REVIEW: Edgar Allen Poe Graphic Novel Adaptations (The Raven)

Edgar Allen Poe: Graphic Classics and Max Graphic Novel Adaptations (The Raven)

Poetry written by Edgar Allen Poe. Graphic Novel adapted by Corben and Co. (Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe) and Pomplun and Co. (Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe)

Poetry published 1824 to 1949.

Graphic Novel adaptations published 2006 and 2010.

Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven)

· As with the Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven is limited to the artist’s interpretations yet this is made more clear with the original text provided with it

· The violence against the Raven wasn’t necessarily in the original poem and may have been a fabrication of the artist

· The comic is noted to not be a true word for word adaptation of the poem, as the lettering in the graphic novel is noted to be different than with the poem

· The fact that the artist was limited to but eight pages leaves little for the imagination, compared to the implied pacing of the poem being indefinite, which seems finite given the nature of the graphic novel and its but eight pages

· It is noted that the Raven is further changed to the interpretations of the artist Corben, who took the liberties to change connotations and wording of the poem to make way for his art

Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe (Raven)

· The art has an abstract feeling to it, with the protagonist eerily transitioning to a tragedy mask while the raven sits on top of a comedy mask

· The lettering, while noted to being clumped on top of the work and seems to be a separate entity from the comic, is at least part of the composition as the eye can flow from picture to lettering as with any other comic naturally

· The facial expressions on the protagonist seems unnatural to the situation he is in, having a rhetorical conversation with a raven. He seems too emotional, and not necessarily in the negative sense. Then again, this piece is more abstract than the other comics so that may have been the intent of the author

· The raven doesn’t seem like an ominous figure in the poem as it appears to be more comical in nature. This downplays the tragedy of the composition for me

· The background seems to lack consistency, as the study to which the raven stalks seems to change from panel to panel in continuity

Bibliography

Corben, Richard, Rich Margopoulos, and Edgar Allan Poe. Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe. New York, NY: Marvel, 2006. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Tom Pomplun. Edgar Allan Poe. Mount Horeb, WI: Eureka Productions, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: Howl the Graphic Novel

Howl: Poetry, Animation and Graphic Novel Adaptations

Poetry written by Allen Ginsberg 1955.

Animation was published 2010

Graphic Novel was published by Drooker 2010.

Howl Graphic Novel analysis

· The graphic novel was definitely built around the narrative of the poem, making it not necessarily an amalgam of text and illustration but rather illustration purely a means for aesthetic representation of Ginsberg’s work for the reader

· The graphic novel further has the handicap of being a graphic novel adaptation of the animation to which came before it, as illustrations were made in favor of a scene by scene nature as opposed to a panel by panel

· Furthermore, the graphic novel provides a comparison to the film and the real life Ginsberg, to which further solidifies this piece as a but the after work of the poem, the animation and the film, not making this graphic novel a piece of its own

· The poetry had its own mental interpretation to the reader whereas the graphic novel forces a specific interpretation of the poem to the reader, although Ginsberg had a hand in Drooker’s work so it would be as accurate to Ginsberg’s intent as it could be

· The spilt page of the phallic symbol of the woman was unnecessarily split between the pages in a spread, as the animation had not this handicap. It felt almost as censorship to the animation by this(Drooker 110-111)

· The imagery of Jazz in the graphic novel felt fixed as opposed to fluid as with the animation and the reading of the poetry, going against what Jazz is supposed to represent as a free flowing form of expression(Drooker 22-23)

· The imagery at the end as opposed to the forced narration to the illustration was arguably the best part of the graphic novel as it felt organic in its composition: the artist was illustrating a paneling that seemed coherent in its composition as opposed to the illustration being built exclusively around the text(Drooker 217-220)

· The illustration merely holding the place of Ginsberg as opposed to any context besides the implied lobotomy served little purpose as the panel tells nothing secular about the event. Little can be inferred visually from the panel and this page more than others forces the readers to take the text as the only source of information for the section (Drooker 118-119)

· The imagery of the building on the island overlooking the city was gorgeous. In context to the text it gave a feeling of intellectual isolation that I liked about the poem (Drooker 90-91)

· Drooker’s composition of the illustration in a V shape didn’t have a natural flow of the eye as readers are forced to take the text out of context to the panels. Had the poem be place under the V, this wouldn’t have been a problem. However, this method of storytelling seemed slipshod at best (Drooker 120-121)

· The Moloch segment excluded a powerful segment in the animation where children were sacrificed in a baptism of war to the god, which felt lacking in context to the graphic novel should one had seen both

· The scene with the fire typewriter seemed lacking in intensity as opposed to the animation where the scene was emphasized by the movement of the fire. In a still, there is no subtle means of indicating movement and this felt lacking in the graphic novel (Drooker 132-133)

Bibliography

Ginsberg, Allen, and Eric Drooker. Howl: A Graphic Novel. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: Edgar Allen Poe Graphic Novel Adaptations

Edgar Allen Poe: Graphic Classics and Max Graphic Novel Adaptations

Poetry written by Edgar Allen Poe. Graphic Novel adapted by Corben and Co. (Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe) and Pomplun and Co. (Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe)

Poetry published 1824 to 1949.

Graphic Novel adaptations published 2006 and 2010.

Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe (Tell-Tale Heart)

· Most noted is that the original short story was given to the reader after the graphic adaptation so as for a means of comparison from the illustrator and the works of Poe

· The illustration is built on the pretense of the original reading, so actions are abridged in written detail as the actions are done by the drawn characters. This had varying degrees of success

· The lettering appeared to be built around the work in terms of its composition, so both do not complement each other necessarily with reading

· The actions of the police officers close to the climax had no means of drawing suspicion as illustrated, as they were merely standing around as if nothing happened. This could be interpreted as the maddening effect of murder on the narrator, yet this had to be assumed with reading as opposed to being told in the tale

· It was unnecessary to illustrate the destruction of the old man’s heart in the end, though this may have been the author’s spin on the tale

· The old man and the narrator were illustrated in a hilarious fashion compared to the dark telling of the tale, which didn’t compliment it for me. Compared to almost Herge’s Tintin design of he policemen the two characters seemed too unrealistic

· The stylized dread of the narrator seemed unrealistic as it didn’t convey the message of the narrator’s internal conflict as well as it could

· As stated before, the adding of the original text to the end made it so that the illustrated work seemed worse as one could compare their own interpretation of Poe’s work to that of the illustrator. This has the side effect of appearing to be padding on the publisher’s part

Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe (Tell-Tale Heart)

· The story starts with the narrator directly addressing the audience, which doesn’t seem natural due to what is to happen later in the short story

· The lettering at least served to compliment the pacing of the comic, as the story was divided to as to show transition between panels according to the tale

· The narrator continued to directly address the audience, which breaks the pacing of the comic in a bad way as it leads to the question of to whom is he talking to

· The implied butchering of the old man due to the transitions between gutters was done well, as the horrors that happened are left to the reader to interpret (opposed to the previous read which left little to the imagination)

· The actions of the officers was well done, as the conversations and the interpretations of the narrator on their part felt natural as with the original story

· The officers noting of the narrator’s weird actions later on felt organic in its composition, as the smiles that started this piece was to be replaced with whispers and uneasy grins

· As with the other graphic adaptation, the implied actions of cleaning and such are left out by the narrator and the illustrator, so as to minimize the work of the illustrator. This made it felt lax as opposed to abridged

· The emphasis on backgrounds was a plus as it set the scenery that the characters interact with, though the short story did not go into the details upon this so such work was on the illustrator’s part

Bibliography

Corben, Richard, Rich Margopoulos, and Edgar Allan Poe. Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe. New York, NY: Marvel, 2006. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Tom Pomplun. Edgar Allan Poe. Mount Horeb, WI: Eureka Productions, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: MoCCA: Uslan, Bat-Manga and Howl short essays

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art exhibits

Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman, Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan, The Art of Howl: A Collaboration between Eric Drooker and Allen Ginsberg

Part of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (Feb. 2012)

Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman

It was interesting to note how the influence of one fan had on the portrayal of Batman as seen with the case of Michael Uslan. Displayed in the museum was the literature that depicted the so called vile nature of comic books, the various rejections from film producers to make a Batman film and the triumphant posters of publishing on those Batman films that came. It was clear that there were many hardships to making Batman the icon we know of him today, as roughly quoted from our tour guide on Michael’s undying diligence to bring Batman to a more serious tone as with the graphic novels, “it wasn’t about being at the right place at the right time as much as continuing to pursue a goal until the right time made itself available.” However, it was noted that his efforts did pay off as the posters displaying the gritty Batman we know of contemporarily were hung, as with the case of “The Dark Knight Rises” poster, the poster of the Batman film done by Tim Burton and the acclaimed animated series movie poster of Batman that hung not too far from the displays of Uslan’s papers with rejections and the like. What was notable about the exhibit is that the transition of Batman’s theme was done not by an artisan or a writer who necessarily worked on hand for Batman’s change. Rather, it was someone who worked hard to influence the tone of his favorite comic book superhero as seen by the public eye.

Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan

While in contemporary times the transition of an American superhero series to a Japanese manga may seem less unusual nowadays, there existed a time during the late 1960’s where Batman was adapted into a manga done by the now defunct Shonen King. During an age where artisans were still inspired by the narrative and artistic styles of the influential Osamu Tezuka, it was an interesting artifact of a Western concept brought to the East. As with most Shonen manga magazines of the time, the original prints were more likely to have been discarded once read; however, Chip Kidd, an influential novelist, managed to receive the raw drafts of the series from the archives of Shonen King, which was displayed to great detail at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. While it may not seem plausible nowadays, but back when the manga was published in Japan Batman was a sensation amongst the Japanese. This was evident with the artifacts of Batman Japanese toys that were with the display. In fact, the series would return to a cult piece of trivia in Batman lore with a Bat-Manga plot written with the television series Batman: the Brave and the Bold. In said show, they took a chapter of the original Bat-Manga, the tale of Lord Deathman, and transitioned it for a Western audience.

The Art of Howl: A Collaboration between Eric Drooker and Allen Ginsberg

As the poem Howl was considered risqué at its time, it was interesting to see how the illustrations for the animated version were made in relations to its adaption as a solo series and its shoehorned state in the Howl film starring James Franco. It was interesting to note that the animated segments were made before the film was even conceived, which has its own connotations as to Drooker and Ginsberg’s interpretation before Ginsberg’s death. Some reviewers have noted that the animations had nothing to do with the movie, and as the status of it being originally intended to be its own thing existed it can be seen why that is so. It was noted that the phallic imagery displayed existed to coincide with the phallic poetry in Ginsberg’s poems. Statements about sex were followed with almost cosmic pictures of reproduction, with sperm as constellations circling a lover’s embrace and the like. Overall, such an adaptation for what was for a spoken monologue could have been done terribly had it not been for animator and poet both working together to make said animation. It is then a pity that such works were not noted for its elegance of balance between the two creators when taken into account for the third factor: the film, where a third party took that animation and used it to interpretation of a different note.

Bibliography:

“The Art of Howl: A Collaboration between Eric Drooker and Allen Ginsberg.” New York, NY. Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Feb. 9, 2012

“Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan.” New York, NY. Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Feb. 9, 2012

“Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman.” New York, NY. Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Feb. 9, 2012.

REVIEW: The Adventures of TinTin (comics vs film)

The Adventure of Tintin (film and graphic novel comparison)

By Herge

Graphic novel reprinted 2007

Film published 2011

· One of the most notable differences between the film and the original series done by Herge was the sequence to the tale. In the original trilogy of Tintin’s adventures regarding Haddock. The original graphic novel was noted to start with an opium ring being shut down by the first team up of Tintin and Haddock in “The Crab with the Golden Claws” (Herge, 3-64) then followed by the plot of Haddock’s ancestry and his ties to a great treasure in “The Secret of the Unicorn” (Herge, 131-192). This had a notable middle story “The Shooting Star,” which was but a transition story that was another tale of Haddock and Tintin, yet had no character development in itself. (67-128). the story would conclude with Haddock’s ancestry, however, would end with “Red Rackham’s Treasure,” which is in another volume itself. On the other hand, the film took its liberties to rearrange the continuity of the tale as Tintin was first introduced to Haddock following some earlier events involved in “The Secret of the Unicorn.” This also follows with “The Shooting Star” not even being mentioned in the film. Thus, it is clear for the sake of the film that Spielberg allowed the writers to change portions of the graphic due to narrative restraints.

· It is clear that Spielberg also took liberties in the adaption of the film from the graphic novel in terms of pacing. For example, with the scene of Captain Haddock lighting the boat on fire in “The Crab with the Golden Claws,” he did so while narrating all his thoughts and acting gestures, as was common of Golden Age comics at the time. Since sequential subtleties had not been adopted in comic art yet, Haddock’s talk with himself (as Tintin and Snowy were knocked out at the time) had to fill in with character acting with his environment. With the film, on the other hand, Haddock did more subtle gestures like panting and shivering that indicated his physical condition. Such cues would not have been prevalent in the comics. Rather than Haddock narrating his actions which would take several panels of explanation to do, he just does so immediately on screen. (Herge, 21)

· While the film was set on international locations, little hint of the local people or their culture really shined through. Granted, Herges spent a good amount of research and travels in order to create the Tintin books. This was in an example of another one of his books “The Blue Lotus,” where Herge took the active research in going to China in order to write about the setting and characters and the environment the protagonists interact with. With the film, on the other hand, the protagonists were clearly the focus of the film and the culture was not as regarded in favor for the film’s pacing. Much like other Spielberg action adventure films, the cultural persons shown were but passing oddities not really looked into in the film. At best, they served as comic relief yet were not active to the development of the plot.

· As the film was directed to be action oriented, a lot of fighting easily glossed over in the graphic novels have more prevalence in the film. An example would be Tintin’s escape from captivity in the film, which had quite a few daring moments of fisticuffs that lasted several minutes as TIntin eluded capture and made his way to the Captain for the first time by barely dodging explosions from dynamite. In the graphic novel, on the other hand, Tintin literally tricks a guy into letting him go to eat for one panel and he’s free in the next. While Herge might have wanted to emphasize the plot over the action, it is clear that such ambiguity between the gutters left little for the audience to take in the situation. How did Tintin beat up the purple guy, tie him up and made his way outside? We would never have been able to tell by merely looking at the panels, which left little clues in it themselves (Herge, 14)

Regardless, these are but some of the noted points between the film and the graphic novel. Both have merit in their own rights of entertainment and both should be seen not necessarily to compare to the other. However, it should be noted that the film is but a modern interpretation of Herge’s original intent for the story. Spielberg had much to change in order to match the film viewing audience’s taste. Thus, though a small point in itself, it should be noted that the film does indeed differ from the graphic novel.

Bibliography:

Hergé. The Adventures of Tintin Volume 3. Boston: Little Brown, 1993. Print.

Hergé. The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. 1st Ed. ed. New York: Little Brown, 2011. Print.

Spielberg, Steven, dir. The Adventures of Tintin. Paramount Pictures, 2011. Film.

REVIEW: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (documentary VS graphic novel)

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (documentary and graphic novel)

By Ann Marie Fleming

Documentary published 2003

Graphic Novel published September 2007

· It is notable that the graphic novel left out details that were not present in the documentary that said graphic novel was adapted from. This included the fate of the five theatres that Long Tack Sam owned that was briefly mentioned in both the documentary and the graphic novel. In the graphic novel, Long Tack Sam’s son Bobbie and thus Ann Marie’s granduncle noted that though the Chinese government did take away land from the landowners like Long Tack Sam, they did compensate the losses later on with documented proof of ownership. Long Tack Sam, in his despair in the past, threw them away as he saw he could never get his fortune back. This note was not in the documentary, as were other tidbits of information.(Fleming, 150)

· With the international resources Ann Marie had, the documentary had a notable better international flavor with the people that she interviewed. An example would be Mr. Sun Tai. (Fleming, 58-67) In the documentary there was a seen interpreter that told Ann Marie of the back story of her great-grandfather. This was done with the native Mandarin language on his part, Ann Marie in English on her part and the translator as the mediating factor. This type of conversation was not in the graphic novel, which seemed to be purely Ann Marie reinterpreting the words of Mr. Tai later on. Said bias may be due to the fact that I happen to speak several Chinese dialects, but the graphic novel happened to not include the international flare that the audience of Long Tack Sam had, as with the graphic novel the entirety was provided in English written by Ann Marie.

· The documentary had the coherent representation of Ann Marie by her recording. This was consistent throughout the film. However, the graphic novel did not have said coherence. At the beginning, Ann Marie swapped her sketched persona of herself with “Stickgirl,” who would be her representing factor in the graphic novel for most of the comic. (Fleming, 4) This action was redundant in the graphic novel, as Ann Marie doubles her dissociation with the graphic novel with this minor point of difference. Should we read into her decision to make her story as such, she had a representation drawn to represent her representation. Rather than keep to one caricature of herself, she further separates herself from the tale by having “Stickgirl” as the biased omnipresent narrator. The use of Stickgirl is reduced when we realize that this representation of Ann Marie is not necessarily needed for the story. There are pictures of her throughout the graphic novel taken by the documentary alongside her long narrations. Most of the time Stickgirl served no purpose towards Ann Marie’s identity in her journey.

· The overall flow of the graphic novel seemed built around the words as opposed to the amalgamation of words and pictures. It is apparent in the documentary of Ann Marie’s film background, as the set up of the iconography seemed tailored towards the narration of Ann Marie. With the comic, however, there is little space for all the grandiose amount of text that went with Ann Marie’s narration from the graphic novel. Ann Marie had an interesting back story to how Long Tack Sam’s troupe gained his name alongside an animation to supplement the meaning behind her great-grandfather’s name in Chinese. However, this was abridged with the graphic novel, most notably to supplement the small space provided in the book.(Fleming, 25)

· The documentary had noted animations that the graphic novel lacked. The graphic novels had stills for all the scenes with photography or the golden age animations, while the documentary had a motion comic approach with moving the still pictures according to the scene.

Overall, the two versions of the tale of Long Tack Sam as covered by Ann Marie are informative, yet is clear where Ann Marie's focus lied as her film abilities show more in the pacing and scenic choice of the documentary as opposed to the graphic novel.

Bibliography:

Fleming, Ann Marie. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. New York: Riverhead, 2007

Fleming, Ann Marie, dir. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. Sleepy Dog Film, 2004. Film.

REVIEW: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

By Ann Marie Fleming

Published September 2007

· It was interesting on how Ann Marie had multiple interpretations on her great grandfather Long Tack Sam on his various tales of how he became who he was, as all her accounts were from second hand sources. Fittingly, I liked how she illustrated this in a Golden Age style origin story. Most noted to me was that she had a total of five different origins to the mystic arts and magician’s fame, some of which contradict one another. While these panels were straighter forward in nature compared to the collage of her other pages, they are noted to adding her interpretations of the times Long Tack Sam was popular, especially with Golden Age inspired art. (Fleming, 11-16, 38-43, 61-63, 65-67, 77-79)

· When Ann Marie was asked to take pictures next to her grandmothers, I found it interesting that she maintained her anonymous character persona through the scene by having a hand-drawn version of her stand next to the illustrations. While minute in detail, it shows the degree of reliability of her journey to the viewers within the continuity of her decision to have a drawn version of her be the representation one follows through the entirety of the book. This is opposed to having the true photograph of her next to the illustration, which would bring about an entirely different connotation altogether. (Fleming, 8)

· Reading this, I had a personal discrepancy with the ambiguity of her choice of composition on one page. While there was an arrow leading the viewer to read downwards on the piece, I couldn’t help but misread the piece by reading the panels continuously left to right as opposed to top to bottom. This would’ve been easily solved with a better planned composition of panels or dividing the page’s composition into two pages so as to remove the bad flow of reading for the viewer. However, this is just my personal observation. (Fleming, 7)

· It was a nice touch to add notable dates on the border of the pages, yet I felt that they were not necessary to the story and instead served as filler. My reasoning behind this is that she started out her journey to knowing her great grandfather with some noted dates yet the composition soon had them almost removed from the book entirely until the very end, where they jolt out in bulk to cover for the credits of the book. I can see why she placed them there, as a means to tie to the culture at the time. However, they serve little to the understanding of Long Tack Sam as the bulk of the graphic novel is dedicated to the mysteries of his stage life, not the mundane of the world around him. There wasn’t even a guarantee that he necessarily would be one to partake in the developing music and technology during those dates. (Fleming, 10, 50, 164-170)

· I liked how the pictures drawn to illustrate Long Tack Sam were at the time not the stereotypical Yellow face that captivated America since the Gold Rush and the first Chinese immigrants. This may be due to the fact that the illustrators may have not been American, but regardless of that fact it holds that Long Tack Sam was respected enough in his art that he wasn’t considered a “rat man” when drawn to promote his talents. It might’ve helped that he always wore the contemporary Chinese clothing at the time, thus noting his ethnicity, but that had little to do with his status in my opinion. (Fleming, 96)

· As a Charlie Chaplin fan, I find it interesting that Ann Marie made her statement about the black and white star with her noting of the rise of Hitler and other noted characters and people at the time. This, compared to the random dates previously noted, actually served the narrative well as it brought out the contemporary problems and influences at the time that people can research should they wish to relate to it. (Fleming, 103)

· The new reel from how Long Tack Sam refused to involve his daughters in racial lessening of Asians in the film industry at the time was notable. It showed the sense of ethnical pride that few note Chinese people at the time had. It denoted an interesting sense of Nationality from a man who traveled from place to place and had no permanent home of his own during his career. It was significant that Ann Marie chose to place illustrations of how beautiful her grandmothers were with how the American film industry noted them “too pretty” to portray Chinese people for their productions. It was even noted that Ann Marie provided newspaper that showed how much of an impact Long Tack Sam had to not wish for his family to be involved in the demeaning of Asian people in the public eye.(112-113)

· Overall, this was a great book. The small flaws it had me pause for a moment to contemplate what Ann Marie was trying to bring about in the plot of her journey, however they had little effect on the reading of the graphic novel. Her use of blending hand drawn illustrations with photographs and references as a collage made this an avant garde piece of work.

Bibliography:

Fleming, Ann Marie. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. New York: Riverhead, 2007