Week 3

After reading a collection of comic strips from Krazy Kat, Little Nemo, Dot and Dash, and etc. I have observed their simplicity in nature. Often the gag is a soft, sometimes heartfelt punchline, My favorite out of the ones I read was a Krazy Kat comic, where Krazy Kat is sailing down a river in a box, and the mouse that he's in love with is trying to kill him. Then somehow when Krazy Kat evades death every time, he comes to meet the mouse and his wife/kids after. The mouse then laments on how cruel he was to the Kat, but when the cat shows up again he throws something at him. The reason I like this is because of its surrealness. Why is the cat so deeply infatuated with this mouse and never notices he hates him? Even funnier is that the mouse is married and has kids but Krazy doesn't seem to care. The genders of the characters switch around as well, which is kind of interesting.It's surprising for such an old comic. Additionally, I read Calvin and Hobbes. This is a later comic but also encompasses that surrealness and soft punchline sort of characteristics. I never can quite understand if Hobbes is really a talking tiger or if he's just in Calvin's imagination. The punchline is sort of always a cute little joke on how kids perceive the world and sometimes a nod to adults reading the comic. These two are similar in that respect. Additionally they are both told in black in white. Another comic I read was Hark A Vagrant. This comic differs because it doesnt follow recurring characters but parodies history and other well known figures. Every comic is a different idea and is also told through black and white illustrations. Usually they center around historical jokes and take a sort of wacky/amusing play on these historical events.