Hellboy

Hellboy is one of the most interesting and enjoyable comics I have ever read. Mignola has created a character that is very interesting in the simple fact that he is a demon meant to bring death and destruction to the world yet he is trying to save it and keep its people safe from the creatures that go bump in the night. Hellboy is a comic that draws a lot of influence from folklore and ghost stories. It is one of those stories that never ends mainly because every issue has an end but in retrospect Hellboy's journey is never finished and his threat to the world will always be there until he is gone. Hellboy's struggle as a hero is that he is the villain as well. Mignola has created a character and a story that is a breath of fresh air in comics. It takes the aspects of folklore, ghost stories, and superheroes and puts its own spin on the genre. The style of the art and the aspects of storytelling have influenced me as an artist and as a storyteller. Hellboy is one of those comics that will continue for a long time not because of its popularity but the fact that they have taking a series and told a story that is very compelling, interesting, and fun. Hellboy is a great example of storytelling and is one of my personal favorites as well as one of my biggest influences when it comes to illustration and comics.

Will Eisner

     Will Eisner is the father of visual storytelling or what we now call comics. His work with the Spirit and A Contract with God are great examples of great visual storytelling. Overall I enjoy Eisner's storytelling but I am not the biggest fan of his style of art. His style of realism and stylized figures in my opinion is not that interesting. His style with the Spirit fit mainly because it was a cartoony subject matter but it was still portrayed in a sum what realistic manner. His style in Contract with God I feel did not really work mainly because it was a very emotional subject. In Maus I feel it worked nicely because it was very heavily stylized but in Contract With God it is on the border between realism and heavily stylized. I feel if he drew in a more realistic manner or a heavily stylized manner it could have been more effective. I feel this way because there are some very emotional aspects that I can’t experience the way it’s meant to be portrayed mainly because the style seems to fun. Overall Eisner is a master of storytelling and I respect him immensely but stylistically I feel he could have done a few things to help portray his subject matter better. Eisner is a master storyteller who created what we call comics today but to be completely honest I am not the biggest fan of some of his art. I know this sounds sacrilegious but I feel I have to be honest.  

Nothing Nice to Say.

Nothing Nice to Say is a punk online comic I have been following for a very long time. I don't enjoy online comics to much but Nothing Nice to Say is a comic based on punk rock culture in contemporary punk music. This comic is more for people who are fans of the music mainly because there are many jokes that only fans of punk music will understand. In fact I have loved punk music since I was in middle school and there are some jokes that I don't even understand. This is a comic for kids and adults from the old school to the new school in the punk and hardcore scene. This comic is not for everyone mainly because it’s for punks but besides that it as a very funny and the characters find themselves in very interesting and weird situations. Nothing Nice to Say is a web comic that can be viewed by everyone and still get a kick out of it but most of the time people who are not fans of punk rock will not no what is going on or what some of the jokes mean. Overall Nothing Nice to say is one of my personal favorite web comics but it is not for everyone.

Watchmen

     Watchmen is a graphic novel that pushed the envelope as a super hero comic as well as a novel. Watchmen is one of Time magazines best 100 novels for a reason. Watchmen is a mixture of a book and a graphic novel. I really enjoyed this aspect of Watchmen. The panel arrangement was one of my favorite things in reading this novel. Many of the comic pages have 9 similar panels with very different angled illustrations with different compositions but it still reads very well. The design of the panels really added to my reading experience. What was really interesting with Watchmen was the break between comic pages and articles or excerpts from Under The Hood. I feel this was a good aspect to add to this graphic novel in the way it kept the story going as well as explaining background information with events and characters. In a way it gave more legitimacy to the comic world. This basically said that yes comics are made up of superheroes but it can be a realistic and legitimate story not only as a graphic novel but as a novel as well. Watchmen overall as a novel was an enjoyable read mainly because they took the superhero genre and made it a more realistic story. The griminess of the subject matter and the attire of the heroes made a nice back and forth. These people were dressed up as generic superheroes but they kicked ass. It was not the generic Superman saying drugs are bad and taking the bad guys to jail it was Rorschach kicking the crap out of people to find justice. Watchmen was a very enjoyable read and overall I enjoyed Watchmen and I believe it is a must read for book lovers and comic lovers everywhere.   

Asterios Polyp

David Mazzucchelli's work has been a very big influence of mine. Whether it is his work in Batman Year One, Daredevil Born Again, or my personal favorite Asterios Polyp. Asterious Polyp is a great piece of pure story telling. The story line jumps around in different aspects of Polyps life when he was with his wife, when he sees his life burn into ashes, and when he goes on the road and ends up in a town until he gets some courage and finds his wife. The artwork in this book is very interesting with the panel arrangement, the stylistic drawing, and the colored line work. One of the best things about Asterious Polyp is the fact that it is about normal life. It is about one mans life experience in a very interesting manner. The dream sequences that show Polyps emotions about his unborn twin brother were very interesting and moved the story along nicely. It did not explain a lot of what Polyps feelings in certain situations but it made you think which I believe was a nice aspect of this story. It made a story about one mans life much more interesting by going into his mind and viewing his dreams. Overall I enjoyed this graphic novel and even though I have read it a lot I still find it enjoyable every time I read it.   

Calvin and Hobbes

     Calvin and Hobbes is a comic that people of all ages can relate with. It is a comic that really portrays what its like to be a kid. It also has some of the greatest life lessons I have ever heard from any form of comics. Bill Watterson’s illustrations for Calvin and Hobbes are in a great cartoony style but there are some times when Calvin pretends he is a dinosaur or a he is flying a plane and the drawings go more towards realism. I enjoy this aspect mainly because it makes it funnier when a huge T-rex is sitting at the dinner table asking for dino meat. One aspect I think is brilliant with Calvin and Hobbes is when you see Hobbes through Calvin's eyes he is a real tiger but through everyone else's eyes Hobbes is a stuffed animal. This is my favorite part of this comic mainly because it shows how imaginative one kid can be. It also brings up the question is Hobbes a real tiger or not. No one ever tells Calvin that Hobbes is not real. Through his parents eyes Hobbes is a stuffed animal but to Calvin it is his best friend who he shares every adventure with. Overall Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favorite comics because of its ability to make you feel like a kid again it just makes you want to go out on an adventure and have fun. It is more than just cartoons this comic has some great writing were it talks about the state of the world, questioning your mortality, or what it is like to be a kid with an overactive imagination. Calvin and Hobbes is a comic that is so much more than a kid and his pet tiger.