The shift from Fun Home into One Hundred Demons was also a little jarring because of the art iteself. Bechdel illustrated very realistic drawings using a cold color palette. Barry, by contrast, illustrates really crudely. Her figures are drawn in ways that are unrealistic (limbs in "Dancing" are contorted in strange ways), and the colors used are bright watercolors or markers.
The style of this comic uses up a lot of space for the narration blocks, while leaving tons of blank space above and below the panels:
The resulting look is chaotic and feels almost claustrophobic. Why do you think Barry chose this style? What does it convey about the themes she brings up in the text? Do you find the style effective?
I looked up some images from Barry’s other works and this just seems to be her style except with a lot of vibrant colors to bring the comic further to life. With this being more or less her style of drawing I believe it speaks a lot of her childhood and she developed from it. How she draws the characters probably has a lot to do with how she remembers those people from her past or at least reflects her views of them at the time. I think that by sticking with her style but making it a little more cartoonish has a lot to do with growing up and learning how to handle your past in the present. We don’t know how she feels about her drawing style but she’s come to accept just as she’s come to accept that her childhood was far from perfect especially in regards of her mother. While I find the style a little hard to adjust to as it was so widely different from what we’ve seen before during the semester I enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of the kinds of drawing styles I’d seen on cartoons as a kid so it works effectively in terms of covering something like someone’s childhood and teenage years. It has simplicity on the outside but conveys a story of complexity, a complexity that everyone experiences during childhood no matter how different those experiences are from one another.
ReplyDeleteI think that Barry chose this style to reflect how her childhood played out. She uses this type of art style to make the events of the comic appear to be through the eyes of a child. This is usually a difficult aspect to grasp when narrating in a tone of a child. By making the art seem childish, Barry has opened up the inner child in the reader through the art style she chose.
ReplyDeleteWhen you’re a kid you don’t really have an understanding of life around you so Barry’s chaotic look could represent the pieces a kid could pick up on events around them and just moving from one event to the next. It reflects a childlike identity and as Alexander has said it “opened up the inner child in the reader through the art style she chose”.
ReplyDeleteI can hardly stand reading this book, the art style is so chaotic, grotesque, and disorienting. I know that's a harsh critique, but really...it just makes the whole story difficult to read. However, I think that Barry perhaps chose this style in order to convey the crude and ugly side of life. Her demons are obviously depicted as hideous and even frightening, and I think this is the tone she wishes to carry throughout the novel as a whole.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I cannot find too much correlation between the themes brought up in the text and the artwork itself. In my opinion, the artwork is very ineffective in that it makes me not want to read it. But also, from a standpoint of art aesthetics, the artwork doesn't add a whole lot to the novel as a whole. Perhaps it was just Lynda Barry's personal style or preference? Maybe there was something she read in her past that inspired her to imitate this crude art style. Or, perhaps, like I previously mentioned, it is simply an attempt on Barry's part to carry a tone of ugliness and decay throughout the story.
I may not like the certain aesthetic Lynda Barry uses in this book, the bright colors with maximalist illustration and outrageous craft collages in the beginning and ends of chapters. But I'll admit, she does it well. The reasoning for her composition of two panels per page allowing so much blank space is primarily a print making way of composition. This space allows the image to "breath", figuratively, it allows the eyes to wonder around the page without consumming only visual language. Her maximalist style is well balanced due to this decision. This is may be the only redeeming quality to her comics.
ReplyDeleteI think the her use of drawing style is not just childish, its a form of primitivism very popular within the time line of Barry's artistic growth. I think her style is very self reflective and expressive, not so much purposeful within the concept of the story but more like this is her style telling her story.
Barry's style is very evocative of the mid-sixties/early seventies "comix" movement that counted artists like Crumb amongst its number. this style places an emphasis on conveying emotional truths above accuracy rendered truths. Basically, whether or not the art was "realistic" didn't matter as much as it being "correct" for the story being told. Additionally, the somewhat simplistic style really helps push the textual narrative to the forefront. And there is *a lot* of textual narrative here to dissect.
ReplyDeleteNot too sure what to think of the layouts; the large gutters are somewhat distracting, and the dominating text gives the book... Not an ugly appearance... But one that is somewhat unpleasant. Perhaps more so after ready ng Bechdal's work. To be clear, I have little issue with the art itself, just in the way it is presented.
The layout of this comic took a bit of getting used to, but I've actually started to really enjoy it, and I think it fits the story very well. She's telling a story about demons, something that everyone has, whether or not they are consciously aware of them. Demons, in whatever form they take, often fill us with fear and emotion, making our minds feel cluttered and our vision blurred.
ReplyDeleteThe style of the layout reflects this confused, claustrophobic feeling well. There's so much on some of the pages that it can be difficult to make sense of things, and easy to miss others. I think the style of the artwork works well too because of its extreme simplicity. Barry is able to show everything we need to know about the characters both physically and emotionally while keeping the artwork from overwhelming everything else on the page.
The style (for me at least) is very reminiscent of MAD Magazine type and Spy vs. Spy type comics, which tended to be pretty jarring and VERY out of the ordinary, so it's very interesting that she would use such a style to tell her own story. This works really well with the way each panel is divided up and almost makes it feel even more claustrophobic and chaotic.
ReplyDeleteAll that seems very fitting alongside the theme of personal demons. They're not neat and clean, and often aren't portrayed in very human-looking ways. They are beings that create chaos, so it really seems fitting that the art style and panel design would go in to create that sort of atmosphere.
That being said, the artwork is still incredibly simple, which goes really well with the whole aspect of these being memories from her childhood, and I feel she walks that line of being chaotic/demon themed, while depicting these things in the way an innocent child would. Which makes the NOW author's narration (filling half the page) seem even more intriguing, as the memories are now mostly covered with her own thoughts in the now.
I just want to throw this out there. The book is entitle “One Hundred Demons,” but only discusses 17 different demons. I just thought that was odd.
ReplyDeleteThe book is chaotic feel that drove me a little crazy at first. As Dean mentioned, this did take some getting use too, but I did eventually get into it. This form works to bring the reader into the world of the book. In this way I found the text to be effective because I often found myself spending a lot of time admiring the artwork on the title pages, which I believe are outlines of important information to come in the story. At first glance, the story can seem extremely chaotic and all over the place, but if you pay attention to all the details; you may learn that there is a method to the madness.
I find this style effective in portraying her convoluted and, as you mentioned, claustrophobic life. Since she lives in a pretty densely packed neighborhood, or at least that's what I am gathering judging by all the children around her, it makes sense that everything in her life would be remembered as also densely packed. She also uses cheap, crafty materials to start each chapter and introduce new demons. It seems almost like she is overcompensating for these demons in her life with pretty pictures and ideas, in order to tell the audience that she has moved past them and even glorified them for making her who she is now. Either that, or she had to give herself over to crafting to avoid the negative feelings and people in her life.
ReplyDeletePersonally, however, I do not really enjoy the style. I like that the colors and everything reflect back on the 60s and her culture, but I find the characters hard to sympathize with or enjoy reading about them. Just a personal preference.
I think Barry's style is reminiscent of childhood drawings and motion and color play a vital role in the illustration style. When i first picked up the book I had trouble distinguishing thr characters from one another, especially the mother and grandmother. Her style was to use the narrator voice at the top of the panels and then resort to her childlike storrytelling. In truth she did not strike me as a very prolific writer. This is due to the fact that nearly a 3rd of her narrative seemed to consist of made up words.
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