Damn it. I'm sorry I missed class. That's what happens when you party too hard during the weekend and then don't party during the week.

I have no idea what I'm talking about. Anyway, finished up the draft of the final paper, but I'm not really sure that it's what Spencer is looking for. It basically praises my neighbor as being a ridiculous comic book junkie, yet manages to be awesome in every other aspect. But damn it, I like it and that's that. I don't recall if I've mentioned it in the blog or not, but he has a comic book called "Kick Ass" and it's pretty awesome. It's about a kid who thinks he's (or is) a super hero and how he rose to actually become a hero. Interesting stuff, only on it's third or so issue. Also, my essay is more of a manifesto. Is this bad?

But really, I've got nothing more to say than, two classes left, and this year is over. It's been a fun ride, and I apologize for lack of postings recently, nothing against you Spencer, but I was totally fed up. I'm outta here.

well that's the end of our nudity and Pat's theory. I am in History right now and listening to some random replacement professor that has no idea what she is talking about, nor is she even following the study guide. Im fairly certain that shes just making up whatever she wants and is clearly not using the normal poweerpoints so Im pretty sure our exam is going to suck and I will not have a single idea what the bloody hell is going on. But I digress.

The film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is simply brilliant. I saw it twice this weekend and I don't think I've laughed so much in over two years. If you enjoy a good comedy, you owe it to yourself to see this film.

Also, the reason Im typing this poorly is because I got myself a new to toy, a cell phone with wi-fi and I really just wanted to post a blog with it.

well that's the end of our nudity and Pat's theory. I am in History right now and listening to some random replacement professor that has no idea what she is talking about, nor is she even following the study guide. Im fairly certain that shes just making up whatever she wants and is clearly not using the normal poweerpoints so Im pretty sure our exam is going to suck and I will not have a single idea what the bloody hell is going on. But I digress.

The film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is simply brilliant. I saw it twice this weekend and I don't think I've laughed so much in over two years. If you enjoy a good comedy, you owe it to yourself to see this film.

Also, the reason Im typing this poorly is because I got myself a new to toy, a cell phone with wi-fi and I really just wanted to post a blog with it.

I'm totally fed up with this class, and don't understand why we have to deal with all this crap. I do my best to be nice and make sure class is decent, but all I get is ridiculousity.


But on a more serious note, I'm attempting to start this paper and we'll see how it goes from there. Watching Dark City right now with my roommate, just watched Smokin' Aces. Clearly these sorts of things are currently more important than the paper. Oops. Oh well, at least I have about a week. I hope the rest of the class was decent and will be finishing Berlin shortly. Will leave myt impressions here when I get around to it.

Completely unrelated to anything, I was reading SomethingAwful the other day and came across this amazing image.

Berlin is an interesting graphic novel so far, and according to everything we talked about in class, so are all the blank bubbles. I am one to think that it's because of noise in the background, clearly going against what Spencer says. Every panel is in some sort of loud scene, even if it doesn't have the sound effects in the panels, it is clearly loud. A man in the street alone with a huge crowd of people in front of him? Loud. Two men about to charge over a hill where clearly explosions are going off in the back? Loud. Though, that's clearly just my opinion.

And on to this paper thing that we are to be writing. Damn it, I wanted to do a sculpture, you got my hopes up. What am I supposed to do now, actually write a paper that is talking about my neighbor and the culture of reading comics and how I walked in to his place yesterday asking him when we could talk and his girlfriend said "You want help with a paper from MICHAEL?" and then laughed.

I responded with "Yeah, he's going to help me write a comic book paper, and it's going to be awesome." To which she laughed, but then I said "And because MIke is an awesome reader of comic books, and he's awesome in general."
"Don't let him hear that! He doesn't need to let that go to his head!"
"What, you don't like comics? Come on!" And then I had to leave because she wasn't happy with any of that. But it just goes to show you, because he loves it doesn't mean that his girlfriend enjoys the same thing he does.

Then I went and made fun of my roommate for stealing my comic books and trying to hide the fact that he loves them, though it doesn't really matter as he's such a huge nerd anyway, this couldn't really add anything. Yea, that's right, Aaron, if you read this, you are a nerd, and I don't care what you have to say about that.

Clearly, I am an asshole.

:( Sorry, I've been sick for the last week and missed all my classes. It sucked. I don't even know what book we are supposed to be on now, I should probably look that up and figure things out. My final paper, I hope, will be awesome. My neighbor is obsessed with comics and batman and all that crazy crap so I'm going to do the ethnographical thing and using him as a resource to make the paper Amazing.

Oops. Apparently when I say an hour, I mean 24 hours, because I started reading Fun Home at work, got interuppted by a client, and didn't get around to posting about it. Lo siento. For all of you non spanish speakers out there, that means I'm sorry.

Anyway, down to the chase.

I actually enjoy reading this book for some reason, I can't quite place my finger on it. I've actually read all through chapter four without stopping (well, aside from that interruption) and found it intriguing. I don't know why, I mean, apparently the only thing written in the graphic format is homosexuality. And in my other class we are reading about pregnancy and abortion and it's really god damn irritating that that's what passes for good, modern work. It's all the fucking same. Get a new idea, I don't care if you are a homosexual, been there, seen that. It doesn't phase me. faze? Whatever. It's just bloody annoying that these topics are being approached like they should be cherished and praised. I'm not trying to say that we should hate them, but c'mon I've had this shoved down my throat already many times and I'm fairly tired of it.

Though I do enjoy the imagery and the characters, they are interesting. Can't wait to see what happens with the madre.

Ugh

Sorry I've been late on these posts. Stupid papers getting in the way. Plus I didn't really have anything to talk about before class yesterday...But Sven Fjord was brilliant. I showed my roommate and my buddy and they both loved it. So nice work on that one, guys. Everyone elses was good, too, just not as funny as Sven. Uh... Just about to start Fun House. Or Home, whatever the title is, I don't feel like grabbing it just yet. I'll let you know what I think in about an hour.

Mini-Comics

So far, I've enjoyed everyone's mini-comic that we've had in class. Pretty good shtuff, if I do say so myself. They all had their own funny little jokes in them, and it was fun to find them. I enjoyed writing our mini-comic, and like the deviations that were taken during the artist renditioning stage. Changed some dialogue, changed some panels, but the core story remained the same. I thought it came out pretty well with the parallel stories coming together at the end. Great project, I would love to do it again. I can't wait to see everyone elses.

And that's that, I don't have much else to say on the subject or any visual content for any one right now, maybe later this evening.

Canada?

I know you didn't want to hear about our breaks, Spencer, but hell, I'm going to tell you anyway. I went to Windsor, and as I was on my way across the border, we stopped to pick up some booze at the duty free shop. Of course, the attendant was cute. Of course, she wasn't Canadian, and of course, she hit on me. Unfortunately, since she lives an hour from the border, I didn't think of inviting her out with us that night. It was Saint Patrick's day! What the hell was I NOT thinking? Cute chick, Canada, first night? Would have been pretty awesome.

Anyway, in canada we met up with our three friends, who had done really well gambling the night before. One girl had made $430 in one night. Of course, that day she had lost $300 of it already, and eventually was down about $100 before coming to about even by the end of the trip. Smart girl. Though that's not bad, as my buddy lost $600+ in poker thinking he's a god at it, and my other buddy lost $400+ the same way. $400+ was lost in 20 minutes at roulette by one of my other friends, and I was a little over even by the end of the trip. All in all, amazing time, even if Canada is about 15 years behind America in technology, so the internet is a pain in the ass to get to. Their McDonald's signs are pretty interesting, too, gotta remind everyone that you are in Canada. Look:


Also, check out Ironman's new trailer. It looks brilliant!

And finally, glad to OFFICIALLY be done with Stuck Rubber. I was terrified of the cheeks throughout.

Haha. Found this on Somethingawful.com Thought some people would enjoy it. The thread was people photoshopping door tags. The original image was a maintenance tag that read "Maintenance worker in your home NOW!"

Yay! No more fat cheeks!

Wooo! We are done with fat cheeks, I'm quite excited. No offense to you, Spencer, for assigning it, cause other than those damn fat cheeks, it was decent. Also, I'm sorry about your spill today on your Bike. Hope that gets healed up during break and your new house continues to go through and be awesome.

Anyway, about the graphic novel...

Can we get some real closure, maybe? Not too much to ask. All these characters with few resolutions just annoys the hell out of me. Don't introduce people that you can't bloody resolve, it's just not fair to the reader.

To go off Jackie's blog, yeah, Cruse seems to be just introducing these race and sexuality themes to be edgy. Then again, without them, there wouldn't really be a novel. And on that note, I didn't really find the novel to be all that fascinating, but it was well written. Ah well. Here's to the next novel.

Fat Cheeks

I swear, everyone in this comic is a squirrel. Either that, or they all recently had their wisdom teeth removed and their cheeks are puffing out to indicate that. It's downright terrifying. I'm normally not one to complain about an artistic style, but when something creeps me out, well, shit, then that something just creeps me out. Not much else can be said in that regard.

The book reads fairly straightforwardly, however, and I s'pose it can be easy just to ignore the squirrel-y humans on every page, but they keep getting in the way. Yeah, it seems like a realistic piece of fiction, and could indeed be a biography much akin to Blankets or Portraits from Life but I don't think it is. The style seems a little off for it to be a biography, and I think that Cruse would probably have not wanted to make the characters look goofy if it were a true story.

Damn

So Blogger has been down for me for some of the day, thus causing problems with posting. Anyway...

What I was going to say about Collier's work is what I said in class. So it's nothing really all too new. The inside covers were the most interesting, while the stories were just... bland and boring. I think the reason for this is because the covers were succint. The inside stories just dragged on and on and annoyed the crap out of me. I really really hope our next graphic novel is more interesting and keeps my attention more than this.

Though I will have to admit that the Grey Owl story was rather intriguing and I did enjoy reading that, the rest was bleh.

Spencer, there will be a revolt against that essay, don't you worry. It's going down. I hope.

On an unrelated sidenote, the film Justice League: The New Frontier is pretty awesome. My neighbor brought it over the other day and we were watching it while playing Euchre and I enjoyed it supremely. Check it out if you are a fan of these superheroes and all that jazz. Parts of Frontier reminded me of Watchmen as it seemed to be the same era, and the heroes were mandated by the government, and if they weren't, they were hunted by the government. Check it out if you get a chance.

Wow

So much stuff has been going on in the last week, I missed the last class, and the last post. I'll make up for it with some extra posting this week, and it'll be damn good, too. Maybe have some pictures of stuff that means nothing or videos are even music. I don't know, but I'll do something, damn it.

So I was thinking, as I was finishing V for Vendetta, Hugo Weaving has no career other than Lord of the Rings, V for Vendetta, and The Matrix. He will forever be known as Agent Smith, though, as he is rarely recognized as Elrond, and for those in the know, he is known as V. Other than that, however, he is relatively an obscure actor. Alright, fine, I just looked him up again and he did voice Megatron in Transformers, but other than that, he didn't do much else that many people have seen.

Granted, he does a fantastic job in those four films, but those are pretty much the pinnacle of his career. And of course, two of those four films I hate (Matrix and Rings) but don't tell him that.

V ended how I expected it to, the films slight departure from the novel didn't throw me. All in all I think it was a good read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Now, on to some more serious reading...

V and Evey

I'm liking the graphic novel so far, almost as much as the film. The movie was pretty good, I wouldn't have said something fantastic, but overall pretty good. The graphic novel is damn good, and I can see where they pulled most of the stylizations from for the film. Some of the stuff is preserved pretty well, but then you've got a bunch of extraneous things that don't happen in the film, but definitely happen in the novel. Oh well, that's Hollywood for you. Obviously if they kept certain parts of the novel in the film, it wouldn't have worked out so well.

What I still am yet to understand in its entirety is the whole torture scene. Yes, he was trying to prove a point or to release her fear, but it... I don't know. It didn't resonate with me in either medium. It seems just so tacked on and rather unnecessary. Either way...

I'm not too big of a fan of the artwork in this. I can't quite place my finger on why I don't like it, I just know I don't. There's something... too blobby or something.

Here's to almost finishing it.

Also, Manifestos. Batman can kick your super heroes ass.

That is all for now.

Well, I watched V for Vendetta on Blu Ray last Friday. Great film, really enjoyed it. Then I was curious as to who played V, and was surprised to find out it was Agent Smith (from The Matrix) Mostly, because I hate those movies so much. ANyway, great film. The graphic novel so far has kept up with my expectations. My neighbor, a huge comic book buff, has been raving about it since I told him we were reading it in class. So far, not disappointed. The movie follows it a decent amount, leaving out a lot of the background stuff in the graphic novel. Granted, there's only so much you can do in a movie, but still. Some of this stuff would have been great in the movie to explain a little bit more about what exactly is going on and why.

Overall, however, great movie, great novel, looking forward to more.

Oh Boy! My favorite Author, McCloud! I'm glad we got to read him so much this semester. (End sarcasm.)

Everything he goes on to talk about is general common sense, or at least becomes common sense after reading a regular comic or two. And some of the information is just... useless. WEll, at least from the reading standpoint. I'm pretty sure I can figure out that two panels can, and generally do have something going on between them, and that panels can be linked in one of 6 different ways. Just glad to be done with McCloud, it's too text booky, preachy, and going over a bunch of stuff that the common man should already have picked up while reading through any sort of visual medium.

Also, that link in the previous blog? Yeah. I hate that website so much. Kongregate.com has so many little flash games that are insanely addicting. I really really wish I had never found it, because apparently that's all I do with my free time now, it's hard to break out of it. Well, at least, it's hard to break out of it when I am trying to do some homework. That stuff just creeps up in my mind and I begin to waste more and more time, never fully completing the previous task at hand. That reminds me... it's 3:30 AM and I still have quite a bit of reading to do. Damn you, kongregate!

http://www.kongregate.com/games/undefined/protector

That ate 4 hours of my time last night. Stupid little addicting game. Just as I was getting into finishing up Watchmen I get that link and, well, let's just say I went to bed really late and missed a bit of it. Don't go there if you are strategically minded, love little strategy games, and easily get distracted before realizing the time.

Batman

Check out our Batman wiki. I think it's kind of witty, and I just wanted an excuse to post about it here.
http://engl300batman.pbwiki.com/

Also, I'm going to London for a month to study abroad at the beginning of the summer! Unless, of course, it gets cancelled because not enough people are interested.

Here, watch this amazing video:

McCloud... I'm not sure I like him too much. My roommate showed me his webcomic and then asked if I noticed something. I, of course, had to think for a second, but eventually came to the conclusion that McCloud was pretty arrogant and seemed like he 'knew it all.' Upon going back to Understanding Comics, I had the same notion. Does anyone else feel as if he's trying to say "I'm better than you at all of this, and you are kind of an idiot for not knowing it"? Or am I just making things up based on a perception my roommate gave me?

Watchmen

Oooh! Color! Granted, color doesn't necessarily make something good, but I do enjoy the fact that we are reading something that employs color. I have seen V for Vendetta in the past, and, so far, I am not disappointed in reading another of Moore's works. Granted, we are going to be reading V for Vendetta soon enough, but I was excited to begin something by someone I've already been acquainted with. Again, my roommate stole and read the entirety of Watchmen before I even got a chance to open it. Unfortunately, he loved it so much, it no longer looks new. The cover is bent up and I'm a little upset about it, but there's not too much I can do.

So far, I do enjoy the violence (Yeah, that sounds bad, but it's a good departure from the lovey dovey crap we just read, not that Blankets was bad, but I tend to enjoy some good ol' fashioned action more so than whiney teenage love.) and the artwork is fantastic. I am quite confident that that Watchmen will live up to the hype that not only my neighbor and my roommate put on it, but also to the hype on the back.

Well, finished Blankets yesterday. It wasn't my first graphic novel, and it certainly won't be my last. In comparison to Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, however, I was not nearly as intrigued. Granted, The Sandman was in color, and was written by Gaiman (one of my favorite authors) so that didn't really help Blankets' chances. However, Blankets did have something that kept me wanting to read, something that I can't quite place my finger on. I doubt it was the art, I'm generally not one for art and most of the pictures looked rather similar, the characters were somewhat annoying, perhaps it was the writing. There were some quirkinesses to the Blankets that I enjoyed, so I'm going to go ahead and assume that the writing was what kept me reading.

Anyone have any other suggestions

As I read Blankets, I wonder if it's fiction, or if it is based off of Craig Thompson's life experiences. I mean, on the back jacket it is stated that he grew up in a small, Wisconsin town, the main characters name is Craig, etc. Though if it is a true story, then it will probably end up with a sad ending, as the back jacket makes no mention of a wife or of even a girlfriend.

Any thoughts on that?

Blankets

Wow. Just wow. I bought Blankets, went out that night and left it sitting on the counter. By the time I got back, my roommate had finished it and said it was amazing. I started it the next day, and he was definitely right. It's a pretty good read and very difficult to lay down unless you have more pressing matters. I'm almost done through chapter five for tomorrow's class, and I really enjoy it. Though, it's difficult to stop in the middle of a chapter or else you'll lose the story, and the chapters themselves are a little "this is a story in of itself" by themselves. Overall, however, I really enjoy it and hope the rest of the graphic novels we read are just as good, if not better.

Book stores are terrible

Attempted to go today and yesterday to pick up books, but each time TIS line was out the door. How am I supposed to get to reading these things if I can't even get into the store? Something is wrong here, if you ask me.

Going to pick up Blankets from Border's, I suppose, as that's the only place I can actually get in the door, unfortunately. I guess Understanding Comics will have to wait, here's to hoping the line shrinks before I have to go to work.