Week 4 - The Comic Book

For this week, I will be talking about two selections of comic books I had the pleasure of reading: Herge's Tintin in The Calculus Affair and Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge in House of Haunts.

The Calculus Affair was definitely the biggest surprise for the week. Having never read Tintin as a kid and being pretty unfamiliar with the character, I didn't know what to expect. I was blown away and immediately hooked. The comic featured a wide array of creative formatting, beautiful color palettes that match each new location perfectly, and a hell of a lot of energy and action. The speech bubbles are always on the top of the panel and theres a ton of onomatopoeia that perfectly emphasize each sound effect and action. Tintin and Captain Haddock have great chemistry and the book had a real knack for adventure. I really felt like I was along for the ride the whole time and even felt a little bit of an adrenaline rush, which is never common whenever I read a comic.

House of Haunts, while admittedly not as great as Tintin, pleased me because it brought me back to a simpler time. I grew up on Disney films, cartoons, and even comics. The experience I felt while reading House of Haunts was very reminiscent of how I felt as a child enthusiastically exploring all of the comics in the back of the Disney Adventures magazine. I remember being so excited every time a new issue came in the mail. This comic evoked the same spirit and excitement as all other modern Disney comics. With tons of bright colors, very expressive drawings, and some fun narration in the top left corners, the energetic tone of this comic is perfectly executed.

I'm definitely going to try and read more Tintin when I have the chance though. I think it might just be one of my favorite comics I've read so far in this class.

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