Maus

                Maus is a vast tale of World War 2, history, and deep characters. Spiegelman’s art style and choice of using animals to portray the likes of people makes the whole thing a little easy to swallow down despite the subject matter. Telling the story of one mouse’s adventures to his son makes the reader enjoy his character more. He seems realistic, believable and genuine. Showing this mouse as an honest individual when it came to women, friends, and his son. Alongside with Grave of the Fireflies that also tells a story of two sibling trying to make it through Hiroshima after losing their parents to a bomb. A big difference is that they are children and taken from a child’s perspective while Maus goes into detail because the narrator is older and fully understood what was going on.

                Maus talks about friends and sacrifice to stay alive in a harsh world. As we go through the story the style gets a bit more grim, but with more detail. Although the mice have a very simplistic look they clear all look different with features such as wrinkles and body types. There are evidently different animals such as cats being their enemy, Nazis, and a pig shown being a doctor. The comic inside the comic was an interesting touch more interesting that it showed actual humans. 

Graphic Novel

                Upon reading the graphic novels Contract with God by Eisner and Doot Doot Garden I realized that they have the similarity of talking about heavy subject matter. Such as depression, friendship and how to deal with loss of someone else.

                With a Contract with God, taking place in mainly the same place but different time periods. Going into heavy cultural references. Mainly telling stories of people good or bad and their life. Eisner shows a great sense of detail to dialogue and how he draws his character and environments. Showing subtle traits or clothing on characters to say more about them then what we know from their actions. One major piece of small detail that stood out was a naked woman laying with a man but with a cross over her chest. This shows into how people really have said contract with God. Also Mr. Scuggs the super and his lust going too far, getting himself killed. But the book has a great way of showing karma so even though the girl looks happy at the end to steal the money and not get caught, I have a dreadful feeling she will get her payment in due time.

                Doot Doot Garden has a more light hearted tone over all but its blatant way of showing things considered vulgar? Gives the whole comic a mixed feeling for me. But the stories are genuine all the same. One being about a captain and one of his loyal die hard shipmates. When his shipmate stayed with the captain’s body despite thinking he was dead and sharing stories with him like you would do at a funeral was very heart warming. Besides the goofy style of the characters he was genuinely dealing with loss of a friend. Also the topic on mental depression, when Keiron and Gena talked to the old woman who said she was hungry to die despite Keiron giving her compliments. Showing that not all compliments will genuinely cheer someone up. 

The Comic Strip

                The comic strip became popular when the newspaper became a definitive source to gather news and information besides the radio. Giving people amazing stories, visuals and laughs. I decided to read two very different styles of the comic strip, one for your action fix and the other to garner a few chuckles. Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond and Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson. Two different sides of the same coin.

                Flash Gordon has the ability to keep people buying a newpaper if they only read them for the comics. Reading the one with Flash having to stop the Skorpi with trying to start an alliance with the Dhreen. The action for Flash Gordon is top notch, you can truly see the stakes of what could happen if he doesn’t save his self or if he needs to save someone else. He is also seen as a flawed character since he is to be married to Dale but kissing Ellta which causes her to fall in love with him and try to win him over despite is planned marriage. I think Flash is relatable to others by how he is just a human being with no real special powers. From what I’ve read anyway but he is still able to wage wars on other planets just to save Earth. I can see Flash Gordon being a hit amongst the younger male crowd.

                Calvin and Hobbes is always fun to read and I suspect everyone in the US has read a strip or two of the duo at some part of their lives if they realized it or not. Calvin is a little boy who has a imaginary find named Hobbes who’s a stuff tiger. To Calvin he is seen as a big tiger but to the rest of the world he is just a stuff animal. Because of this it usually means Calvin’s imagination is extremely vibrant. Other things coming to life like bathtub bubbles and his teacher becoming an alien monster. It makes me believe that sometimes Calvin might have ADHD since a lot of times with his teacher he is told to pay attention. The demographic for Calvin and Hobbes seems to be more for someone older than 13. It might be about a child but the themes are very adult like. But all the same Calvin and his friend are relatable to all of us.