Question Three: Collaborative Comics

Of all the comic narratives that we have read this semester, Osamu Tezuka's Mysterious Underground Men and Jaques Tardi's The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec stand out the most, Mysterious Underground Men for its heartfelt story and Adele Blanc-Sec for its illustrations. Both are drawn very differently, and both tel very different stories. What the two do have in common is that they were both made by a single creator.

Some say that comics created alone are not as strong as comics created by a team. I say that it depends on the story. While I think Tezuka manages to tell a simple yet endearing story single-handedly, I do believe Tardi would have benefitted from the help of a writer.

What I enjoyed about Mysterious Underground Men was how compact the entire work felt. Not only was the physical book small, but the story and illustrations felt small too, small in the way that both the story and the illustrations were easy to grasp. Mysterious Underground Men tells a simple story, a story of a young boy trying to fulfill his dead father's dream. The simplicity of the comic's illustrations, illustrations that could even be described as childlike with its clean lines and round-shaped characters, tie well with this type of tale. I appreciated how cohesive the comic felt because the style branched both text and image. I think this cohesion would have been lost if Tezuka were to collaborate with someone else.

On the other hand, I think Tardi would have benefitted from a collaborative project. Tardi is obviously a very talented artist. His illustrations of Paris are stunning. However, he is not the most affective storyteller. The adventures of Adele are difficult to follow. There is just so much text and so much information shared that the reader can get lost. I believe with the help of a writer, the story would be more organized and more concise.

Overall though, I think I side in favor of the collaborative comic argument, that a collaborative comic can result in a more dynamic and provoking finished product. When comparing my collaborative comic made for this class to my final individual comic, I am most proud of the former. When in a team, I had people to bounce ideas off of resulting in more creative ideas. These ideas became more and more creative the more we discussed and shared. I liked the reassurance that comes with working with a team, a group of people that supported the final decisions made. Their approval made me feel more confident with the work produced. Based on this experience, I enjoyed the collaborative process more than the process of creating a comic alone because the team forced me to look at the comic from different angles.