Alans’s War: The Memoires of G.I. Alan Cope

Emmanuel Guibert’s illustration of Alan Cope’s life is very innocent. As I delved into Alan Cope’s experiences during WWII I felt as though while Cope was generalizing a lot of the events that to me would have been more personal. The illustrations reflect that generality, and this was the weakest point of the novel. Every now and again there would be some panels that seemed to be illustrations of photographs taken along the way. This was the strongest element in the novel because it brought the events to a more realistic level and provided a more dramatic and compelling image. Throughout the course of the memoir I never truly connected with Cope on a personal level. The only brief connection I made was when he brought up Boy Scouts this sparked a few personnel memories of my time in Scouting but ultimately I still felt like I was an observer for the rest of the novel. I wanted to understand how Cope really felt about the events that happened to him, he never expressed much emotion. More exploration into Cope’s psyche would allow for more abstract illustration that help truly define Cop’s experiences during the war.

Cope’s experience in the war had a lot of civilianized elements for the majority of the novel. Cope seemed to establish relationships with some characters that were rarely ever seen but every time he did, Cope would drift away and he would be off on the road again heading somewhere else. On this note, I loved seeing all of the places

Cope went and this love for travel was one of the only genuine emotional connections that Cope and I had in common.

Any moments of action were very passive. From most novels that I have read in the past, visually the most intense moments are a blur, but the sensation is very unique to the person and that sensation is very tangible. In most of the cases the emotions were withdrawn and fell on deaf ears when Cope and another character would discuss such things.

As I read the last few pages and scanned over the pictures of Cope in the various locations I felt as though the novel should not have been presented in this format. A regular non-graphical novel would have sufficed with Cope’s personal pictures incorporated as they are presented in the graphic novel. So as a final note Emmanuel Guibert illustrated Cope’s experience on a very general level and this really stopped the novel from reaching his true potential.

King: Ho Che Anderson

King was a visually vivid read. In the authors introduction Ho Che Anderson lets his feeling’s loose and describes the motivations behind the creation of the graphic novel. His statements are very bold; he explains that he doesn’t care about what people think about his statements because they are true. He basically talks about all of the pointless violence that is prevalent in modern African American community. Getting this insight from the author really helped put me in his mindset and put me in the right gear to climb his mountain of a tale.

Anderson vividly illustrates most of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life. In the first volume Anderson delves into the life of Dr. King in black and white. The second volume introduces colors in individual panels that are dispersed through out the comic to emphasize speeches that MLK makes. The third volume is mostly in color and this is where Anderson shines. It seems part of his illustrations were based on Picasso, which I found to be a very unique blend that fit with the tone created an urban abstract style that fits with how I view African American society in the 1960’s. His exaggerated figures really define the work. The exaggerated proportions on the faces and limbs create various emotions that make the high points of Dr. King’s life mainly his speeches stand out. The arcs in the bodies in conjunction with sharp lines create clear definition of how the characters are thinking. The low points are expressed with darker colors such as blues and purples. King had some pacing issues when MLK would go to meeting with organizations, which popped up occasionally. I understand it has its place in that is accurately portraying MLK’s life, but I felt it could have been edited so that the story didn’t slow down so drastically but it added to the idea of MLk’s struggle to achieve his goals. After finishing all three volumes and to give it a score out of 10, it gets a 6 from me mainly for the story dragging out a bit. I would like to investigate other works by Ho Che Anderson to see how his art style translates to a different subject matter.

Battle Angel Alita

Battle Angel Alita jumps off the page and kicks you in the face!

Only very rarely do comic artists bring this much action to their work.

Battle Angel Alita starts off with a bleak post apocalyptic battlefield where the military seems to be policing the land.

A mad scientist is introduced and his goal is to create a perfect soldier. He is successful in his endeavors and unleashes a little girl who apparently is the perfect little killing machine. This bizarre character creation is another aspect that kept me reading.

The vitality of the characters is astounding. In every panel each character is positioned beautifully. The gestures convey weight effectively and bring dynamicity to the characters. The attention to character composition in the panel brought me through each panel at high speeds and kept me enthralled with the action. I was hooked! BAA is a beautiful blend of simplicity and chaos.

A great aspect of BAA is the scale of every object. From the floating cities to the giant robots There is a clear scale difference between everything and this helps during fight sequences with Alita. After Alita saves a small group of people from a giant robot, she states that while her body is robotic, she has the brain of a human. This unveiling opens up her rebellious nature and adds depth, which is important for any character-based story. Alita also reveals her past in the city of Salem. This portrayal of nostalgia also adds to her character.

BAA also delves into the psychology of war and its affects on people. Occasionally some graphic images of deceased people will be shown to convey a tone that I feel is vital to the comic; it just adds grittiness that gives BAA an edge.

Getting to read Battle Angel Alita has been a really exciting. I am sure his work will be around for along time and I am sure it will inspire all of his readers. I will definitely look into his other works soon.

Maus V1+V2

Art Spiegelman’s Maus created a lot of mixed feelings in me as when I read it.

Initially I was intrigued by a Holocaust story told with a different perspective. With the various races of people being portrayed as Mice (Jewish people) Germans as cats and the pigs as the Polish, I was interested to see how the characters interacted. A few panels in I realized that it was a human story. This choice of using characters specifically mice with no mouths to tell an emotional story is an unusual one.

I had a hard time reading the characters gestures so I had to rely on the dialogue in order to follow the story. I felt this aspect was the weakest part of Maus.

The strongest part of mouse was the theme of survival. I think because the story is based on a first hand account, there are certain details that create a hauntingly authentic atmosphere. This tone is prevalent throughout the entire story and while there are glimmers of hope they never shine through and bleak atmosphere. This makes it hard to read through and therefore hindered my experience while reading.

An aspect of the illustrations was that each panel seemed really cramped which when looking at the story as a whole fitting visual metaphor for the circumstances in which the Jewish people are put in when they reach the camps. An element I would have liked to have seen, would be to have a more expansive panel when the story shifts from the past to the present (captivity vs. freedom) this would provide a much needed element that would significantly enhance the visual aspect of the novel.

As I finished volume two of Maus I really didn’t walk away from it with much to think about…to me it was just another Holocaust story with a bit of an interesting visual layer, and even that doesn’t make it stand out significantly for me.

That’s not to say it wasn’t good, I just think there have been so many already and all tell the same