Eisner

Eisner and Thompson aren't just comic book artists, they are narrators. I enjoy Contract with God and the different characters stories and how in depth they are. However, Eisner tells human stories, where Thompson tells stories with subhuman characters with surrealistic settings. I have to say I was shocked that Thompson made up this adventure in, Doot Doot Garden, where two characters go floating down a diarrhea river and eat poop. Quite disturbing. But, perhaps he was trying to make commentary about something that was going on at the time.

I very much like Eisner's drawing/ pen and ink work. His characters have a lot of expression in the character him or herself, without the words to explain. In Contract with God his stories take place during the depression in New York City. Many of his characters in this story have a deep depressing story attached to them. You can tell that life during that time must have been very hard.
In his comics there are also lot  of reflection and going from past to present. I also like how the page is open to text and the image as well, and not confined to panels. Such as when the Jewish man looses his daughter to sickness and he comes back to the present to explain why he is breaking his contract with God. Of Course Eisner, writes for a mature audience because he writes about sex, scandal, and drugs in his comics. During the time he must have had a hard time selling his comics because comics were frond upon, not only that but mostly kids were thought to read comics. He must have been apart of this sort of underground comic book readers club.

Blankets is a very compelling story about how this characters goes through periods of changes in his faith and his art and also how his religion affects his art. Also about he is afraid to tell his parents that he is no longer a christian. The little things are stressed the most in this graphic novel and they seemed to be the most important things in this character's life. There is a precious moment where him and his brother are trying to catch the static electricity in the blankets. Fairies they called them. This is one of the moments that this graphic novel is named after. It also could be referring to loosing his virginity to the beautiful girl from his summer camp. It also could be referring to hiding under the blankets. Because he is a very sad and afraid teenager, because he is grunge and his high school is out in the country filled with cowboys who bully him. It also could be a symbol for being blind or ignorant. One other thing i can think of blankets symbolizing is to seek and want comfort and security in life.

Both stories are very heavy and not a light read at all. Both having a conflict with faith in god themselves, and humanity.

The Comic Book

The difference I see between Carl Barks, and Tin Tin; and Ec comics are the age differences. Carl Barks and Tin Tin are for the younger age groups; and Ec are for a mature audience. The way Donald Duck and Tin Tin are drawn in a whimsical fashion with bright colors and lots of fluidly drawn movement and action; and unrealistically drawn. Where as EC comic books are stagnant, detailed, pen and ink work; realistically drawn, and the text speaks for most of the action portraid. The format for the Ec books is more on the lines of a graphic novel with the story at the top of the page typed like a novel and  the drawing is on the bottom of the page. It pretty much is a traditional written novel with a illustration on each page. The comics are mostly told through speech/ speech bubbles. Also the context of the comics with Donald Duck and Tin Tin the problems in the comic are light hearted and slap stick. Where as the Carl Barks comics are murder mysteries. As you grew up during this time I think you would read Donald Duck comics first, then Tin Tin, and then Ec. Tin Tin is the sort of in between the two it has the light heartedness of Ec with the mystery of Carl Barks, but doesn't go as far as murder. As the number of pages differed from the Ec Comics being the shortest and Tin Tin and Ec being the longest comics. I think Carl Barks had a shorter number of pages because the audience which is children would have shorter attention spans which ment less time reading.