Lit. Comics - Emory Widman

What can one say about Maus? It truly is a masterpiece in the world of graphic novels, it depicts the characters in a very real and natural way with believable dialogue (probably due to the fact that much of it is actual dialogue) as covered in the narrative. I was almost unable to put this piece down from start to finish, while it may cover very serious subject matter and devastating themes it manages to keep things from being too heavy or overbearing emotionally. Throughout the story we get not only the story of Art's family during the holocaust but also we get a sneak peek into his day to day life as well, his personal struggles contrast quite well with the rest of the narrative as well as keeping things grounded in reality. The story's sense of realism is quite amazing considering all the characters are drawn as animals which somewhat detaches the reader from the characters but because they are so well written we are able to still maintain our connection to them. All in a

Contract with God was a wonderful comic which tells the harrowing tale of Frimme Hersh and his contract with God. The story really seems to lend it self well to the artist's style and the atmostphere of the piece feels very personal. Seeing all the cityscapes within the story really reminded me a lot of back when I was living in New York. Frimme Hersh experiences loss quite early on in the story and this makes him quite bitter towards the world and God. As Frimme continues to gain more wealth he continues to stay bitter and cruel to his wife until the inciting incident which sends him to the synagogue to try and write up another contract and as soon as he gets it, he dies. The story continues on to show us the lives that continue on at the very same address, most all of these stories still ending once again in tragedy. This was a wonderful read and the art is astounding with incredible line quality and beautiful inking.

Mr. Natural is a classic Crumb comic about the titular character: the wonderful guru Mr. Natural. As having already been familiar with Crumb's work I felt particularly drawn towards his work, and Mr. Natural is no exception. I very much enjoyed reading this along with other Crumb works I was very happy to even get a chance to read these comics, as always Mr. Natural gets up to his antics and is either being a real nuisance or giving sound advice you never truly know what to expect from him. There were definitely some issues with Crumb's work which make it a bit more on the insensitive side, however I believe what Crumb does for the underground comic movement is vitally important  as well as really imbuing a striking confidence in his female characters which I believe certainly helped some women with their body image, considering that is what one of his wives once said. All around Crumb may have been curmudgeonly and crude but as a comic artist he was so important, and truly was