The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
If I had to pick a graphic novel in the ones that I had seen so far for "most beautiful art" I would probable pick "The Last Unicorn." I'm sure several people are familiar with the old and somewhat corny 1980's animated movie with the same title. Indeed the graphic novel "The Last Unicorn" is the adaptation or the original story and the movie - just better. The characters are the exact ones that we've come to know in the movie and the narrative is the exact same with the exception of a few pages. Compared to the movie, the art in the graphic novel doesn't look as "cheap". In fact it's greatly detailed and atmospheric. It's textured and the style that the characters are done in makes them appear and look more mature than the way that they appear in the movie. The narrative seems to flow better, an overall it just has more of an impact than the movie does. The Last Unicorn is worth a look if you like clean but pretty graphic novels.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Graphic Novel: Pride of Bagdad
Pride of Bagdad was the first graphic novel that I decided to buy as well as one of the first that I ever came across. I believe that I mentioned it in a previous post here, but I'll elaborate on it a bit more. What attracted me to this graphic novel besides the fact that I liked the style it was drawn in, was the fact that it was a mature (not "Disneyfied") story told in the view of animals. Pride of Bagdad was inspired by a true story. Like Barefoot Gen, it takes place during the time of war - in 2003 at the time of an American bombing raid on Iraq.
The story follows a pride of lions as they "escape" from the Bagdad zoo's rubble just after the bombing. They then struggle to live in the destroyed streets along with an assortment of other animals. Unfortunately, in the end, all of the main characters ( Zill, Ali, Safa, and Noor) are gunned down by some US soldiers.
Overall, pride of Bagdad is a unique take on life during the wartime, illuminating its struggles. It is an interesting work and worth a look if you like to read something different every once in a while.
The story follows a pride of lions as they "escape" from the Bagdad zoo's rubble just after the bombing. They then struggle to live in the destroyed streets along with an assortment of other animals. Unfortunately, in the end, all of the main characters ( Zill, Ali, Safa, and Noor) are gunned down by some US soldiers.
Overall, pride of Bagdad is a unique take on life during the wartime, illuminating its struggles. It is an interesting work and worth a look if you like to read something different every once in a while.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Eectric Dragon 80,000V
If you've lived on the internet long enough, you'll know that most of the media or things associated with Japan is usually eccentric and weird. So odd in fact that whenever something strange and foreign appears on the web we say: "Yeah, that's got to be Japanese."
Sure, it's probably genius to them, but it kind of leaves the rest of us shaking our heads. Some Japanese oddities that I've come across are:
(Note some of these have explicit language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmsRcsl_xA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FcYTprT5QI
Then I saw "Electric Dragon 80,000V" in which I never heard of it before. And it falls into the catagory of "I can't tell if they are serious or not." For being made in two weeks, I'm surprised it didn't look like a high school film project. Some of the angles are interesting and it's kind of cool that it's black and white. As for he story itself, it seems like they were going for a certain level of "badass" but it just becomes very corny to me. If there was an American adaptation of this film, it might have a much different impact and even story.
The phone flipping with the sound effects... corny as it comes. Laughed every time that it occurred.
Sure, it's probably genius to them, but it kind of leaves the rest of us shaking our heads. Some Japanese oddities that I've come across are:
(Note some of these have explicit language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmsRcsl_xA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FcYTprT5QI
Then I saw "Electric Dragon 80,000V" in which I never heard of it before. And it falls into the catagory of "I can't tell if they are serious or not." For being made in two weeks, I'm surprised it didn't look like a high school film project. Some of the angles are interesting and it's kind of cool that it's black and white. As for he story itself, it seems like they were going for a certain level of "badass" but it just becomes very corny to me. If there was an American adaptation of this film, it might have a much different impact and even story.
The phone flipping with the sound effects... corny as it comes. Laughed every time that it occurred.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Hellboy:Comics
I'm into the fantasy genre and my illustration work consists of Mythological creatures for the most part. I really enjoy the superhero movies that come out every so often and always make time to watch them - although I've never read any of the comics with the only knowledge I know about the characters from my dad. When the Hellboy movies came out, although I had never heard of the character before, since the series was based on mythology I thought I'd give it a look. The movies are among my favorite of any of the superhero movies that have been released over the years due to the fact that I find them unique in comparison.
Like I said before, I never looked into the superhero comics. Seeing the Hellboy comics among the course recourse page, I decided to give them a look. Suffocating from other schoolwork, I only had the time to read one of the comics: Hellboy: Savage Dragon (Of course, since it had the word "Dragon" in the title I felt obligated to read it first) I've heard before in illustration courses that the style of Hellboy comics is intriguing and I did indeed find it interesting. I found it funny that it contained a Natzi reference like that was shown in the first Hellboy movie - perhaps that something that occurs often in the comics? Of course, since I'm not fluent in the Hellboy fandom other than the movies, at times I found the narrative to be slightly difficult to understand (since I'm obviously not starting from the beginning). After it became clear, I found it worthwhile and I'll be sure to read more when I have the time.
I found myself snickering at Savage Dragons anatomy - he looks so top heavy. lol
Like I said before, I never looked into the superhero comics. Seeing the Hellboy comics among the course recourse page, I decided to give them a look. Suffocating from other schoolwork, I only had the time to read one of the comics: Hellboy: Savage Dragon (Of course, since it had the word "Dragon" in the title I felt obligated to read it first) I've heard before in illustration courses that the style of Hellboy comics is intriguing and I did indeed find it interesting. I found it funny that it contained a Natzi reference like that was shown in the first Hellboy movie - perhaps that something that occurs often in the comics? Of course, since I'm not fluent in the Hellboy fandom other than the movies, at times I found the narrative to be slightly difficult to understand (since I'm obviously not starting from the beginning). After it became clear, I found it worthwhile and I'll be sure to read more when I have the time.
I found myself snickering at Savage Dragons anatomy - he looks so top heavy. lol
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Manga and Anime.... the difference.
Not sure if this is relevant to material in class, but since we recently viewed and discussed some anime pieces I thought I'd note it down.
Ever since I started to see the art style all over Deviant Art, Movies, etc. and hearing both the terms "Anime" and "Manga associated with it - I was confused of the differences. According to Wiki answers, this is the difference:
Manga is a sort of comic that comes from Japan. It comes in small books and is run in certain magazines. Anime, on the other hand, is animated (thus the name) and runs on television in Japan. Both, of course, get imported to other countries.
Another way to know the difference between the two is that manga is on paper and anime is manga on television.
In short:
Manga = Japanese comics
Anime = Japanese animation
Upon reading this, I am still left with a question. With Mangas like Ghost in the Shell it was turned into an animated movie, series,etc. Is it now anime or still considered Manga? Ghost in the Shell is often refereed to as Manga even in its animated form. I recently also noticed a difference in the anime animation compared to Ghost in the Shell. I'm not a hardcore fan or either and I only watch a select few so I'm not sure how to explain the following. In known animes like Pokemon or one of the others that I previously viewed in class, in some scenes - things get really dramatic and way over exaggerated? Such as the characters flipping out, their eyes becoming bigger than their head, etc. In Ghost in the Shell... this is not seen. No matter the age the animated feature is made for, there are these "moments". Is this another difference in Manga and Anime or am I just over-thinking and not understanding something?
Ever since I started to see the art style all over Deviant Art, Movies, etc. and hearing both the terms "Anime" and "Manga associated with it - I was confused of the differences. According to Wiki answers, this is the difference:
Manga is a sort of comic that comes from Japan. It comes in small books and is run in certain magazines. Anime, on the other hand, is animated (thus the name) and runs on television in Japan. Both, of course, get imported to other countries.
Another way to know the difference between the two is that manga is on paper and anime is manga on television.
In short:
Manga = Japanese comics
Anime = Japanese animation
Upon reading this, I am still left with a question. With Mangas like Ghost in the Shell it was turned into an animated movie, series,etc. Is it now anime or still considered Manga? Ghost in the Shell is often refereed to as Manga even in its animated form. I recently also noticed a difference in the anime animation compared to Ghost in the Shell. I'm not a hardcore fan or either and I only watch a select few so I'm not sure how to explain the following. In known animes like Pokemon or one of the others that I previously viewed in class, in some scenes - things get really dramatic and way over exaggerated? Such as the characters flipping out, their eyes becoming bigger than their head, etc. In Ghost in the Shell... this is not seen. No matter the age the animated feature is made for, there are these "moments". Is this another difference in Manga and Anime or am I just over-thinking and not understanding something?
Porko Rosso (The Crimson Pig)
Porko Roso is a Studio Ghibli Film that I think is overlooked by many of today's generation that's used to some of the recent Ghibli Films like Spirited Away, The Secret World of Arrietty, Howl's Moving Castle, etc. When I first saw Porko Rosso a few years ago, admittedly, I wasn't fond of it - mostly because I wasn't paying too much attention at the time. Re-watching it, I realized how good it was and I consider it to be one of the better Ghibli Films. At first, I never understood how Porko(or Marko as his real name is) became a pig since we are not shown any origin of the transformation and we are so used to seeing a human character being transformed into an animal for a reason like many other films. Although we are not given information as to how, but we are briefly given why. Porko is a bit of a womanizer - the term "Pig" used to describe such a man.
With that aside, Porko Rosso is a good film worth watching.
With that aside, Porko Rosso is a good film worth watching.
Underground Comics.... wow...
In the past year I've really gotten into graphic novels. When hearing the term "Underground Comics" I had no idea what it was. But knowing what underground music is - I did expect some explicit material.
Just not at the level that I would assumed.
Underground comics are incredibly sexually explicit and can qualify as porn really. Not only that, there is drug use and other things that I've never seen in the average graphic novel in a book store. Sure, some of these in the book store do have nudity and gore, but as nudity goes it only what one could see in a figure drawing class. In underground comics... there's insertion and any adult practice that goes on in the bedroom - fetish material included. Yes, these comics file under "anything goes" it seems - yes there is even a comic series titled "Tits ans Clits". Offensive to many (not to mention most of the art is poor quality), yes - but for many of my classmates as well as myself- they are so offensive and sexually explicit that we just find them to be downright outlandish and, admittedly, hilarious. Taking a good hour to read through a few of them - I found myself laughing over and over and shaking my head in disbelief. The ridiculousness was actually - enjoyable. I could do without the porn though.
Just not at the level that I would assumed.
Underground comics are incredibly sexually explicit and can qualify as porn really. Not only that, there is drug use and other things that I've never seen in the average graphic novel in a book store. Sure, some of these in the book store do have nudity and gore, but as nudity goes it only what one could see in a figure drawing class. In underground comics... there's insertion and any adult practice that goes on in the bedroom - fetish material included. Yes, these comics file under "anything goes" it seems - yes there is even a comic series titled "Tits ans Clits". Offensive to many (not to mention most of the art is poor quality), yes - but for many of my classmates as well as myself- they are so offensive and sexually explicit that we just find them to be downright outlandish and, admittedly, hilarious. Taking a good hour to read through a few of them - I found myself laughing over and over and shaking my head in disbelief. The ridiculousness was actually - enjoyable. I could do without the porn though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)