Friday, August 15, 2014

Week 1 & 2. COMICS




Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?



Briefly, Comics might seem to be written to appeal to all aged people. But sometimes, there are some comics more likely for adults than children.

For example, Tin-tin is a famous comic for all aged audiences. The Tin-tin series shows the adventure stories with vivid images. So, it enhances and encourages the interests of children in reading, and also helps developing their imagination. The Blue Lotus Herge (Tin-tin) is based on real life stories. For that reason, adults can sympathize their experience and thoughts with this comic book as well. Most of the adults or mature people think realistically. Therefore, whenever they read comics, they tend to seek many more things than just text and images, such as the messages, concepts, ideals or thoughts behind the story itself. As everyone knows some films are originally made from comics, such as <Superman>, <Batman>, <X Man>, <Mask>, <Spiderman>, <Scooby-Doo>, <101 Dalmatians>, and <The Crow>. All these movies already had a good reputation before they are made, due to a huge fan-base from the comics. All those fans have read the comics since they were young, and when the time goes on, the plots of the comics have turned close to the reality. The comics always reflect the society or the politics…etc.

In Batman series stories described virtue and vice with appeal to people of all ages. The first series also made me look upon the world as a dichotomy between good and evil. However, when I saw the Dark Knight, it was not just a comic or a film. It was a kind of masterpiece. Ostensibly, in the Dark Knight, everyone agrees that evil is punished and good is rewarded. So it tells us the instructive lesson which is, to be a good person. But in my opinion, The Dark Knight is no way a kid's comic. It might be hard to understand the hidden subject for them. Joker is described as an interesting character on it, he was representing a deep message and what he did in the movie was provided human-beings can turn into evil because of their selfishness. Actually, we probably can think that there is a person who has two different egos (aspect), virtue and vice. I believe the Joker can be the icon of vice and Batman can be the other one.


The other example is the “Civil War” plots in <the Avengers>. For the kids, this storyline could be just a massive fight between the superheroes, but for the adults, it means a lot. The story was reflected to the Patriot Act after 9/11, and also the racism in the United States. I would say the comics are not just the graphic works nowadays. They have the same features as other literary works, reflected to the current issues or news in the society. Meanwhile, the kids do not have to understand the inspiration behind the comics or the stories, so they can just read them as an entertainment or leisure reading. To the question, the comics are for all aged audiences, but it only depends on the way you read them and the understanding of the messages or concepts behind them.




References

 Farr, M. (2001). Introduction, Tintin : an imaginary hero in the real world. In M. Farr, Tintin: the complete companion (p.9). London: John Murray. 

 Viram. (2007, November 15). The Blue Lotus. Retrieved Aug 8, 2014, from http://www.shvoong.com/books/1706168-blue-lotus/



2 comments:

  1. Ok Elena. The language in your answer is not always clear and it is hard to understand some of your sentences. In future, you need to edit your work and re-read it before you post it. You present a clear opinion in response to the question and I like most of your Dark Knight example (actually, it relates to aspects of Ged in Wizard of Earthsea also). Would have been nice if you had given at least one specific example from The Blue Lotus. You also need to try to use in-text APA referencing when referring to any secondary texts.

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    1. Thanks for the good advice :)
      I re write this post, could you check this again?

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