Lit. Comics and Graphics

As people have mentioned, "Maus" brought the graphic novel back into the literary marketplace, I finally understand the cause. Artie who is the son of Vladek comes home to find his father has a story of how he lived in Czestochowa. This of course turns into how he met his mother who back then had problems with depression which he ended up taking her to get treated. Upon this whole travel, he discovers that rise of nazism around Europe. His own factory is destroyed, he fights as a soldier but gets kidnapped, and through certain events everyone in the family from him to Anja's family are sent to concentration camps. A lot happens that I can't even imagine people had to go through back then, lives are lost but Vladek and Anja manage to make it through everything. Leading to the future, it turns out Artie is somehow mad at his father for her mothers death, including that he burned all his mother's journals from the war. All in all, it was an interesting read and wor

Underground comics as I’ve learned in this class consisted of comics that weren’t sold in stores or markets are whatever was considered a legal selling point. Unlike the ones that were sold in stores, underground comics were considered very inappropriate, implicating anything sexual, racial, violent, and much more that I couldn’t even begin to describe. Just from reading a few comics both from online and from Steilins personal stack of comics, it was clear that some points such a violence rained heavily into one issue than others. Starting with a story from the comic Mystic Funnies, “The Hipman” introduced insults towards people’s appearances, revealing clothing, and a lot of inappropriate comments passed back and forth. To be frank I was fine with reading this because it all least portrayed a women’s strength at some points, but I get that publications wouldn’t have let that and the appearances fly back then. “Don’t Tempt Fate” proceeded with moments of blood, beatings, and vandaliz

Even though both stories had an interesting approach to characters and overall construction of the story, all three parts of "Blankets" made an everlasting impact with exaggerated but clear signs of movement and expression in each and every character of the story. As "A Contract with God" combined various stories into one, I genuinely enjoyed the back and forth aspect to Craig Thompson's writing. Overall the narrative approach for the story was more exciting and kept me interested in wanting to read further on than Eisner's work.