Week 6: Underground Comics

        For this week I read Tijuana Bible, which can easily be described as a pornographic comic. It is a compilation of several stories and styles, some are parodies of existing intellectual property. There was one in particular that imitated Mickey Mouse but the story itself was adult content. At the time that this comic came out it was not the type of content allowed to be sold. People were arrested over distributing the Tijuana Bible.
      This comic seemed like the early version of "Rule 34" to me. Rule 34 is an internet meme that basically means that there is porn out there for any conceivable subject. Literally anything you can think of - somewhere out there on the internet there is sexually explicit content of it. This is why you must always Google Image search carefully.
       I think that the fascination with pornography in comics is because of how people relate to comics. When reading a story people like to be able to relate to characters, and a big part of being human(and making sure our race doesn't die out) is sex. Although reading this comic made me very uncomfortable, comic books of this nature are not going away any time soon.

Week 13 -The Authority

Are there any prominent symbols in the story? If so, what are they and how are they used?

There is a physical symbol of the Gamorra brothers, a ring with 3 knots. The villain Kaizen has this symbol on all of the men/creatures in his army. He is basing his plot for world domination on his symbol by taking out 3 prominent cities. Kaizen killed his two brothers, and it reflects in the symbol because one knot is set apart from the other two. The ring with 3 knots represents everything to do with Kaizen.

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

The Authority is a piece about a large superhero team that I believe is referred to as "Skywatch", it is hinted that another team called "Stormwatch" previously existed but the majority of the team died or disbanded a while ago. I had a hard time not relating the characters to those of the Justice League. There is a hawk girl on both, a dark brooding character looking a lot like Batman, and the character Apollo reminds me a lot of Superman. It's hard to have a large ensemble with characters that differentiate from other works with a large ensemble.

What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

If I were to adapt this story, I would take a little more time to introduce the super team. There are a lot of characters and it's very difficult to relate to them or get to know them at all. I would adapt this either into a television series in the style of Game of Thrones, or a video game where you could play as the different characters and really get to know them. The Authority in my opinion needs to start off with less characters and develop them before bringing in the whole team.