Will Eisner - A Great Source of Comic Book Illustration!

For this week’s reading I picked Will Eisner’s A Contract With God and Spirit Issue 8. I think Eisners work was nice and fantastic in his inking! I’d say that his typography definitely affects his work and it's important that it does!

He creates an interesting balance between a simplified realism and simplified cartoon style, it is very unusual but it works in a way where it is not awkward or distracting! Which I think it is something to admire as an illustrator myself. Just knowing that I am not the only one that combines two different styles in one setting! He will be someone that I will reference as an artist!

I can't say that the plot or the characters related to me in the sense of me having similar conflicts in the story, at least on a personal level. However I will say that there are interesting scenarios that the main character, Spirit, and other side characters are put through. They are entertaining to say the least.

Like I mentioned previously, I can relate to his choice in art style! To me an image can convey more of a story than word bubbles, captions, or just general type can and that the details of the environment and the emotion delivered through the way it is inked and colored is important to a reader. These kind of choices that an artist makes can create an interesting emotional and psychological effect on the viewer.

Comic Books!! Comic Books!!! Comic Books!!!!

The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Calculus Affair

Tin Tin was of course the first comic book that caught my attention. It is a story I grew up with and was something a close friend of mine loved who recently passed. The tales of Tin Tin truly do captivate you, with its simplistic style, mystery-comedy-adventure driven story line, and bold selection of colors! Even though what drives the plot in this story wouldn’t be considered extravagant to most people, it is still very captivating. I plan on finishing up reading the comic; I’d like to find out the source that is causing objects to shatter.

The Vault of Horror # 36

Next I read The Vault of Horror, horror stories never cease to catch my attention and are one of my favorite genres in comics, graphic novels, and manga. While it didn’t stereo-typically play with common traits of horror, the strips themselves held a lot of captions as if to further convey the feelings of the characters such as the sweatiness from their palms, or a simile. Artistically, the comic book carries through with very nice ink work and was very detailed. I plan to use this as a source for inking techniques!

Carl Barks Paintings/ Uncle Scrooge in The Crown of The Mayas

I decided to look at both the general artwork of the Barks while reading one of his comics. It is definitely good to look further into a comic artist’s work! Similarly to Tin Tin, Carl’s works carried on a simplistic and colorful style and with the two created his own little ‘universe’. To be honest though I’ve never once during my childhood have never picked up a Donald Duck comic or watched Duck Tales. However I still can easily recognize these characters due to other cartoons they starred in. When reading I found the comic very humorous while it was making fun of itself to an extent. I guess you could say it broke the 4^th wall in that aspect.

The Early and Classic Comic Strip (Calvin and Hobbes, The Peanuts, Krazy Kat, and Little Nemo)

Comic strips were definitely the 'big hit' for the start of the graphic novel/ comic book in the entertainment media industry, eventually being sold as 'dime novels'. It was the beginning of the simplification of drawing technique while maintaining a memorable unique style to them. First uses of the speech bubble and other comic strip tactics used today. Due to the revolutionary printing press, it made it easier for illustrators and writers to get their work out to everyone. Everyone had an easy access to their stories. All simplified, straight to the point, and a new popular source of amusement.

For the subject of the comic strip I chose to read through some of the Peanuts (which I grew up on), Calvin and Hobbs, and some of Little Nemo. Charles Schultz's Peanuts strip, The Peanuts Visit The Des Moines, is a great thing to look at as an introduction to/ "how it's made"of comic strips and the process it goes through to get to being publish in the printing press. The strip was well executed as an educational comic by taking his own iconic characters and breaking the fourth wall. It is very quaint and clever way to educate the public about the time and energy that goes into making newspaper strips.

One thing I did notice in all of the readings of the first few comic strips is that the artists decided (for the most part) to use an animal, real or imaginary, or a child as the main characters. To illustrate childhood experiences that the viewers can easily relate to what they are reading. For me personally I think a valid reasoning for choosing these two particular characters is not just for relating to readers, but also for one of the best audience to decide on new sources of enjoyment; children. Children are the best judges and pave the way for novel things. Although one thing for certain, is that these strips clear out the way for many creators to come and pass on their innovated fictional tales that we still get lost in today.