LITERATURE OF COMICS AND THE GRAPHIC NARRATIVE

King by Ho Che Anderson was a good read. I learned a lot more about MLK than I thought I knew. The only history I got about him in school was watching Selma and a 30 minute documentary in grade school. King  is a good example of a comic not using or relying on stereotypes to tell a story. The novel is a biography and because it’s so based on reality the visual component matches it in realism. The style is almost photographic, in fact I noticed there are real photographs comped in at some parts. The black and white vector style also takes on a serious tone. The subject can get gritty and raw. The civil right movement faced scrutiny and racism is a prevalent subject, so the style matches well. The one time there was color was when King was stabbed and he seemed to be dying and having visions. I thought that was really cool. On the topic of stereotyping in comics, I think it’s good that comics stay away from harmful racial stereotypes like the aggressive black male, Arab terrorists, o...

Maus and Barefoot Gen are very intriguing when it comes to how they handle stories from two different parts of the world during the same war. Maus used an story within a story format, and it makes it very relatable beyond just being a story about the Holocaust. Because the narrator uses this story about him and his dad as the frame for his dad’s story, we are shown a lot about their relationship, how they both handle the death of Speigelman’s mom, and the gap in their generations where the child is making an attempt to realize or sympathize with the experience of the parent. Speigelman tells this story in the most real way possible, not painting his dad as a golden hero, nor himself. It really stands out from other Holocaust stories. Barefoot Gen told the story similarly in a way. There is no interview or storytelling frame for it, and we’re in the moment with the characters. It works more for this story because it’s not trying to show the dynamic between a parent who was there and t...