Darrells Blogs

The Peanuts always had a special place in my memories. I remember growing up and watching the Thanksgiving and Christmas specials on television as a child. The simplicity and humor the shows created not only entertained me when I was young but to this day as well. As I grew up, I started reading the Peanuts comic strips. It was similar to the tv show in terms of style, comedy, and simplicity. That is why I enjoy the Peanuts and also enjoyed this week's readings. I noticed, however, a combination of simple and humorous comics such as the Peanuts alongside action packed realistic ones such as Terry and the Pirates. I saw a pattern of how these two styles of comics played out. On one hand, there is the simplistic storyline such as the Peanuts which were never really meant to be long in-depth stories. Each comic strip story was completely different and was short, humorous and to the point. Calvin and Hobbes is a similar example and shows two main characters in their day to day lives on...

Why do we translate a circle with two dots and a line inside of it as a face? Its because as human beings we recognize details that stand out around us, especially our own. It doesn't take much to create a smiley face. As a matter of fact, it doesn't take much to create  any  cartoon character. In comics, cartoons are simplified and consist of simple  silhouettes  in  order  to be recognized by the audience. Charlie Brown and S noopy are two comic book characters that are easy to notice simply because of the extraction of sophisticated details from their realistic counterparts. Charlie Brown is a child yet he only consists of a circle, a squiggle of hair, dots, and lines on his face. Snoopy follows a similar concept even though he is a portrayal of a dog. in the book Understanding Comics, it quotes that "when we abstract an image through cartooning were not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details”.  For ...

An illustration holds the ability to tell a story without words. Shaun Tan is able to depict a narrative without dialogue in his book “The Arrival”, and uses subtle clues in his story to inform the reader about the events. At first glance, my first notion of the story was that a man was in a dream. My reasonings behind this idea was because of the odd and random images. These images included giant tentacles swarming a city, funny shaped animals and other-worldly architectural designs. However, the further I looked into this book, the more pieces I was able to put together about the possible main idea behind the illustrated story. At first glance, I thought the main character was in a dream. However, it all added up to him being an immigrant in another country. If I were to only look at one of these images without the knowledge of the previous ones I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the answer that this was an immigration story. From the beginning, there is an image of a boat wit...