Week Four: The Comic Book

This week I decided to read Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horrors. I really liked the stories in Tales from the Crypt because they are super nostalgic of the 50's-60's horror genre. Most of The stories were based on psychological horror or other events that could actually take place in real life and made the stories scarier then if there had been a monster and or paranormal occurrences that are most popular today in the horror genre. When I was reading the comics I kept thinking of movies I've seen that reflected on the comics. For instance, House of Haunted Hill, The Thing, and House of Wax. I also noticed that a few of the men resembled Vincent Price who was the 1940's-50's horror Icon of the time. When I was younger I remember the show Tales From the Crypt and the scary Crypt Keeper who hosted the show, but I didn't know it was derived from a comic book and reading the comic book version I thought it was a a lot better in it's portrayal of the stories. 

Tales from the Dark side, one of my favorite horror/scary story shows was based on the Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, so I guess thats why I enjoyed the comic so much. I grew up watching Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Goosebumps (I also had the complete collection of books) so I really enjoy scary stories and urban legends and these comics certainly had plenty of creepy tales to satisfy me.  I'm a big fan of classic horror movies from the 50's and especially the 80's. A My favorite horror movies from the 80's are most definitely poltergeist, The Lost Boys, and The Shinning, only to name a few. 

 

Week Three: The Comic Strip

This week I decided to do the Artist Track and make a quick comic inspired by Winsor McCay's Little Nemo.  I wanted to put my own spin on it so I decided to have a female character instead. 

Week Two: Understanding Comics

In class panel descriptions of William Hogarth's wordless Graphic Novel

Panel one:

A street performer making money through dance and having their chicken do tricks.

Panel two: mad scientist who experiments on humans in order to become the perfect fusion of chicken and man.

Panel three: a continuation of the mad scientist’s experiments and shows how some have failed and is hiding the bodies in his house.  

Panel four: the scientist is looking for the perfect mate in order to share his existence with. many have denied him because he is an abomination.

Panel five: he is thrilled that his cock fight has successful and someone trying to escaped was killed in the process. 

Panel six: the scientist has now mastered necromancy and is fooling young women.

Panel seven: apparently he is giving one of the women a headache because all he can talk about is the awesome stick he found on the way to the theatre.

Panel eight: raptor chicken is one the look out for anyone who would try to escape from the mad scientist’s home where they are kept prisoner.

Panel nine: some kids got into the home based on rumors of the mad scientist and are messing around and having fun scaring each other. 

Panel ten: chicken men are now being mass produced and following their natural instincts to escape and find mates.

Panel eleven: The scientist rushes to find and capture the escaped chicken men and kill them due to them being more animal then human.

Week One: The Graphic Narrative

Shaun Tan's, The Arrival, was beautifully done and well constructed. Because of his attention to detail his work helps the viewer understand the narrative without the assistance of words. Tan uses multiple panels to describe a man's emotional and physical adaptations to a new country/world; while he’s there he forms an understanding of the language and the cultural differences between himself and the inhabitants of the new world, He is able to find a place to live and finds different jobs in order to save up enough currency to bring his family over to be with him and get away from the country they once called home.

 I believe the reason why he was so successful depicting the this world itself was due to it being completely unfamiliar with the reader and also the main character; it made each person reading the comic put in their own individual interpretation and could sympathize with the man for the lack of understanding of his surroundings. Nothing is familiar to the reader, for instances the written language is indecipherable consisting of odd shapes and lines, among other things like house hold appliances, food, and even the animals that co-exist with the people. The comic can be read internationally and is completely comprehensible due to the realistic illustrations and easy to follow panels that help the story transition.