The BIG Paper!

Animals being portrayed with human characteristics happens quite frequently in children's stories. Reading an adult novel with animals having human characteristics isn't something you come across as often.
In the graphic novel The Pride of Baghdad, written by Brian K. Vaughan, we meet a lion pride that think and communicate very similar to the way that humans due. The novel was inspired by a true story about four lions who escaped from the Baghdad Zoo and were eventually killed by American Troops. Obviously, Vaughan doesn't know the lions exact thoughts and feelings but while reading the graphic novel I found it hard to keep that in mind. The animals in The Pride Of Baghdad even have good grammar!
The lions recall memories of the wild just as easily as most humans recall memories. Noor had memories of the thrill of the hunt. Zill had memories of the beautiful sunset against the horizon. Ali is a cub born in captivity and enjoys hearing their stories. The most vivid memories that aren't shared with Ali are the memories that Safa keeps hidden down deep. When Ali asked her what the wild was like she clearly remembered her worst memories, but wouldn't share them with the cub. Not her strongest memories at least, she simply told him there had been flies, blood sucking flies. However, her real memories were shared with us.
Safa is missing her right eye, and she recounts what happened the day she lost it. Safa was raped by a male lion named Bukk and his brothers. What I found most interesting about this memory is how well it relates to rapes happening today in places like college dorms or fraternity houses (I'm not saying these are the only places or the most likely places... just an example). I have heard stories (way too many more than I should have) of girls being raped and then being "thrown to the dogs", aka all the guys buddies.
Bukk pushed and pushed for Safa to have sex with him. She scratched his side in her own defense and he ended up clawing out her eye. He threatens to take an ear too and she gives in and tells him to just make it quick. When he's done he says, "Like I said, only takes me six seconds to finish... but "my stupid brothers... might need a little longer." This is just like stories I have heard. A girl is pressured and pressured by a guy to have sex with him, and finally out of fear of being hurt, or because he won't let her leave until she does (or gets her drunk enough etc.), she will finally give in. And then the jerk lets his friends have their way also. Her memories of the pain of the situation seem to still burn deep with in her.
I had never before thought of an animal being rape. Now that I think more about it though I guess that it is sort of true. I've seen many female cats or dogs being extremely annoyed when a male of that species tries to "mount them." It just seemed like a normal part of the animal kingdom. Now it seems almost as terrible as human rape. Though I don't think that cats and dogs are scarred by the experience in the same way that a human would be.
Another humanistic characterization that the lions from The Pride Of Baghdad were given was compassion. While they were wandering the streets of Baghdad, starving, searching for food they came across a young human, a "keeper's cub". The lions see no reason not to eat him, after all he does still seem fresh, and could feed all of them. Safa interjects and says that they can not eat him because if it weren't for the keepers they never would have had food back in the zoo. She added, "How...how can you just turn around and make them your lunch? They're the ones who kept us alive!" Zill rebutted, "and they'll continue to keep us alive as long as we stop looking at them, as anything but meat." After some arguing Safa tells him that if he doesn't have any loyalty to the keepers than he should take the first bite. At first he looks saddened while he contemplates the thought and just as he is preparing to take a bite, Noor calls him off...
The fact that Safa had compassion for the "keeper's cub" because the keepers had taken care of them shows another human trait being portrayed in the lions. A wild, starving, carnivore rooming the streets is not going to take pity on a human just because some humans have taken care of it. They are going to want to eat and not care where the meal comes from.
At the end Zill is shot by an American soldier. Safa shots for Noor to take Ali away from there and tells her that she will do the best she can to take care of their attackers. Safa charges the troop and is also shot and killed. When Noor sees this she screams, " You animals!" I found this to be a tad bit ironic. Just as I am sure it was intended to be.

Art Spiegleman did the opposite of Vaughan in his graphic novels, Maus I and II. In Maus I and II Spiegleman gives humans animal characteristics. The characteristics were not in the way that the characters behaved but in the way they looked. He stereo-typed each race to be a different animal. The Jews were mice, which are to be known as prey, and dirty (the dirty part is from the view of the Germans-that they are dirty like vermin). The German's are illustrated as cats, they are the predator. French are portrayed as frogs. Americans as dogs and Polish as pigs.
Spiegleman's portrayal of humans as animals didn't hold as much significance to me as the way Vaughan had done the opposite. What I liked about Spiegleman's use was that it made it easy to tell where someone belonged. Whether they were a Jew or German or French etc. Maus I and II are done in black and white and so his representation made it much easier to follow. That way you didn't have to guess, and then perhaps be wrong.

In The Pride of Baghdad and Maus I and II we are met with talking animals. It is interesting to me how they could be used so differently though. In The Pride of Baghdad, the animals, in a sense, become human. Where as in Maus I and II, the humans become animals. Its amazing how different these two very similar uses of graphics can be. I guess it is not necessarily in the graphics that we find these differences though. But in the text that goes a long with them.

Final Exam

Question #3 When using a comic book/GN to record history, which narrative voice serves this format better, first-person or omniscient?

The use of a comic book or graphic novel to record history may seem like a faux pas. Comic books and graphic novels are generally stereotyped to be adolescent targeted fantasy stories about superheros. However, if when done right a comic book or graphic novel can do a fantastic job at recording history. Sometimes even better than a general textbook!
In order for a graphic novel to do a good job at conveying an event in history the best bet is for the author to use an omniscient narrator. An omniscient narrator is going to be more fact driven, and honest. The reader will trust what the narrator is telling them to be more factual, rather than just someones memories. The omniscient narrator is all knowing, it can see all events that happen as they happen.
If an author uses first-person to narrate the event, the event becomes tainted. The event happens based on the narrators experience and they way that they perceive what happened.
For example:
In The Shadow Of No Towers is written by Art Spiegleman in first-person. We don't learn facts about what happened when our country was attacked by Al Queda. We only learn how Spiegleman felt during and after the attacks.
In The 9/11 Report the narrative is omniscient. The events are not skewed by someones personal feelings. They are factual, and tell you what occurred on the day that our country was attacked.
I haven't read any American History textbooks that included the attacks from 9/11. It happened my last year of high school. But, I have read many a history text books and though I see the words they often don't even register. However, with The 9/11 Report I soaked in every word. When reading In The Shadow Of No Towers, I was much more frustrated with the narrator because I wanted to know what really happened. Not just what he perceived.

Omniscient: This is what happened, here are the facts
First-person: Um, this is what I saw, and how I feel about it.

Question #1
Using p 126 of McCloud as a reference/guide, define the line style of one of the graphic novels you have read since the midterm. How does the line style impact the story telling of that specific GN?

In Blankets, Craig Thompson primarily used crisp lines. The lines he uses bare a strong resemblance to those used in the example McCloud shows us on page 126 of Joost Swarte's graphics. Craig also uses a full range of lines when trying to show something of intricate detail. Such as the quilt that Raina gives to him. We can see a good use of many different line styles on the blanket on page 182.

The way that Thompson uses lines in his storytelling shows you that life is crude. The majority of Thomspon's memories of his life growing up were not happy memories. They tended to be depressing, revolting, or just normal day to day "boredom". But when he is happy or elated he tends to use softer lines. Showing that though life may be crude it also has its magical moments. The softer lines make things feel lighter. It portrays the feeling of weightlessness one gets when things are going their way and they are genuinely happy.


Question # 5
Visit the following link, http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=124318, and read the article. Write a five-paragraph (minimum 10 sentences per paragraph) response to the article that answers the question "Are comics/graphic novels literature?"

No, graphic novels are not literature. The term graphic novel is a glorified name for comic book. They are crudely drawn superheroes designed to capture the attention of adolescent boys or grown men living in their parents basement. The men in graphic novels are big, macho, and burly. The women are big busted, long leg-ed, dim-witted, and don't have an ounce of self dependency. It takes no form of intelligence to read a graphic novel. They are designed for people who don't like to read and need illustrations to form any sort of imagination that they may have. People who read comic books find friends in them because they are social inept and can't make friends in the real world. All comic book readers like to dress up like the characters, go to conferences and make funny noises.
This is what I thought about graphic novels/comic books and their readers before taking Lit 220. Now my opinion has completely changed. I am no longer closed minded and ignorant towards graphic novels/comic books. Or their readers/fan base for that matter. When I first told my husband I was enrolled in this course he told me not to dare start talking to him about comic books when he comes home from Iraq. Apparently he shares the same opinion I did just a few , short weeks ago. Since taking this course I have grown to appreciate what graphic novels bring to the table. I still haven't read any super hero comics, but that's ok. I know that they are worth while for those who enjoy that type of literature.
I read two graphic novels about 9/11. One of which I did not enjoy by any means (we will skip discussing this one...) and one that did a fantastic job at telling the reader of the events occurring that fateful day. The 9/11 Report was the first GN I read. It completely changed my point of view towards GNs. It explains the events through text and picture. It was amazing that the graphics were exactly what I was picturing in my mind. Where I couldn't picture the event or people it was talking about, there they were... right there in plain view in front of me! It was fantastic!
In Zack Smith's article he is telling us about the "Comics Are Not Literature" panel. I think the title for the debate was absurd. It fed you what they wanted you to think. If you had no opinion prior to hearing the title you could make your own choice. A better name would have been "Are Comics Literature?", then it gives a person the right to ponder a response and make their own conclusion, unbiased.
I enjoyed the part where Wolf offered the following differences between a prose and a comic, "creating picture the picture in your head, and the artist crating a specific image on the page." This statement goes right a long with what I was saying about The 9/11 Report. Eventually, this discussion also led to the discussion about how someone reads vs. watches a comic, Wolf asked Nadel, "Do you read a movie?". Of course Nadel replied no.

What I want to know is what makes literature? Is it big words? Lots of words on a page? What?!?! Maybe it is as simple as a book being bound. Whatever it is, the panel did not come to a conclusion of whether or not comics are literature. I guess it is all just a matter of one's opinion. But for me, comics ARE LITERATURE.

Question #4

Examine/explore the six steps of creation (p170-184) of one of the graphic novels you have read since the midterm.

To answer this question I will be using Art Spiegleman's Maus I and II. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud clearly outlines the six steps into making a graphic novel. I never realized there was so much work in creating a graphic novel! Shows how ignorant I had been until this course!

Step one is the idea/purpose. The idea/purpose for Maus I and II is that Spiegleman wants to tell his father's story. His mother and father were both survivors of the holocaust. And though there are many different accounts of the holocaust published it is interesting to hear another survivors story.

Step two is form. I am sure everyone is saying the same thing here on this one... obviously the form is a graphic novel. Well actually in this case it is TWO graphic novels.

Step three is idiom. The idiom includes the genre, the audience, and the style of art. For Maus I and II the genre is memoir and the audience is well, pretty much anyone interested in a survivors tale.The art is on the far right hand side of the triangle, aka the meaning side. (That wasn't too hard to figure out seeing as how its #74 on the scale!) Spiegleman didn't draw the characters as humans. He drew them as animals with human characteristics.

Step four is structure. The putting together of the novel. What to leave in? What to take out? Though there is a lot to do with nothing to do with the holocaust in Maus I and II I think Art Spiegleman did a fantastic job on deciding what would be in the two GNs. While he is interviewing his father about his experience his dad often gets side tracked and rambles. Though it doesn't really relate to the holocaust it does enable you to get to know the characters a little better.

Step five is craft. AKA "Getting the job done". Spiegleman got the job done with his fantastic ability to recreate scenes from someone else's memory. His fathers knowledge/ memories were able get him far. However, he did have to use his own imagination, especially on Maus II because his father had already passed away.

Step six is surface. When I think of the surface for a graphic novel I automatically think of the cover. The cover of Maus I features Vladek and Anja huddled together with big worried eyes, while behind them is a large swastika with a stern faced cat in the center. Maus II features the same swastika and cat, the mice on the cover are wearing their Auschwitz uniforms and are wearing the same big worried eyes.

My BIG Paper

I plan on doing my BIG paper on the graphic novel The Pride of Baghdad.
I've started two different outlines...
one on the humanism of the animals
and the other on the focus of the media on the story.
I think ultimitaly I would like to involve both... But I know we are supposed to focus on one point. However, I was thinking I could some how maybe link them by the fact that the story was so big in the news, as though it was a story of human life, and that it also seemed to over shadow the human lives lost during this time.

Maus I and II

Maus I and II are written by Art Speigleman. The most noticable thing about these graphic novels are his choice in what animal represents each race. Jews are represented as mice, "filthy", preyed upon mice. The German's are cats, they are the predators. Polish are pigs, pinkocommi pigs, as my dad refers to communists. French are frogs, the best I come up with here is, frog legs, or pallez vous frog say, as my dad always pronounced (parrlez-vous francais) when I was learning french. And American's are represented as dogs, my guess on this one is they are bigger than cats, and are always loyal...

On this page we can see a German cat in the lower right hand corner of the first panel, many Jewish mice, and on the second to last panel a Polish pig.

In the beginning of Maus II we see Art and his wife Francoise, he is asking her what animal he should draw her as. She asks why not a mouse like himself, and he tells her no because she is French. She argues that she converted to Judism and therefore should be a mouse. Art teases her and says maybe for the story he will draw her first as a frog, and then when she converts, then she will transform into a beautiful mouse.

The representation of people as animals puts these GNs as more iconic, however the representation of places and objects are much more realistic.

I think Art Speigleman did a fantastic job with both of these GNs (as opposed to how much I hated In The Shadow of No Towers. I actually had a hard time remembering that he was the author of the very different gns).

Blankets

Blankets by Craig Thompson is about his life growing up, from about the age of a middle schooler into early adulthood.


When I first saw the cover of this book I thought it was going to be written by a woman and be her love story. But I guess thats what I get for judging a book by its cover huh? When I found out thats not what it was, I was skeptical on what it would be like, espically because its so lengthy! But I loved it! Its a fantastic read and I've recommended it to a few of my non-GN reading friends.


I was curious how the title of the GN came about, it didn't take long to figure it out... First we see Craig and his little brother in the bed that they had to share. His little pest of a brother won't let him sleep so he steals all the covers and pretends to be sleeping. His brother rips the covers from him, while Craig falls the the floor in a heap.
Their father storms upstairs and forces the lil bro to sleep in "the cubby". This part was significant because this is where Craig admits that he should have stuck up for his brother a lot more than he did, after all he was the oldest, he should've been stuck in the creapy cubby.

The second blanket, making the title Blankets was from his "girlfriend" Riana, she quilted it for him by hand. It ment a lot to him.


So did she. But when she needed a break he didn't want any memories of her. So he burned everything that he had from her, except the blanket. He put the blanket in a bag and stored it in the cubby.
At the end of the gn he was searching in the cubby, not sure what he was looking for, but knew he would know, as soon as he found it. What he found was, the blanket she had quilted for him. On a could winters day he lay down on his old bed at his parents house, wrapped in the quilt she had made for him.

The Pride Of Baghdad

The Pride of Baghdad, written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Niko Henrichon, is inspired by a true story. It takes place in Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdad's zoo houses a lion pride of four lions. Zill, the male of the pride, remembers the beauty of the horizon from when he was free in the wild. Safa, the "old lady" lioness, remembers the pain and suffering being free caused her (being raped by a lion and his brothers). Noor, the young mother lioness, remembers the thrill of the hunt where she was able to eat fresh meat, not just a carcass that the keepers threw in their cage. Ali, Noor's young cub, is a rambuncious juvevinlle full of questions about life outside of the zoo.

The story begins with a crow playing Chicken Little, screaming "THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!" An aggitated Zill threatens to eat him if he doesn't shut up. Zill says, "will you shut up? The damn sky is never going to..... fall?"

On the following page we see three American F-16's fly over head.

While Noor has been discussing an escape plan with an antelope in the cage over, the rest of the pride is confussed by the event. The keepers feed them rabbits, a normal meal and they decide that until the keepers show any sign of terror they will go about their usual business. It isn't until the keepers throw them an ass (donkey) that they begin to worry. Why would the keepers throw them such a large meal? As they retreat to the den, afraid something terrible is about to happen, there is a large explosion that sends them flying in different directions. The blast has freed all of the animals.




The pride begins to venture through the streets of Baghdad, in search of food. They are nearly run down by a convoy of American tanks. The tanks leave them frightened, for they are unsure of what kind of animal they may be and surely with the size of them they would be able to hunt and kill the lions for food.



The lions are hungry and ready to eat. The pride happens along an injured boy or teenager and plan to eat him but Safa won't let them because he is like a keeper, and the keepers took good care of them so why should they turn on one now. That is when Noor spots a herd of horses. As the two lioness hunt the horses they end up in a palace. The owner of the palace has kept a lion as a pet, he is scrawny and manged. Noor and Safa thought it was one of the keepers but he tells them no his keeper treated him well. Just then the two come face to face with a huge bear. The bear is the one who has ruined the other lion and he plans to do the same with Noor and Safa. Thankfully Zill (the hero du du dunaaaa) shows up and joins in the fight. Even Ali helps to defeat the bear by chasing after the horses so that they tromple him to death.



"Fireflies!" exclaims Ali.


(I'm sorry the blog was interupted from a phone call... From near Baghdad... it will be completed shortly.)

He runs off and climbs a pile of debris. For the first time in his life he sees the horizon.

As Ali and the rest of the pride admire the horizon Ali's fireflies began to wizz by their heads. Ali's fireflies are really American bullets.
As the US forces advance Safa protects the pride and lunges towards them. The US forces shoot Safa and the rest of the pride.

I really enjoyed reading The Pride of Baghdad. It is a fantastic read for GN lovers and those who don't care for them much. The graphics are extremly well done. I would place them near realistic on the scale. I was going to borrow this GN from the library but I ended up purchasing it at a local comic book store. I am really glad I did. It is something I can read to my son as a bedtime story (when he is a bit older!) and still enjoy myself. I even think my husband, the "anti-comic" man, would enjoy this one. '

Obviously lions don't really talk, however, the dialouge between the lions, and other animals is wonderful. If these animals think in a similar manner to us then I think their thoughts were captured to a "T".

Its hard to decide whos side you are on in the end. I feel terrible for the lions. They didn't know what was going on when they saw the US forces and acted on instinct, causing them to be "brutally murdered" by American troops. However, the troops were protecting themselves and that is important. I guess this is like when you watch Wild E Coyote and the Road Runner. I always felt bad for the Coyote for not catching the Road Runner, but I was always thankful for the Road Runner being safe. Or when you watch the Discovery Channel and a snake catches his prey. You are glad he is fed, but sad that the poor mouse had to die.

Each lion has different memories of the wild. Safa's was the most interesting for me. She was pressured into having sex with a male lion named Bukk who wasn't even from her pride. And then when he was done he said " Like I said it only takes me six seconds to finish... ... but my 'stupid brothers'..." This part broke my heart. I have (as I'm sure many of us have...) heard stories of things similar happening to teenage girls. One guy pressures them, they finally are say ok just get it over with, and then his buddies take their turns. I'm trying to figure out how to say what I am thinking and I'm having difficulty. I guess just that it was interesting how they portrayed it as a rape that could happen in the human race. I know female animals are "taken" against their will, but I don't think I ever viewed it as rape.

I guess that the story this was inspired by was in the news when it happened but I don't recall hearing about it. The last few pages of the novel show an ariel view of the city of Baghdad. On one page it says: In April of 2003, four lions escaped the Baghdad Zoo during the bombing of Iraq. The starving animals were eventually shot and killed by U.S. soldiers. This statement makes me think of the soldiers as terrible people. Thankfully I know better. The follow spread says: There were other casualties as well. Now I know that this was a story of the lions but if I had a friend or loved one that was killed in the same attacks I think I'd be pretty ticked that thats all that was said about them. Maybe I'd be a little more satisfied if Vaughan had included a list of the names of the troops that were killed on that same day.

All in all I give this GN two thumbs up. I couldn't put it down, it isn't very long but the way my life goes, for me to sit down and read anything in one sitting (even a shampoo bottle lol) is pretty much unheard of. I read this book cover to cover twice in a row.

What The Future Holds....

What Iwill be reading for....
Week 6- The Pride of Baghdad
Week 7- Blankets (tentaive...)
Week 8- Maus I and II