Final

“Are We Women or Are We Objects?”

By: Breezy Weyant

“Sin City: The Big Fat Kill”, the title alone alludes to a story of sin. To define sin for this context: any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense. This defines how the characters now must act and be depicted. All of Frank Miller’s characters are or have done something reprehensible. The Girls of Old Town, are prostitutes for a living, the cops are corrupt and use their badges to do what they want. Everyone is stuck in a city of crime and devastation.

It seems that after WWII comic books started appearing on newsstands and in the local stores that created the issue with the representation of body. At the turn of the century body image took a turn to the extreme, “although superhero comics are still typically associated with an adolescent audience by the general populace, these texts contain some of the most complex representations of the body to be found anywhere” (Taylor, p. 347). Yes, superheroes need to look tough even supernatural or they would not be superheroes; but is this need being over depicted and creating aliens of their readers? Instead of focusing on the whole of body representation in graphic novels I will focus on female body representation. I will look at how the female is depicted in graphic novels and what effects this may have upon the readers. The readers of “Sin City: The Big Fat Kill” by, Frank Miler get a presentation of a whore versus superwoman gender dichotomy.

In this scene the Girls of Old Town, must be drawn to look like prostitutes but does Frank Miller take it too far?

The Girls of Old Town are prostitutes, but they are in power so do they really need to be slutty also? This is where Miller creates the mixed female representation. On page 72 after the ladies are done killing everyone. Gail finds something in Jackie-boy's pocket and starts swearing. Then is a sequence of paneled faces of everyone else. However, right after these panels (this is the last panel on the page) is a close up on someone's buttocks with Dwight and Gail off to the left and the curly blond off to the right, walking towards them. The buttocks is in the foreground of the panel is just from the waist down. Miller leaves out everything except the belt, with a set of keys. This creates the idea that the ladies are slutty. According to Aaron Taylor author of ““He’s Gotta Be Strong, and He’s Gotta Be Fast, and He’s Gotta Be larger Than Life”” Superhero Body”, it is very rare to have full body shots; these are only to glorify the body. Instead of glorifying Frank Miller is dissecting her anatomy across the pages. Taylor identifies this technique as being used to show a split in identity (Taylor, p. 348). The split identity here is that the girl is a sex object in one identity, but the keys alluded to her strong powerful identity.

The keys represent power because they are from the dead cops pockets (Jackie-boy), whom the girls just massacred. The importance of this panel is to emphasis the gravity of their mistake. The keys represent power, yet it’s not the power they wanted. These keys will be the down fall of these provocative, powerful women. The end because they ended up killing a cop, which means they lose their control over their area, creating a gate way for the pimps and gangs to seize back the control. Miller portrays the women as slutty, but at the same time makes them powerful. This leads me to believe that Miller finds that there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows she looks good, and has power and strength. According to Donna Haraway (Taylor 352):

“there is nothing about being ‘female’ that naturally binds women. There is not

even such a state as ‘being’ female, itself a highly complex category constructed

in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices”.

This characterization of women leaves the door open for artist to create a portrait or identity of women as they see it. Miller chooses to represent women as provocative, authoritative, intelligent, sex symbols.

To create this symbol he relies on the use of black and white. “In black and white, the ideas behind the art are communicated more directly. Meaning transcends form. Art approaches language” (McCloud 162).

Black and white coupled with Miller’s use of transcending from visual resemblance

(the right side of the triangle) to a more iconic abstraction of body (the left side), presented in this panel from page 72, creates the sexual object perceived. If Miller were to have drawn the buttocks on the bottom panel on page 72 as a visual resemblance, he would have been taking away from the reader. By creating a more iconic abstraction he has allowed the reader to create his or her own sense of female representation.

Therefore, Miller’s art style has put the reader in the driver’s seat to create whatever perception of feminism they find suitable for his story. One reader may find his female representation a bash on women, while other see it as a clear depiction of strength coupled with sexiness to create the perfect woman. This depiction creates a mixed representation of the female gender, but what female is really black and white to begin with.

Final...dunt..dunt DUHHHH!!!!

Using p126 of McCloud as a reference/ guide, define the line style of one of the graphic novels you have read SINCE the midterm. How does the line style impact the storytelling of that specific GN?

Hellsing is a horror anime by Kohta Hirano who adopts quite a few different techniques with line style to portray his story. Hirano’s overall style closely resembles friendly lines, where everything is kind of rounded yet dynamic coupled with a signature style. These two styles along with lots of action lines to make doors seem freighting, and add to the suspense, create a very nerve wrecking story. The signature lines can be seen throughout Hellsing, showing a more complex character. Basically these emotion lines let us see inside the characters mind. This can be seen when the “cop girl” is attacked and being, around her are dark lines with breaks of white, which makes the reader feel tense like they are being attacked. Also towards the beginning is a very good example as the vampire who is about to get killed seems nervous. The reader can tell that the vampire is nervous due to the shaking lines that are outlining his body. Line is very important through out this graphic novel due to the fact that on many pages Hirano opts to leave out language all together. This means that Hirano’s language and message must they be portrayed through his art. The emotion of the characters must take shape through lines and style. On pages 138-143 there is only one word “Amen”, the tone is left to be set by the action lines that represent the horrible struggle between Alucard and the priest. These lines are dark and sharp where someone is getting attacked, then thin and light where the gun is being fired. Without emotion lines and action lines it would be quite difficult to tell what any of Hirano’s characters were feeling or doing.

When using a comic book/ GN to record history, which narrative voice serves this format better, first-person or omniscient?

In graphic novels when portraying or recording history, it is best when an author uses omniscient format that first-person. Omniscient makes the reader detach from the writer, instead of in first-person, where the reader questions the narrator. In first-person format, the story is being told by the person who was there. However, this format makes me question how reliable the narrator is; whether or not they were impartial to the story, or was holding on to some biasness. In omniscient format, the writer removes him or herself from the hot seat. They come off to be a more reliable unbiased perspective. This can be seen in the handout comic in class about the journalist who was portraying the events at the boot camp for the Iraqi army. The comic portrayed how the United States Marines felt about training the Iraqi and why the Iraqi was there to be trained. It was difficult to really question the author’s intentions or if he had a hidden agenda, because he was not represented in his comic. The author used an omniscient format, which made it feel as though the characters were speaking for themselves. This eliminated the question of whether or not the author was biased against the Iraqi, or biased against the Marines. The comic just focused on what was being said by both parties. This created a feeling as it did not matter who created the comic, if you were there watching it, you would have seen and heard the same things. If it was to be first person, and the author chooses to put himself in the comic, it would have created questions such as: did he only feel that way about the Iraqi’s because they did (insert incident here). It would have taken away from his credibility by being apart of the story instead an outsiders view. The author in this case almost becomes a video camera, recording the everyday happenings at Iraqi boot camp. And who would question a video recording of an incident?

Examine/ explore the six steps of creation (p170-184) of one of the graphic novels you have read since the midterm.

The six steps of creation according to Scott McCould are: Idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft and surface. I will be breaking these six steps down in the creation of Sin City “The Big Fat Kill” by Frank Millers. The purpose of this graphic novel is to tell a story about a murdered police officer that needs to be covered up to keep from ruining all of the Girl’s of Old Town’s lives. He wants to create a world of sin, using very emotional characters and tones. This can be seen by the day to day lives of the characters. The form Miller chooses to illustrate this story was in the form of a graphic novel, words mixed with pictures. He then turns this graphic novel about a murder into a part of the action/drama genre. This is achieved by the brutality of the events and how in depth Miller goes into each fight, and car chase. The drama part, is the few romances going on, between the murdered cop who abuses his girlfriend, and the love hate relationship between Dwight and Gal. One moment Dwight and Gal are at each other’s throats the next they are fantasizing about one another. Miller’s structure starts as a time line. He begins with how Dwight’s night began, with the fight at the cop’s girlfriend’s house, to the race to Old Town, to the murder and then finally the cover up, and the solution to the problem. His structure is very easy to follow, it does not jump back and fourth through time; it’s just a linear progression. The language takes the form of a first person narrative. This strategy makes it simple to follow the story and the multitude of characters, since they all have their place in time. The next step in Miller’s creation is craft, understanding anatomy, vanishing points and perspective. Miller’s uses all of these attributes to contrive his graphics. None of his frames are less than well refined. They each show a great understanding of what the anatomy of a human is and should look for each pose. They also have the appropriate vanishing points. The perspective changes throughout, from looking upon the characters, to what the characters are looking at. Miller chooses the uses of line and negative verses positive space to add a new look to a familiar genre. This created an entirely different surface look. Though he went through the same process of creation that all writers would, his choices along the way created the graphic novel “Sin City: The Big Fat Kill”.

Using p105-106 of McCloud, address how the format of webcomics influences or frustrates closure, as well as the unique narrative opportunities that the open, free flow of the digital format affords. How do webcomics sit as a unique opportunity for reader involvement? Also address how this is similar to the structure of the class, specifically with regard to picking your own path to the end.

Webcomics make it harder for the use of gutters, and different ways to start the comic. In printed comics, there are several panels scene at once, and depending on what ketches the eye is where the reader starts. Webcomics frustrate this developmental reading, because the reader must scroll down to see more than one or two panels at a time. Also the format of webcomics is quite different, the gutters are not standard. They usually consist of panels on a background, this make closure a little different, because it’s hard to tell quite how long to pause, because the reader must scroll during the pause. However, webcomics create a new kind of reader involvement. Depending on what can be view on each screen the scrolling can add suspense to a comic. Also if the panels are one at a time in a liner progression downward, it can create the affect of taking a trip in the webcomic.

One webcomic in particular “My Obsession with Chess” by Scott McCould is structured like that of this literature class. It gives you a choice of ways to move throughout the story, depending on where you start creates the story you get. With the structure of the class, depending on what graphic novels the students chose and what they chose to look at created their experience. Even if two students read the same graphic novel, their blog may not be anywhere near the same experience. This is the same for this comment. I could read this comic and start reading left to right, however another reader may start right then drop down or over, such as chess. During the class, we could start where we wanted with either a required text, or a choice text. From this text, we were free to tell whatever analysis suited us. Each student has left this literature with a different understanding and experienced based upon what they wanted out of it. As with the webcomic “My Obsession with Chess” which allows the reader to bounce around freely and still understands the experience.
Link to webcomic http://scottmccloud.com/comics/chess/chess.html

Big Paper

I don't know how to post pictures, and without pictures, my paper wouldn't make much sense. So it is posted on the discussion board Blog Links page on blackboard. Please look it over if you have a chance. Thanks you guys!

Wa-wa-wa- WALRUS

For the webcomic of the week I choose "But Nobody Notices the Walrus" by Sylvan Migdal. Through out the office everyone is worrying about themselves and their lives, and hardly really notice anyone else. Its like everyone is to wrapped up in caring about themselves to take notice of someone outside of their frame of reference. Or in this case, outside of their self absorbed world. At one point Stuart is talking to his co-worker Susan, asking her if she wants fish for lunch. Stuart is so wrapped up in his world of eating fish for lunch, he does not ketch that Susan is asking him out to dinner. Also during the whole day, everyone is caring on with their own world and does not notice the poor Walrus who has been waiting for his meeting all day. This just shows, how self-absorbed people, are that they did not even care to ask the Walrus if he'd been helped, since they were to busy doing nothing but things concerning themselves.

Hellsing

This GN is based about the character Alcuard who himself is a vampire, but still a vampire hunter. He is the guardian of the family Hellsing, and his mission is to kill vampire's who have no purpose.Basically vampires who are running around slaughtering people, to become the strongest vampire. Alcuard was preserved in the basement of the Hellsing mansion. He came back to consiousness to protect Integra from her uncle who wanted to killer so he could take power of the family. Alcuard is quoted saying "his blood smells bad". This is to mean that he was evil. I believe Alcuard is the balance of power, he is the ying and yang. He seems to have a sense of good and bad to help him with his efforts to preserve life as much as possible. Being naturally evil, since he must drink blood to survive (yet he is only shown for the most part drinking blood from bags you get at the hospital) yet, at the same time being the savior of humankind (at least from vampires). For the most part Alcuard is impossible to kill which represents the power of the ying-yang. There must be a balance of power or all hope and life is lost. If Alcuard were to be killed, the crazy vampires would kill off the humans, and they would go extinct; therefore, bringing the spiraling end to all.

Down the Rabbit hole...

Or rather an in dept look by Kenneth Kid into Alice and Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz. I wasn't sure what to make of this, at first it seemed Kid was saying the writer of Alice and Wonderland, was a pedophile, that used Alice as his muse. Then the article changed into a summary of a GN "The Lost Girls". I have read Alice and Wonder and Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz, and I do not get the undertones that the author is a pedophile. I feel that if anyone's morals should be brought into question it should be the author of "The Lost Girls", a GN about the main characters of the previously stated works, brought together in a story of sex and no boundaries and horrid happenings. Who thinks about these things, its nasty. Why would you draw conclusions from a story of a little girls dream into some deep dark look into rape and molestation. I think that parts of Wonderland seem a bit out of a little girls dream, like a look into the evils of dreaming. But I think its more a warning that you can't just dream your life away, such as Alice's sister tellers her at the begin. It wears thin on my paycients with these revolutionists writers, keep trying to draw dark sinister meanings out of classic children stories. Just because some children have been raped or molested I highly doubt someone would want to write a children's book about it. Nor do children really understand all that has happened to them or is happening to them tell put in context, usually when they are older. The idea that someone would write such a novel as "The Lost Girls" makes me wonder where our morals in this world have gone. Possibly...down the rabbit hole.

Sin City..

In Frank Miller's "Sin City: The Big Fat Kill"; Miller gives a mixed representation of the female gender. This can be seen on page 72 after the ladies are done killing everyone. Gail finds something in Jack-boy's pocket and starts swearing. Then it shows the faces in each panel of everyone else. However, right after that panel is a close up on someone's butt with Dwight and Gail off to the left and the curly blond off to the right, walking towards them. The butt is in the foreground of the panel and is just from the waist down. Miller leaves out everything except the belt, with a set of keys. This creates the idea that the ladies are slutty. However, the keys represent power. The keys are power, because they are from the dead cops pockets, whom the girls just massacred. The importance of this panel, is to emphasis the gravity of their mistake. The keys represent power, yet its not the power they wanted. These keys will be the down fall of these provocative powerful women. Since they ended up killing a cop, which means they lose their control over their area, which gives the power back to the pimps and gangs instead of the prostitutes (the girls). Miller portrays the women and slutty but at the same time makes them powerful. This leads me to believe that Miller finds that there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows she looks good, and has power and strength. Though, this could be seen as a bash on women, I find it more empowering. Women should not be looked down on for wanting to flaunt their curves. And I feel that Miller depicts this quite well.