1. Lauren Bonner
2. This story is a collection of very different and incredibly fascinating stories created by Marc Bell. He uses many different ways to create his comics. He pulls ideas from poetry, songs by popular music artists, and clips from movies and books. The author of Pure Pajamas uses multiple stories and is comprised of mini comics or comic strips. He uses a unique way to capture the attention of his reader in a specific way. There is no certain story line to this book. Each page has a new story. Sometimes there are two separate stories on the same page, and some can go on to up to 5 pages. Some of the same characters are continued throughout this 80 page book, and some only appear for a split second throughout the text. There is a main character in each story, and you follow them around throughout their daily events that may spontaneously occur. The text is incredibly small, and some may not be able to read it. There are some stories and comics that appear in color, and some that do not and they appear in black and white. Marc Bell actually uses himself as one of the characters in plenty of the mini comics. Some of the comics include him getting a new “roommate” and being incredibly unsure of the creature that has become his roommate, proceeding to try and find a new place to live and telling his neighbors all about it. There are some comics that are illustrated as Marc Bell being a friend of a girl named Amy, and while he is with her they arrive at a woman’s home who owns multiple cats, and is very upset about them getting germs on her things. As you can tell, there are many real-life events that Bell incorporates within his graphic novel/ comic book. There is never a “set” setting that continues throughout the book, nor is there a specific time period demonstrated.
3. The artwork in this book is very specific. Each character has a different resemblance from the last, and some of the same characteristics arise throughout the book through different characters. They are very abstract images, while some on the other hand appear to be realistic. It all really depends on which portion of the book that the reader is currently reading. The images remind me about the book by Scott McCloud, they have some of the same resemblances in their drawings and comics. They are two dimensional and each comic demonstrates a gutter which is the space between two panels of artwork. Comics are all just a set of different images. In each story there is closure for the viewers involvement, Marc Bell takes all of the parts of the stories and combines them to relate and make them whole. These are picture and word combos. Each story has a time and movement sequence of deliberate images, they create a relationship. Although there is not a set story line that corresponds with every story throughout the book, each separate comic has its own story. I would tell you about every one of them, but there are too many to list. Some of the images throughout the book are very polished and refined, and some are more airy and light. The images are dreamlike and very surrealistic. Each box is a fine line, and none of them are choppy or broken. He highlights whatever image he would like for the reader to notice first, and he uses light and dark techniques to create an illusion of volume throughout the image.
4. I believe that the author’s purpose was to enlighten the reader with fun and interesting comics to keep the average mind busy. Some are very humorous, while some on the other hand are rather boring, and hard to understand. There are some comics that resemble daily average activities, and some that are very unrealistic and incredibly obscure. Marc Bell wanted to get the point across that comic books are interesting to read, and he gets his stories out by recreating comics to go along with popular songs such as songs by Dolly Parton, and David Bowie. He tries to capture the readers attention in a wonderful way, and I get the feeling that Marc Bell enjoyed creating this graphic novel.
5. I have never read a comic book or graphic novel before. I found myself very confused at the beginning of reading this graphic novel because I was unsure as to which speaking or thought bubbles to read first. I was very unsure of the order of the comics and what came next. I think that it was very interesting to continue to create new story lines for each page or every couple pages of this book. It kept my mind busy, and it helped me read the book due to the fact that it was something new, and I didn’t get bored of reading the same story all throughout with the same characters and images. I was very unsure about which book to choose, and I was worried about whether or not I would enjoy the book I had chosen. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it was interesting to read. I thought the spacing throughout the book was precise and it was easy to realize when there was a new story line or comic. The author put a title on each comic to assure the reader that it was a new story line. When I first started reading the book I got overwhelmed but that stopped within the first few pages, the graphic novel became very interesting and it become very funny as well.
6. I did enjoy this book so there are not very many weaknesses that I noticed throughout. If I could give the author one piece of advice for his next book it is to not put so many word or thought bubbles in the same little comic box. It was very hard for me to decipher which thought or word bubble to read first, or which order they went in. I noticed that the text was rather small, and hard to read. If there were less thought or word bubbles in a scene, I believe that the font would clearly be bigger because there would be more room to do so. I really enjoyed the drawings that were placed in this book, they were very precise and interesting to look at. There were many different unrealistic creatures, while on the other hand there were images that resembled people or animals and they were very simple to realize what they were. The author doesn’t have a set storyline, and to some people that may be confusing. Some of the pages are in fact black and white. Some people may not enjoy reading black and white images, while some may find that intriguing. It all really depends on what your preferences are for what types of books you enjoy reading.
7. I would recommend this book to all ages 16+ or high schoolers. There are some drug references and swear words throughout the book that may not be appropriate for the younger generation. They also may not understand the story lines of the book. I could imagine people who are very creative reading this book, I believe that they would really enjoy it and find it humorous. I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone in my family because my family is very reserved and the drug and alcohol and vulgar language may offend them but I would to my best friends or roommates because I believe they would have the same view of the book as I would and may potentially enjoy it to the fullest degree. This novel did not give me a new understanding of life but I did like reading it.
8. The only books that I came across while doing research on Marc Bell was a book similar to Pure Pajama’s which is called Hot Potatoe. There was also a book called Illusztraijuns for Brain Police. If you google Marc Bell: Pure Pajama’s you can find these books easily on Amazon.
9. The rating that I have chosen for this book is between a 3/5 and a 4/5. There were some parts of the book that I absolutely loved, while there were also parts of the book I could’ve done without reading, and that I found slightly on the boring side.
