Do you think Comics are a children's or adult genre/media?
I believe that comics are both children and an adult genre of media but in todays society they are mainly for adults. Most content displayed in comics are made for adults to understand. The illustrations are more for children.
TinTin is loved by both adults and children from all over the world. (Farr, 1991) states; All young people aged from 7 to 67 will enjoy tintin. In fact the the appeal has proved much wider; from children first learning to read to aged tintinologists (a group of people who love everything about tintin). Each person no matter their age finds their own understanding and appreciation of the comic.
The child loves the excitement of the comic while the adults get the political satire, the puns and prescience, so most comics can be seen for both children and adults. In todays society alot of comics are being made into film adaptations and video games so are being widely broadcast to both, but children are getting a better understanding of them, and at the end of the day, they are the ones that will keep being them, so are targeted to them, but in saying this, parents are the ones that influence what their children read, and in most cases this is what has been happening with tintin. The children grow up, become adults and then the parents themselves allow tintin to be carried on through other children.
How and Why are comics becoming more accepted as an art form? Can/Should they be regarded as a literary genre?
Comics are a rare sort of art form. They are delicately drawn and most displayed with so much detail it is like you are looking at a zoomed in photograph.
They are constructed by some of the most skilled artists and are just as beautiful as paintings being cited and praised as the most beautiful art forms.
Comics tell a story in the pictures, they are carefully displayed and constructed so the reader gets a full story without so many words. This is a skill that should be praised more often as they are telling a story in another way, not in the usual accepted form of storytelling.
The Images displayed convey a sequential narrative. which is sometimes more effective than a written or spoken narrative.
Can/should they be regarded as a literary genre?
I think Comics can be regarded as a literary genre as most present stories told in a combination of sequential artwork, dialogue and text, but in regard as to if they SHOULD be a literary genre, im not sure as they do not display as much text or dialogue as prose or poetry.
References - Farr, Michael. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp. 8-9). London: John Murray.
A good start Hayley. I think there are comics whose images and text are specifically aimed at a more mature audience- a good example would be NZ artist/writer Dylan Horricks' 'Hicksville' - Check it out at http://www.hicksville.co.nz/
ReplyDeleteAlso while traditionally written text has been given prominance over images in literary communities - there is definitely a shift towards a visual prominence - more recently as a result of changing technologies.
Some ways to make your responses more critical would be to reference more of the secondary (theoretical) texts/readings (this would have been useful in your second response)and also try and provide examples from the primary texts, such as the comics themselves. You could have used a scene from The Blue Lotus to exemplify your arguments above.