Literature of Comics & the Graphic Narrative

The Dam Keeper #1 by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi For the last post, I wanted to mention about this graphic novel called the Dam Keeper. (I hope the library gets volume #2 and #3 soon!) The Dam Keeper is created by my favorite artists, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi. It is a full-color graphic novel about a lonely pig who protects the village from the pollution by using the dam he lives in. It is created as a sequel of the Dam Keeper, a short animation they created.  One of my favorite things about this graphic novel is its use of color and lighting. In fact, Kondo and Tsutsumi are former artists at Pixar who worked on the concept art; also, Tsutsumi worked on the color script of Monster’s University. In the Dam Keeper, their skill of coloring and lighting developed in the animation industry is fully used to tell the story. Especially in pig’s flashback, warm and cool color contrast is even more exaggerated, reflecting that the memories are more dramatized and thus its visu

Webcomics - Ojisama to Neko - Link to Ojisama to Neko: https://mangarock.com/manga/mrs-serie-100190092 This week I read couple webcomics including this flash comic recommended on the course website ( https://www.deviantart.com/balak01/art/about-DIGITAL-COMICS-111966969 ), My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi, and Ojisama to Neko by Umi Sakurai. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and Ojisama to Neko both started as webcomic (on Pixiv/Twitter) posted irregularly and not really meant to be published; however, these became so popular online and eventually they are published as comic books. Maybe due to their origin, they are“slice of life” type of story which doesn’t have a big climax or conflict, but I really liked both of them; their stories are very specific and personal, and have mixture of comedy and emotional elements. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness has deep personal experience and thought, (which I didn’t expect from its title!) and above all,