Redo: The Walking Dead

            Even though I wrote a whole lot on the last submission for the Walking Dead I wanted to revisit it because I had read the next graphic novel and watched the TV series that has recently come out. Needless to say I thought it was absolutely AMAZING. The second graphic novel in the series picks up right after the first novel and continues all the same, it holds the same style and plot as I thought it was going to but with some major twists and turns. I was hoping for another major suspenseful ending but was a little let down when it ended in a kind of positive note. Where Rick and the rest of the group have seemingly found their new 'home' in a world run by the dead. In the middle of the story Rick and Lori's little boy Carl gets accidentally shot by Otis, a man that lives in a farm a few miles down from where the group stopped. Most of this volume is based around Carl being shot and the trials and craziness that goes on while he slips in and out from life. The farm they end up on with Carl getting worked on, they find out that the main guy is holding the walkers in his barn, he feels like these walkers are people who are just sick. Then things get complicated when the whole group finds this out.
              The TV series on the other hand takes a different route from the graphic novel. Even though it is based off of the graphic novel and most of the first season follows the novels it takes a very different turn. It is mainly different to me in the way the characters are portrayed. In the novel you feel more for the humans and their trials, the things that go wrong with them you can really connect with and feel you would or would not do the same in similar situations. Where the AMC series some of the time you feel bad for the zombies and what has happened to them, the director gave them a little more emotion that almost seems to put you in the zombies shoes sometimes. The unfairness and the bitterness of how it would feel if this situation really happened would be astounding. The way they portray the actual characters fits nicely along with the graphic novel but the series brings in different characters that are not in the novel. My favorite character, the redneck with the crossbow, is not in the graphic novel at all. Though he brings a very nice difference in the TV series that makes you wish he was almost in the novel.
               The second season compared to the second novel is similar and different. The graphic novels plot line I think is easier and less boring to get through. When Carl gets shot in the graphic novel the recovery is swift and easy to get through. In the series its lengthy and not really focused on a whole lot because they are too busy finding one of the groups daughters that has gotten lost in one of the first episodes. I think that was a major flaw in the second seasons plot. It was the whole series! Just went on and on, so redundant and a little over done. Like we get it, she's more than likely bitten and a zombie, but they just drag it out until the last episode. The last episode of that series left me hanging as much as the first graphic novel volume did. Which was one of the best parts.
               Needless to say, I really wanted to discuss and go over my thoughts comparing and contrasting the series and the first two novels. I think it was a great ending to a good semester in this class and I am looking forward to reading more of the graphic novels and really looking forward to the continuation of the second season in February. I think the Walking Dead graphic novels is one of the best that I have encountered yet. The amazing ink work and simple ink washes really gets you into it and the easy flow of type panel by panel. Just an all around amazing piece of work. I hope I went into enough detail about this for the rewrite. Thought it would be appropriate do to something I am passionate about. Zombies.

Thats where we keep all our DEAD ones

Octopus Pie

            This by far had to be my most favorite in the entire class. Octopus Pie is simple and easy to read with very nice and flat illustrations. At first I didn't think I was going to like it due to the simple and 'manga' type illustrations but I think it totally adds to the story. It is an on going online graphic novel that is simple and hilarious. I actually found myself laughing aimlessly to this alone in my room (which is kind of sad) but I could not stop clicking the next button. Eve and her roommate are complete opposites. Eve seems to be very introverted and kind of angry, she keeps everything to herself or tries to, and everything gets disrupted and backwards when her roommate shows up. Her roommate is a girl she knew in kindergarten and she is defiantly a hippie flower child and I think her boyfriend is just the funniest one of them all with his little quirky side comments. 

              You really get a feeling for the characters and you really can get a hold on their personalities and the story is really easy to follow. It is basically just their lives in the city and what interesting adventures they get into. One part that I thought was really funny and interesting was when Eve and her roommate and boyfriend went to the park and her roommate took off her shirt and they dealt with nudity and woman's rights. So they deal with real life complications and issues but do it in a funny way. Even when Eve attempts to find love but goes through many struggles its relatable. 

                I think Octopus pie is an amazing online graphic novel. It has been the first one that I have read and I am hoping to finish it and continue reading it as it continues. The simple black and white illustrations suit the mood and the story line very well, although I wonder what it would look like with a minimal color palate. I'm hoping to find more online graphic novels over break to read because I have really enjoyed this one. 

Asterios Polyp

This novel was simply amazing. It generally pulls you in with amazing illustrations with simple color palates that it almost had a calming effect. Mazzuccelli really gives this graphic novel an amazing mood and feel to the entire novel. It was a big change to the other novels and comics we have been reading, while other ones seem to be lacking mostly in the illustration department and not the story aspect this one really hits the nail on the head. Being so easy and simple to follow I felt myself being immersed into the story. Even thought I thought it was an easy and gripping story at times it almost felt like it was a little too much. This may be because he packed so much depth and dimension into the story that reading it in such a short time just seemed a little overwhelming at times.
I defiantly want to pick this back up during the break and re read it. Get in more depth with it and appreciate it for the wonder work of art it is. There are details I feel that I think I missed out on. None the less this was an amazing piece of art. Even with all the mishaps and things that go on, it really makes you feel like you can relate with his struggles in life and the ups and downs of life in general.

American Born Chinese

I found this story quite entertaining but not really one of my favorites. It was three different stories that came together in the end. The tale of the Monkey King was entertaining and it turned out that he was something he was not and learning things along the way. The second story is about an immigrant that wants nothing more than to fit into an American high school. Although I found it a little bit cookie cutter because he then finds a girlfriend and his best friend.  The third part of the story mimics the second part and was alright. The feel and overall moral to all the stories combined is to basically to just be yourself, because thats all anyone could ever ask for. So the whole "Be yourself" kind of moral is just a little boring. I mean, the story and illustrations were rather interesting but nothing too entertaining or inspirational in my opinion.

Percepolis

       Learning that we would be reading Percepolis kind of excited me. In a different class I have we are going to be reading it in the future but this gives me a reason to read it sooner. Flipping first through this book I got kind of sad about the illustrations on the inside. They are very simplistic in a sense that it looks like a little girl or boy created them. Which is defiantly a big part in the book. The book is based around the islamic revolution but really has to do with a little girl named Marji. It is her story that is told through her eyes and how she sees the world around her. The fact that when we first meet her in the novel she is only ten years old and yet knows so much about the world around her. The fact that she is muslim and wants to be a prophet. Then throughout the book she learns more and more of the hard times that are going on. As she grows up she sees people in her family die, and people get tortured. She also had seen people be tortured.

          One of the most shocking things that I thought was rather interesting was when Marji learned about people getting tortured and the stories that her fathers friends told. After learning about these stories she goes out to play with her friends and she comes up with a game that has to do with torture. This just intrigued me because why would she go out and play torture with her friends when she knows its such a horrible thing. Thinking this over I came to the conclusion that children cope with their surroundings. It was just something that was going around them in their world and its all they knew, so they appropriated it into games. 

          Over all with starting this graphic memoir I was kind of disappointed with the illustrations and the story line didn't catch me all that much. Once I actually got into the book I found that I couldn't stop reading it. It was almost addicting in the childish way that she portrayed the characters. It fit perfectly and the story was intriguing. To learn about Marjis life and experiences through a graphic memoir was defiantly and interesting read. I have never read a graphic novel like that and would defiantly want to see the movie. 

Maus

          I had never herd of Spiegelmans Maus before this class. I was really interested in reading something that had to do with the Holocaust since I am currently in that class this semester. I'm a little sad to say I was expecting more with the illustrated side of this novel because it just did not seem up to par with the story that was given. The fact that the cats were the Nazi's and the mice were depicted as Jews was very clever in my opinion. It gave it an almost familiar ground in an unfamiliar story line, and I only say this because none of us have experienced the Holocaust personally. It almost seemed as though it was illustrated in an almost childrens book style, with simple and easy to understand panel to panel display. Although I was not too interested in the illustrations, but more with the story line.
          For the most part I thought this story was going to be about his fathers experiences within the different countries he travels to and then when he ends up at Auschwitz death camp. Which is said to be one of the worst death camps that had arisen in that time. Before I took the Holocaust class here I always thought of Auschwitz as a concentration camp, where it is actually a death camp. I think that Spiegelman writing and illustrating this novel depicts the Holocaust in a different and almost easier way to understand the undertaking and happenings of what was going on. It also seemed like he wanted to immortalize his father in this biography. I think he did the most perfect job in immortalizing his father and his fathers story. It was an absolutely beautiful and horrifying story all intertwined into one beautiful novel. Even though I did not care so much for the illustrations, the story caught my interest without a doubt and I will be telling friends to check it out.

Underground Comix

       Upon discovering we were reading underground comics for this week, and that most of them were going to be sexual in one way or another, I thought I might as well read one of the more raunchy ones for a good laugh. Lo and behold one of them was named Tits and Clits. Kind of put off by the name I threw caution to the wind and dived straight into a see of vulgar and sexually explicit comics unlike any I have read before. Upon opening this PDF I was a bit shocked to see the first panel to be a picture of women holding dildos and the words Tits and Clits sprawled out in a boob-a-rific type. Most of them actually were very crude illustrations and didnt really hold any interest to me. To be specific I thought most of the illustrations were really elementary style and the stories held no real meaning except to be funny sexual jokes. 

      The only one that actually stuck out to me was the "I was a sex junkie" one. Which I found really funny because it was a woman whos sexual appetite was that of the stereotyped every day man. The fact that this woman loved sex so much that she would go out of her way to get it any way she could. Even if that meant paying men for sex! What a weird way to think about it and highly funny to have a woman who doesn't know about prostitution actually going and paying men to have sex with her! My favorite quote that I thought was really funny was "My God! What will I do with this vagina?!!" I would say that these underground comics were defiantly not my favorite and many of them made me blush in the fact that some were so crude and sexual. Though It was worth a laugh or two and kind of interesting for the short time that I read them. Although I more than likely wont ever read any type of that kind of comic again.