Jake Matthews LMST340 Blog

  For this week’s assignment I read The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack, by Nicholas Gurewitch. I really enjoyed this comic almanack! To be honest, I had low expectations starting this. To summarize this, these comics cover everything from A to Z. One thing I really like about this was the dark humor. I felt like this book is quite relatable when it came to humor. I wish some of these comic strips were expanded upon! There is so much potential with these characters. Even though some characters were reused, I felt cheated. Overall I really like the layout and type of the book. I also like  the front and back cover design! I feel like this was completely different from the art in the comic strips. I really like the unique art styles used in each comic strip. There’s just something about the simplistic “Keith haring style” used. The only thing I was questioning was the color palettes used in each strip. Some were good and others just didn’t really make any sense. While reading this I foun

  For this week’s assignment I read Arkham Asylum, by Grant Morrison and Dave Mckean. I really enjoyed this comic book! The story itself is organized and illustrated in a chaotic, but understandable format. Just reading this you feel like you're in a fever dream or an endless horror movie. It's a very different and refreshing experience from your typical comic book. Even the iconic villains were somewhat reimagined. I really appreciated this, especially with the textured mix media approach used. I feel like comic books with a fresh take can go either way. This comic has done an excellent job pushing the boundaries, while still staying true to Batman. Without a doubt, I can say this comic became one of my favorites! The story itself is a psychological and visual adventure. One thing that stood out to me right away was the art style. I've never seen anything like this before! It’s different and refreshing. You can easily tell this was created from a fine arts perspective. I t

       I thought this comic book was both amazing and rather dark. Yes this story has questionable moments, but it primarily focuses on psychology and human mind. I’m not saying what happened to barbara was ok. Both Jim and Barbara were just elements to understand the big picture. It shows how one bad day could affect one's state of mind.     When reading this comic book I made numerous connections. Even though this story focuses on the Joker’s origin story, we can see similarities between him and Batman. At the ending joke we have the sense of an “ending.” Although we don't know what happens, it ends the way it was started. Darkness and most likely tragedy. I feel like this is deliberate because it snaps the two perspectives together. When thinking about the message in this story, anyone could find this relatable. Everyone has had a traumatic experience or some event in their life. I feel like this shows how people deal with that differently. In the story, the Joker was clear

  For this week’s assignment I decided to read Pretty in Ink. After reading this book, I came to the conclusion that this book is a masterpiece! This book really snaps everything into perspective, and it also covers things that weren’t really discussed in other classes! Even though this is just an overview, I felt like this was both educational and inspiring on so many levels! While reading this, I found myself writing things I wanted to research and reference! Throughout this book we see women rising and become a powerhouse for the future and comics. We also see women in comics break away from the typical “damsel in distress” stereotype. One thing that really stood out to me was the unique illustrations. To be honest, I absolutely loved them! With some of the comics we’ve read throughout the semester, some of the women don't really look like women. They don't have any character when it comes to design. They all look like they came out of a cookie cutter. I also think most of t

  For this week’s assignment I decided to read Ghost In the Shell, by Shirow Masamune. This Manga primary focuses on the character Motoko Kusanagi, who is a cyborg with a human brain. It also consists of the cyberpunk world, advanced  technology, and futuristic politics. When I began reading this, I knew that this story took a lot of time to create. The world itself is so complex and detailed. You really have to pay attention to understand what’s really going on in the story. To be honest, I found some parts confusing. I didn’t really mind it though. Overall my experience throughout this comic was pretty positive! Except for that one graphic part. But then again, it wasn’t intended for children. I found it really refreshing to read something this detailed. I thought the detailed characters, environments, and technology designs were remarkable! This was my first time reading a futuristic/cyberpunk graphic novel. Even though I did read the Black Incal , I feel like this one is more memor

  For this week’s assignment I decided to read Dororo , by Osamu Tezuka. To be honest, I found myself getting confused with the layout and reading direction. After all, this is my first time reading manga. While reading Dororo, one thing I found interesting and rather hilarious was the main character. It could be my weird sense of humor, but taking off one's arm to reveal a sword? Throughout the story we learn that the main character, Hyakkimaru, was the rejected baby from the beginning. He has no arms or legs, no eyes, or ears. Along Hyakkimaru’s demon slaying journey, he meets an orphan named dororo. Without spoiling anything, from there the story starts picking up quickly. The art style used for this manga is amazing! I really liked the rhythm and fluidity of the delicate line work. It gave the characters and their motions so much movement and emotion. One thing stood out to me was the design of the cover. You can tell that this cover, spine, and the back cover, took some time t