In the 1930s, Betty Boop was a major studio who showed minorities in America, though through stereotypes, are representing groups that were never represented before. The studio was created by a Jewish family, 4 of them, and Coco the clown was a caricature of one of the brothers. This is unlike Disney for this is much more urban and stayed in New York most of their carrier, but then went to Miami where they shortly went bankrupt. Bimbo the dog seems to be a very popular character of theres, along with Betty Boop and Coco the clown. I also know that Betty Boop was originally a dog and they were together. There is lots of energy and craziness in the cartoons, each moment is unpredictable. At the time, America is deep in the depression, and the plan at the time was not to do anything and the world was floundering. So what people did was go to the movies, which would be in a huge theatre that could hold 3,000 people and there would be an orchestra or organ that would play over the films. They would play the news, then a episode of a show that would play that would end of a cliff hanger, then they would play 2 films that would often have an animated short before hand. Sound is starting to become a thing and Steamboat Willie is one of the first to have sound that was shown in theaters. The only other forms of entertainment during the time was newspapers and the radio, thats why in the early cartoons they often play popular music of the time.
In the late 30s, comic studios start to pop up. Before this, comics were not widely spread for there was just not enough material. The killer appeal for comics at the time became superheroes. Superman was one of the prominent ones, but he was never meant to be in comic books, but in comic strips. They took the original comic strip, cut it up, and created the first comic book of him. The comic I was given to look at in class was Amethyst Princess of Gem world. It is a very disco title. In comparison to the strips we saw last class, this comic has much more sequential flow and color than the earlier comic strips. This also felt more like a full story from beginning to end, like a tv episode, instead of a bunch of skits and stories. In comics in the 30s and 40s, comics could be up to 60 pages so the reader could get a complete stories. The page size is very different to, it is a pamphlet, not in a huge newspaper. The second world war makes the comic books much more popular due to the portability of the product. In the 1950s, westerns become super popular mainly because they were being shown on tv. Crime Suspen Stories was another comic I looked at in class, and I didn't like it. Too many words and the end of each of the three stories I didn't feel like I discovered something new. But one can tell that this was not written for children, having murdered multiple people. Comics were seen as evil, that they were rotting the brains of the children, turning them gay, and stupid. Many comic book companies grouped together and formed the comic code, which made rules for what could be in a comic. EC stood for educational comics, but within 6 weeks they were taken out of the market by the two major companies, which would enforce government censorship. Yet as the original audience grew older, the content became more and more adult.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Literature of Comics - Day 3
Early comics and what to look for. Where are the words and images, how many words are there compared to the drawing? What is the style? How does it read? What is the creator's voice? What are the elements that make up the comic?
Comics with strong voices will never be mistaken for another comic. Comics like the Peanuts won't be mistaken for Mickey Mouse. Personally I really like the Peanuts, but thats probably because my dad would show me them all the time. We even went to Snoopy land up at Mall of America back when I was little. I always liked Snoopy the best, especially his skits with Woodstock. We always would watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. One of my favorite parts is the ghost covered in holes and would always get a rock when trick or treating. I really liked looking at the comic "The Upside Downs" because the artist really had to think about his drawings so that they would read both up right and upside down. I also love Mickey Mouse, especially how well the character's poses and actions read. My dad also loved Popeye, so I was introduced to it at a young age. I didn't like Popeye as much, but the artist's voice is loud and clear for I would recognize his work immediately.
Mickey Mouse comics seem to rely heavily on spoken word bubbles. The drawings are very expressive and read well, but there is not a single panel that doesn't have any words. Now if one was to take all of the words and speech bubbles out, I may be able to understand whats going on but I certainly wouldn't be able to know for sure. Flash Gordon comics remind me a lot of superhero comics like Wonder Woman or Super Man. It definitely has less words than a Mickey Mouse comic, but I would have no idea what was happening if the words were not there. Lots of line work and much more realistic than cartoony. Lots of cross hatching to express mass and shading, and very action orientated. Yet, like the Mickey Mouse comics, not one panel has no words and I feel that not all the panels need them, they could stand on their own without words. It kind of reminds me of the He-man or Thunder Cats cartoon.
Little Nemo has a very different voice compared to the two previous comics. It almost reminds me of a children's book or drawings for a church or biblical writing. This comic has a lot less writing in it, having very small speech bubbles. It also has very pastel or light coloring compared to the bold bright colors in Flash Gordon's comics. I feel that this comic has done the best with allowing the drawings to speak for themselves, but most panels have at least one speech bubble, but I feel that if they were taken out I could understand the general story. His backgrounds have been the most detailed of the comics I have seen so far. Crazy Cat reminds me the most of modern newspaper comic strips. It is not a continuous story but rather mini skits that take up one line of panels. I like the simplicity of the drawings and characters which makes them relatable. There is no color, but a lot of filling in and line slashing to indicate shadow and mass. I also like the variety of characters that show up in the different strips, from a rhino to a big dodo bird to the mouse. The artist also adds in sound effects when objects are being thrown like 'zip', which reminds me of current comic books that have 'pow', 'bam', or 'boom' to indicate action noises.
Comics with strong voices will never be mistaken for another comic. Comics like the Peanuts won't be mistaken for Mickey Mouse. Personally I really like the Peanuts, but thats probably because my dad would show me them all the time. We even went to Snoopy land up at Mall of America back when I was little. I always liked Snoopy the best, especially his skits with Woodstock. We always would watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. One of my favorite parts is the ghost covered in holes and would always get a rock when trick or treating. I really liked looking at the comic "The Upside Downs" because the artist really had to think about his drawings so that they would read both up right and upside down. I also love Mickey Mouse, especially how well the character's poses and actions read. My dad also loved Popeye, so I was introduced to it at a young age. I didn't like Popeye as much, but the artist's voice is loud and clear for I would recognize his work immediately.
Mickey Mouse comics seem to rely heavily on spoken word bubbles. The drawings are very expressive and read well, but there is not a single panel that doesn't have any words. Now if one was to take all of the words and speech bubbles out, I may be able to understand whats going on but I certainly wouldn't be able to know for sure. Flash Gordon comics remind me a lot of superhero comics like Wonder Woman or Super Man. It definitely has less words than a Mickey Mouse comic, but I would have no idea what was happening if the words were not there. Lots of line work and much more realistic than cartoony. Lots of cross hatching to express mass and shading, and very action orientated. Yet, like the Mickey Mouse comics, not one panel has no words and I feel that not all the panels need them, they could stand on their own without words. It kind of reminds me of the He-man or Thunder Cats cartoon.
Little Nemo has a very different voice compared to the two previous comics. It almost reminds me of a children's book or drawings for a church or biblical writing. This comic has a lot less writing in it, having very small speech bubbles. It also has very pastel or light coloring compared to the bold bright colors in Flash Gordon's comics. I feel that this comic has done the best with allowing the drawings to speak for themselves, but most panels have at least one speech bubble, but I feel that if they were taken out I could understand the general story. His backgrounds have been the most detailed of the comics I have seen so far. Crazy Cat reminds me the most of modern newspaper comic strips. It is not a continuous story but rather mini skits that take up one line of panels. I like the simplicity of the drawings and characters which makes them relatable. There is no color, but a lot of filling in and line slashing to indicate shadow and mass. I also like the variety of characters that show up in the different strips, from a rhino to a big dodo bird to the mouse. The artist also adds in sound effects when objects are being thrown like 'zip', which reminds me of current comic books that have 'pow', 'bam', or 'boom' to indicate action noises.
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