Week 11: Masterpiece Comics

For this week's reading I read Masterpiece Comics. This graphic novel is filled with several mini comics. The comics inside this graphic novel are mature parody comics of classics such as Garfield and Bazooka Joe. These comics got me cracking up right from the start with their intent to directly copy the characters and art style but change the text and appearances slightly to call it their own.

One of the mini comics I read was Mephistofield; a parody of Garfield. In this comic, the main character Jon is a simple man who wants some excitement and power in his life. He practices dark magic and conjures up a devil version of Garfield called Mephistofield; a demon from Hell. With Mephistofiled's help. Jon sold his soul to the Devil and was given power. This power he would use to pull pranks on others such as turning invisible so he could slap the pope in the face with a chicken leg. Jon even scammed a man for a $400 car that dissolves in water; even a simple puddle would destroy it. Jon could even bring people back from the dead and sleep with them like he did with Helen of towards the end of the comic before he was about to die.

These mini comic stories in Masterpiece Comics are hilarious. I love how the stories copy well-known beloved comic characters that all of us know and love and put a spicy twist on them. Something as kid-friendly and innocent as Garfield turned into a story of a satanic worshiping man with a pet devil cat demon from Hell that gives him powers to pull pranks on people and sleep with deceased historical figures. Something this funny and clever is truly a masterpiece comic!

Week 12: My Favorite Things is Monsters

For this week's reading I read My Favorite Things is Monsters by Emil Ferris. This story takes place in 1968 Chicago. The story is told in the first person of a middle school girl named Karen. In this story there is a death that happens in the neighborhood that is believed to be caused by suicide. However Karen isn't convinced and thinks that her neighbor was murdered! Karen decides to go all out Sherlock Holmes and solve the murder while at the same time documenting her findings in the journal.

What drew me to this comic was it's unique artistic style, it's something that I have never seen before. The book's illustrations look as if they were all drawn with ball point pen. On top of that the pages they were drawn on were lined notebook paper and the occasional math test. This really sold the gimmick of giving off the appearance and believe ability of the comic being the personal journal of the protagonist. It's something that I personally have never seen before and it drew me in because of how immersed it made me feel with the story. Knowing that the story is nothing but fiction, it still had a realistic and believable quality to it that had me completely immersed. I love sketchy, loose style of the line-work and on the medium it was drawn on. 

My Favorite Things is Monsters is something that is not so mundane like a regular Archie or Marvel comic. Both of those stories are works of fiction just like this one but with this story in particular, it has that certain quality to it that other books just don't have. The illustration style is both unique and immersive. The formatting of the book alone makes the story feel real; having looked like it was drawn by an actual middle school girl with a ball point pen on notebooks and tests. At times it made me feel part of the story. I mean I knew that the story was fake but for those split seconds of complete immersion, it was priceless. I hope to read more stories like these and will definitely be checking out the next My Favorite Things is Monsters graphic novel as I heard there is a sequel. I want there to be more books like this in the future and hopefully by this graphic novel's release we will potentially see more storytellers go with this stylistic approach.

Week 14: JL8 Web Comic

For this week’s reading I took a look at the web comic JL8 by Yale Stewart. This web comic is based off of the heroes of DC comics. However, this is no ordinary, generic superhero comic. In this story the heroes are little kids attending elementary school.

What I like about this web comic is that I was drawn to it immediately because the fact of it being a superhero comic. I am very fond of the super hero genre and it’s my favorite subject matter to read about when reading comics. It’s funny to see the DC characters in their adolescents and how they would interact with one another if they were kids. The story plays around with origins and iconic tropes of the super heroes. One example is that in the beginning of the comic Bruce Wayne was out of his dark bat suits and instead had to wear a more 60’s blue Batman suit. With the 66’ Batman, it was a common trope that Batman would have a utility belt filled with various replants for things such as shark replant. In this web comic series they played with this trope when Batman thought Superman got cooties from Wonder Woman. Batman, not wanting to get infected with cooties used a “cootie replant” to protect himself. This was hilarious as it played with the cliche elementary school idea of cooties while tying it in with a classic Batman trope.

If you are a fan of DC characters, super heroes, and humor then this web comic is just for you! I highly recommend everyone to read this series as it does not disappoint; it is quite the page turner. You can read JL8 here: https://goo.gl/N53xMt