Emily Parks

When starting to read the comic, I was expecting something a little more historical or like the books we read in middle school such as “Ann Frank”or "Night". Maus was an extremely personal story like those books but it was more then just a holocaust story. It captures his family and also Spiegelman as a person. Spiegelman story telling was very immersive even though he used animals instead of people to tell it. The style is so simple that the animals are easy to read as symbols for Jew=mouse/Polish=pigs/Germens=cats/Americans=dogs. You can really feel the prejudices in the story from how they look and also how the author probably felt about them. The personal story of Spiegelman is really heart breaking as every chapter starts with him talking to his father and we see his decline in health and watch them bicker. We see the effects of after the war before he begins to tell the story. I felt this way of starting his novel to be more captavating becuase of its relatablity. I

So flipping through these comic suggestions was an interesting experience. It went from engaging to disgust very quickly. The stories were awful and convoluted. They were to quick to really like any of the characters and if the character did stick around (Mr Natural) he wasn’t likable in the slightest. Many of them had sexual themes and really makes me think how different an era it was. Many of the women were over sexualized, or not even consenting. In other comics It was only women empowerment and how rebellious it was for them to have a sexuality of their own and highlighting the artist view on feminism at the time. There are parts of the underground comics i can respect the history of. I see the politics and many ignorant views of different cultures from this time. Its sad knowing some people thought this way and worse that their probably people that still do. Its disgusting in a lot of ways that don’t have to do with many of the nasty/sexist/racist stories. The clunky art style

Will Eisner created some really powerful stories through comics. “The Spirit” and “Contract with God” are really incredible work that doesn’t tell a story lightly. They are filled with intensity and suspense and the way the panels moves through the story really grabs the reader and pulls you into Will Eisner's twisted world. The way Will introduces and opens up the lives of his characters in “A Contract with God” is like a roller coaster, and you certainly don’t want to get off the ride. We watch these characters build themselves, and we watch them destroy themselves, sometimes even commit horrible crimes. Will is able to portray this lighting of raw humanity in tough times, and it is incredible. He prioritizes story over anything, it seems while still maintaining his art and I think that says a lot about Will's character. There are a lot of wonderful comic artists, directors, actors, and game artists that just don’t put the emphasis on story telling. You can have the most bea