In my own opinion, comics can be either children or adult genre. Firstly, Fredric Wertham (as cited in Varnum & Gibbons, 2001) point out that not only children who have difficulties with reading but also those which read well are attracted to the comics. According to him, the same case also applied to lazy readers. Moreover, Varnum and Gibbons (2001) believe that comics somewhat merge literate words and visual art together. As a matter of fact, comics give the readers more completed view on the story being told while keeping the information simple and comprehensive (Harvey, Cioffi, Kunzle and Taylor, as cited in Varnum & Gibsons , 2001). Consequently, the same piece read by a child or an adult may result in different understanding. Farr (1991) talks about this as well in his work on Tintin (Hergé). The comic delivers the exciting adventure of Tintin along with the joyous feeling to a typical child (such as the Thomsons & Thomsons twin). On he other hand, an adult with better understanding and experiences will pick up the “political satire and parody” (such as the railway incident leading the invasion of the Japanese or the stereotype thinking of European and Chinese) along with the humour (ibid, pp. 2). There are differences in the art of western comics and manga but the most significant is western comics rely on realistic as the pen perhaps too hard or solid to grasp attention from children. For example, Captain America should be plenty with the war scenes and the art is more solid compare to some mangas like One Piece, Naruto where the art is "soft" and have a lot of comedy. I personally borrowed a book called "American most favourite comics" as reference but it use a lot of political parodies as well as metaphors even in some "soft art" I thought would have attract children but failed to understand.
References:
Farr, M. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murry.
Kishimoto, M. (1999). Naruto series.
Oda, E. (1997). One Piece series.
Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (2001). The language of comics: word and image(Ed). Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.
Hi Simon,
ReplyDeleteI can see you are making lots of comments on other posts - well done!
Good job with this first post.
You have used references to secondary sources well, and also made a reference to the primary text. I can see elements of your own view here also.
Perhaps some more examples of elements in comics that appeal to adults/children would have been useful
Esther :)
Hi Esther,
ReplyDeleteI add the elements in but failed to take the reference of "American most favourite comics in 2008". I'll add it later.
Hi Simon,
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you went a bit deeper into this question than other people. I agree with your comment "Consequently, the same piece read by a child or an adult may result in different understanding." this is definitely true. Children read and understand things in a different way to adults.