kvaillan-litcomics

     Reading this comic while knowing Jeffery Dahmer's whole story and time line is very daunting. It's very interesting to hear about what his childhood was like and how that affected who he became. It's crazy how people knew he was strange but couldn't see the signs. The more eerie thing was when all the high school guys got together and joked about him becoming a serial killer. It's crazy how people can be ignorant or more likely refuse to believe something as true. The way Dahmer lacked empathy when other's got hurt, or just killed a fish and stabbing it multiple times without a second thought. He's repressed the sexual desire so much that something about homosexuality and sin must have been twisted in his mind. His family life was definitely a factor. His parents left him isolated with only his thoughts and guilted him out of admitting he was lonely. The extreme drinking problem seemed like a scream for help that was largely dismissed and met little ret

Blog Post Points : 44 Attendance Points : 7 51  * 2 = 102 (hope I understood this right, sorry for any miscalculation.)

I enjoy the way the story is told and the style. I like that the boy is telling the story and hearing it from his father. I like how the time period is represented well and how even though it's a story about the holocaust, it first starts with an individual's life before the war. It makes it clear that this is his fathers story and not the author's. It also shows how the father is different after having the experience of war. For example, he has to take a lot of pills, has one glass eye, and had suffered two heart attacks. In the story it shows how when he was younger he had delicate hands and was very handsome. It highlights how Jewish prisoners were viewed different from polish ones. I think the way Vladek's father starved him to prevent him from being enlisted to the war was also training him to survive the holocaust. He was tougher than others and even bathed in freezing water and did exercise to stay clean. It's funny to compare his ideals to his son's. I l

Tits and Clits was fun to read because I finally got to see Underground Comics by the gender that was less represented. They expressed, from the female perspective, their sexual desire from an explicit point of view and how many of their views are pretty similar to men. I noticed that they lesbian content was more accepted by the female gender than men and gay content. In these comics the authors seemed more open to drawing women in intercourse as well as with men. It also makes fun of a lot of the things men find attractive about women. For example, how big breasts are more of a pain to deal with in many situations and sort of just get in the way. Also it talks about vibrators way more than men do, probably because it's another way to get pleasure without having to find a man. It's just more efficient. It brings the realization that women and men have similar sexual desires, as do humans. 

Reading the Gay comics this week I noticed that they differ from the other Underground comics in a lot of ways. Many of the Underground comics are explicit, rude, and unforgiving in the opinions they express. They're very dirty, gross, and express the worst in humanity. The Gay comics aren't like this. They are more personal and follow a storyline and a way to connect with the character. It's unfortunate that these comics were considered underground just for the fact that they were gay which was unaccepted by society at the time. It seems that this was their only outlet for telling their stories and getting their work to audiences. The comics talk about what it's like desiring something that's considered forbidden, dirty, and sinful. It talks about the struggle they have with expressing love just like in straight relationships and if you look deep into it it's not that different from any search for love and belonging. 

     These comics are very disturbing and definitely stretch the ideas of social norms, what's acceptable in society, and dark humor. I can see how some of the content in these comics would stir up trouble with the police and be unacceptable to the general population at the time. I'm even having trouble reading it comfortably in a Starbucks right now... Definitely not the kind of thing you would want someone seeing from over your shoulder. Although I like the explicitness of their ideas and opinions, they aren't afraid to expose the dark sides of the human mind. The most interesting to read about was the Rolling Stone magazine and how Rick Griffin's rock and psychedelic inspired style was featured on the cover of the magazine. He was the one who created the original lettering for the Rolling Stone logo. You can see where in the lettering the logo is inspired especially when compared to Griffin's work in Zap Comix . A lot of these comics poke fun at the classic des

     Blankets is a very impactful graphic novel about childhood and the realization of human suffering and the pursuit of happiness. It depicts perfectly the artist's strive for escapism from a world that falls far from a happy childhood and highlights the painful parts of life. It also expresses a struggle with god and how to get into heaven. In order to do so the main character has to avoid the things that make them happy, like drawing. He also feels that pursuing his own happiness makes god unhappy. His happiness in the end makes him unhappy. It's like he thinks his talent is a sin. The burden of growing up as a Christian with overbearing parents is apparent. The weight of believing in God and that humans are full of sin is clearly overwhelming on a young person's mind. Growing up with this torments him in a constant battle while growing up into his teenage years. Thompson uses drawings of his main characters naked and depicts shame and guilt explicitly to the audience.