I sat down to go through some of the recommended readings for Week 4 and read a bit of Airboy. The 1948 PDF provided on the website to be more specific.
Thanks to the class, I've found myself loving comics, the variety of topics they can hit on, and the wide array of artists within them.
Now, despite that, I have never found myself enjoying a Marvel or DC comic, hence why I thought for the longest time that comics were just not for me. Movies fall into the same dilemma, I have not watched any of them and when I do I feel the need to watch anything else to actually be entertained.
Airboy had the same effect on me.
After falling in love with the medium and its history, superhero narratives do nothing but alienate me from comics yet again. There's hints at something better here and there, but Airboy himself had no real qualities besides a name and a suit. The strip revolved around the son of a clown who was hiding his dad's profession for a chance to look better in front of people who were later revealed to be crooks. The moral is all about embracing your family, not being disingenuous, loving your parents, etc. It's cute, but there isn't much substance. I have no attachment to anyone in peril, and the clown's eventual death had no reason to spark emotion. The need to even make the distinction of "well, he wasn't always a clown, he was a trapeze artist and his wife died and everything sucked!"
Who cares?
I don't.
He's not real, and I have not been convinced of his motivations or life in any way that will drive me to feel sympathy and the feeling this comic is trying to go for.
With that aside, I gave the Carl Barks recommended readings a look and was pleasantly surprised.
Donald Duck in The Hard Loser was a funny little strip. The constant juxtaposition of Donald Duck, who is a bit of a lose screw, alongside his three little nephews who are masters of mischief is just plain good fun. Did I burst out laughing each and ever panel? No, but it certainly made me do that brief exhale through your nostrils that replaces small laughter. The constant one-upping of one another makes for an interesting read regardless of demographic, which is something that felt great for once. Archie and other comics felt very much targeted for a middle class white audience but with comics placing forth animals and simplified renders, it became much easier for anyone to relate. Not necessarily project in the same way teenagers do Romeo and Juliet, but just a deeper sense of belonging within whoever is manufacturing the comic.
Onto the characters themselves, it's curious how the comics handle the nephews as opposed to the few recent cartoons I've seen of them.
The animation I've seen with the nephews always makes an attempt at differentiating them by more than just their clothes. They're posed differently, maybe one of them has an additional item that the others don't, stylized hair, etc. After watching a few cartoons, I came to realize it wasn't an issue in translating between comics and television, it was more of a time-period sensitive shenanigan. Even the older cartoons made the nephews seem identical in just about every aspect of their character while newer media tries to give them a more Alvin and the Chipmunks approach.
I don't know what additional analysis we'd wanna slap onto Donald Duck comics, but I can definitely say I enjoyed it without thinking much.
Thanks to the class, I've found myself loving comics, the variety of topics they can hit on, and the wide array of artists within them.
Now, despite that, I have never found myself enjoying a Marvel or DC comic, hence why I thought for the longest time that comics were just not for me. Movies fall into the same dilemma, I have not watched any of them and when I do I feel the need to watch anything else to actually be entertained.
Airboy had the same effect on me.
After falling in love with the medium and its history, superhero narratives do nothing but alienate me from comics yet again. There's hints at something better here and there, but Airboy himself had no real qualities besides a name and a suit. The strip revolved around the son of a clown who was hiding his dad's profession for a chance to look better in front of people who were later revealed to be crooks. The moral is all about embracing your family, not being disingenuous, loving your parents, etc. It's cute, but there isn't much substance. I have no attachment to anyone in peril, and the clown's eventual death had no reason to spark emotion. The need to even make the distinction of "well, he wasn't always a clown, he was a trapeze artist and his wife died and everything sucked!"
Who cares?
I don't.
He's not real, and I have not been convinced of his motivations or life in any way that will drive me to feel sympathy and the feeling this comic is trying to go for.
With that aside, I gave the Carl Barks recommended readings a look and was pleasantly surprised.
Donald Duck in The Hard Loser was a funny little strip. The constant juxtaposition of Donald Duck, who is a bit of a lose screw, alongside his three little nephews who are masters of mischief is just plain good fun. Did I burst out laughing each and ever panel? No, but it certainly made me do that brief exhale through your nostrils that replaces small laughter. The constant one-upping of one another makes for an interesting read regardless of demographic, which is something that felt great for once. Archie and other comics felt very much targeted for a middle class white audience but with comics placing forth animals and simplified renders, it became much easier for anyone to relate. Not necessarily project in the same way teenagers do Romeo and Juliet, but just a deeper sense of belonging within whoever is manufacturing the comic.
Onto the characters themselves, it's curious how the comics handle the nephews as opposed to the few recent cartoons I've seen of them.
The animation I've seen with the nephews always makes an attempt at differentiating them by more than just their clothes. They're posed differently, maybe one of them has an additional item that the others don't, stylized hair, etc. After watching a few cartoons, I came to realize it wasn't an issue in translating between comics and television, it was more of a time-period sensitive shenanigan. Even the older cartoons made the nephews seem identical in just about every aspect of their character while newer media tries to give them a more Alvin and the Chipmunks approach.
I don't know what additional analysis we'd wanna slap onto Donald Duck comics, but I can definitely say I enjoyed it without thinking much.
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