For Wide World of Comics I read Asterix the Gaul. While I didn't particularly enjoy the writing, I can appreciate that it clearly inspired a lot of modern comics in both humor and art style. The writing and art styles work well to tell the story. I did find enjoyment in this series purely because I am interested in the Gauls and the Romans, and this story, while bending history here and there, does have many good historical references to Roman control over the Gauls.

I believe stereotyping is always negative, whether it's meant that way or not, because it is impossible to paint a whole group of people with one brush. If the audience cannot tell a character is black without giving them huge pink lips, or gay without giving them a "feminine" speech pattern, then the artists and writers have failed at character creation. It is much better to create a character, especially if you are not of that group, by building who they are and their purpose to the story up first and then assigning them to groups of people. I do believe, however, it is perfectly fine to paint Nazis and the KKK and other groups who exist solely out of hatred with the same brush, as they don't deserve to be shown as people outside of their affiliations unless it's to make a point about how anyone could secretly be a scumbag.

Stereotypical representations have definitely affected me, especially when I was a kid. The biggest one that comes to mind is how little girls are presented, especially in toy commercials. Pink and sparkly princess toys felt constantly shoved down my throat, and things I was actually interested in, like catching bugs and playing with plastic dinosaurs, were "for boys." I think a lot of girls can relate to having an intense hatred for all things pink as children out of sheer rebellion for it being so heavily associated with us. I've definitely noticed, as I have younger sisters, that commercials targeting kids have changed to be more gender neutral, but there is still no lack of sparkly pink toys being targeted solely at girls.

The first time I read Maus was in my freshman year of high school in English class, and I remember feeling for the first time the true horror of the Holocaust. Of course, I had always known it was horrific, but this biographical account, compiled with the striking visuals, made it hit me hard. Speigelman may use cute animals in place of humans, but does not soften the depictions of torture and killings. It is a relief to cut back to modern scenes of Speigelman and his father, as a reminder that they did make it out of the concentration camps and live peacefully, though haunted by the past. Speigelman's decision to tell the story in his father's exact words, rather than reword it, lets us see the real struggle faced by his father to recount the story, often trying to avoid getting to the grittiness of his trauma.

Underground Comics paved the way for comics to be taken more seriously, as well as diversify in the content and characters presented. It is clear that the cartoonists are not your average cishet white male creators, as seen in the vast diversity presented in them. Zap in particular had a certain dry humor to it that, while I personally did not find it funny, can appreciate the meaning it must have held for the readers at their height. We see struggles with sexuality, misogyny, racism, and other issues that the comic code forbade being present. I did find that the stories were often text heavy, and occasionally fell back on the very stereotypes they were trying to combat, Zap especially. Comics written by those who found themselves further outside of societal norm were more appealing to me.

I believe Will Eisner and Craig Thompson both capture a wide array of emotion in their works, despite the stark differences in the amount of detail they put into their characters. Eisner works in a highly detailed style, while Thompson's is more reminiscent of Nancy. However, they both do a great job of telling the reader everything they need to know through expression and body language, even when there is a lack of text. They both allow the reader to connect with the main characters, and feel what they're feeling. I found Thompson's work even easier to relate to than Eisner's, particularly because of the plainness to his character designs.

The EC comic I focused on this week was Cowboy Western. These comics were very focused on masculinity and violence, the stereotypes of the Wild West. Filled with violence, we see multiple storylines in which each main character is either a criminal, or someone chasing criminals. I assume these comics would appeal primarily to pre-teen boys, as westerns were a popular TV genre at the time, and reinforced their toxic views of what it is to be "masculine". The main characters were all white men, all killed without remorse, and their only real flaws were that they were so masculine, it scared the background characters. That said, they never stayed in one place long, and rarely had a sidekick.

The primary comic I focused on was Windsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, whose visuals piqued my interests particularly. The whimsical, yet realistic, approach to the illustration truly makes Slumberland's setting feel believable. This strip is written serially rather than episodically, which I believe aids in the appeal of Little Nemo. I feel if it were episodic, it would be harder to understand Slumberland, while serially Nemo can walk us through the settings and explore.