Blog Post 3

     This song doesn't represent the mood and tone of the whole chapter, but it is perfect for one specific scene. This would be the song that I would play if that scene were in a movie. After Joe finds out his dad is dead, he roams the streets desperately lost and not knowing what to do. This song represents that loneliness and despair that Joe is feeling. The tempo is very slow, the tone is minor, and the clarinet has a very wailing sound, all of which combine to make the song sound mournful and sad. The song is also slightly Eastern European (Italian) so it fits in with Joe's ethnic, immigrant background.

Map

http://g.co/maps/npjkc

This is a drawing of Miss Dark, the new comic book character that Kavalier and Clay come up with. She's the first comic that features a sexual object in the industry, modeled after a luna moth. see page 275 for her outfit description.

this is a comic book cover for the story of kavalier and clay. I wasn't able to do the best job with the coloring because the cord to my graphic tablet stripped out or something... so please ignore the shoddy coloring job...

The Innovations of Citizen Kane

Cinematography: Orsen Welles and the cinematagrapher, Gregg Toland, were the first to use "deep focus" shots and and "low angle" shots. In almost every scene in the film, the foreground, background and everything in between is in focus. This is because of Toland's use of deep focus. This was acquired using two different techniques. They would shoot the set with just the foreground in focus then they in the next take they would shoot the scene with the background in focus. Then they would layer the two strips of film on top of each other using an optical printer so that both the foreground and action were in focus. Another technique used to acquire the same effect was reshooting the scene over the same strip of film. They would shoot the foreground first with the background darkened and then rewind the film and shoot the action with the background filled with light on that same strip. Welles also was the first two use the low angle shot. This is a shot from below the character to make the look big and menacing. This shot hadn't been used in hollywood because many movies were shot on sound stages using a set, which didn't have ceilings. Welle's crew would often draped fabric to create the illusion of a ceiling so it would look more like a room in the shot. Welle's innovation of cinematography carried over into Joe's work. He tried to use new shots in the constriction of the comic book set up. He also tried to focus on people that weren't the superhero, but were in the background and not as important.

Storytelling Techniques: Welle's also uses an unorthodox method of storytelling to show the life of Kane. Most other movies took place in a linear chronological order, but Citizen Kane isn't linear at all; it is told entirely through the use of flashbacks. The story is told and narrated by people different people, which is the equivalent to the "unreliable narrator" in literature. Welle's also used the montage prevalently to condense time. In part of the movie, he condensed 16 years into two minutes of film. I don't think montages were mention in the book, but Joe definitely used the unreliable narrator and unorthodox methods of storytelling. For many of his characters, whole episodes were devoted to background stories using flashbacks, which is the exact same storytelling method used in Citizen Kane.

This is a drawing from the first part of the book. When Josef and Thomas are attempting an escape from the river, and Josef is surprised by the difficulties he ends up facing.

actual size: click here 

Overview of the Golden Age of Comic Books

     Comic books first became popular in the late 1930's and their popularity lasted into the 1950's. Now, comic books are usually considered a kid's medium, but back in the 1940's, comics had a wide demographic. During the war, nearly half of the population, or 70 million people read them. Comic books first became popular because during the Depression, they provided a cheap form of entertainment. People who were suffering during this time needed a hero, and two Jewish kids from Cleveland, John Shuster and Jerry Siegel, gave them one.

     Superman was the first real commercial success. Most other comic books contained multiple superheroes but Superman was the first to have an entire issue devoted entirely to his own adventures. Most other comic books sold 300,000 copies a month but Superman sold over 1,300,000 each month. Because of Superman's success, other superheroes – Batman, the Green Lantern, Wonder Women – gained popularity during this time.

     Into the 40's, comic book popularity continued to rise. At the height of the golden age, comic book circulation reached 25 million copies per month. While comics during the Depression represented the common man, superheroes during the war, like Captain America, represented the patriotism of America. The first issue of Captain America is very similar to the first issue of the Escapist. On the cover of Captain America, he is punching Hitler in the face. The Mistress of the Moth is somewhat similar to Wonder Women because both heroes were primarily published because of their sex appeal. Comics during WWII were filled with heroes combatting the Nazis and the Japanese.

     After WWII, the atomic age of comic books emerged. Many new comic book heroes derived their super powers from the radiation of nuclear bomb explosions. The bomb became a main theme in the comic books of the time. Not only were bombs popular, but superheroes that fought communism. Instead of fighting Nazis and the Japanese, new heroes fought against the evil Soviets and the Koreans. After WWII though, the popularity of comic books really diminished though because America really didn't need a hero anymore. A lot of the comics during WWII were based off of nationalism but after the war ended, the heroes ran out of villains to fight.