Reconsidering the Superhero: Sandman and Black Panther

Honestly, I was pretty confused on seeing Sandman comics in the Week 13 recommendations besides Watchmen and Ark Asylum. I had only heard about the Sandman comics and had a vague idea of its concepts, so I wasn't sure how it could fit into the superhero genre. Still, it was published by DC Comics and I'd been recommended it a few time so I gave it a shot.

Specifically, I read Vol. 5 "A Game of You" which was, at first, pretty confusing still. I got warmed up to it though as the story progressed, and was surprised that the story featured lesbians and a transgender character right off the bat in the 1980's New York.  The main protagonist, Barbie, was also fairly unusual to be the main character as she was a divorced woman with (as far as I interpreted) no supernatural abilities other than her connection to a specific dream world that begins to bleed into reality. Overall, I found the format and characters to be very intriguing even though it was hard to discern contextual history about Sandman (Morpheus, the Dream King, all that jazz) and I was really only able to follow this specific story arc. What I also found intriguing was that there was no true heroic victory in the end. Instead of the usually bang of a superhero comic ending, it was more of a whimper that mourned the death of Wanda (the only transgender character who I thought had no reason to be killed off in the first place) and left the main character in a situation that was not optimistic or proud. I could definitely see how darker fantasy storylines could begin to shape how stories are told, and instead of always allowing the "hero" of the tale to have their victories, it felt more realistic to the world to showcase what can be the consequences of supernatural or fantastical events.

As for Black Panther, I was also very surprised by the current story (as of 2016) and hadn't had much exposure to the story outside of the film and very brief comic readings. It also shares similarities to how Sandman seems to portray a hero who is not victorious or always within the right. Instead, it portrays a king, T'Challa, who struggles to reclaim his identity as a hero and provide for a country that feels betrayed by him. He is full of guilt, remorse, and is also very lost in his sense of heroism, and while he goes through the motions in trying to do what he believes is right, he is confronted by his own people who are full of conflict but are trying to manage their lives without entirely relying on him to solve their problems. As much as I enjoy the Black Panther film and how the story was handled, I definitely appreciate the more somber gravity that helps the comic orbit around the universe of Marvel.

These comics, with all their differences, showcase the evolution of a hero that can't always win and overcome so easily, and that the world is no longer black in white in morality. Heroes are not always heroic, and villains can have good intentions. The lines blurring between good and evil adds so much more realism for readers because our lives don't always have a clear victory or happy ending. We can't always resolve all the problems of our lives, but the heroism is redefined in both seeing characters try to resolve them, and us continuing to live our lives as best we can just as heroes keep fighting to do what they believe in. After all, that's really all we can do.

Women in Comics: "Fun House"

While I feel the quality and intellectual level of the graphic novel was incredibly high, I actually found that I didn't enjoy this work as much as I enjoyed "My Favorite Thing is Monsters." It has a very similar tone of seriousness to that of "This One Summer," which I had read over the summer.  The whole narrative is very much a diary and monologue thoughts of Allison Bechdel, and a lot of her words were very hard to chew on in terms of her incredibly strong vocabulary, but also the stream of consciousness became hard to follow if you couldn't interpret her words well enough. I had to reread sections multiple times to understand any of it.

Overall, I'll admit that Bechdel's distinguished intellect was out of my reading level now that I don't get to read as much as I used to, and it made the comic very hard to dig my teeth into. I also feel that the intense struggle with coming to terms with a father figure and how they may not have always been who you thought they were was very relatable, but I also struggled to continue reading because my own personal experiences and associations with my father were things that I didn't really want to address or think about (even though they weren't nearly as intense or shocking as Bechdel's father was, I mainly have a sore spot when it comes to anything about my father) so they comic also became a bit of a chore to read in my mind. I feel like I should have enjoyed it more, but I have to be honest and say I wasn't as much of a fan, and I share a similar opinion on "This One Summer," which was also very hard for me to digest when I read it earlier this summer.

Contemporary Comics: "My Favorite Thing is Monsters" by Emil Ferris

I genuinely don't know where to start with how to discuss this book. It was completely not what I had been expecting, and the story (albeit very hard to follow) kept me chasing the ending long into the night.

My gears are turning. Let me try to explain what my brain is full of.

The illustrations and format of the comic. Absolutely confounding and incredible. After I had finished reading (and scoured the internet for more information about the series and the author) I learned that Ferris had a lot her ability to draw at one point, and she worked tirelessly to create this work. While it's deeply impressive, I genuinely couldn't believe that she had gone through so much and made many incredible illustrations. I love the characters and the way the comic is always formatted in a notebook, and I felt a nostalgic whiplash of being the student who ruined notebooks with drawings instead of notes. It made me deeply miss the youthful freedom to make art on anything you had available, whether it was walls or paper or ceiling tiles.

The way she illustrated and the format of the whole novel felt like looking into the Sistine chapel that also happened to be my middle school. The incredible feeling of wonder and amazement coupled with the youthful and realistic view of the darker side of like was deeply bittersweet, and its hard to describe just how much the drawings alone brought me to places in my life where I had been doing the same thing in notebooks.

There is also so much to cover in terms of the story that was wildly intriguing to me. Everything in the story, though jumbled and quilted together, kept me waiting on the edge of my seat to try and understand the world from the view of Karen as she struggles to cope with her situation, and I found her struggles profoundly relatable to some of my own experiences as a child. Still, so much pesters me about all of the topics left unaddressed. Who is Victor? What happened to Anya? Does Karen ever confess her affections to her crush?

This book, like "Blankets", cut me down to my core, and although I do feel wounded by this story and profoundly empathetic for all that has happened to Karen, this book also made me reevaluate some of the ways I view my life or my past from familiar but different angle. I won't forget this book for a very long time, and I'm deeply gratefully I was given the opportunity to read it.

Manga: "Buddha (Vol. 1)" by Osama Tezuka

I feel like I've seen other works by Tezuka before or at least his work has been influential to other works that I've read. Overall, even though I get a little confused by the story, I really enjoyed it and found it very entertaining. I will say some of the immersion in reading the story is lost by the English translation that is more modern-day slang words, but I do understand that its also to make it more relatable to younger readers. I did find it interesting that Tezuka illustrated the head monk, Master Asita, having a pack of cigarettes and food hidden in his robes that hints that the book was more modernly written and as a little inside joke. Even though I only know a little about India and its history, I found the mixture of Japanese manga and historical Indian culture and stories to be really refreshing. The art style is also very unique but I enjoy that is it very clear and easy to tell where the environment is as well as the characters being very easy to identify.I also noticed that this book read from left to right, or at least the layout of the comic's panels allows for American readers to easily digest the information or understand the situations. The use of action and motion in panels for fights was also really fun and enjoyable to read, and I felt a lot of the impacts based on drawings alone. If I find the other book volumes, I would gladly read them!

The Wide World of Comics: "Persepolis"

It's easy to forget how much we can people of privilege in the United States, and while I try to stay informed with international news like BBC and Vice News, its very easy to forget that the world outside the states is incredibly different from what I've come to know here.

After reading "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, I was plagued with these thoughts, but I was also incredibly surprised to read a comic of such a mature caliber so easily. As we had discussed in class, many countries outside of Europe were not confined by what children could read and not read, and they're also were able to spread their demographic beyond children and also expand to adults when it came to comics. A small side note, I was also intrigued when Satrapi discussed her comic book versions of complex beliefs and ideologies that she would read every now and then because it only seemed to heighten the gap of how different my childhood readings were from that of a child outside of the states.

Overall, I really enjoyed the simplicity of the comic style and illustrations, as well as Satrapi's narration of the story to help explain or describe things I didn't understand. The way the novel is written and drawn also made me realize that the comics were truly for anyone and everyone to read. It wasn't confined to the genre and languages of children or made too graphic that youth would be scarred from reading it. It was simply a story for any person to consume, and I think that's the main reason I kept reading despite sometimes begin unable to relate fully. I also feel like it helped me expand my worldview on what life can be like for international students, and how greatly the lives of American youths can differ in both good and bad ways.

It did make me a little depressed to realize that, we as a country and the flow of information is controlled and distributed, have not allowed our generations to be able to grow and acquire knowledge as freely when we favor conservative lifestyles and prefer to restrict what youth learn in order to maintain old-fashioned values or to dictate the image of our country to the young masses.

Stereotypes in Comics Part II: "March"

Alright, there was a lot of readings this week, so I tried to get through as much as possible of "March," as well as the article "Comicsgate: How an Anti-Diversity Harassment Campaign in Comics Got Ugly—and Profitable" and the small comic "What Do We Mean When We Say “Toxic Masculinity?” I'll briefly give my thoughts on each and then address my opinions on the use of stereotypes.

"March" was a graphic novel that I found incredibly intriguing, as I've found most historical graphic narratives to be easier for me to digest and process. It's a topic that I don't believe has been discussed enough in school curriculums or in general, as segregation laws and the mistreatment of African Americans will most likely be a stain in which this country can never truly remove, but certainly cover-up. In truth, it becomes harder for me to read stereotypes these days unless they are completely and utterly exaggerated to prove the point.  I felt this way in "March" as I know there were historical stereotypes against African American people, but most of those stereotypes aren't commonly brought up in context today. 

The "#Comicsgate" article was more familiar to me, and while I didn't associate the contents of the article with stereotypes at first, I can see how female comic workers can have stereotypes created about them even if the stereotypes are absolutely not true or accurate. In this instance, stereotypes were created to try and push women back out of the comics industry or to tarnish their reputation by men who feel that they are not allowed in the industry.

Reading the short webcomic about "Toxic Masculinity" was also a topic I was very familiar with, as it has been more and more commonly addressed as well, and the world today is beginning to tear away the common male stereotypes that have created unhealthy standards and behavioral responses for men in society.

In terms of stereotypes being used in the comic, animation, and gaming industry, I do feel that these industries must rely on stereotypes to communicate an idea, even though I don't agree with the practice of it. I don't believe it is entirely necessary to tell a story, no matter how much better a story might read when using a stereotype. I think the use of stereotypes should be reduced in the sense of how characters are portrayed and designed, and that diversity and realism should be created not out of old stereotypes but based on people today and to encourage the normalization of people who don't fit under labels or stereotypes. I haven't been personally affected by stereotypes in the entertainment industries as far as I am aware, but I also must say that I haven't been able to watch many films or play too many games lately.

Stereotypes in Comics Pt. I: "The Fifth Beatle"

I was most encouraged to read "The Fifth Beatle" because of watching the animated film "Yellow Submarine" for the first time a little while ago in class, and I've honestly not been able to get "Eleanor Rigby" and "Nowhere Man" out of my head for a solid week at least. I'm also embarrassed to say I have little to no awareness of The Beatles and their history as a band but was quite struck by the songs I heard and thought this book might help introduce me more to the band.

At first, the beginning was a little abrupt with the contrast of The Beatles playing a concert in their earlier days juxtaposed with the beating of a man who I would later realize is both the main character and gay. But from there it was hook, line, and sinker.  Not only was the progression of Brian Epstein character through time fascinating, but the careful attention to the steady spiral into poor physical and mental health was almost like watching a match be stuck in slow motion. His character was conveyed with such bright and charismatic energy that was constantly shadowed by doctor's visits and quite mental spirals into dejection or loneliness.

It's no wonder how he burns out so quickly with the pressure, drugs, and societal norms. Still, the story was incredibly beautiful and moving despite such a sad ending to Epstein's story, and I found that I could profoundly relate to Epstein's sense of great longing for companionship (in the sense of sharing the wonders of life and being one's true self with another human being) as well as the heavy sense of isolation between the Brian the world saw versus Brian alone.

I also could gush for days about the incredible illustrations of this novel, especially it's the use of lighting and expressions to convey delight amounts of depth in mood or tones in each panel. I also felt that the captured likeness of the characters was very well done, and I found it to be incredibly immersive to see and recognize the characters with their real-world likeness.

Overall, the most intriguing aspect of this comic was not only the deeply personal sentiments throughout the novel, and how there was such a heavy stigma against gay people that was emphasized as well. Epstein's homosexuality was addressed multiple times in the story, even during the first 5 pages. He was beaten, belittled, and questioned about qualities he had that fell into the common tropes of what a gay man should be or act like. He had a high sense of cleanliness and fashion, did art and illustrations, was thinner, and overall showed little interest in women. All of these qualities were noticed by people he encountered, and while a few showed acceptance or indifference, most people made the instant assumption that he was a gay man and enforced the stereotype on Epstein, who took drugs and medication to try to suppress his true natures.

I was intrigued to see the stereotypes of the gay man in the '60s and '70s be addressed in this comic, especially for such a pivotal character for The Beatles and their career, and how the story didn't rely on Epstein's homosexuality to tell morals or motivate the progression of the story whatsoever, but rather include it for what it must of felt like for Epstein: a quiet but ever-present truth about one's identity that could not be erased or suppressed, no matter how many pill you take.