Guest Blogger! Harry J. Wenzel.

I write letters to my Grandpa pretty frequently. I really love hearing what he has to say about what's going on in Ishpeming Michigan. Sometimes he sends me articles out of the Mining Journal, or he updates me on what the Kiwanis Club is doing that week. Today I received a letter from Grandpa about Maus and his experience as an English teacher during the sixties in a predominantly Jewish community. I'd like to share some of this letter with you.

December 3, 2011
Dear Nellie,

Oak Park Michigan grew to a couple square miles adjacent to Eight Mile road; Detroit's northern border. Jews from all over Detroit built homes there and gained status there as the City of Oak Park's distinctly majority population. They hired police, firemen, city employees, and planned the zone location of residential and business neighborhoods. Oak Park High, a middle school, and elementary middle schools were built and located in perimeter neighborhoods, and OPH was located in the center within walking distance of public parks, six tennis courts, and a baseball field. OPH's football was out the back door of Oak Park High.

Jews had emigrated to Detroit in the late 19th and early twentieth century and settled in all parts of that city. The invasion of Detroit by blacks in search of a life on the North safe from the South and sought to seek jobs in the auto and auto parts supply industries and in retail and places of small business.

The city of Oak Park seemed to be an answer to their prayers. Some gentiles lived there. The poor could not afford the cost of housing there. The city's founding fathers planned a model city where Jews and gentiles could live, work, and pray in the place of worship of their choice in peace and safety.

I taught in Oak Park High for four years. Seventy-five percent of our 1,600 hundred students were Jews. I was told by an OPH councilor that eighty-five percent of our students who enrolled at the University of Michigan, graduated.
...
I taught and learned from my brightest OPH students. Mary Beth Stulberg was the daughter of two Wayne State University professors. She taught me there is no such thing as a Jewish race. The Diaspora scattered Jews all over the world. Some married gentiles. All assimilated into their new countries became Russian, German, Italian, Rumanian, Pole, Chinese, and on and on around the world. I had used the phrase Jewish race, and Mary Beth spoke right up and corrected my error.
...
Alan and David Ruby were Burt Ruby's sons. Burt had been a Greco Roman wrestler on the Hungarian Olympic team. He, his wife, and mother must have escaped Nazi Germany just before Hitler rocketed into power.

My friend Aaron told me Alan had graduated from MSU in two years, completed law school, and practices law in California now. Barry Bonds was one of his clients.

As a junior, Alan was in my class of eighteen students in American Literature. We had been reading Henry David Thoreau, and I tried to interest my students in recent Passive Resistance against the British government to win Indian independence. ML King had inspired his people to fight for his rights as American citizens, passively.

Alan listened to our discussion attentively. When all who wished to, had spoken, Alan was recognized. "Mr. Wenzel, what do you think would have happened if German citizens announced their plans to speak in public against Adolf Hitler" Alan said and continued, "The Nazis would have set up machine guns and mowed those protestors down in the streets."

Near the end of another of my American Lit classes an attractive, blue eyed blond said,

"Mr. Wenzel have you heard of the neat new gas, Cyclone B? Six and a half million Jews can't be wrong."

Nervous laughter occurred.

Alan faced the girl and spoke right up, "Eighteen members of my family died in those death camps. I do not think humor is an appropriate response to the murder of millions of our people."

We had a moment of silence. We all realized passive resistance was suicide under a dictatorship. It can be dangerous even in a democracy. Three young men were kidnapped and murdered because of their Civil Rights activity in Mississippi.

Nellie, you know six and a half million Jews were exterminated in Nazi death camps in Poland and Germany during WWII because they were born Jews. Five million Christians and non-believers were also murdered for opposing Hitler.

"Maus" is well worth the read.

Nellie, as you know six and a half million Jews were erased from the human race just because they were born Jews. Another five million "ethnic" minorities were somberly executed for suspicion of opposing Adolf Hitler.

 Maus was created by Art Spieglman to give some meaning to the inexplicable deaths of his mother and father's friends and relatives; and to explain how Auswitz lived in their memories for the rest of their lives and robbed them of peace and normal life forever.

It helped make the Holocost real, and us to never permit such an atrocity to happen again.
...

The black and white color of Spiegelman's pages remind me of newspaper pages from 1941 to 1945. The grim, dark shadows of each page are appropriate to the authors subject. His book reminds me of old silent movies. Spiegelman flips the pages of history to share the terror Jews felt before boarding trains to such dehumanizing places and the unknown time they spent awaiting their fate.

Thank you, Nellie, for lending me your book, Maus. I will order a copy for our library, and show the book to teachers for use in their classes. Only time will tell whether this is a one time success of originality for this story of a particular event, or will become a new genre for publication. It's certain people have less and less time to read. Younger, I could have easily read this story in one sitting. It was that compelling!

Love,
Grandpa

Thanks Grandpa. Have no fear, it is a new genre for publication. I'm even taking a class on it! 

Webcomics. And sex robots.

Hahha. This little bit of Octopus Pie made me giggle. We pretentious art school folk enjoy the ironic and hate posers. Hence, this is HI-larious. I will defiantly be reading more of this.

But it terms of webcomics I'd like to talk about a weird one, that I've read all of. Chester 5000 XYV.
Warning: This is defiantly NC-17 material. Do not read in a coffee shop or around your kids, it will lead to weird looks and it coming up in their therapy. 

What I like about Chester 500 XYV is that it's really girly and feminine but raunchy as hell, it's also mostly wordless which is pretty nifty. Here's a little synopsis: Victorian couple weds. Wife is horny and wants to have sex with her scientist husband all the time. But he doesn't have time to tend to her sex drive, so he does what every considerate husband would do. He invents a sex robot (a classy one I might add) so he can focus on his work (which mostly consists of 'inventor' like Belle's Dad in Beauty and Beast... I digress). At first she's a little insulted, but then she warms up to the idea and Chester rocks her world. They start doing it all the time, she begins to have feelings for Chester. CONFLICT! She loves her husband too! He starts getting all jealous (he shouldn't be so good at his job...) because she pretty much only has sex with Chester. So they decide to save the marriage to sell the thing. A nice lady comes to pick it up. Chester is upset because he loves the wife... I think there's an orgy at some point over tea. Then the husband starts sleeping with this lady who comes over to buy Chester.

That's about the jist of it. Now I love the artwork. It's really graphic, but cute. They breathe little hearts and since it's Victorian there are lots of petticoats and frills and long hair. I also enjoy that it has such a healthy perspective about female sexuality. It's penned by a woman so it has a feminine flair to it all. Embracing ones sexuality whatever your like is a gospel to be preached and Fink does a great job.  It being set in the Victorian age is funny, the whole victorian ideal of being chaste is just blown out of the water in this piece. It doesn't make sense, but it's fun to go along for the ride. And they're all good people for the most part. Even Chester, and he's a robot. They just have a sex drive and they embrace it. Hooray for technology!

Diary of a Teenage Girl... I have some of those

Diary of a teenage girl was difficult to read. Not because it wasn't intelligent, or thought provoking or honest or true. Phoebe Gloeckners semi autobiographical illustrated novel was so true to real life that I had to put it down. At times it became too difficult for me to read a lot at a time because it had this way of transporting me to an unhappy adolescent.

I can't really relate to what Minnie is going through considering she loses her virginity to her Mom's boyfriend in the first few pages and lives in San Fransisco with a single parent. (Not too many Midwestern values there) However I do know what it's like to be caught between girlhood and womanhood. Whatever that means. And the 'whatever' is what Gloeckner is exceptional at. The confessional style of the novel is familiar, I was a big fan of diary like books as a teen.  However I have never read one so true to the way it actually is figuring out how to grow up without losing your mind. Her brutal honesty and visceral language is uncomfortable, and it's supposed to be. I grew up writing journals since I was thirteen with the one condition that it was only for my eyes (thanks Mom) and that I would not censor myself. It almost feels like I'm snooping into someones personal affects without their permission and I should put it back where I found it. But it's published (and not anonymously... thank's Alice) so I guess it's okay. I think it's so brave that Phoebe put everything out there for anyone to read. The idea of doing that with my own journals sounds so scary I can't even think about it too long or else I get anxiety.

I really enjoyed the environment that Minnie is in. Here she is supposed to be rebelling against her parents and her parents are worse than her, still dating around (with not the most upstanding people), getting drunk, doing drugs, and embrace everything that was the Hait Ashbury experience. It's a surprise that Minnie didn't turn into Alex P. Keaton and end up voting for Reagan.  How difficult it must be to find your personal boundaries when there are none set for you. I think I could write an entire blog about how concieted and selfish her mother is. But I think that's the point, Minnie doesn't really know who she is or where she's going and that something to be embraced. Hell, even published.

All in all I wouldn't recommend it to someone who has a teenage girl, or maybe they should read it. But beware you're going to squirm. Being a teenage girl ain't pretty.

Here's a cool article from bookslut.
http://www.bookslut.com/nonfiction/2004_08_002976.php

Here's a funny article about comics that would make great teen flavored film including Diary. http://blogs.westword.com/showandtell/2011/06/five_comics_that_would_make_gr.php

The Beginning of it all...

"This is my first graphic novel ever... and it literally just blew my mind.

<3 I LOVED THIS STORY!! Because of this graphic novel I have since read 'Fun Home', 'Persepolis', 'Blankets' and 'Box Office Poison'... mostly when I was supposed to be reading stuff for this class. (Sorry David)

I really enjoyed the non linear structure of the story, flipping from the past to the present. I believe that these flashbacks helped reveal Asterios in interesting bits and pieces to help us understand where he was in the present. Especially the parallel between the opening of the graphic novel and the dream he has later in the book illustrates the connection of time. The way the opening and his journey through hell link is so interesting. I love the way a graphic novel can express emotion in a way that is non verbal. When Asterios and Daisy fight, and he becomes the blue empty columns and Daisy becomes the red kinetic lines, it expresses the way that sometimes when people fight, they no longer speak the same language and can no longer communicate. But in such a beautiful visual way that is so specific to the graphic nature of the story. I also loved how the characters were so well developed, this story just really touched me and I'll always remember it as my first graphic novel. Of which I'm devouring like crazy."

--> My original blogpost on Asterios Polyp

America the intolerant.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang was such a delightful read. A quick read, I read it in an afternoon before a daytime nap. (Which happen frequently in our house.) I picked up the book initially in the bookstore not knowing it's context within the class, which is stereotyping in comics. The whole book, as you can probably gather from the title focuses on the experience of being an American, with Chinese heritage. For whatever reason, Asian Americans are one minority that slips through the cracks of my consciousness. I have been fascinated with Spike Lee, and the African American experience for many years, I am always thinking about being a female and how they're represented in literature and film, and try my best to support the gay community as best I can, but I hardly ever consider being Asian in a white dominated world. This piece really opened my eyes. We follow three different storylines, and this is accomplished easily by Yang. I never got confused or bored by one storyline waiting to go back to my favorite one. I also really liked how they play on certain stereotypes and really turn them on their head. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick, fun read. Hell, you might even learn something about yourself!

So if my teen years were depicted in a comic book I hope I'd be as cool as the chicks in Ghost World

I saw the movie Ghost World years ago before I read the graphic novel, because when you're 16 and want to be a filmmaker you see films like Ghost World. So you can talk about it with your other cool friends at the Dairy Hill, or Big Boy or wherever your friend is the waiter at and make fun of the popular assholes at the next table... oh Lord, does this sound like certain elements of Ghost World?

Let's just say I knew people like Enid and Rebecca growing up. My favorite part of the piece? The Dialogue!!! It's eerily accurate to the way teenage girls talk to each other. It boggles my mind that this was written by a guy in his mid thirties (at the time of publication). The way Enid and Rebecca cling to one another is so familiar. They want to be liked, they want to be different, they want to be together all the time (is that weird), they want a boyfriend (maybe?). These simple objectives that go on in the day to day life of a teenage girl are so impeccably depicted in this piece. Daniel Clowes doesn't make these girls out to be stupid or like Betty and Veronica, these girls have things to say and yes, they sometimes are mean and shallow and weird. But he doesn't judge them, or try to 'say' anything to a teenage audience about what's 'right' or 'wrong'. He simply let's them speak for themselves which so rarely happens to female characters of any genre. Bravo Mr. Clowes, Bravo!

That one girl who hates Blankets...

Yeah, that was me. I am not a huge fan of Blankets. Let's set one thing straight though, I didn't hate it. So stop throwing me those side glance just because you fell in love at church camp and can totally  relate. I went to church camp too man, lay off.

I'm so awkward...

Now, Craig Thompson certainly has accomplished something here. It's beautifully drawn and is quite substantial in content and length. What bothers me is that I just don't believe what he has to say is very interesting. Just because you were an angsty teen with God issues surrounding your budding teenage sexuality doesn't make you special. If you went to church and reached puberty successfully in the Midwest this is just a right of passage. Call me jaded and unsentimental if you wish, I just seem to have a hard time grasping that this story really needed to be told in such detail. First love, heartbreak, coming of age, I get it, I just don't like the way it's told in this piece. The story structure seems really weak to me, he never really changes from beginning to end. And considering the length of the piece I have a lot of unanswered questions. Did he get molested? Did he tell anyone? What ever happened to Raina? Abuse? Also, the end is just "Then I moved away and became a graphic novelist" Oh really? Great ending Thompson, way to be clever.

What I find so interesting about this graphic novel is that people LOVE this story. So if you want to talk about how much you love it with me, get ready for a healthy debate because I'd love to know why you like it so much.

Fun Home

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is a beautiful autobiographical graphic novel. Her strengths aren't just in prose or artwork, but the perfect marriage of both. It took Bechdel seven years to complete the piece due to her tedious and specific work flow (see video below), however, I believe it was well worth it. I literally can't wait to see what she creates next.

Alison tells her own story, giving great detail to everything from the Victorian funeral home her Dad spent more attention on than her, to the styles of clothing and the New York skyline from Greenwich Village during a family trip. I found the coming of age story to be almost haunting in it's style. While parts were funny, other parts were almost unbelievably awkward. Her references are mostly literary, it being one of the few ways for her to communicate about her (and his) homosexuality. Some readers may find the references elitist or unnecessary, but with basic knowledge of what she is referencing, (The Odyssey, James Joyce etc.) and a few trips to wikipedia and the dictionary for contextual information I found they added depth and intelligence to her narrative. Communicating to her father in this way (though books) was one of the few ways she was able to navigate her relationship with him in her adolescence and early twenties.

 Even though ultimately this book is a story of a gay woman's childhood and the way that impacted the relationship she had with her father and his death, I think that most readers will be able to relate to her family struggles in one way or another. I believe the way Bechdel took such care in crafting each element of the story really radiates through the whole piece, everything is there for a reason, everything has significance to her. The journey from confused child to adulthood and the realization that your parents may not be the model way to live your life is something everybody has to go through. I liked how she started on a good memory. Playing airplane with her Dad, she felt loved and uneasy and did for the rest of his life. But as she grew up she found confidence in who she was, something her father never found.

There was somewhat of a double narrative happening in the book. The dialogue was what was happening in the scene, as it was happening. But the narrative was from the perspective of her now, as an adult. This device really helped cement her perspective both past and present.

Maus

Maus deeply effected me. I loved the way Art Spiegelman interlaced the two storylines, the one taking place in the present focusing on his less than perfect relationship with his father and the recounting of Valdek's experience as a Polish Jes during Nazi reign. I believe this manipulation of the narrative is particularly important to the success of the piece because it helps remind the audience that we hear from Vladek comes second hand, the story he tells in through a filter. Art struggles to not only write his book truthfully, but simply just to tolerate being around him.

I particularly liked the way Spiegelman characterized the people, instead of humans he depicts them as animals. This device really establishes the divides between different groups during World War II. The Jews being mice comes from Nazi propaganda actually used during the time. But it also really establishes not only the way Nazi's looked at Jews as less than human (they're literally vermin) but I believe it also helps support the way the Jews looked at themselves, perpetually caught in a 'game' of cat and mouse. Not only are the Jews mice, Nazis and Germans are depicted as cats. The symbolism, though when described to someone who doesn't read comics seems almost belittling to the subject, it works flawlessly. The races aren't squeaky clean representation, there is depth and substance to each animal. Polish people are pigs, Americans are dogs, not doves and eagles which may represent honor and redemption. Each animal race reminds the audience that each side of the Holocaust had it's flaws. I don't think it blames anyone, but it's simply a truth not to be forgotten. Vladek himself is not without prejudice, he has a racist rant at one point over Art picking up a black hitchhiker, he refuses to talk to him in English and automatically assumes he will steal their groceries.

The sophistication of Maus is immense, there are so many details and levels to each decision made in the book. Each S in the dialogue is the lighting bolt from Nazi SS. When Anja and Vladek go into hiding their path looks like a Swastika. These small details are so have a great impact on the reader and reminds us that this event and this time in Vladek's life has influenced Art's entire existence. Part of what makes Maus so good is that it's so honest and refuses to look away when experiences and relationships get tough. Coinciding with Vladek's story is one of a son who can't stand being around his own father, who has endured so much. Art struggles not to love his father, that is evident, but to accept him with all his flaws. He blames him for his mothers suicide, the guilt he feels for being the child that lived, for never being able to truly understand what he went though so he could survive. This raw nature of the piece resonates with each page, piece of dialogue and brushstroke. I don't know if Art ever got through all those issues that while his father was alive, but I think that Maus is truly a labor of love and we as an audience benefit from his confessional honesty.

Tits and Clits!!

The ultimate dilemma upon discovery of the thing.

Doubtful...

A concerned almost rapist reminds the young lass to lock her doors.

Too true.

Distractions from masturbation are the worst.

What a catch phrase.

When choosing an underground comic it's important to choose wisely. I of course, gravitated towards the publication titled 'Tits and Clits' (GREAT title), since I have both I felt I could probably relate to the subject matter. Turns out, I was right. This little comic is made by women about sex from a female perspective - one of my favorite things. Considering the time period and the culture of feminism at the time I found the themes they cover to be pretty revolutionary. 

I always think of feminism of the seventies to be a little more academic, middle class white ladies working towards equal rights and equal pay - which is true. However in 'Tits and Clits' they cover masturbation, humerus rape scenarios, girl on girl homosexuality, and women of color. These are all subjects I enjoy reading about in popular third wave feminism, but when I think of Gloria Steinem or The Feminine Mystique these conversations aren't a part of the dialogue. It makes sense that these subjects were talked about and obviously concerns to women of the seventies, of course these were topics they were talking about. Perhaps I was a little naive in thinking that these issues were off limits. 

When it comes to the artwork I loved the joyfulness and the range of styles, some look like 'For Better or For Worse', some have a dark sketchy quality and some look like a derivative of superhero comics. It certainly isn't 'drawn well' but it encapsulates a specific kind of raw energy. These girls are angry, hilarious, upset, and horny and they refuse to apologize for the way they feel and I think the way they draw lends to that attitude. This esthetic is something that really attracted me to feminism in the first place, particularly the Riot Grrrl movement and feminism of the nineties. It's delightful to see that these big topics, rape, sexual autonomy, masturbation, etc. were a part of the overall discussion all along.  

McCloud knows a lot, but...

McCloud is certainly very educated and opinionated about his views on comics and how they work, yet his delivery sometimes gets in the way of his point. At times I found myself getting bored, or feeling like he was hammering a particular point to death when I already understood what he way trying to communicate. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this non-fiction analytical piece of work is very different from all other comics and graphic novels I've read in the past because there is no narrative. It felt more like an academic essay or paper as opposed to a story. 

I think my favorite part of the piece was  when he was describing how fluid time can be within a comic, let alone a single panel. This concept of a rope (illustrated above) is so interesting to me. I liked that this idea was something that I hadn't thought about consciously as a reader, but once he described it I instantly realized what I had been doing all along.

Translation of Max Ernst Une Semaine de Bonte

Panel 1: Woman: "I see you there, Rooser. With you wife's egg upon which you sit on, you little thing. I challenge you to a duel, my friend. A duel." 

Panel 2: Rooster: "I've brought along my friend, dear child. You have much to learn about meddling with the likes of me. Now I lay you down to sleep, pray to whomever your soul to keep."

Panel 3: Woman: "You do not scare me, for I do not fear death. You are only birds... only birds. Not angels from heaven, but merely birds" 

Panel 4: Rooster to Friend: "Now what?" Woman : AAAArrrggghhhh!!!

Panel 5: Rooster in Tuxedo: "My minions, what glorious work you have done for your master. Let's Celebrate!" 

Panel 6: "You guys stay here... I'll be back when the body is taken care of."

So I didn't so much as translate these images, but gave them dialogue instead. I imagined the rooster king as some sort of ancient descendant of David Bowie as the Goblin King in Labyrinth. Who kidnapped women and releases their soul to his higher power. While this may not have been the original assignment I think I accomplished the goal, which was to create a story using these images and interpret the narrative through your eyes. 

There was no right answer right?

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The Arrival was a very different kind of graphic novel than I had ever read because it is wordless. The story benefited from the lack of language because our protagonist clearly cannot speak with the new citizens of his new land. The story is a familiar one, particularly to Americans who have ancestry from other countries (at least from Europe). An immigrant from a doomed land with scary spooky spiked shadows rides on a big boat for ages to finally make his way in the New World. Tan did a great job of communicating universal emotions throughout the piece including sorrow, loneliness and unfamiliarity as well as joy, laughter and family. I thought that the artwork was absolutely beautiful, and the treatments to some of the images making them look old and tattered gave it a period without ever having to explain it in words. I particularly enjoyed the way he captured the day to day activities on a busy street, giving us a setting but then adding the details that are just a little 'off' that are familiar to the people who live there. The addition of fantasy elements made it universal to every reader because we don't know what it's like to live there either and therefore we are experiencing that world along with the protagonist. The animals that everyone had added some fun and whimsy- that lizard dog thing was reallly cute.

I find it interesting that this book is mostly sold and marketed as a children's story. Though I understand it is technically a 'picture book' I would think that this classification narrows the audience to stumble upon it in a bookstore or library.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been in an unfamiliar place of any age. I greatly enjoyed this graphic novel and I look forward to what's in store for the rest of the year!