Thompson pages

Blankets is illustrated much differently than any of the other graphic novels we have read. Thompson's unique styles of illustration in conjunction with writing makes the book really detailed and interesting . With Thompson I felt myself realting more with the pictures and not as much with the text. On page 60 there is an abstract one panel picture of thompson almost throwing up what seems to be his bad memories. Coming from his mouth are monster looking things. This technique of drawing what he feels instead of writing it works well for Thompson. While Bechtells Funhome illistrates then gives dialogue then explains the dialoque and reiterates what had happened in the scene, Thompson's approach is alot more simple. Thompson only explains with words when needed. His pictures tell more of a story than his words. Another interesting page is page 127. IT is a picture without borders which Understanding comics' McCloud says displays a scence of timelessnes. It is again an abstract picture of the arcade room being surrounded by the letters "HuMMMMMM" and the text is telling about a warm pur that wraps around the room. On page 129 is a simple yet effective picture of only THompson and RAina. The picture is warm and heartfelt. Thompson uses abstract imiges to convey his mesages and emotions.

persepolis the movie

The movie and the book ended up being more different than i expected. I think that the movie worked better than the book at conveying emotions in the story. The book's pictures were not detailed and didn't add to the book therefore I didn't miss them in the movie. I think if Blankets was made into a movie that it would take away from the original graphic novel because it would lack the abstract pictures. The movie Percepolis didnt tell as much as the book and skimmed over a few scenes from the book. I didnt think it hurt the movie tho, it made the story more enjoyable because the end of the book is too long.

Persepolis

This book is similar to Maus is so many differnt ways. The things that both characters in both books went through is similar. So many close calls and times when both of them almost got caught and there would of been possible death for consequences. The brutality and violence is a little less graphic therefore the pictures are more vivid in Persepolis. Satrapi's pictures are more like the way Understanding comics interprets them. They have more depth to them and express emotions through them. Like on page 8 when she is describign how she thinks she will be the next prophet and how her conversations with god also back that up. The picture on the top right corner show her comfort in gods arms. she is swaddled in his robe and hair and seems restful and comfortable. Also she illistrates god with curves and all white against a black background, wich makes him look gently. Satrapi's images are also more abstract at times. like on page 15 when she explains how 400 people died in a cinima fire wich the Shah was at fault for. She draws half gost and half mortals going up with the flames giving the bodys a flame like look. Similarly on page 89 when a twon got bombed she drew the cars going up in flames as well. The last page was impactful becasue she shows people her age dieing and kids in her social class partying to show the difference social class made back then.

maus II

The beggining of the second book started off with Art telling how he was planning on drawing all the different characters. I found this interesting because it gives the reader some insight as to what he was thinking about when he wrote and drew this book. He seems to be more in the present day in this book than the first. I think it is because he doesnt like thinking about the Haulocaust, he mentions how he is depressed. Therefor I think to avoid having to talk about it he talks about present day. The pictures of the concentration camps are hard to look at. It is sad to see what people went through, but the pictures make it more realistic than just written text.

Maus

This comic was different to read than Blankets and Fun home. It when back and forth in time rapidly and sometimes randomly but was easy to understand and follow. I found it interesting the way the book started, with the father and son art talking and discussing simple things. I liked how the book had the historical sence and the after effect and personaly story of how and why the book got written. The book was also informative, because I knew little about the Haulocause before I read this. I found it interesting how different Art's father was before during and after (presently) the Haulocaust. I liked How the character's were mice and cats. Not only did this represent preteter and pray, but also allowed the reader to relate to the character's better because they were not detailed. Like in understanding comics says the reader can rlate more to an abstract character that does not have alot of detail or facial features.

FUn home second half

After she finds out about the fathers death on page 27 the kids all show similar faces, emotionless with the same dot for a mouth. The mouth is significant thorughout the book of her father it is a dot the whole way through. the first time it changes is when he is with his gay student rob, then the father gets a quick smirk. Also when Bechdel comes out, he changes from a stern dot for a mouth to a smirk as well. His facial lines also seem more warm and les sern then before. The ties Bechdel has between her father and famous authors like Camus and Proust are interesting. However i cannot fully appreciate the paralles she draws between her fathers life and their work because i have never read any of their novels.

Blankets second half

Raina is an interesting character not only because of the way she is drawn but also the way Thompson talks about her. Every character Thompson has drawn up until Raina has been illustrated using sharp jagged edges, not a lot of curves making the characters more intimidating and cold. Even Thompson Portrays himself this way. However Raina is drawn using curves and little shading, making her look pure accurately depicting the way he saw her when he first met her. Raina's home situation is sad. Her mother doesn't know how to raise her kids, and relys on Raina and the father too much. It was surprising to see how the two familys compared. Although both familys are extremely religious, Raina's father and Thompsons fahter are exact opposites. Raina's father is compationate and wants to work out the relationship with his wife. In Contrast Thompson's father is illistrated as a huge intimidating figure and locked the little brother in the closet in the beggining of the book. I didnt enjoy the end of the book. It just seemed to end, although realistic, I would of enjoyed a different ending.

blankets first half

Blankets is illustrated much differently than funhome. Bechdel and Thompson's unique styles of illustration in conjunction with writing make the books really different reads. With Thompson I felt myself realting more with the pictures and not as much with the text. While Bechtells Funhome illistrates then gives dialogue then explains the dialoque and reiterates what had happened in the scene, Thompson's approach is alot more simple. Thompson only explains with words when needed. His pictures tell more of a story than his words. Also Thompson uses only black ink, while Bechtel used a deppressing pale blue. Thompson uses abstract imiges to convey his mesages and emotions.

Fun home

Allison Bechdel starts off the book with a fond memory of her father. The first page shows her father playing airplane with her only to be interrupted by his obsession of fixing the house. It then goes into how her whole childhood revolved around her fathers fixation on home improvement and gardening. She shows and tells about her father begin a serious man by using both description and the picture of him always with harsh shapes making up his face and bone structure but also the dot for a tightened mouth. On page 22 when he is washing her his face has jagged shapes and she has a rounded body and softer curves witch represents their personality.

Understanding Comics

The first four chapters were repetitive, long and boring read. I had to force myself to finish the reading. Some parts intrigued me. I liked on page 26 how he showed how what you would normally call somthing, really isnt true. For example he said "this is not a car" next to a picture of a car. For me at first this was hard to grasp in the previous pages, therefore this example of his repetition actually helped me understand this concept. His ideas made me think outside of my normal everyday way of thinking wich i liked. In a way it reminded me of my philosofy class. However at some points in the book it was overdone and annoyed me. I liked chapter three the best because I actually had similar thoughts when I was a kid. At the beggingin of the chapter, he says " When i was very young i had a recurrent daydream that the whole world was just a show put on for my benefit, that unless i was present to see things they just ...ceased to exist." He goes onto explain we as humans rely on trust. He says I have never been to tyland but i TRUST that it is there, I have never been in outter space but I trust that the world is flat. I thought this idea was interesting.

Richards

So far this is my favorite essay we have read for this class. I could relate to the relationship between the granddaughter and the grandmother. I was very close to my grandmother as well and we shared a similar relationship. One thing i noticed while reading this was the how Richards showed over time how their relationship changed. At the beginning the grandmother was portrayed as strong and self sufficient, however over the course of the essay this changed. Richards started taking care of her grandmother almost comparing the relationship to a mother with her baby. By using the baby moniter and the cracking and humming, Richards shows how dependent the grandmother is to her. One question i had was how the Father died? I read this over twice and still couldn't find a definite answer. It mention the grandmother in a dream looking for his mangled body in the grass and this led me to believe he died in a violent way. The actual fishing story was touching. I loved the way it was described. It showed the love between the grandmother and the grandfather which explained how deeply she must of missed him. Because they didnt say more than 10 words to each other during the trip and It is her favorite memory of her late husband shows true love.

sister/The american man at age ten/ravioli

gopnic wrote a confusing but insightfull essay where he discusses how materialistic and busy people in new york city are. I liked how he used a little girl to express his views. Without telling the reader directly he uses the character Mr. RAvioli to show how a typical New yorker acts. The daughter was lacking attention from Ravioli and would not complain about it but just casually say how busy he always was, wich showd that she was used to everyone in the city being way to busy. I like how the author used his sister to show how other parts of the country differed from NYC. CAlifornia in comparison seemed alot more  layed back. The essay was confusing but i think i got jist of it. At the same time Sister confused me.  I understand that the little sister looked up to the big sister but the ending kind of confused me. It wasnt really a story and had no plot but it just explained her relationship with her sister. She explains how different they are. She gave no examples she just told. Although at the end she lied to the boy and said she wanted to be nothing like her sister. The older sister actually was the honest one according to the younger one, so it showed instead of telling how they were different. The younger one actually portrays the sister as being cold when she explains how she hit the deer and aimed for the seagull. I dont understand why besides looks why the younger sister looks up to the older sister.  

Ashes

I enjoyed this essay. I liked the sarcasm the mother had. It wasnt the usual sob story like the other essay about the mother dieing. Sadaris really differed from the author from the love of my life because he portrayed his mother as sarcastic and cold at times. The other author portrayed her mother as almost to perfect to the point where it  was unbelievable.  The essays were similar in the sence of the authors brutal honesty, like how the author tells the reader in the love of my life how she reached such a low because of her mother. And in Ashes sadaris is so honest about his mothers personality.

the love of my life

I just got done reading the love of my life and I am disappointed. I almost wish she did kill herself just so the reader had some form of closure at the end. Or at least recognize some glimps of hope for her getting better. In a way her organizing her whole trip showed that she may have been getting slightly better, but the end proved nothing had changed. The poor husband mark was actually in love with her and was a great husband to her. Why did she turn to sex to get over her grief? Why did the first guy bite her lip to the point where it bled? Did that violence actually lead her to her pattern of sleeping with more and more different guys? what happened to the herion addict rocker. This story really did not impress me or hold my attention. It was annoying to read. People Die. she was way to overdramatic and way to obsessed with her mother.

101 ways to cook a hamburger

I liked this piece of writing. I liked how the two stories were so different and this one took place over years and the other one was over a period of a day or so. This showed the confusion gay people have starting way earlier in life than most people know. The parents of the boy seem very old fashion. I think the story actually takes required place a while ago. The boy ends up falling in love with his friend that he wanted to be like. I liked how at the end of the book the guy ended up being happy and bringing it back to the girl who had previously called him a "fag". It gave the kind of depressing story a nice happy twist at the end.   

the fourth state of matter

I really liked this piece of writing. It was unpredictable and caught me off guard. The story is realistic and gripping. at the beginning of the story it seemed straight fore ward and about a dog and the dogs master. From the beginning of the story know one would know where the story was going and where the plot was going. Where the story caught my interest was when the suicide note came into play. The reader didn't know that the man was not only going to kill himself but also many others. How the writer switched back and forth from the story of the dog and the suicide story was interesting. I was thinking it was comparing the two scenes and contrasting innocence in the dog and innocence and confusion in the murderer. I liked how the story ends.   

introduction

My name is Kelsey Walsh, Im from Falmouth Mass, which is on Cape Cod. Im on the golf team at Hartford. So far I like playing golf and all the girls on the team. I also am enjoying living at University of Hartford. Golf is alot of work and a little overwhelming, but Im thinking it will pay off. Ive never done a blog before. I miss the beaches from where I live and miss the sight of the ocean. But i keep in touch with my friends and family so it is okay. I have one brother who graduated from college this year. He went to PC and graduated with a degree in business. He moved to New Jersey to get a job in the city. So now my parents live alone together. Besides golf i like to ski and snowboard. I usually go a bunch of times over the winter usually at killington MT. or attitash or cannon or loon. I started skiing when i was in fourth grade and then started snowboarding in 8th. Golf I started when i was in 8th grade.