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WEEK 4: COMIC BOOKS


Image result for tin tin


For this week I went ahead and read a couple of comics from Carl Barks, Art Spiegelman, and Hergé. Right off the bat, I could tell that these comics were very different from the classic comic strips. The beauty of comic books is that you can be entertained with the good humor and adventures of the cast for a longer period of time. One-liners are not as apparent in these works as storytelling takes off in a more sophisticated, elongated approach.
I think that I have a bias towards Carl Barks because I’m a big fan of Ducktales. However, after reading through all the comics, I grew very fond of Tintin. Tintin was always that one comic book that I’ve heard about, seen everywhere, but never touched. I now understand why it’s so popular and iconic. Firstly, the art style is simplified yet detailed enough to see form and structure behind the drawings. The overall design kind of reminded me of a video game franchise I played as a kid called Professor Layton. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if they were inspired by Tintin’s character design. While reading, you can really tell that Hergé has put a lot of thought into the layout of his pages. The sizing of the panels varies, and so do the word bubbles at times. In order to emphasize a big story point or scenic change, he will have one illustration dominate two-thirds of the page. The distribution of panels makes it more interesting and engaging to read because it introduces something new to the reader’s eyes on every page. That’s probably why I grow more tired while reading novels— it’s the same format all throughout.
One thing that surprised me at first was the blatant racism in many of these comic books. Being born into the millennial era, sometimes it can be a bit jarring to see very exaggerated racial depictions in cartoons. There was a spread in Jack Cole and Plastic Man set in China and a few pages in Carl Barks’ Donald Duck comics with Indian caricatures that were unsettling. Sometimes I forget how much leniency there was at the time, and it reminds me of how much things have progressed at least in the world of comics and art.

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