Revised Review: Underground comics

            Looking back on the entries I’ve compiled this semester, I’ve noticed my entry regarding Underground Comics was pretty lacking, in need of a re-write. I felt this was a necessary since me and my circle of friends are also engaging in a similar counterculture.

            Underground comics sold in head shops and underground newspapers were made to freely communicate frustrations towards society and the police, actualizations reached by way of psychedelics, and day-to-day experiences with inequality. They were a response to the implemented Comics Code and disquiet throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s: the Civil Rights Movement, the Sexual Revolution, the Vietnam War, and anti-drug and paraphernalia laws. While these comics address issues from nearly 50 years ago, their intent is still relevant to today’s controversies – Global Warming, the War on Women, Palestine and Israel, the war in Afghanistan, as well as the gradually rising acceptance of Gender/Sexuality Minorities, marijuana use, plant-based diets, and calling white people out on their whiteness. Today, these expressions are mostly made over the Internet, so these messages are reaching a much wider audience.

From whitewhine.com

            Underground comics of the 60s-70s often contained Optical Art (more commonly known as “Op Art”), an optical illusion that would appear to move or “breathe” under the human eye, like how a surface would appear while on psychedelics. When Op Art appears in a comic, it can simulate a psychedelic experience or instill an unusual sensation in the viewer. The comic Mother Oats frequently employs the use of Op Art. Combining that with its irregular pacing, strange perspective and highly detailed drawings, it does read like an acid trip.

Week 14: The Future of Comics

I was relieved that at least one other person in class wanted to mention Homestuck (much to our class' chagrin), because it really is one of the biggest things to happen in webcomics within the last five years. Beginning in 2009 and exploding into popularity last year, Homestuck is a multimedia narrative including extensive lengths of text, flash animations, original music, interactive pages, minigames, funny dialogue, and a story that gets pretty convoluted at times. Most readers, after seeing an animation for the first time, react by asking “what” or by screaming and crying because all their favorite characters died (By now, I would not consider this a spoiler. That’s how frequently this happens).

Despite the fact that Homestuck spans over 5,000 pages (PBS refers to it as the Internet’s Ulysses in the video below), usually the only preliminary information given to new readers is that “four kids start playing a game and shit goes down.” It’s up to the reader to find out what else happens. This video makes an interesting point on the challenge Homestuck presents.

However, I feel it is necessary to include Homestuck’s criticisms and controversies (any work of this scale would have them). Homestuck’s eccentric creator, Andrew Hussie, tends to take advantage of his fanbase (which I have decided not to write about, as they’re not as much a part of the story) and often teases them, and writes unforeseen twists because it’s fun, usually leading the story nowhere for months at a time. On another note, TV Tropes lists Homestuck as having so many “’Funny Aneurysm’ Moments,” (meaning that a joke can be funny the first time, but becomes cringe-worthy the second time around, due to traumatic events in later updates of the story), that “it’s getting to the point that laughing at anything is a dicey proposition.”

Presented without context...

As of the past few months, the story has gained 14 new characters, 12 of which are copies of the story’s most beloved characters (except the personalities of these ones are supposed to reflect the fans’ interpretations of the original characters), with another story arc and love triangles and it’s really testing my patience. Nevertheless, knowing Hussie’s storytelling style, it will always circle back to the story, and eventually everything will make sense.

Week 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

            Superheroes have been making a comeback over the past decade, mainly with the help of sagas of movies adapted from their original comics (albeit not entirely accurate). As comics and graphic narratives are experimenting and converging into new formats, the role of the superhero is being reconsidered to fit contemporary culture and taste. The concept of anti-heroes rose to popularity, disclosing the fact that most superheroes are human at their core, and thus make mistakes and have done things they deeply regret. As a result, they are more relatable to their audience, especially for those in need of a role model.

            Bill Willingham’s Fables modernizes classic characters of folklore, along with their distortions, flaws, and dangers. These characters were forced out of their homes, migrating to “a fictional land called New York City,” attempting to blend in with humans. Willingham rendered many of these characters for his story. Chapter One, Old Tales Revisited, introduces the reader to Fabletown, where the characters safely reside. Sheriff Bigby Wolf – the re-adaptation of the Big Bad Wolf – examines the possible murder of Rose Red, the sister of Snow White.

Week 12: Comics by Women

            A couple years ago I had to write an analysis on Fun Home’s first chapter, Old Father, Old Artificer, which was provided by itself in a textbook. I remember being proud of the piece I wrote (though it’s not as good as my current writing), so I was looking forward to reading the whole novel and finally getting further into the context. This is what I wrote for the first chapter a few years ago:

            “The graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel's Old Father, Old Artificer, recalls Bechdel's father showing little emotion, with the occasional burst of anger, keeping up the appearance of the family, and more importantly, their house, by using his children to assist him in the process. To him, making the house look pleasing to others was a cover for his secret - his attraction to the high school students he taught. Within the memoir, Bechdel compares her father to Daedalus, whose craft led to the death of his son. At one point in the story, she writes herself starting to rebel against her father and the way he sees things. The memoir's comic format shows how the father was making the house almost like a labyrinth, and she wanted to get out.”

            This is still pretty accurate – Alison comes across things in her childhood, which she analyzes in an effort to shape her identity. However, her father doesn’t want her to end up like him, so he strives to keep her in the unassuming image he has for his family. Even though Alison eventually leaves the house for college, she is still caught up in trying to understand her father and trying to get on his level, while at the same time discovering her sexuality, which she tries to keep hidden from her family as well.