About Science Fiction Comics

Science fiction is a genre that is focused on potential technological and scientific advancements, as well as apparent environmental or social improvements. This genre often depicts life, time travel, or space travel on other worlds. The origins of science fiction comics can be traced back to the superheroes that launched the entire industry. One of them, Superman, came up with the main ingredients that spiced up the whole genre. This paper would compare and contrast two science fiction comic books. It would have a thorough discussion of what is going on in the two books based on their narrations, arts, and archetypes. In addition, three secondary references regarding this genre and archetype will be explored. The comics I chose are ‘‘A contract with God’’ by William Erwin, Will Eisner and ‘‘The War of the Worlds’’ by H.G. Wells.

‘‘A contract with God’’ is a graphic novel which was published in 1978. It revolves around poor Jews who reside in a tenement in New York City (Eisner, 2006). It comprises of four stand-alone stories: A contract with God, The street singer, The super and Cookalein. Although the four stories are stand alone, they are thematically connected. The four stories are linked with issues of violence, disillusionment, frustration, religion and ethnic identity. The author uses monochromatic images in a dramatic perspective that portray the facial expressions of the characters and have traditional borders around them (Eisner, 2006).

‘‘The War of the Worlds’’ is a book that discusses the horrible invaders that launched an attack on England. The invaders were too powerful for the English people to resist it and this led to England being crashed totally. The book starts with the point when the British settled in Tasmania in 1803. The author questions whether the Martians would do to the English people what they did to the Tasmanians. The cylinders of the Martians come crashing down the English countryside, and the Martians start their attack by burning everything in sight (Wells, 2005).

Narrations Analysis

Eisner’s narration on his book A Contract with God has a unique approach. Unlike the traditional comic format, he blends his text into illustrations, and at times the narrative becomes part of the illustration. This way enables him to enhance the science fiction format, which focuses on uniting text and image. The author avoids setting the two apart from each other but instead makes them complement each other beautifully as they should. The book is a product of uninterrupted, the most coherent and pure science fiction comic experience through the marriage of text and illustrations throughout it. Wells’ narration on his text The War of the Worlds also reinforces the science fiction genre. The text portrays something firsthand and unpredicted in that the Martians are from an outer space and that the British might be colonized by advanced beings. It is a story about war, but its biggest genre is science fiction since the enemy group is from the Mars (Wells, 2005).

Artistic Analysis

Coming to the art of each comic, A Contract with God’s artwork is practical. Drawings of buildings are done loosely, but with a lot of detail and this is the best way to draw them to reinforce the genre of science fiction (Eisner, 2006). For the case of The War of the Worlds, The Martians are represented by images which are described to have oily brown skin. There was something fungoid about this colour and it is attached to a health issue. This representation leads to an imagination about how the Martians looked like, therefore successfully reinforcing the genre of science fiction.

Archetypes

Concerning the archetypes presented in each comic, in The War of the Worlds, we have Ray Ferrier, Rachael Ferrier, Robbie and Harlan Ogilvy. Ray is an irresponsible man who is not very much engaged with the lives of his children. Rachael is Ray’s young daughter, who is intelligent and surpasses her father’s wisdom at times. Robbie is Ray’s teenage son who is arrogant and often clashes with him. Harlan is a former ambulance driver who threatens the lives of Ray and Rachael though he does not win (Wells, 2005). The archetypes presented in A Contract with God are all about the themes of religion, ethnicity, violence, and frustration that are portrayed in all the four short stories.

Comparison between the two comics

The representation of the science fiction genre in the two comics is not the same. Regarding the narrations, A Contract with God involves mixing the texts and illustrations while The War of the Worlds concentrates on the fact that the invaders are from Mars and a representation of more advanced beings. The arts used by Eisner are more practical drawings while those used by Wells are imaginable paintings. Although these differences depict the features of science fiction comics, the authors seem to have used them specifically to communicate a message. Each author uses what they think is best in enhancing the genre. Therefore the main reason for the differences is to lead to a deeper understanding of each text.

Secondary sources

The secondary sources I chose are The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Colonialism and emergence of science fiction and The Fiction of Sherwood Anderson. These three sources traditionally portray the genre of science fiction in different ways. In the first one, the narrator emphasizes his appreciation of the genre as a powerful lens of viewing the world (Miller, 2011). In the second text the author represents the important aspect of science fiction in the cultural history, and that colonialism is part of the texture of science fiction (Rieder, 2008). The third one is based on an archetypal approach that provides a necessary breadth for a complete understanding of the author’s science fiction (Benson, 1969).

Science fiction is simply an escape into reality. It is concerned with real issues, that is, our origin and our future. Also, it has several contributions to literature since it makes us think and ask ourselves several questions in life whose answers build literature. It is a powerful tool for dreaming and imagining new technology. Science fiction is known to be the most important literature in the history of the world since it is a history of ideas or rather the history of own birth of civilization (Rieder, 2008). It is central to everything we have done in the past, what we do at present and what we will do in future.

The science fiction genre equips us with beneficial knowledge. The main thing that we can take away from science fiction is the understanding about what the future hold for us. This knowledge comes through the historical and technological aspects of the whole world that this genre portrays. Several comics have employed this genre to discuss the various issues of life and reading them is very beneficial. Several media are also currently presenting ideas through this type of genre. Some artists have gone ahead to create graphical novels that contain 100 percent computer images through the availability of technology (Miller, 2011). In this way, science fiction has thought to people new ways of doing things.

Conclusion

Science fiction is a change, inevitable and continuing change, which dominates in the society today. The reason behind this fact is that no decision can be made successfully without taking into account the world as it is and how it will be in future. The core of science fiction and its essence have therefore become crucial in our daily lives.

References

Eisner, W. (2006). A contract with God. WW Norton & Company.

Wells, H. G. (2005). The War of the Worlds. 1898. The Complete Science Fiction Treasury of HG Wells, 265-388.

Secondary Sources

Benson, C. B. (1969). Fiction of Sherwood Anderson| An archetypal approach. Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers. Paper 2338

Miller, T. S. (2011). Preternatural narration and the lens of genre fiction in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Science Fiction Studies, 38(1), 92-114.

Rieder, J. (2008). Colonialism and the emergence of science fiction. Wesleyan University Press.