

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For this weekly blogpost, I went on a comic frenzy reading Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, the Peanuts collection, and Calvin and Hobbes. I was particularly excited for this week’s reading because I grew up with Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes. I wasn’t too familiar with the other two; I had only briefly looked through them for studying purposes. However, after reading a few pages of them I realized that all of them felt similar to me. They all possess this unique, child-like perspective that draws the reader in. It makes you want to live in that carefree world and live forever as a kid. Little Nemo was especially wonderful because of the vast landscapes Windsor McCay illustrated. I was blown away by his intricate, detailed architecture in Palace of Ice. Everything about his style, from the color to the linework, provided a dreamy and soft vision of a young sleepy child.
The other three comics are a bit different in terms of artistic rendering compared to Little Nemo. Krazy Kat, Calvin and Hobbes, and Peanuts were predominantly black and white comic strips with the occasional color print. These silly, light-hearted comics gave me the true essence of the classics. The simplicity of the characters and the situations they were in made me think back to last week’s reading from Scott McCloud. He mentioned that simplifying the details of the face/ overall character made them appear more relatable, allowing you (the reader) to project yourself onto them. Now after reading these comic strips, I totally see his point. Even if I couldn’t see myself in a particular situation, I would think about someone I knew and relate to their personality. Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favorite comics in general, and I think it is partly because of the relatability in his stories. Calvin is such a creative, rambunctious kid and a lot of us could probably imagine ourselves doing similar things when we were that young. I especially love the mini on-going series within the comics, like Calvin avoiding bath time or Spaceman Spiff’s adventures. Even reading about his time in math class or coming back home to Hobbes was so entertaining because Bill Watterson utilized these mundane chores and made them more enjoyable for all ages.
Something that I love about these types of comics is that they read as one-liners. There is no central plot or intricate story, allowing the comics to go in any directions they choose. Though I am a huge fan of plot-driven novels, I find these “slice-of-life” comics to be just as good. There’s something satisfying about not having to stress over a plot point and not following the typical story formula. These comics never end, so it’s comforting to think that you can take a long break from it and expect the characters to stay the same when you come back. As you grow older and everything starts changing around you, stories like Calvin and Hobbes and Little Nemo remain timeless.

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