So...goddamn...wet

I was walking back to my dorm from the undergrad library, with nothing but a leather jacket and an umbrella to protect me from the monsoon that just blew into town. I think I've had enough rain for the next few months now.

Chapter five makes a good point about the use of iconic facial expressions and whatnot in comics. When I first was exposed to Japanese comics and television shows, the characters used a bunch of expressions and animations that I hadn't seen before. Most of the stuff in this chapter was fairly obvious and covered information that even most casual readers of comics are probably already familiar with.

Chapter six presents the war between words and pictures in the history of western culture. McCloud once again brings back the infamous pyramid of which he is so fond in order to demonstrate how over the years, words and pictures have gradually drifted away from each other in their representation of art. However, McCloud argues that during the nineteenth century, new forms of art brought words and pictures closer to their original relationship before ultimately colliding in the form of comics. He makes a good point that there is a general disinterest in the public for "modern art", but I have to ask: Hasn't this always been the case? As much as the art snobs might deny it, a fundamental aspect to high art is its relative inaccessibility to the average Joe. The claim that our definition of great art hasn't changed much in the last 150 years also seems like an over-generalization. Of course, as an English major, I have to defend 20th century works like The Great Gatsby and "The Waste Land" as iconic representations of a distinct "modern" period of art. Anyway, aside from his understandably defensive attitude towards the legitimacy of comics as a form of art, McCloud is right about the fact that the medium of comics is ideal for storytelling due to its ability to narrate through both words and pictures.

I have to confess that I feel a bit overwhelmed by the comic book wiki project. It's due on Monday and I haven't even started on it. I have a bunch of papers and projects going on this week and next week for other classes and trying to juggle that with the everyday readings and assignments for all of them is keeping me occupied, to say the least. Reading Watchmen has been the closest thing that I've had to a break this week, so I was disappointed to find that we were reading McCloud for today instead. Oh well. In dark times like these, I can always turn to my humor folder to help preserve my sanity.