Trickster Tales Ed. by Matt Dembicki

 In the story of Raven the Trickster by John Active the raven was a cynical trickster who enjoyed to cause mischief when ever he may. When we see the Raven finally getting what he truly dissevered (getting eaten by the whale) he some how escapes from his demise. After this I really thought the Raven had learned his lesson but surprisingly he yet again caused more mischief. He managed to formulate a compelling story on how the whale meat was 'evil' in a sense. Because of this the butcher's fled the scene, leaving all the blubber for Raven. The ending on the story surprised me because usually folktales like these (even if its a graphic novel) contain a respectable moral but this one has something else entirely! I did not enjoy the ending because of this fact and feel like a moral so untrue and misleading should not be spread through any means especially to children. In the second folktale The Wolf and the Mink  by Elaine Grinnell the moral is actually one that I feel is valuable to any and all age groups all of the world. A Mink works hard to get fish for a meal and ends up boasting about this. His friend the Wolf stops by and in Native American tradition one must give half of what he/she is eating to his/her guest. Not wanting to share the Mink did not eat his food. the mink fell asleep and the Wolf ate the fish. The Wolf, who was very wise, created evidence that showed that the Mink ate the fish and not the Wolf. The Mink woke up believing he had eaten the fish. This shows that trickery, haughtiness, and not wanting to share will only back fire. It teaches us that the only to gain is to give.  

American born Chinese by Gene luen Yang & Graphic Memoirs of Age by William Bradley

In the graphic novel American born Chinese by Gene luen Yang a monkey gains power and soon becomes king. He believes he is equal to all the other gods and goes to join their party. When he goes to the party he is kicked out for the mere fact that he is a monkey. He goes back home and for forty days he creates a better self. He then tries to show everyone he is just like him. He creates havoc and even the gods fear him so they get his creator to stop him. The moral of this graphic novel to me is that you shouldn't try to fit in with people, you need to be yourself and not try to be someone else. In the Graphic Memoirs of Age by William Bradley he explains different types of 'definitions' of graphic novels. One definition is autobio. An autobio is a graphic novel that is written about the author writing it. After listing the different definitions and interpretations of what a graphic novel is the author goes into two literary works he found particularly interesting. Both of these literary works discussed how simple concepts are made complex and elaborate but shouldn't they? Don't we, as a society, believe that we can learn from anything even the simplest of stories? The author continues to say that when someone writes a autobio (or any sort of memoir for that fact) the hardest part is that there is no linear path. Life isn't linear so the book isn't either and that exactly is the problem. The author of any memoir must know what to omit and what to elaborate on. In conclusion both readings were speculating a theme o what makes a good graphic novel. Illustrations, words, and a moral seem to always be apart of a graphic novel and thats what these two authors seem to be showing.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman & The Sand/wo/man:The Unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaimans Series by Ally Brisbin and Pual Booth

When I first finished the comic, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, I was utterly confused. The reason, I believe, for my confusion was mainly because this was actually the very first comic book I have ever read! It as surprisingly amusing but yet, I felt, lacked a purpose. Later when I read the article, The Sand/wo/man: The unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaimans Series by Ally Brisbin and Pual Booth, I understood what the purpose of the comic really was. The authors made it clear, through much analysis and research, that the comic had a great message for its readers. The message was one involving gender and sex and how society influences out perception of the gender roles. The authors explain further that Neil Gaiman had intertwined his comic book series with concepts of the Peer Theory. This theory explains that some individuals do not obey the social norms of gender roles. A way in which the Gaiman shows this to us is when he uses the illustrations as a role defying tool. The pictures in the comics are unclear or "abstract" as Brisbin and Booth say and because of this we don't identify the characters as strictly playing female or male roles. Although the article was quite fascinating I do have a bit of critiquing on the piece as well. The title of the article clearly alludes to us that we will be reading the ins and outs of Gaiman's comic book but instead we get some chucks here and there that are surrounded by a pollution of other writers and authors. My second issue was that the authors seemed to be contradicting themselves by saying that a certain author does not believe in gender roles but by backing this claim up with a stereotypically gender example. My third and final complaint is that the article was extremely detailed and probably aimed to a specific audience (that I am clearly not apart of). Because of this fact some of references were vague and incomprehensible. What I want to know after reading both articles is how specifically our comic book section relates to the "Worlds of Genders" and, of course, did you to have trouble with this reading because of the lack of knowledge in the area? 

American Indian Myths and Legends

At the very beginning of the article the editors, Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, discuss how

American Indian Legend is literally everywhere. He takes the time to mention that Indian mythology

is unlike many other mythologies because it doesn't follow certain norms we would expect when

 hearing (or reading) a story. My interest reached its peek when the author wrote about the Sioux

doctor or medicine man. This "doctor" explains that if Indian tales die out than this will cause the old

language to die out as well. When the language dies the legends soon follow. Another important

aspect of Indian Mythology and language is explained in this article.  The editors explain that

language is a tool for ones thoughts to get across and myths is the soul or essence of thought.

The editors later show us that geography also plays a great role in the types of stories told. Depending

on where the storyteller lives he/ or her will tell the stories pertaining to their geography. For

example if someone lives near a river they can tell stories of sea-monsters while people living in the

forest would more likely tell stories of animals like grizzlies.Because Indians lived in tribes the

the stories varied depending on the tribe you were in. When tribes intermingled culture and stories

overlapped creating new stories from previous ones. I enjoyed reading all the stories even though I

wasn't understanding the point or moral all the time. The one story I really had trouble understanding

was the very last one, The snake brothers. I was confused about its ending, did the older brothers at

the end help him? Did they even know that there younger brother was in front of them? And why did

the other snakes come out? Were they going to hurt the brother?