Watchmen

I started reading Watchmen late August perhaps, up to this point I have not finished it. I know that there is an alien in the end, that was so conveniently ruined for me already, and I'm hoping that this knowledge doesn't ruin reading it for me.

Watchmen is very long. There is so much to take in on every page. There is a lot of text compared to many other graphic novels, which is why it is taking me so long.

To take sides, I like the ending of the movie better. A giant alien doesn't make any sense to me, where as blaming Dr. Manhattan seems more logical. Also I would say that for what I have read the movie follows the novel quite well. The novel has more information to offer, but the movie is a good movie. My options may be because I saw the movie first.

Dr. Who

I read all three of the Dr. Who comics available on the resource site. For three reasons: they were PDF, I needed to read something for the week, and I assumed they had to do with the TV show. I would not be able to tell if there was any relation to the show, or at least not what I've seen, and I really don't know if it's related to the books (there are books right? I think I saw them in Guinness world records for something back in 2001 I think). I'm sure there are fans out there who want to smack me around for my ignorance.

I'd say the three told an interesting story, I think I only kept reading after the first one because they were so short. Visually it neither stood out or was repulsive to me.

Battle Angle Alita "Last Order" vol. 1

Last manga entry. Very different from Tazuka or Takahashi, pretty sure this classifies as mecha but I'm not sure on all the categories and such of manga. I really enjoyed reading this, I really enjoyed the visual look and feel of it. I really enjoyed the fighting, the movement shown in each frame, you could tell that there was a lot of fast action. Of course I have to mention the brains, guts, blood, gore and the like. Visually it was very appealing, black and whites serves it well, and the attention giving to detail I would say is superb.

I think I'm going to have to read more of these.

Takahashi

Of Takahashi's work, I read the first five volumes of Ranma and volume one of Maison Ikkoku. Both I enjoyed. I'm at a loss as to what more to say. So I'll leave it at this, just as a note of what I've read.

Buddha vol.1 - Tezuka

Manga, in contrast to the American super hero style (does it have a short name that it goes by? I wouldn't know.), is simple, or at least that's what I would call it, and very iconic. With Tezuka's work in particular, but my main other comparison would be anime which is in color and is animated so I'm not sure I should make the comparison.

Where I said in my previous post that black and white would make things too complex, the simplicity in Tezuka's characters allows for black and white to be used.

One of the things I like the most about this manga, as well as a few anime shows I've seen, is the exaggeration of expressing. Where you can easily see the emotion from body language even if the motion is impossible in reality.

The second thing I like is where the characters in the story know they are in a story and you see something that is out of place or such. For example, when Chapra is wounded by an arrow and one of the doctors is a modern dressed doctor and another time when Tezuka enters the manga as a doctor (dressed as a modern doctor). There is another time where a character (probably soldier A) mentions the black and white printing was due to a budget cut. To add further example I will take another source, Furi Kuri, where for a clip a few of the characters are in a trailer talking about the previous scene.

Back to Buddha, I like it, if I was bored and the library had the next volume I'd read it. I also was surprised how quickly you can read through it, very little text compared to something like Watchmen (which I can never see to finish reading).

Crisis On Infinite Earths

This was a very long read for me, I only broke halfway for diner, but I saw it through. It was a very interesting story. The idea of a multiverse does allow all these different super heros that normally don't interact to interact. I'm not a super hero buff, so I wasn't aware of all these groups of super heros were running around in different universes, and not just one. Most of my super hero learning has television where you may see some interaction with other DC characters from their specific universe.

So I guess to say, it was interesting to see all these different heros coming together and to see all these different universes they come from and the glorious chaos that occurs when a supreme being tries to destroy everything.

As far as art goes, the comic book style with the outlines and the use of only three colors was irritating in some spots where it seemed like a mess, but for mass consumption you can only go to one other option and that is black and white, which I don't think would work any better and it would make it more difficult to tell things apart.

Underground Comics - The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

The freak brothers is funny. There is a lot of humor in the hippie lifestyle, not quite in how it has effected society but in the forms of mass media. Of course it still has qualities other than drug use that confine it in the underground, but compared to other underground works (namely air pirates, that's the only other work I've read) it is a bit more in the norm.

It is very cartoony, not to the point of talking animals running around, but in a non realistic portrayal of life. The freak brothers get into situations, run-ins with the police, and get out of them by some random coincidence of fate. I'm not saying that it should be more realistic in any sense, it is very enjoyable as is.