Question- Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?
It is subjective, as both age groups do
enjoy reading graphic novels. There is no age limit as to whether a person can
enjoy reading from comic. As comic book have vast genre like drama, crime, science
fiction, historical, adventure, and etc. Comics are also divided into short
stories, newsprint or album such as graphic novel. They reflect the culture of
the producer and some cases their past experience. Comics do not necessarily
fall into children’s media/genre. For example, Tintin Adventure would normally fall under the category as a comic
genre. However, it has various types of adaptation such as books, screen medium
and newsprint. In Tintin first adventure,
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets instantly became a hit sensation amongst
children and adults alike. As the journey of Tintin Adventure progresses, the author, Herge soon added various
kinds of secondary character into the mix – some of those characters which he
had based on were a reflection of well-known people in his days. Furthermore, his
drawings were based on a specific historical and political timeline in which he
was dedicated towards bringing his readers around the world as he sees it (The
Adventures of Tintin, n.d) Most genres reflect several meanings such as
political, historical, critical or creative imagination in the content. Comics may
also reflect various meanings. Graphic novels are “a fusion of text an art that
builds on the impact of visuals to offer value, variety, and a new medium for
literacy” (Bucher & Hinton, 2009, p.337). Therefore, reading a comic is not
limited by a person age, but the freedom of creative imagination of an
individual. An adult would read it as a favorite past time from their
childhood, hobby, or merely just interest. Younger readers such as children
read because of the color, content, easy storyline, and it also sometimes
serves as a moral guideline for children.
References
Bucher, K. T., & Hinton, K. M. (2009). Young adult literature: Exploration, evaluation and appreciation. Prentice Hall, 2009.
The Adventures of Tintin (n.d.) History of Tintin. Retrieved from http://us.tintin.com/about/origins/
Hi reading your blog I found a agreed strongly with your points about how Herge was able to create a comic that infused literary skills and artistic skills together. A point I thought which may be interesting to think about is do you think Tintin as a timeless comic has created two areas of adult audiences. the first can be those adults who grew up reading 'The Adventures of Tintin' and enjoy re-reading these comics for nostalgic reasons and the adults who enjoyed reading Tintin from the time of each graphic novels release?
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex. Nice point - and good to see you interacting.
ReplyDeleteThanks SunMin. Good. I agree that there is no real age limitation for the enjoyment of comics. A good point about the different adaptions of comic media - in particular the process of reinventing them as films. The film we saw in class was a relatively direct adaption of the original material (although somewhat sanitised). The more recent film (Peter Jackson) mixed elements of three Tintin comics (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham's Treasure) and changed or remove so much of the original material that it was effectively a completely new 'voice'. I'm not sure it had much of Herge left in it. Take care with your sentence structure and make sure to check you language. A couple of your sentences were a bit hard to read. But good overall.
ReplyDeleteI think that comics can be both children's and adults genre depending on the comic. For example the Herge's, The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Blue Lotus is directed more at adults because of the political reference and use of propaganda. Some of the caricatures can be viewed as racist or stereotypical especially towards Chinese in the Blue Lotus. However in saying that the cartoon or TV adaptations of Tin Tin can be both enjoyable to adults and children. However something like Peanuts, a comic that was written and illustrated by Charles M. Shultz is rated as one of the best comics/tv cartoons ever written. This I think is more suitable for children because it has no adverse connotations.
ReplyDeletePeanuts (n.d). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts
ReplyDelete