AoB 6 - Legal and Ethical

This graphic novel would not be allowed under the regulations of the CCA. This comic would include graphic depictions of violence and gore as it is in a horror comic which were banned. Any comic that even had 'horror' in the title was banned.

AoB 5 - Ownership and Distribution

Palestine's publisher is Fantagraphics. The graphic novel was originally released in 1996, and re released in 2001. Fantagraphics were founded by Gary Groth and Mike Catron in 1976. Pussey! and Ghost World are also published by Fantagraphics. 

Persepolis was origionally produced by L'Association in 2002 in France. Persepolis in English is published by Pantheon Books. Pantheon books also publish Maus and Black Hole. The editorial director of Pantheon books is Dan Frank.

Batman was published by DC comics from March to June 1987. DC comics is one of the biggest publishing companies in American and had produced many well known comics such Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash.

The Tale of One Bad Rat was published by Dark Horse Comics in 1995. Dark Horse comics is one of the biggest independent comic book publishers (behind Marvel comics and DC comics). Dark Horse Comics, founded by Mike Richardson, has produced comics such as Star wars, and sin city. 

Diamond Comic Distributors is the largest comic book distributor in North America. They transport comics from the publishers to the retailers. They have exclusive arrangements with most of the big publishers including DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Marvel Comics and Fantagraphics. 

AoB 4 Representation

Representation is the process of the media presenting their world to its audience. Things that are covered by the media are usually told from the media's point of view. For example wars. We are told by the media that enemy troops are continuously bombing, firing at and killing our troops. Another is Micheal Jackson's death. Before he died the majority of people believed that he had done inappropriate things as that is what the media had told them, now, the media is telling everyone what a wonderful man he was.
Stereotyping is linked to representation. Whole groups of people are (mostly negatively) labeled because of a minority. These include Gypsies being thieves, Irish, and smelly. Another being Teenagers. Who are always on hanging around the streets intimidating people, drinking, smoking and misbehaving.

In Maus Speigelman uses different animals to represent different types of people. These include Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Americans are dogs, English are fish, Poles are pigs and Gypsies are moths.

The Jews are shown as mice as mice are vermin, which is what Jews were portrayed as. Also Germans are shown as cats. This is because the Cat / mouse relationship is similar to that of Nazi's and Jews. The Nazi's catch the Jews, then toyed with them before they are killed.

In the second book (which was released five years after the first) Spiegelman had doubts about the animals he had used to represent different people. In the book he still uses the animals to show the different races, but the animals are clearly masks.

Here Spiegelman is showing that race is only a deception, and that underneath we are basically the same.

Instead of using the animals to create social stereotypes, Spiegelman ridicules them. He shows that it is absurd to class anyone by nationality or race. In the end the book shows the humans unite.

The animals are used so the reader becomes detached from the novel. The use of animals may also be used to attract younger readers.

Spiegelman represents his father in different ways. The story shows his father now and then. Valdek tells his son all about his life, including things that he doesn't want included in the book. Spiegelman thinks that these are good and so includes them. Spiegelman is the media source and can include and miss out what he wants.

In Palestine, Joe Sacco is visiting from America. He goes there as neutral to capture the life there. He writes about his experiences there, showing how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is effecting people. He tells about experiences of others as well as his own. He is affected by what he sees and cannot help but take part in and write about demonstrations, funerals, encounters with soldiers and roadblocks. Nearer the end, Joe, is even more active and shares food and lodgings with Palestinians he has met for interviews.

AoB 3

AoB 2

Graphic Novels Unit 1 AOB1

Here are some of the graphic novels that I have read in class:

These include Palestine, Persepollis, Maus, Tale of One Bad Rat and Batman Year 1.

Sequential Art (comics)

Sequential art are not snapshots. Each image is over a period of time. The earliest sequenced art was cave paintings. These had no boarders but were still drawn in sequence. They show usually one picture flowing through, eg. at the start of the picture they go out to hunt, in the middle of the picture they are on the hunt, then at the end of the picture they have finished and have what they had captured.

The next type of sequential Art was in the Egyptian tombs, such as the 'scribe of Manna'. The picture shows the same people at different times.

The next use of sequential art was the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry shows the whole battle of hastings, in 1066, as well as other things.

In the 1740's William Hogarth did narrative works. Hogarth did a series of paintings of Marriage à-la-mode. These 6 pictures made fun at the upper class. The paintings were designed to go side by side (story cycle).

In the 1800's Rodolphe Toppfer was a comic artist. His drawings included borders around each picture and included text underneath. Each picture was smaller, so it was easier for more pictures to be shown. Toppfers art was mass produced.

In 1440's Gutenberg Press was revolutionary. It made it so books could come to you. As all these books were being mass produced and available to everyone, the first copy right laws were introduced.

Yellow kid appeared in Richard Oultcaults 'Hogans Alley' and was the first weekly cartoon. It appeared in an american newspaper each week and was followed by most readers.

Cartoons are pictures with captions where as comics are strips of pictures of sequential art.

In 1935 Max Gains made tabloid sized anthologies of weekly or daily cartoons or comics. These were the first comic books. These were so popular that that publishers like National (DC comics) had to create their own stories to go in the books to keep up with the demand. National's action comic no.1 featured 'superman'. After superman, other super heros were born such as batman and wonder woman.

By the 1950's the sale of superhero comics had died. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Women were pretty much the only super hero comics still being printed. The biggest seller of comic books were horror stories. EC Comics (run by Max Gains' son, Bill) was printing horror comics. Bill Gains allowed the artists to do what they want, which meant that the boundaries of acceptable content were seriously pushed. Comics like two fisted tales and superduperman were created.

Every time a horror comic was released the boundaries were pushed even further. Frederic Wertham even wrote a book about it called Seductioon of the Innocent. It told about the negative effects comics were having on children.

After Wertham’s book, the comic industry created the CCA (the Comics Code Authority). This is the comic equivalent to the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). The CCA regulates the content of the comics. Because of the CCA being introduced EC comics sales plummeted. Mad Comic, which included Superdouperman, changed from a comic into a magazine and therefore bypassing the CCA.

The graphic novel didn't come complete as a medium or a language. Things like this evolve over a period of time. It would have been influenced by different pressures. The main precursor would of been the comics that used the language of speech bubbles, thought clouds and the grid layout.