Sunday 30 January 2011

Comic research, Superman illustrator Joe Shuster.

Joe shuster's art work appears to take influences from 'Flim Noir', with the use of oversized cars and the same style of characters with suits and hats.

Superman was the first comic to portray a character that was supernaturally endowed. The comic is draw in such a way that the reader is left to imagine certain parts with make it more engaging.

Superman is about a man from outer space that has been sent to earth as a baby. As he grows up he discovers that he has supernatural powers which he uses to help people in need. This style of character was very liberating at the time of release, 1938. During this time people were felling more and more insecure about the security of the country with WWII starting in 1939.

The Superman comic is mainly based in New York City Where Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent, works as a journalist for the "Daily Planet". The setting also changes as Superman travels around the world to fore fill his good deeds.
The comic is set in the time at which is is written.
Superman was started at a time when national moral was on a down, and by introducing this character that could stand up for America and defend agains all danger, it was an instant hit. The Superman comics were used by the government to convey national security in a sublime way, in many of the issues published Superman is shown fighting Hitler and the Japanese, all at the time when America was at war with these people.


In the Superman comics, Superman, is always the focal point of the frame with his red and blue suit and the baddies as a dark drawings with deranged facial expressions.
  

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Robert Capa

Reference: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-capa/in-love-and-war/47/

  • Robert Capa's 1936 photograph Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death was hit with a lot of controversy over weather it was real or staged.
  • The allegation had first surfaced in 1975, in a book by Phillip Knightley, a British journalist and historian, about how war correspondents — ever since the beginning of the profession, during the Crimean War of the 1850s — had often distorted the truth.
  • The Falling Soldier was first published in the September 23, 1936, issue of the French magazine Vu (below), where it was reproduced with another, similar picture on the same page.


Wednesday 12 January 2011

NFS Shift PC Game Review.

Need For Speed Shift is the 13th instalment of the NFS series and since it's release in 2008 it has sold over 4 million copies.
The aim of the game is to work though the different racing stages until you have a good enough driving skill to race in the NFS World Series. By winning races you earn money, to buy new cars and upgrades, and stars that enable you to unlock the next tier of races.
The whole game is based on very few tracks, which at times can make it a little dull. A good feature of the game is the different forms of racing, eg drifting, circuit and point-to-point.
The graphics are very impressive and the attention to detail is amazing, all of the tracks are accurate to the real thing which is a massive bonus over other games.
One of the grate features of the NFS series is the ability to modify your car, unlike some of the games before it Shift had this feature but only on a very basic level. I assume they restricted the modifications to keep the cars closer to reality, but I think loosing the option to make your car un-realistic is a shame.

With all factors considered I very much enjoyed they game, but would have liked it to be a little longer.