Commentary
This term our complete focus was on the comic life from the Western and the Eastern part of the world. We gained a huge amount of knowledge by watching the commentaries on Marvel (western) and Manga (eastern) comics. Our main aim was to differentiate these comics with each other and how they used different techniques to show and tell their stories. After the information gained through the lessons, we were then expected to complete our coursework requirements which were to create a western comic front cover, create a double page spread on a Manga comic and finish off with the detailed commentary.
The Comic Book in General
Comic book basically means a ‘funny book’ usually in a form of a magazine which is often related to a sustained narrative. The major explanation of why comic books are still popular now days is because of it targeting all ages from the humorous for the children to the violent for the teenagers and then to the adults with its serious social problems.
Comics in the past were seen differently throughout the world. The comics had a humorous background in the European countries which were usually presented in a short section of the newspaper and generally considered humor as a main part of their story-line. However in America comics were essentially based on the powers of the superheroes which gave joy to their audience.
Comics in the past were seen differently throughout the world. The comics had a humorous background in the European countries which were usually presented in a short section of the newspaper and generally considered humor as a main part of their story-line. However in America comics were essentially based on the powers of the superheroes which gave joy to their audience.
Thomas Rowlandson’s ‘Dr Syntax’ series were the early start of western comic which were published in 1812, and originated from the artwork of an English artist in the mid 18th century. Through that period there was another thrilling author who created comedic comics was Rodolphe Topffer, who produced comic to entertain his friends and students.
The actual comic book structure called comic strips was first invented by the creative Duo Charles H. Rossand and his French wife who worked for a British magazine ‘Judy’ and their first fictional character was Ally Sloper ( Alexander Slopper) a red nosed, idle, schemer who was founded ‘sloping’ through alleys avoiding his landlord and other creditor.
Puck magazine was first published in 1871 and is known as the first successful comedic strip in America, it was found by a man named Joseph Ferdinand Keppler who greatly influenced the growth of ironic cartooning in the United States. The word ' Puck ' means 'childishly playful; the popularity of the Puck magazine prompted the British to start printing it in London, which was first done in January 1889.
The Phantom was an adventure comic strip made by a man called Leo Falk, an American writer, director and producer. Phantom also achieved a lot of popularity and was later on completed into a film and a TV show. It was one of the starting points for comic book movies to start being produced into movies and TV shows worldwide.
Graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using the comics form (comic strips). They are usually more serious than comedic, and can also be a collection of small comics bound together to make a collection.
The Western Comic Book
Marvel, an entertainment company doing a business as Marvel Comics which entertain by producing American comic books and other related media. Marvel‘s more popular characters include Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and the X-Men. These all characters form together to make a Marvel Universe.
Martin Goodman, a pulp magazine publisher founded Marvel Comics under the company named ‘Timely Publications’’ in 1939 which was the beginning of the Marvel comics. Goodman started by selling a Western pulp in 1933, and then expanded into the up-and-coming, and by then already highly popular new medium of comic books. This was the time when the superheroes were becoming fewer favorites for the audiences and when Goodman decided to expand his company to cover a wider range of genres from Horror and Sci-Fi to humor and crime. After the declaration of the expansion of ‘Marvel’ Goodman mixed his company ‘Atlas’ with ‘Marvel’ and started to produce TV shows which were really successful to an extent, the first one to start off was ‘Fantastic Four’.
Martin Goodman, a pulp magazine publisher founded Marvel Comics under the company named ‘Timely Publications’’ in 1939 which was the beginning of the Marvel comics. Goodman started by selling a Western pulp in 1933, and then expanded into the up-and-coming, and by then already highly popular new medium of comic books. This was the time when the superheroes were becoming fewer favorites for the audiences and when Goodman decided to expand his company to cover a wider range of genres from Horror and Sci-Fi to humor and crime. After the declaration of the expansion of ‘Marvel’ Goodman mixed his company ‘Atlas’ with ‘Marvel’ and started to produce TV shows which were really successful to an extent, the first one to start off was ‘Fantastic Four’.
Spider-Man Marvel Superhero
Spider-man is a fictional character created by scripter and editor Stan Lee and designed by artists and schemers Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. The character first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962 it was then when Goodman realized that the demand for Spider-man had increased and was the time to give Spider-man’s character its own comic book. Goodman’s idea resulted in a massive success of superman which gave Marvel a brilliant reputation.
The visualization of spider-man was achieved by Joe Simons, artist who drew a picture in 1950’s for a comic called ‘Black Magic’, in which there was a character called Silver Spider; however this comic was not published and was used by Marvel to portray their idea of a Spiderman, hence necessary changes were made.
The important people to the production of Spider-man’s character are the editors and the schemers mentioned above along with the writers Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim and Bob Gale, people who made the spider-man’s character possible and moreover successful. The artistic style of the spider-man comic series is comic book based on the earlier Marvel comics including the Phantom.
The visualization of spider-man was achieved by Joe Simons, artist who drew a picture in 1950’s for a comic called ‘Black Magic’, in which there was a character called Silver Spider; however this comic was not published and was used by Marvel to portray their idea of a Spiderman, hence necessary changes were made.
The important people to the production of Spider-man’s character are the editors and the schemers mentioned above along with the writers Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim and Bob Gale, people who made the spider-man’s character possible and moreover successful. The artistic style of the spider-man comic series is comic book based on the earlier Marvel comics including the Phantom.
The costume of spider-man is blue and red in color, the color of the spider he was bitten with. The costume is also covered with a spiders web to indicate that spider-man has the power to fly using its webs, and last but the important semiotic of spider-man is its logo which is based on the chest is a ‘spider’, hence helps audiences to spot any spider-man items by just looking at the logo of Spider-man.
The popularity of Spider-man has always stayed high and consistent; in addition spider-man fans are actually curious to know the latest Spider-man comics, which show the high demands of Spider-man comics and the consistency of the popularity. Spiderman comics are still going through high popularity however as graphic novels. Spiderman’s comics are targeted at pre teens and young teens, which make the comics in high demand and popular worldwide.
Spiderman comics represent women’s in a no. of ways, the most common one is when the women are found weak and cannot defend themselves, and therefore need help for the men, and the other way is when women are also given the powers and have the ability to defend themselves for example Black cat who is totally independent .
The popularity of Spider-man has always stayed high and consistent; in addition spider-man fans are actually curious to know the latest Spider-man comics, which show the high demands of Spider-man comics and the consistency of the popularity. Spiderman comics are still going through high popularity however as graphic novels. Spiderman’s comics are targeted at pre teens and young teens, which make the comics in high demand and popular worldwide.
Spiderman comics represent women’s in a no. of ways, the most common one is when the women are found weak and cannot defend themselves, and therefore need help for the men, and the other way is when women are also given the powers and have the ability to defend themselves for example Black cat who is totally independent .
Seduction of the Innocent
Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychologist who had given a nightmare to the comic industry by saying that comic books gave a bad influence to children and were really a bad influence for them in the young age. By reading his books the sales and the reputation of comics had dropped, however the huge fans still had their faith in comics. Similarly institutions like Marvel and DC did not really backed up however stayed on and continued as they had faith in their institution’s fans.
The Comics Code Authority is part of the Comics Magazine Association in USA found in 1954, and was created to control the content of comic books in the United States, as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America in response to public concern about what was considered inappropriate material in many comic books. (Basically stop bad and rude things happening which could influence children).
The Comics Code Authority is part of the Comics Magazine Association in USA found in 1954, and was created to control the content of comic books in the United States, as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America in response to public concern about what was considered inappropriate material in many comic books. (Basically stop bad and rude things happening which could influence children).
My Superhero Front Cover
My superhero is a modern age superhero. I have chosen my superhero to be a Sci-Fi character that has mutated from the meteors in space and developed into a man called ‘Meteor Man’. Talking about his appearance, I have chosen the colors blue and yellow because I felt these colors go really well and also the research went to my front cover gave me an indication of these colors. Speed and reflexes could describe my superhero’s powers, as I have designed him to help and protect the Earth; therefore speed is needed to travel from space down to Earth.
As my superhero is a Sci-Fi character I had to make it look a Sci-Fi genre by having its conventions in my comic front cover. I have achieved to portray my front cover as a Sci-Fi genre by having a background which has stars in it, representing space , I’ve also included action lines to show how fast my superhero is moving, therefore introducing the new surf board which is made scientifically. The surf board also makes my cover look futuristic, making it look set in future.
To actually make my superhero front cover I had firstly experimented with types of superheroes with the help of www.marvel.com/create_your_own_superhero and chose the final one, however the whole cover was made on Photoshop. Some of the interesting things on my cover are the surfing board and the perspective on my hero (the way he is standing on the surfing board), which was made on Photoshop using some editing techniques such as ‘perspective’ and ‘Wrap’. To make my cover actually look like a comic one I had to search a background which looked drawn I personally believe I’ve achieved to do so.
Manga
Manga is Japanese comic which was formed shortly after WW2, due to the time it was originated, Manga comic were usually full of killing, torture, hatred, betrayal and other similar conventions. Modern Manga comic are now targeted at all ages and contain less violent actions. In fact manga in present includes numerous ranges of subject; from action-adventure, sports, sci-fi and fantasy, sexuality and etc. Nowadays, it is also exported to many countries, influencing their popular cultures, children, youth, and the ways of the people.
Osama Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka was a great Japanese cartoonist. Osamu started his career as a comic artist in 1946 with 'Machan no Nikkicho' for the children's magazine Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun while he was a student at Osaka University. Osamu Tezuka most recognized work was Astro Boy which was a manga comic released in 1952 and later made into a anime in 1963, then made him consider the father of Manga due to the success of it.
Tezuka has made Astro Boy represented as a human robot. Astro Boy is a story of robot that was thrown away by his genuine creator and was adopted by a scientist who trained him to fight crime in a futuristic world where androids live with humans. Astro Boy was represented as positive android because WW2 was still there in mind and in people’s living in 1952; and character like Astro Boy was a hope for a good future.
Tezuka has made Astro Boy represented as a human robot. Astro Boy is a story of robot that was thrown away by his genuine creator and was adopted by a scientist who trained him to fight crime in a futuristic world where androids live with humans. Astro Boy was represented as positive android because WW2 was still there in mind and in people’s living in 1952; and character like Astro Boy was a hope for a good future.
My Manga Double Page Spread
My Manga double page spread is a Seinen and I’ve chosen this style because I personally like narratives which include violence and some action scenes which therefore prompted me to do so. The basic story line of my manga strip is that a person has a bet on a cricket match; however he refuses to pay after losing the bet, which then leads to conflict between them. My manga strip fits the conventions of manga style as the pictures look drawn and less writing compared to the amount of pictures like manga style. To make my spread look Seinen I clicked pictures of older people and then converted them into drawings by using to software ‘Comic Life’ which had features like converting the image style for example ‘colored pencils’. Comic life was also used to create the whole of my Manga spread.
Evaluation
I think this course has been really beneficial for me as I have developed my skills not only in Photoshop or other software such as Comic Life but my imaging and researching skills. I personally believe I have been quite successful in terms of presenting my practical work as a actual comic poster and a manga spread, there is not much of a difference between the actual and mine however this course has developed my knowledge so much that I can actually try making my own comic characters and also talk about them.
Finally I would want to conclude with, that media actually plays a huge role in people’s daily life no matter in what form. My knowledge has developed a lot about media and its crucial areas which could be the Noir Films, Crime dramas or the exciting comics.
Finally I would want to conclude with, that media actually plays a huge role in people’s daily life no matter in what form. My knowledge has developed a lot about media and its crucial areas which could be the Noir Films, Crime dramas or the exciting comics.
