This week's comic: Archie's Double Digest #172 by Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith

This comic has been sitting in my closet since I was about fourteen, but I don’t think I ever read it before.   Maybe once right after I got it, but I certainly don’t remember any of it.

Rereading it after all this time made me notice things in it that I wouldn't have before, like how even a simple story about going to a fair can use a lot of variation in the panels.  I also noticed how sometimes the characters and speech bubbles popped out of the frame. When we talked about it in class, I would have assumed that that was mostly used to show action or breaking the forth wall, but the way it's used here I noticed how it added more depth without having to draw the background in again.

I also almost missed places where the panels are just dividing up a location to show passage of time; only when I got to the last one did I realize that the backgrounds were interconnected.

This week I chose Graphic Novelist Tami Wicinas and her first graphic novel, Wooden Rose. Originally published as a web comic, Wooden Rose has now gone to print this summer, thanks to Kickstarter.

I actually first came to this comic before it was finished, all thanks to seeing one panel on a different site.  I was attracted to the bright colors and Victorian setting. At first it seemed to be a normal Victorian romance, and there really is a lot of romance in it, but then throw in a plant demon/half demon, a middle ages dream forest and those fantasy elements really made this comic stand out to me.

Overall, it isn't very actiony, there are a few moments, but the emphasis is really on the healing after.

I probably would have liked this even if it had turned out to be a normal slice of life story, but the fantasy part of it really pushed it to the max, its everything I love all in one.  The only thing I wasn't completely satisfied with was the end, which is only because it was somewhat bittersweet. I tend to prefer happily ever afters for all..

My initial reaction to the article on the Harley Quinn Comic is not outrage at the nude female, but rather the premise of this and suicide as part of a contest.  If this had been featured in a comic in full, it probably wouldn’t have caused such a reaction. For one, because I doubt she would succeed in her death, and two the rest of the comic may have addressed the seriousness of suicide.  The way they cut it off, people may assume this is promoting suicide, even if DC did not intend that, some amateur artists may see it that way and draw it in a glorifying manner.  Whether or not DC picks these images is irrelevant, they are bound to end up on the internet and younger fans of Batman may find them.

As for the naked female character, it does seem tasteless to ask for it in a contest open to everyone, but I can’t be bothered by the fact too much.  Because of the prevalence of the internet a naked woman is no longer that unusual, frankly it would have been more shocking if they’d asked for a naked man.

About the objectification of women, while it does exist in some places, I’m more inclined to think its prevalence in comics is less because women are truly undervalued, and more because comic book superheroes (at least the mainstream ones) tend to be straight men.  The women sometimes seem objectified, but maybe it’s just because their side characters are often love interests whose sole role in the story is to make the hero feel something.  If we had more female superheroes, maybe men would be the ones who were objectified.

The only way true objectification will be avoided is if people stop buying the comics that feature it.  But as comic artists, we can try to give more characterization to women and avoid unnecessary exploitation. 

For this week, I chose Manga artist Monkey Punch.  I first learned about this artist when I was researching Hayao Miyazaki, and found out that the first film he directed was an adaptation of Monkey Punche's Lupin III manga.  Because I liked the film, I decided to seek out the manga.  The first thing that surprised me about this was the adult content.

While I had heard of adult oriented comics and cartoons before, this was my first real exposure to them (not counting the Simpsons).  What surprised me most about these comics was the way wacky antics blended with sexual and violent themes.

The style of the manga is far more graphic and sketchy than I’m used to and some of the panels jump around, so much that it’s hard to be sure of exactly what is happening until the end.  At least in the early ones that I've got, the characters aren't drawn consistently, further confusing the audience, although the end usually does clear it up. 

 There tends to be a lot of variety in the panels; not surprising for a comic that has little continuity.  The panels also lean towards more intense.

The writer Stefan Petrucha and artist Sho Murase are credited as the makers of the Nancy Drew graphic novels, at least the ones I own.  I don’t know much about their other works; I only really came to the Nancy Drew ones because I was a fan of the 83-year old character.

I have to say the comics impressed me more than I expected them to.  About a decade ago Stratemeyer Syndicate (or whoever owns her now)  updated the character in an attempt to give her more flaws and make her more 'realistic', but it came across as ruining the character I loved.  The comics brought her back.

They kept the new flaws, but the addition of images changed my perception of Nancy. Rather than the new books where Nancy specifically says she notices something important and then never mentions it again, the graphic novel shows the important clues, but because the reader is a third point of view, I find it easier to believe that Nancy might have missed it, rather than aggravating me when I solve the mystery in chapter two and then have to wait for Nancy to catch up in another ten chapters.

The pictures I used are from The Haunted Dollhouse, my particular favorite because of all the bonus imagery thrown in to celebrate Nancy’s 75^th anniversary, not to mention a good chunk of the dialogue is attempting to work in the titles of previous books.

The book's plot and writing still aren't as good as the old mysteries and I’m not overly fond of the character designs. If I were asked to make a Nancy Drew comic this wouldn't be how I'd do it, but considering how bad the new books can be, I'm glad they found a nice blend that can appeal to the fans of the old and the new.

The comics don’t have a lot of variation in the panels, except in the really important scenes, or really action heavy scenes, but this adds to the mystery, helping the reader determine when important clues are shown.

Another thing I like about the comics is the way they can mimic the creepy atmosphere of the old books.  The newer text only books took out the ghost effect and replaced it with action packed pages. It’s nice to see the comics keep both creepiness and action.