Comic Book and Graphic Narratives Notes

The Underground Comic I read was Gay Comics copyrighted in 1980. Gay comics gave me a sense of struggle for the LGBTQ community before the 1980’s.               When I read Gay Comics, I got a clear understanding of what it was like to struggle with the effort to discover and define one’s sexuality/sexual attraction. One strip shows the reader a woman whose first love is another woman, and how she struggles to fit in with what is considered normal in society. The strip has three panels in sequential order, showing the protagonist not being able to do things that her parents, friends, or other family members can do because she is a gay woman.             Later strips reveal that she is bisexual. From these, another message I got is that it can be a struggle to choose which gender a bisexual person might want to be with because that individual might be stuck be...

Calvin and Hobbs portrays an immature boy, Calvin, who has a big imagination.   He has a stuffed toy tiger called Hobbs, who he thinks can talk and listen to his thoughts and even go along with things that he does. In addition, Calvin also has a fear of monsters, and has fantasies of fighting monsters in different places in his house. In some panels we see the world of Calvin’s imagination and Hobbs is talking or monsters appear.   In others we see the world as it looks to his parents. In one panel we see what looks like a monster to Calvin but then we see the world as it looks normally and it turns out that the monster was his father. This shows that his imaginary world is more interesting and exciting to him than the real one.             Calvin gets in trouble with his parents a lot, due to how difficult and obnoxious he is. In contrast, his parents are shown as unimaginative because they are older and have a...

WEEK 5: THE EMERGENCE OF GRAPHIC NOVELS   Life On Another Planet             The work that I read was Life on Another Planet written by Will Eisner. It is an interesting graphic novel because it is set during the time of the Soviet Union/Cold war, but it takes place in New Mexico.   Life on Another Planet affected me on a personal level because I could see it being turned into a feature length film.   I am a film major, and reading this action packed/science fiction graphic novel is something that I see as a possible inspiration for a feature film.   It also has elements of history in it such as a confrontation between a Soviet agent and two American men.   I’ve always been interested in American history and have tended to find films that take place in the past and focus on a famous event in American history entertaining and good to watch.          ...