Emma's Comic Blog

On this reread of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, I forgot how much Rorschach was against communism. The beginning monologue reminds me of a modern-day right-winger on Twitter who thinks he’s being cool and edgy when he’s really just being annoying. I still love Rorschach as a character and his purpose in the narrative, but I just had it in my mind from my last reading a few years ago that we might see eye to eye. I don’t know, rose-colored glasses I guess. Also, Rorschach is not as ugly as people in the comic say he is; maybe he’s not conventionally attractive but he’s not that hard to look at. One thing that I’ve always loved about the Watchmen graphic novel is how colorful it is and unfortunately, none of the adaptations have brought that stylization to them. Zack Snyder’s film is mainly dark blue throughout mainly because it’s a serious story and visually dark films are expected for tonally dark stories, but I think a skilled director could work within...

This week, I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. had a vague understanding of what Fun Home was about before I read it; A lesbian finds out that her dad is gay and then he dies. What I did not know was that the Dad was a jerk who was emotionally distant/physically abusive to his kids and had sex with his high-school students. I like how she likens her family to that of the Addams Family New Yorker cartoons and the irony was lost on her as a child, but even Gomez and Morticia are attentive and caring to not only their kids but to each other as well… In the TV show, anyway, not as familiar with the illustrations.             One part I found particularly interesting was the bit about obsession-compulsion disorder. I don’t know a whole lot about OCD, so it was fascinating to learn the different kinds of rituals and superstitions that people with the disorder invent for themselves. She made her own shorthand for the term “I think” a...

It’s been a while since I’ve read The Killing Joke in full, probably a couple of years, but I remembered it pretty well. It makes sense since it’s so iconic. Through this re-reading, I remembered that it’s a story about how different people handle trauma. Even when Joker degrades Commissioner Gordon the whole day, even showing pictures of his daughter naked and shot, Gordon comes out of the experience sane. It’s ultimately an uplifting story about how humans survive through adversity. Joker is almost trying to convince Commissioner Gordon to become insane through logic, talking about how one can break away from all of the world’s problems by simply going mad. Interestingly, it’s up for debate how the Joker went mad in the first place: Was it through his trauma or the chemicals that he fell into?             Though it is true that somedays, I feel as though it would be beneficial to just not give a shit about the...

My reading for this week was four issues of Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis Darick Robertson and it’s a romp and a half. When I started reading, I didn’t realize that it was set in the future. One thing to note is that, off the bat, this comic is raunchy as hell. The first line setting the scene is literally “Up a goddamn mountain.” It really sets up the irreverence that this character (and I’m assuming also author) have for this world. Then he blows up a bar because he has a missile launcher and he can get away with that I guess. It’s not until he gets to the tollbooth that I realize it’s a science-fiction future story. With the first shot of the city, Ellis caught my attention and wouldn’t let go.             This is a world where kitchen appliances can get high on robot drugs and people can change their species to any kind of animal, including Aliens. You can upload your brain into computers and essentially...