Chris Ware Response

After reading a few of my classmate’s entries, I see that a lot of us had the same opinion going into this article – that comic book art is cheap, and not really interesting to read. I never really liked comic books. As a kid, we had a few around the house. I tried to read them on a few separate occasions, and I felt mostly confused and bored. I just don’t know how to read and enjoy comic books! I feel like they’re written in a way that is choppy and hard to follow. I never know if the text is the most important thing or the illustration. I never know how long to spend on each panel.

I find it interesting that Ware compares his comic strips to music, or something melodic, for this reason. This leads me to believe that reading comic books is a skill that is learned after reading them for a while. Taking the music analogy further, if a person who had never heard music before listened to a Beatles song, would it just sound like noise? I don’t know the answer to that.

After reading this article and listening to the This American Life interview, I still don’t feel any more attached to cartoon artists. The one thing that I do find interesting is Ware’s obvious love towards his characters. I like that he says that he needs to feel a sense of sympathy for even the most evil characters that he creates. I spent some time thinking about what comic book art can do that other art can’t, and maybe that is the answer – create obvious characters. I don’t think any of the artists we have studied before really created characters that the viewer could get to know and understand, certainly not for whole books.

The image that I chose to include is a piece from Roy Lichtenstein. He is another artist who uses comic book images and cartoons, but for a very separate reason than Ware. I think Lichtenstein is more about making broad social commentary, so he chooses to use a very bright, recognizable image.