Internal Thought in Crime SuspenStories

Taking a step away from superhero and young boy adventure stories, we have now begun to explore a new genre, the genre of horror comics, and I couldn't be happier. When I was younger the only movies I watched were classic films from the 1940s and 1950s. I loved Alfred Hitchcock movies, the extreme shadowing in All About Eve, and the femme fatales of film noir such as Gene Tierney and Barbara Stanwyck. I couldn't put Crime SuspenStories down because it seems to capture the drama and the romance of that era of film.

The story that I enjoyed the most from this collection was "The Corpse of the Crematorium" (62-68). Although it is one of the few stories in which the person in danger escapes death, I found it to be the most suspenseful thanks to the artwork.

Take for example the bottom left panel on page 65.

We see Jane (the epitome of the Alfred Hitchcock girl), hands holding her head in both frustration and worry. But it is the background behind her figure that really intensifies her horrific situation. The orange background and the red letters contrast strongly with all the other panels on the page. Our eye is drawn to the bright colors, colors that seem to signal the danger of Al's fate. 

This is also, I think, the first time someone's internal thoughts are "vocalized" on the pages of a comic sans thought bubble. The floating words, and the numerous question marks  overpower the panel just as the thoughts and worries completely overpower poor Jane.

By adding internal dialogue, not only does the story focus on the suspense of someone faced with physical violence, but it also focuses on the psychological. We worry just as much for Jane as she frantically storms the city looking for her fiancé as we worry for Al as he sits in the morgue in preparation for cremations.

The Things They Got Away With

My first impression after reading a couple of these stories is the dramatic shift and effect the art has on the style. Hyper realism, hyper dramatized lines portray the more ‘seedy’ lifestyles and the ‘darkness’ in people’s hearts. I really appreciate the renderings of each character. They all seem to live in a very dark, pessimistic world full of crime, murder, revenge and some sci-fi themes. Each story seems to have some twist in the end, either to teach a lesson or show an intense irony. I, being a huge fan of the Twilight Zone and scary stories, really enjoyed this new ‘type’ of comic book.

With my comparative paper still in mind, I couldn’t help consider the paneling, the use of light and dark in some splash pages and the intense type of action to action closure they use that jumps big stretches of time. The vivid narration allows the readers to imagine across huge amounts of closure or time. Explicit scenes are masterfully cut out and death is only shown partially. The mutilation of a dead dog and cat are coincidentally covered from the reader’s eye by the figure of their murderer.

Each short story reads exactly like that. A short story. The captions narrate nearly everything that happens but the comics compensate by providing dramatic closures and extreme changes in perspective that intensify the experience. The closure between panels expressed way more time passing between actions compared to The Mysterious Underground. Violence is insidious and hidden whereas the patriotic fighting for justice in Superman had full drawings of Superman beating the bejesus out of someone. Instead, the point of view in the panels are very realistic, very much in the eye of the victim, intense close-ups on face in pain or anguish. The whole experience is very graphic and as if you are in the room as the story. Some point of views that were especially jarring are page 41, first tier third panel.

I’ve also noticed that some panels are used to convey internal dialogues, feelings or emotions. Page 64 third row first panel is very unique-it only portrays the object, surrounded by words out of speech bubbles. They seem to be her internal emotions. However, these panels are important as

Without being intensely gory, the stories still seem to produce the same gut-twisting result. When considering the censorship of comic books that was occurring at the time, it’s amazing what the authors were able to get away with without being explicit. One story, “Blood Red Wine” literally douses the panels with wine that represents the blood spilled. Although readers know it’s wine that spills from the barrels, it spatters the page as realistically as blood would.

My only critique of these stories authenticity of these stories and its potential to be real seems a bit stretched when trying to deal with concepts of madness. Characters kill the wrong people way too many times, people’s plans always seem to fall through and bouts of madness have very little explanation. 

The Mysterious Underground Men Digs Deep for Emotion

Of all the things that impressed me about Tezuka's The Mysterious Underground Men, by far the biggest was the amount of emotional depth that he allowed his story to have. Of everything that we've studied so far, this story had the most mature themes. First and foremost, Tezuka not only allows for the death of major characters throughout the story but he uses it as an emotionally driving theme. The story begins with John's father dying, an event that influences John's actions throughout the story. On page 8, as John lays crying on his father's recently deceased body, Tezuka fades out the panels, using an increasing amount of negative space to symbolize the departing of John's father from the story and John's life.

Fast forward to the end of the story. Mimio lies in a hospital after his daring rescue of John and Bill, with John once again looking on as someone close to him is dying right in front of him. While the death of John's father early in the story is heartbreaking, the death of Mimio is so much more. We as readers have come to see Mimio grow as a character and have seen his ultimate desire to be a human. To see him sacrifice himself for his friends and to have his dying words be "John...am I...human?" creates a major emotional moment for the reader. The final page depicts John once again dealing with the death of someone close to him, a tragic ending to a phenomenal story. Comparing this to other comics that we have read from this time period, The Mysterious Underground Men demonstrates an emotional depth not even remotely seen previously.

Wonder Woman a Product of Her Time

Of all the comics that we have studied so far, I believe that Wonder Woman is a complete derivative of the age from which it came. While the character itself was trailblazing in creating a strong female protagonist on the surface, after seeing her in action, the early Wonder Woman is far from an inspiring heroin. She is often seen swooning for Captain Trevor and wanting to be near him at all times, even going as far as to get a job as a secretary just to be with him. Everything about that description screams ideal 1940s woman and it is these sort of actions that counteract the appearance of a revolutionary female character. In addition, the stories are extremely war driven. This isn't all that surprising seeing as this was the major source of trouble in the world. Still, I was expecting the stories to be more war themed, not stories that were almost entirely about the war. Not only that, but many of these stories contain war propaganda, essentially instructing readers what the best ways to help the war effort are. These instances exemplify the early Wonder Woman comics being a major product of the 1940s, both in the themes of the stories and the actions of Wonder Woman herself.

Early Conflict in Superman

I was initially surprised to see the lack of conflict in these early Superman comics yet the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. These stories are fantasy, and I mean that in the most literal sense of the word: they are meant as an escape for the reader. Superman is everything the reader wants to be, able to accomplish their task with little to no resistance with all of the other characters in the story in awe of his amazing ability. While this plot may run thin in modern story telling, a fantastical adventure in which the reader can identify with the character was relatively new to the 1930s and so we see similar adventures in which Superman can save the day without much opposition. 

Yet as these stories went on, we see the progression of Superman towards more conflict. In Action Comics No. 13, we finally see some form of a super villain in the Ultra-Humanite. While this character ultimately fails in destroying Superman, he does come close, even knocking Superman unconscious. This is the closest to death that Superman comes in these early comics, signaling a shift towards more conflict oriented stories. Action Comics No. 13 signifies the beginning of a change in the theme of conflict from Superman protecting people from everyday corruption to protecting the world from major threats, a major distinction from these original Superman comics to the present version of the character. 

Mimio vs. Captain America

There are a lot of similarities between the initial development of Mimio in The Mysterious Underground Men and the initial development of Steve Rogers in Captain America. Both are scientific experiments produced to have superior knowledge and intelligence compared to the average human. Steve Rogers takes this in stride, asserting his heightened abilities in challenging situations in order to fight enemies and gain supporters. Mimio attempts to do the same, but his efforts are consistently rebuffed due to the fact that he's not human. Many of Captain America's adventures-especially when he collaborates with S.H.I.E.L.D., succeed because he is human and can ally with human organizations to stop alien invasions (such as Loki's chitauri army). Mimio is not trusted by humans when he is openly a rabbit, and must disguise himself in order to win their trust. His disguise ultimately costs him his life, but saves the human species from invasion. In both situations, the humans win. Mimio is not a human, and is therefore not part of the victorious team, but rather an outside aid who ultimately is sacrificed for the preservation of human civilization. Not being a human is why Mimio, and the termites, are ultimately extinguished, and this trend of idealizing and saving the human species is something we see in two distinct comic cultures (American and Japanese).

Composition

In reading "The Mysterious Underground Men" I enjoyed the overall composition of the piece. Tezuka simplicity in his illustration as well in his color palette works really well against the paper.  Tezuka possibly considered his color palette in knowing the type paper it will be printed on. The comic itself is visually pleasing to the eye and has a pace. Tezuka's also succeeded in dividing the story by using the splash pages. When reading the comic book I had not realized that the splash pages represented a new chapter since the illustration tied into the story. It was well presented and the chapter title dissimulated into the storyline as well.