Probably a predictable response

Yeah so underground comics, right...  I thought there was a rather uncomfortable silent though a lot of class today and I can't help but think maybe the creators of these comic would be proud of that fact.

By nature ComiZ aren't meant to be easy to shallow. There are mention to be a kind of middle figure to anything the creators didn't care for at the time.  Some of it may seem to be gross, unpleasant horror for the sake of being awful and in some case it was. But it was meant to go to place no one else was really going to at the time.  It needed to completely counterculture to work.

Okay so I knew a little about underground comics before hand so I kind of knew what we were getting into.  So I was expecting the graphic, "edgy high school boys notebook" kind of thing. So about three pdfs in I found myself feeling not being able to relate in the slights at all to any of this, so being an asexual panromantic I was hoping the "Gay comics" could give something I could enjoy on a little more personal level. And they didn't disappoint, not only did I find them nicer to look at with more relatable stories and but also for the most part simply more pleasant.  I'm not sure if everyone who looked that issue felt the same but I certainly did.

But that's probably prove that they were doing their job as underground comics.

"The Graphic Novel" the comic book for grown ups

Not sure if that's the right title for it, but that seems to be the sentiment I got from both the books we read as well as the stuff spoken about it.  

I'm not sure if I'd 100% agree on that, given that I don't feel like comics are "for kids" or "for adults"  but it's true back when graphic novel came out that was the way they sold it.  A longer, more mature story continued in a single novel in the style smilier to a comic book.  The word "mature"  comes to mind with especially Eisner's style in "Contact with God" and subject matter with Thompson's Blankets.   Again I feel like these two put together are a good started for what graphic novels would turn into later one.

You have the serious gritty dramas in both style and story that Eisner seems to be starting, maybe even some of the historical fiction added on it. This is seems later on as gritty does became more of the marketed term for comics.


Meanwhile Thompson's "Blankets' is always a "How to" on writing autobio comics that have become super popular in the last few years. Even down to the simple style matched with a lot of emotional storytelling along with the use of a lot figurative dreamlike images.  

They are both very different but give a lot the same ideas for continuing the ideas of comics could be.  

The comic book appears

I found all of the still on the history of the comic book interesting but I found the stuff about the Comics code and the history after particularly interesting. The code starts this issues in my head about censorship vs quality control.  The whole thing seemed to turn in a huge mess. Most of which may be fuel simply not allowing adult comic and kids comic to exist separately thus dooming them stuck together, pretty much forever.  It’s funny now there is still a struggle to get more kids into comic and create more all age stories. Somewhere along the line comics just seemed to get confused and in way started to overcompensate.  If I believe after the code is lifted comic become super adult, pushing out a lot of all ages stuff.   Which is why it’s funny that the Disney Ducks comic were super popular, Funny, but not surprising. Comics and cartoons share lot history and issues. One could say they are siblings in a way.  Similarly cartoon were often not given an thought but also heavily censored  because they were “for kids”.  But in a way that’s backfired because now children’s cartoons are becoming some of the best show and tv and compare to “adult cartoons” are often better written and handling much deeper topics. This is sort of where I find Disney Duck plays in. They are simple but well written stories that are fun.  And good story telling is something that is felt by both adults and children