Voyage to Bitch Planet

from Alberti's De Pictura-- a boring book that explains that how we see the world depends on our position. Ahhh, aesthetics. I forgot to mention in my last journal entry outlining what I like about comics and graphic novels is the genre's intersections with aesthetics (and, also, linguistics, cultural studies, visual art, etc.). But regarding aesthetics: so much of my studies in grad school have focused on challenging myself (and others) to reexamine the world with a different gaze. How does phenomenology and lived experiences alter our perceptions? In this case, graphic novels and comic books present us with a hybrid of prose juxtaposed again a visual medium that attempts to employ all of the reader's senses. Combine this with the "low culture" aspect and wider publishing opportunity, I spoke of in my previous entry, creates a perfect platform to examine vision and rationality. DeFrain assigned us Scott McCloud's 2009 Ted Talk which discusses the a...

Roy Lichtenstein's Wham (1962) Well, here I am, starting another blog. I hate the internet and I hate airing my thoughts in a public forum, but I'll try to keep my radical feminist/anti-establishment perspective focused on the content, which is actually a subject I hold near and dear to my heart: comics and graphic novels. (I know, me excited by grad school, how shocking!) Enrolled in Wichita State University's online Advanced Studies in Graphic Novels with Dr. Darren Defrain and presenting at  The International Graphic Novel and Comic Conference  at the University of Dundee in Scotland, I'm psyched to spend my summer devoted solely to this genre. So I guess I'll start off by saying what appeals to me about graphic novels and comics. Admitedly, I grew up intimidated by comics, perceiving them to be a boy thing, or a no-girl zone. I remember watching a friend's older brother go ballistic on her after we cut up a random issue of Batman for a collage. ...