Week 11- Cartoonist's Track: Literary Graphic Novels

-
 
Being a Godzilla fan, I always found it interesting how in the Showa-Era films(1954-1975) Godzilla has a slightly unintentional character arc. He goes from an uncaring beast (and metaphor for the atomic bomb) to a selfless superhero. In this graphic novel idea, I wanted to parallel a similar arc with the story of a man struggling with his own sexuality, masculinity, and gender identity. Important moments in his quest for understanding himself would be intercut with shots of the kaiju (on the right in this page) doing battle with another kaiju that would be symbolic of his struggles and/or epiphanies. While extremely to watch them fight, I believe kaiju have endless creative possibilities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6- Underground Comix Cartoonist's Track

-
Image
The main aspects of Robert Crumb's cartooning that I emulated were his layouts and his use of hatching. Crumb's art makes extensive use of hatching and cross hatching, and I used some in this comic. Also, his layouts are usually simple and grid-like, sometimes using many panels per page. Therefore, aside from the first and final panels, I used many equally sized panels side by side.  As far as the content itself, I wanted to parody a lot of Male cartoonists' attitude toward women and minorities, so I did a very unsubtle parody. I wanted to emulate the crass nature of the movement while criticizing certain aspects of it.
Read more

Week 12- Women in Comics

-
Image
This week, I read Pink by Kyoko Okazaki, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi, and My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris. So many comics are either made by or focus on men, so it's refreshing to read more works by women. These three works, in particular, have an honesty that feels somewhat lacking in comics made by men (of course this isn't universal). These comics, especially Lesbian , are very emotionally open and personal, in a way that even a masterpiece like Asterios Polyp isn't exactly. They feel like cartoonists pouring their hearts out to the reader with all their blemishes. Even though Pink and Monsters aren't strictly autobiographical, it still feels like they are rooted in Okazaki and Ferris's feelings and/or experiences. Of course, Lesbian is an extremely honest and egoless look into Nagata Kabi's life and psychology. It almost feels like a comic diary in that its art mainly acts as a supplemen
Read more

Week 1- Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus

-
Image
  While reading Frankenstein, I couldn’t help but see it as a LGBTQ+ narrative. The book opens with Captain Robert Walton and his crew rescuing Victor Frankenstein from the cold. The way Walton describes Victor with such loving detail comes off as romantic. It’s hard to read it as anything but Walton falling in love with Victor. This observation switched on the “okay so this book is gay” switch in my head and colored the rest of my reading.             The Creature himself suffers a narrative that most LGBTQ+ people are familiar with, whether it be through living it or from fear of living it. When his father/creator realizes that his son didn’t turn out the way he envisioned, he is instantly rejected. Victor does not see the beautiful man he wanted to create and treats his abnormal appearance as hideous. Throughout the book, he believes his creation to be pure evil. However, the Creature is not evil at all; he is simply different and wants to find happiness. He is
Read more