literature and comics

A wide world of comics I haven't read many comics that didn't originate in the US. The only one I really knew existed was Tin Tin, but even then I only really heard about the Tin Tin movie that came out years ago. I enjoye today's film "the triplets of belleville" for many reasons. I can't say I've seen anything like it before. The sharp animations and the odd pacing was wild. At times the film just made me anxious and uncomfortable, especially when the dog was on the floor depressed while it rained outside. I would love to show this to my sister, as she hasn't seen much adult/foreign animation. I guess I didn't realize how many comics I pay attention to are only American comics.

I'll begin with saying:  it the characters in your story are stereotypes only because you're too lazy to write well rounded character, you've already made a worthless piece of art. Now, if your character fits into a certain stereotype, but has their own unique personality and story, that's a different story. "Legally Blonde" has a ditzy blonde who's a little gullible and a totally girly girl, however the stereotype she embodies gets turned over on its head throughout the story. She studies hard and gets into Harvard, the plot is about her proving other people wrong. She is this amazingly powerful and intelligent person, who also happens to be obsessed with pink and walks around with a dressed up pooch. I've personally been affected by stereotyping because the second I said I was Cuban at sleep away camp, kids my age asked me if I was a "chonga". Now I admit, some stereotypes about Cuban/Latin culture have SOME truth to them, but not ever

Listening around from other students, I too looked up Cheech Wizard. I was surprised, and I really didn't like the exaggerated designs of the women. I mentioned this before, but this comic perfectly embodies how women are usually hyper sexualized in comparison to their male counterparts in comics. I mean the wizard looks tame and, well like a cartoon. I don't even have to say anything about the women in Cheech Wizard, I will say that the worst insult to injury is the nipple design on the women. Underground comics today interest me, but I just have trouble pin pointing what exactly constitutes an underground comic. For me, I happen to think that "Supermarket" by Brian Wood. I don't think a lot of people have heard about it, and although it did get a reprint in 2016, I'm not sure if it makes the cut. I'm sad that I had to miss class last week, I wish I could've learned more about underground comics hands on.

For this week we were assigned to read MAUS. I remember finding this book in my house because my sister had to read it in class, she's three years older than me. I picked it up and I burned through the book, I was amazed, shocked, and touched from each page I read. I think it was one the first real graphic novel I read. What I mean by "real" is that it was so human, terrifying, and genuinely scared me. It was something that scarier than any graphic novel I read, but much more real than any other story I had come across. Art Spiegelman's visual metaphors and symbolism were beautifully thought out and executed. I'm glad that we are embracing the novel in this class, because when it was time to read MAUS in my high school, it sadly didn't touch the other students in my class. Honestly, the class fell behind schedule because no one read enough, and we didn't even get to the second book in time. I could go on and on about how much MAUS affected me, and ho