An Introduction to Manga/Osamu Tezuka

Evidently, I can't draw this week. I feel awful. Anyway, I love manga. Truthfully, it's what propelled me into drawing at all (I don't read it any more, but I loved Naruto and Dragonball Z and all the other Shonen Jump crap I was fed when I was younger). And I love Tezuka. Astro Boy was never my favorite thing of his, certainly I enjoyed his series Buddha more, but this one is more popular, so I parodied it. Astro discovers what it means to be human! And it's not good! Alternatively, I was going to reveal that Nicholas Cage was his real father (since he voiced Dr. Tenma in the 2009 CG fliqué I will never see) but that seemed too obscure, like everything else I write. Done (poorly) in pen and brush ink. I tried to get some realistic machinery going there in the background, but eh, this week is a failure, and I know it well. At least the joke is there. I love how Astro completely loses the gleam in his eyes. Higher resolution available on request!

Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation

Uh-oh. No styles to mimic. I hope I got the likenesses down well enough. I had considered doing this whole thing with the racist stereotypes I represented at the bottom, only having it revolve around their respective world leaders (Obama as the blackface one, of course), but that ended up being too obscure. In this version, Seinfeld's joke ends up being NOT a joke, as a 1940's cartoonist ends up drawing out what is essentially Minoriteam, minus the genius of Jack Kirby's influence. Somehow, that's less obscure than the world leaders gag. Little known facts: Dave Chappelle is indeed a Muslim. The 1940's cartoonist is portrayed by Casablanca's Humphrey Bogart. And I don't like Carlos Mencia, but it was either him or George Lopez (or Antonio Banderas) and I wanted a contemporary fat man to be a part of this. Higher resolution available upon request!

The Legitimation of the Comics/Art Spiegelman

This comic made history. This comic has shown us the viewpoint of Art, his father, and a whole consortium of people along the way. Everyone is flawed, and everyone is angry it seems. Selfish. It's a classic story retold in a not so classic dynamic. And it's perhaps the most important piece of comic book literature to date.

I ended up learning a lot from this. The art itself didn't impress me much at all. Though, it did have a very full understanding of composition and general rules to drawing, it just wasn't as refined as everything else we've examined up to this point. It didn't need to have any of that in order to be compelling. It was all about story.

It's interesting that Art criticizes everyone, including himself, in this piece of work. It's hard for the audience to develop a really strong emotional connection with anyone, and that's part of the beauty of his writing. You are merely a spectator in this partially fictitious world of cats and mice and dogs and pigs (etc etc). The representation of animals across this also takes away the all-too-used 'human element,' further eliminating typical writing traps and clichés and leaving us with an enthralling substance, and a fantastic hand-me-down recount of one of the most shaping events in modern history.

In my own rendition of this style, I give one explanation of Hitler's early behavior, where he may or may not have been inspired to rule due to said event. I'm talking of course about his rejection from art school. It didn't end up being as funny as I wanted it to be (I try to make these amusing, but it's just morbid), but it did become an interesting story in itself. The drawing pictured is actually one of Hitler's, back when he was 17/18. What a different world this would be if he went on to be a nobody artist. History is certainly shaped by strange means. Higher resolution available upon request!

The Influence of the Underground Comix/Robert Crumb

To make myself very clear, I don't like R Crumb's work. I think it's very crude and disgusting, and he is perhaps more of a fine artist than an illustrator, so it's hard for me to relate on that level. On the other hand, I think he's brilliant and cunning, and I fear I would relate to him more than I would be comfortable with if I met him in person. Not to digress, I think I nailed his work. I have depicted him as he depicted himself at the end of his Book of Genesis (a very lengthy read of which I was already familiar). I have also depicted myself, looking as ugly as possible (a key aspect of his work, I feel). I used a brush pen and a few PITT Artist Pens of varying sizes to get whatever effects I got, concerning line weight and wooshy background spatters. I think I worked a bit more dynamically than he usually does, as another hallmark of his style is a certain degree of rigidity, which I broke by the third and fourth panels. All the same, I love how this one ends. Tasteless enough, Mr. Crumb? Higher resolution available upon request!

The Emergence of the Graphic Novel/Will Eisner

Eisner certainly has a distinctive style. His handling of the shadows I found to be the most challenging, and I ended up using a brush pen and a fountain pen to try to get his full effects. I'm not displeased. Though, I think I used too much yellow. You can see (I hope) that I've tried to replicate his most famous work and style, a la Spirit. In my rendition, I retell his origin of the Octopus (where he did look like a nerdy white guy, as I've depicted). The key difference being that I've opted, post accident/button press, to have him look like Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal in the recent movie, directed by Frank Miller (as opposed to the ever-shadowy figure from the comic series). I like how I ended up handling the first and last panels (that shrug just makes me happy), and although everything could use more work, I have spent many hours on this already. Higher resolution available upon request!

A Brief History of the Comic Book/Carl Barks

Uploading these images on a faster computer connection seems to solve my problem of not being able to upload anything at all. Aside that. The first comic laid out on a whole page! His style was surprisingly difficult to replicate, and I am aware I could have done a much better job. The truth to that is that I did put in a good amount of hours working on this, and I'm happy with the end result. How about that yellowed effect, eh? I'm sure you like it as much as I do. Moving on. I noted in his work the expressive figures, line weight, interaction of characters, and use of space all being very key to making his work... well, work! In my adaptation of these elements, Donald picks up on the idea of reverse psychology, leaving his nephews in the basement never to be heard from again (probably). Higher resolution available upon request!

A Brief History of the Comic Strip/Winsor McCay

No problems uploading this one! The concept for this was a stolen one from Perry Bible Fellowship (horrible of me, I know, but I give credit when due). It just seemed so much more appropriate here. I love this comic. Stylistically, it's simple and beautiful. The colors are nigh magical and his linework is outstanding. It is a comic giving an excuse to be visually fantastic, and I'm just fine with that. I just wish I could do him proper justice. Oh well. The idea, as I'm sure you've gathered, is that Nemo falls from the sky, wakes up, and lands on himself as if he wasn't actually having a dream. Paradoxical. Surreal. Higher resolution available upon request!