Understanding Comics Chapters 4-9

This reading made me more involved in looking from afar, as opposed to reading. It showed me how to not only observe the lines of text and the general idea of the image to looking at everything from the speech bubble to the size and shape of the frame. It also spoke of how lines can depict the areas of the story which are not easily explained, such as emotion. The difference between short, jagged squiggles and long smooth wavy lines, is the difference between a character being horribly anxious and one being euphoric. I may be at somewhat of a loss for words, but this text explains everything thoroughly. It was surprising that it was easier to read the black and white frames than the color ones. I am usually a sucker for pop art colors; those bright yellows and reds, but i just found it more tedious because of the distraction of the color. They didnt seem to add as much to the comic as I had presumed.

Benson

I liked the imagery in this essay "along the popping rocks" "a cartwheel of feathers", though it still ended up being pretty lame. Not sure, but I'm guessing sparkly eyes was trying to get in her pants because her older sister has a reputation of loose values. She seems to have a negative opinion of her sister throughout most of the essay, but in the end when the boy crosses the line, she reverts back to family protection mode. She then realizes she doesn't love her sister enough, in the last line of the essay. Corny. I appreciate the situation for being a wake up call but it was so short it didn't hold my attention for long enough and it was too much of a downer to have such an uplifting family oriented message.  

Cooper

101 Ways to Cook a Hamburger was the story of a young man fighting through the trials of an adolescence containing uncertain sexual preference. Our main character initially wants to change himself to be straight, and finds out he can't after all. I liked this story less than the Beard reading, again because of its not so exciting nature. I honestly don't even have that much to say about this essay because it is a nice little story of finding one's-self but there is no real excitement or theatrics. My favorite part was definitely the dictionary paranoia freakout where he skips from Homer to homosexual hitting every word in between, just from straight paranoia. Not my cup of tea, necessarily. 

Beard

This story is kind of an existential bummer. It talks about the squirrel problem at the house numerous times, the cleaning of the dogs blankets, and impending romantic doom, and this is all before the mass murder at work. It shows her life being mundane and mildly depressing. The emotional pressure's of her dog's soon-to-come death, and the divorce makes this woman very volatile and exciting as a main character, but I would much rather a talking bear, or something that doesn't reflect the stagnant nature of everyday life. Jo Ann "calling in tired" to work is probably the most interesting part of this story because usually adhering to adult responsibility, or work in this case, is commended and expected of most adults. Here Jo Ann goes against the usual grind to call in, not because of any serious illness of problem, but just strictly because she felt like it. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I really get off when people do exactly what they want, and end up in a better situation after-the-fact, than the people who went against their instinct towards something they were unsure of. In this case she is alive now, because she didn't go to work. She is devastated at the end and must go on while her coworkers cannot. Bummer, not bad though, like Shiloh or Brian's Song.

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Henry and I am a fan of hope and limitlessness. I love music above all things, probably because of it's ultimate harmony, in less of a musical sense and more significance on productive coexistence. I am ultimately a disciple of love, harmony, and the possible magnificence of a/all humans. I like to think in terms of right and wrong, good and bad, and believe that each decision can be broken down to this and that the right side must always be followed. I seem cynical sometimes, but I am ultimately very childlike and hopeful. I like fuzzy things, pop art, rock and roll, challenge of authority, abstract thought, and excitement. I realize this was short but if you were looking to learn all about someone from a blog, you have worse problems than me ditching out of this. 

peace, seriously.