7 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2016
    1. While he certainly profits from his celebrity, he seems at the same time to hate the fact that he can no longer completely retain his underground persona. Moore yearns to transcend his status as a commodified cult icon, but this very struggle keeps consumers buying his comics

      Kind of reminds me of the hipster stereotype and the whole "things are cool when their underground/indie" mindset.

      So by shunning the mainstream and fame, Moore appears cooler to the consumers who turn around and give him the fame he doesn't want? It's like a weird cycle.

    2. To see the symmetrical layout of the issue, one has to shift consciousness away from the content of the issue. Noticing the layout probably takes a second reading of the issue or reading outside annotations that explain the relationship between Blake's poem and the issue proper.

      True for me. When first reading through any graphic novel I don't really notice much detail in regards to the layout.

    1. Traumatized people feel utterly abandoned, utterly alone, cast out of the human and divine systems of care and protection that sustain life. Thereafter, a sense of alienation, of disconnection, pervades every relationship, from the most intimate familial bonds to the most abstract affiliations of community and religion" (Herman 52). The images of Jon Osterman in the story after he has rebuilt his body &ndash his blueness, his blank eyes, and his nakedness &ndash represent his difference from everyone around him, his alienation from society and his literal removal from humanity. Even the very first picture of his reconstituted body accentuates his separation (Figure 2).

      Jon had it pretty bad. I didn't realize just how traumatic his situation was. His quiet, somber state kind of made me pass over his character.

      The comparison of the "detachment from society" to Jon's "literal removal of humanity" is what really made me stop and think. Jon is really completely alone.

    2. In a set of six side-by-side panels, Bernard and Bernie reach out to comfort each other, their bodies, black in shadow, mimicking the physical connection of the Hiroshima lovers and their inability to console each other in the face of destruction (Moore 9: 28). The two Bernies, likewise, cannot find consolation. Like Jon's attempt to reconnect to mankind, Bernard's attempt at connection comes too late, their isolation shown to be too great of a hurdle to overcome

      I missed the importance of this scene the first time around. I may have simply read over it too quickly, as I was aware the two Bernies died. It was their last moment that I missed. The scene is extremely powerful with the attempted connection and the way Older Bernie attempts to protect the child.

      It really stands out because throughout the book there seems to be many instances where characters aren't exactly seeing eye to eye with their fathers. In this moment, Bernard could almost be seen as being a father to Bernie, doing his best to protect his son as the explosion happens.

  2. Aug 2016
    1. Having become extremely thin

      Starving was sort of a reoccurring gag.

    2. Mr. Oldbuck increasing his speed, advances at the rate of ten leagues an hour.

      Drawing the horse flying/ stretched across the panel really helped express the speed. Poor dog tho

    3. and dries himself in the sun.

      The sun has a face! (Just pointing that out ) I believe it happens in a few other panels too.