Jarod- Exploring Visual Literature

For this week, I decided on reading "Alice in Sunderland," an exploration of famous literature and how it relates to the numerous "wondrous" events that occurred at the city of Sunderland, in North East England. Specifically centering around the famous accomplished writer Lewis Carroll, this sort of biographical novel, sort of review of decades of literature is an interesting mix of art and writing styles. It explores the various connecting factors between the writer, Lewis Carroll  and the Sunderland  area, with wider themes of history, myth and storytelling. The greatest bulk of the story is told from an elderly “rabbit” performer in a near empty theatre, save one loudmouth youngster, who starts off very detached and jaded from his work and focused more on something as “mundane as age.” This relatively relatable, realistic setting as our basis for the story only furthers the imaginative themes discussed in the novel, and makes for a nice reliable background to g...

For this week, I decided on reading “Death Note,” written by Osamu Tezuka, and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. A chilling murderous mystery based around Japanese folk lore and dark magic, specifically about the  Shinigami Ryuk, a dark spirit/god that drops magic into the human world out of boredom. Following the ensuing chaos that results from a young man and woman trying to use the murderous artifact known as the “Death Note,” the story has been very highly respected for decades, being translated into numerous other languages, has acquired world-wide publication, and even been reimagined as several live action films, an anime television series, and even a musical. While trying to rid the world of it’s villains, our main character, “Light” ends up being corrupted by his newfound power and even declares himself a “God of this New World,” prior to being betrayed, (once again, out of boredom) by the same Shinigami, Ryuk. Showing very dark results of good intentions creates an interest...

For this week, I reviewed the "Valerian, New Future Trilogy," by Jean-Claude Mezieres & Pierre Christin. An epic science fiction adventure that centers around two radically different, yet very family character archetypes told in new ways. Our main male character, Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent, who fills the role of the broad shouldered, perfect square jawed hero, who travels the galaxy along his lovely female companion and lover, Laureline, an attractive redhead. But about here is where the stereotypes stop, as these characters are constantly being thrown at new challenges, often around the morality of obedience to government and other left wing ideals. The art is fantastic, constantly brimming with divisive colors and interesting silhouettes, making sure you know whose human, whose alien, and whose REALLY alien. The main purpose of the science fiction setting I found was more as an authoritative mouthpiece to display ideals about heroism, but not from a typical, com...