Authority

Are there any prominent symbols in the story?
If so what are they and how are they used.

The beginning of issue #1 features an antagonist who uses the symbol of his slaughtered homeland as a symbol of ownership. The comic then uses this symbol as some sort of indication of terrorism, by placing the symbol on all of the "superhumans" destroying the major cities. There are also connotations of Omnipotence in the main characters with powers.

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements so the work that you were able to connect.

It very much felt like its another incarnation of superhero teams such as The Avengers and The Justice League, (There are clear similarities to Batman and Superman in the team), except they feel otherworldly and almost godlike. They float around in a large and very powerful vessel. However, they seem to question one another's intentions and morals at times making them into flawed characters with godlike powers. The comic very much felt like it was about balance of power and responsibility, because of how this team is so incredibly omnipotent.

What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium. What media would you use? What changes would you make?

For the sake of clarity, I would most likely add more backstory before the actual plot unfolds. This comic is made up of previously established characters I believe and they sort of drop you into the relationship between certain characters rather harshly. I suppose for the sake of deriving from the obvious choice of media adaptation, (film), I could see this adapted in animation (be it a feature length film or a series. Another change I might insert, if it were film, is I would tone it down for the sake of feasibility. Many of the audience, who are new to the series, might find a ton of characters with god-like powers a bit overwhelming. Comics and Film can derive from traditional storytelling a lot but it might be considered bad storytelling to just dump 20 or so characters on a new type of audience.

Art Spiegelman's "Maus"

Maus seems to focus on a lot of narrative, and doesn't prioritize the drawings as much as the story being told so alot of Art Spiegelman's drawings in this specific novel are quite simplistic. He uses icons to depict his characters as animals with a few lines (as opposed to comics like "BlackSad" which goes past simplistic style). That being said Spiegelman's depiction of his father's pained journey through a simple style, has become iconic. I tried to do something similar by briefly depicting some facts about my grandparents' escape from Fidel Castro's governing.

Underground Comix & Robert Crumb

I was inspired by Robert Crumb’s cross hatching style and tendency to over-detail crude drawings. I also focused on a lot of his “inflated” sort of stylizations (Keep on Truckin’, Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural) as opposed to his more near realistic, and darker works. I was also inspired by other underground comics that aimed at cartoonier yet adult sort of styles (Freak Brothers).

Will Eisner

Eisner’s work tends to have rather realistic characters (although simplified and exaggerated to some extent for appeal’s sake) and very dramatic lighting (or inking in this case). Thick lines emphasize a very dramatic mood (be it noir or action) in his work. I mainly used his detective type comics, which seems highly inspired by 1940’s noir cinematography, as reference to my comic.

Carl Barks

This comic page was inspired by Carl Bark's work, specifically his Scrooge McDuck and Donald Duck comics. I mainly focused on what kind of characters he often included in the comics, his stylization and how most pages of his comics (although are part of a recurring story) end with a sort of joke, or conflict.

Comic Strips

This is inspired by Popeye comic strips specifically. Not just inspired by the sailor theme however, I mainly focused on the slang or visual language they often went with. A lot of strips back int he day have very slurred sort of dialogue with tons of abbreviations (which make you want to read it out loud) and many of them (Like Popeye) had speed lines and sound effects illustrated in the strip.

The joke isn't all too great in this, but most comic strips back then have rather formulaic gags, as opposed to modern gag comics (such as Kate Beaton's work and KC Green's Gunshow). Comic strips tend to be formed by a set up, a conflict and then a punchline or pay off.

Comics Theory

Unlike the “silent” graphic novel I wrote about in my last post, I made a “gag” sort of silent 4-panel comic. I studied “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud and what grabbed me was the different type of transitions. This strip uses a “Aspect to Aspect” transition, since it focuses on different things in a place. McCloud also describes the importance of other aspects in comics such as icons. 

Also, creating a wordless comic sort of taught me about how important it is to be clear and to not depend on the safety of text when creating a visual story.