Maus 2

I really liked part 2 of this book, because it was well drawn and it really connected me with the Holocaust, even though the characters were animals. I have read other books about the Holocaust, and this one seemed to be one of the more realistic. Somehow, telling the story with mice made what was happeneing seem more real, and not less as I would had expected. This book opened my eyes to the actual fear that the Jews actually had during that time. I thought that the style of pictures and words that Art Spiegelman used in this was very effective, because on one hand, he was telling the story that many other people have told with the Jews suffering in hiding, but on the other hand he made the characters, that were all animals, seem more human than the humans in the other stories of the Holocaust that I have read. Art's modern day descriptions made it even better, because he showed all of the characters' weaknesses instead of just telling about how they were being strong and surviving. I saw some depiction of time on page 25 when he flashes back to the Holocaust telling his son about it. And also as they sit down for breakfast he flashes back from modern time to the Holocaust telling him many details of things that he experienced.

Maus 1

Well, right away Maus is much harder to read and comprend compard to Blankets. It is written more like Fun Home which I as well didn't enjoy a whole lot. The story text along with the speech bubbles confuse me quite a bit making it harder to read. I don't really like the way the father speaks either because I have to reread what he says and still am undersure sometimes what he means. For Depiction of time he refers to flashbacks throughout the story talking about surviving the Holocaust. Other than that it was kind of hard to find any other time shifts through panels.

Blankets

Reading Blankets seemed to be a little easier to understand than Fun Home. Page by page it just seemed to be a quicker read where I could follow what was going on. Containing mostly dialog on each page rather than text and dialog I think made it significantly easier to comrehend. Although reading through the first few chapters of Blankets I did notice that the pictures did not tell the story as well as Fun Home did. The pictures of Blankets contain a great deal of detail, but don't help explain really as well as the pictures of Fun Home. My group this week had transitions. I found many transitions throughout the first couple chapters mostly being moment to moment. Starting with the first couple pages around page 11 where phil and craig are sleeping you can see some moment to moment transition as well as page 22 and 23 when the bullies are rocking craig back and forth. Moment to moment comes up a lot as we can also see it on pages 36 and 37 coming home from school talking to his brother on the couch, 50 witht the teacher talking about heaven going on and on, 68 through 71 when craig and phil are trying to sleep on the hot day but can't because they are uncomfortably sweaty, and 83 to 85 when he sneaks out of the cabin at church camp to walk around. As well as moment to moment, you can also see action to action, scene to scene, and aspect to aspect come up rarely. Page 12 as phil throws craig out of bed, page 40 as craig plans his escape from home, and page 95 as they are running through the snow at church camp you can see action to action. Scene to scene can be found on pages 75 and 82 when craig and phil are playing outside in the snow and when the camp counselor comes and yells at the boys to go to sleep. Lastly aspect to aspect I found once on page 118 when there is caos in the rec room and different things are going on.

Fun Home 2

Following chapter 3 the relationship between words and pictures became very connected. For every picture captured in a scene you knew exactly what the words were going to be. This made reading and comprehending much easier to be able to look at the words as pictures. There was also a lot of action to action scenes where one frame to another would fit together perfectly. That also helped greatfully to be able to see a connection between what was happening moment to moment. There was a great deal of detail in the back of scenes including the Sunbeam Bread which came up in several occasions. I thought she and her father got much closer once realizing that they were living the same life. It got a little confusing when trying to follow the transition from college to home and back to when she was a child, but pictures helped sort it out. It took a couple times over to understand what was being said it what time instants. Throughtout the ending part of the book interacting with her mother you could tell was very weird and uneasy for her, but as for with her father she opened up and told him everything. I wonder if that encouraged her or gave her a slight push to the way she became. I did like the references to Cather in the Rye with the school teacher being brought up for being gay and Holden staying at his house. Really enjoyed the ending connecting everything together.

Fun Home

I really enjoyed the start of Fun Home with the father and son playing airplane because that is an experience I once did when I was a little kid too. I could relate to the boy very well because my father too liked everything to be perfect. Make it be furniture or cleaning the house, he was always doing something around the house to make it look better than it did. The pictures really helped me understand what was going on as they illustrated very nicely what was being said in the text. I like that much better so you can actually feel what is going on instead of just reading it and imagining from the words. It shocked me to read the question of the father having sex with little boys while they were attending mass. Talking about an ideal husband and then saying something drastic like that through me off. When the boy talks about his father dieing it gets a little depressing to see him reliving the happy moments he spent with him. I too thought about the moments I used to spend with my dad. It got even more strange for me when I found out the family business was running a funeral home. It was difficult to read about the father comititing suicide, but what really got me was how the family reacted to it. Being around the funeral home all those years made him dieing in a way not so much of a big deal. I would be defistated if I lost a parent and they acted by grinning at one another. My favorite part was the connection between the children's favorite story about their father getting stuck in the mud and the ending line where the boy says his father was stuck in the mud for good this time.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Starting to read this it brought back memories of when I used to read comics. It is very true that comics have recieved a bad reputation I guess to a point where people only think they are kiddie, crude, disposable, and cheap. I don't think people understand the true meaning of comics and often times define it as to narrow. There are many different types of ways to write comics seeing as there are many different styles. Understanding Comics is definetly a really good way to comrehend comic books if you don't know a lot about them. It breaks down definitions and shows accurate drawings of how things are done and thought of. It breaks down for you action shots and sounds to get a full effect of what is happening in the scene. It also shows how to capture different frames to connect all together to string a story line. I really like the begining as it was very helpful and informational to a non-comic book reader.

Benson / Orlean

Benson was a rather short essay. Reading it went by quickly and it barely had a relevant meaning. The younger sister was telling about her life living under her older sister. Nicely describing the things she does and her as a person. As well as making it very obvious that her boyfriend does not love her, but loves everything else he does. The older sister was becoming a bad influence for the younger sister and in knowing so showed some of her innocence. In the end I did not expect the boyfriend to fall for the younger sister, as she then rejected him although stating she was different and maybe a better person than her sister.

Reading Orlean I wasn't interested until it starting getting weird. Although that sounds funny this is what I mean. She was going off about herself and all these things she did and what not, but when she told the story of Colin really got me. The way she started of her and Colin one day being married was strange to me. Going on about all the things they would do and be good at and like together still had me confused. As she then turned to talk about Colin's life I finally understood. Everything she mentioned of his life was the same as when they were to get married. The college he was going to, what he would study, the games they would play, etc. Once I caught on I started to really enjoy the essay. It was funny and the exactly what a ten year old kid thinks of and does. It had a great wrap up to the essay.