Week Eight - March

I read John Lewis’ March this week. The first thing that I noticed was that the comic book medium is a very effective way of communicating events in history. We were able to picture these events much easier in our minds if we are given images. We receive more information.

In the presentation, Eiser said that comics depend on stereotypes but I disagreed with him. I feel like artists use archetypes instead of stereotypes. Only the ignorant artists use stereotypes. They think that all people can fit into one category. On the other hand, archetypes are the base character that people are based on, but then, their traits branch off that and they become more diverse. Archetypes are used so the audience has a starting point where they know a little of what to expect. They are most basic kind of character and don’t have any specific traits. While stereotypical characters only have the traits of the stereotype and nothing else. As an animator, I try to use archetypes when I make my characters. It makes the character very recognizable. It makes it easy for the viewer to read right away. However, I’m going to add more personality to the character so it’s more than just a bland archetype.

However, I agree that there is a method to walking the fine line between archetype and stereotype. The artist cannot depict one archetype differently from the rest of the characters. Then, it becomes a stereotype. John Lewis did this very well in March. All of the characters were rendered very realistically. The whites were not drawn differently from the blacks. Everyone is their own individual The artist of Maus also managed to do this well by taking away the human faces altogether. Every character had an animal face which takes away the chance to stereotype the groups by their physical features. The contemporary artists have embraced this method, like Charles Shultz.