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.
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