Perspolis, Epileptic, and White

In Persepolis and Epileptic there is a lot of focus put on culture. There is discussion of other cultures, their stories, and even the art. We know of course that there has to be a reason for these two graphic novels to incorporate this aspect of culture. What is the significance of the use of culture in both of these graphic novels?

Persepolis is a story about the author's life growing up in the Middle East during the times of revolution and the constant change in government. It is only natural that such a story would talk extensively of what the culture during that time period was, so that we may better understand the lifestyle and the troubles Marjane Satrapi had to go through. The diverse culture we see in Persepolis has a powerful impact because we see that the United States and Europe were a very big deal in the life of Marjane Satrapi; the posters and clothes she recieved from her parents we saw were a big risk to own during the time period she was growing up in.

Epileptic told the story of a family and how difficult it was growing up with the fact that they had many difficulties with their brother, Jean-Christophe, since he had constant seizures and would have to see the doctor and get much help because he had epilepsy. The art style in Epileptic is rather strange, but it also changes to the art styles and symbols of other cultures. The best example of this would be on pages 204 & 205. These pages show us many diverse cultures and we see these images throughout the story. David B. uses these images usually when he is telling a story he has heard or even to describe to us the monsters that his brother faces and how they fight them. We also have a moment where we find out that his brother attempts to draw a Nazi flag and in a way supports Hitler. We all see things like Anubis and other Egyptian figures throughout the story. David's use of these images is questionable, but he does use the history and cultures to enhance his story and even give us a different perspective and more emotional twist to enhance the story, because let's face it a story with such odd imaging and art is much more compelling and exciting then simply seeing text. The imaginative approach of Epileptic is definitely a strong suit for his story just as the realism of Persepolis is it's strength.

White would discuss the art of both these stories in the same way I believe. He would probably express greatly as to how this art style is a very influential matter on what the author is trying to express and in this case it is history. Both of the stories deal with a quite a bit of history and White tells us that a story based on History always has to follow a sequence of events and Persepolis and Epileptic are no exception. Both of the stories do follow a set timeline, but the use of their art and their story bring out the emotion of the time. Both stories explain a past history: Persepolis tells a story about the revolutionary times in Iraq and Iran; the difficulties of growing up in such harsh revolutionary and oppressive times, and Epileptic tells us the past of a two brothers and their sister growing up with their brother having a difficult mental disorder. The art talked about earlier is greatly used to give a graphic look and feel of the past they dealt with. The realism of Persepolis giving us a great sense of harshness and despite the harsh look that can be given we all see rebelious attitudes and how the art can change easily from emotion to emotion, scared and sad to angry or happy. There is also a lot of hidden art though such as page 91 the second to last panel. We see the two children and Marjane Satrapi going to bed and if you look at both their bedsheets we see the image of the American flag. It is a subtle cultural image, but it is indeed there. Epipleptic takes place from 1964 to 1996 and uses a lot of strange and imaginitive art to bring out a lot of the emotion during the time and the actual power of their history. The constant visits to doctors who would never really bring his brother improvement and how it effected him and his family.



Just as a side note:

I have to admit I found it slightly humorous during this story the moment where his art is being criticized on 293 - 294 and how his art is considered frightening and even when he is told to change it to make it less frightening he stubbornly uses the change to make it even more frightening and we see this connection from that scene to the next scene where he crosses paths with his brother on 295 - 296 because as the scene progresses his appearance changes and becomes more and more threatening.
(I just felt like pointing this out. =P )

Corrigan, Sleepwalk + McCloud, White

I mainly want to discuss an observation I made with Jimmy Corrigan and the various art that appeared like amusement park flyers and posters. I believe that that art can also appear as a form of propaganda. Propaganda is used to presuade a viewer to a certain view point and try to make the viewer believe it through imagery. Proganada is usually only referred to as a tool for the government, but in reality propaganda can take many forms. What is the signifigance of the art styles in both Corrigan and Sleepwalk ? And what is the importance, and difference, of Corrigan having propaganda like art and Sleepwalk using black and white more modern art?

We have learned that both Corrigan and Sleepwalk try to portray a message about human nature, but they both do it in very different ways. White tells us that author's always have a message to portray in their work and they use the narration style and art to portray that message and McCloud tells us that art and panelling can be used to symbolize meanings and messages to express an author's viewpoint. Sleepwalk is in black and white and seems very orderly, and this style gives us a depressive outlook on the stories that are all tied together in the way that they all end in solitude. Sleepwalk's point is very straightfoward and gives us a variety of stories to express that message. Jimmy on the other-hand is very random in it's ability to jump from various periods in time and appearance. We see a lot of scenes where the character barely moves, but then we may jump to an entirely different area. Throughout the book though we see various images that appear like flyers or posters; such as the image in white and blue where Jimmy appears to be attacking someone. We see that he is attacking someone, but the way the image is setup we still see it is some kind of enjoyable or light-hearted poster, it even reads that it is a poster of an 'improvisatory romance'. This can be very effective in a propaganda way; because it is able to show us Jimmy's darkside and bad outlook on humanity, but at the same time leave us calm and relaxed at what we are seeing.

There are more examples of this in other scenes, such as the scene where we see Jimmy attacking his father with a mug when he really isn't. We see this scene and we know he is attacking him in it, but we also know that it isn't really happening except in his mind and that they are actually having a conversation about the fruit basket he brought. This scene gives us inside of Jimmy's darkside and yet we take it lightheartedly because the fact that both characters appear calm, the coloring is still very light and not dark to express a scene of evil or corruption, and also that Jimmy gives us the impression that he is shy and scared almost always. Of course I don't believe the author is trying to make it appear like attacking someone is a good thing, but perhaps to express that these thoughts do occur in a person's mind from time to time or perhaps that due to Jimmy's past it would almost seem right for him to think this way. There is another image where Jimmy's face is black and red, but the background around his head is bright blue, red, and has white stars. I believe that this image expresses the joy around Jimmy and tries to make him some kind of shining image, but since Jimmy is very darkly potrayed with the clouds may show how his world is truly dark, sad, and even angry; maybe expressing how he feels as an outcast.

McCloud would definently discuss this as a creative way for the author to express their message. It may not be an entirely clear message, but it can be interpreted as we see it. We can gain more then one message from Corrigan's work and interpret things differently, but as I stated before we can tell Sleepwalk's message pretty clearly which means that Sleepwalk's author wanted to get straight to the point and give us that very realistic look on human nature.

These are of course my opinions on these two story art styles, but what other messages can be interpreted from both of these works?

Perhaps we can say that there is a very psychological aspect of both of the stories and how the actions of others can have negative effects on our minds and lives. Maybe they want to express something of society as a whole. We must always ask what other things can the author have wanted to express.

McCloud. V for Vendetta, and Sandman

In McCloud's Understanding Comics he explains to us on pages 178 - 184 that most artist must decide if they want their work to show a certain idea or point the author wants to make or does the author want to let the art take over and become his purpose and create ideas. We recently have read V for Vendetta and Sandman and so I question which of these two choices did each of the author's make?

I believe that both artists decided to write these tales for a specific meaning. We see in V for Vendetta that the message clearly stated is that people shouldn't let the government control everything and sometimes it takes anarchy to recreate the system of freedom and justice. Sandman seems to try and portrays a number of messages like how our dreams can basically control destiny and about our perspective of how the world works. Of course we must question how we get these messages out of the author's work and what is the signifigance of how they are presented?

McCloud writes in his book that an comic artist will use various iconic and non-iconic images to help portray their message. McCloud also explains to us that the transition of panels express a message of their own and they show that time has passed throughout a comic. We see in V for Vendetta that the panels are very orderly and the art very dark, so we can tell that the message from this is mainly about how society in the story is; the control of the government is very orderly, but there is no freedom in the panels and the darkness gives us a dark evil view of how the world in the graphic novel is run. We see the art in Sandman is rather bizarre and creative; the panels tend to be placed in random orders and sizes to help express certain parts of the story and we see that with these panels it is rather dream like with it's crazy approach. We get dragged into this creative dream style and it perhaps gives us an even closer feel to Dream as a character since he is the master of dreams and in a way he tends to bring order to the craziness we see. What about the art of the main character's though?

Well, McCloud discusses how people identify with a character on page 42. V in V for Vendetta does not truly have a face of his own except for his mask and in that since we can imagine that anyone can truly be V. This is proven even in the story because we see Eve take V's place; wearing his mask and costume and claiming to be him. Dream in Sandman is not as easy to identify with as V, but we can still identify with his bold nature and somewhat compassionate side for people, we view him as a hero figure much like V even if they do have their own agenda. V wants to create anarachy and change the world and we see that not everyone else wants this change to occur, but we believe V is doing the right thing for the people. It is possible however to say that V is doing this just for himself; even if he does not live after it he can find joy in the fact that his last act destroyed the thing his past tormentors had created. Dream of course we view as a hero because he challenges dangers and comes to show mercy on people like Rachel, John Constantine, and even Dee or Dr. Destiny; but he is also only associating with these people to recover his items that make him powerful, so we can not for surly say that he saved these people because it was important to him but perhaps it was just more convientent to.

So now the question is why or why not should we perceive these two as heros? I suppose that is only a matter of your own opinion.

Maus + White

In Maus, by Art Spiegelman, we are given a recollection of his father's experiences in the times of the Holocaust. Spiegelman writes this comic in a style where he is discussing with his father about the father's past experiences; he maintains a constant interaction between the past and the present so you get a full understanding of Spiegelman and his father's relationship, but also know the father's history and what he had to go through to shape him into who he is today. We learn from White's article about narration that writing a story based on history is fairly easy, but is this really how it is for Spiegelman's story?

White claims that history stories tend to speak for themselves and tends to come to us with ease. The reason for this is because with history it is chronological and we accept most claims to past events as truth because there tends to be documentated proof. The case with Spiegelman's father is told in the time of the Holocaust and of course we all know that happened, so we are easily accepting of his father's past history. History is easy to tell a story about because it is all based on events that have already happened. Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus helps tell his father's story with visual aid. White talks about how author's tend to shape a story to have an end and to have a meaning because history on its own really has no meaning tell we give it one. This artwork could possibly be Spiegelman's way of shaping the story as White claims.

The artwork of the mice, jewish people, and the cats, nazi germans, helps show how Spiegelman tried to shape the story of Maus and give us a certain perspective. The message that was displayed simply that the mice and cats are enemies. The mice are hunted by the cats and tend to be killed by them, so in this sense Spiegleman is using this artwork to express how the jewish people must have felt during the time of the Holocaust. There is also the question though of if his father perhaps put a certain mending to his story when he was telling it to his son.

I would have to believe that he did since he could only really tell the story from his own perspective and thus certain things that he claims to have experienced may not have been exactly how he claims. I believe this is why Spiegelman wished to have his mother's journals so that he could use both of their perspectives into shaping a story much closer to what actually happened to his father and mother, but also because he has no idea what his mother experienced upon reaching the concentration camps. Although Spiegelman may have mended the story to have a certain meaning, I have to assume that his father had done the same when telling the story to him.