Week Two -

Just wanna say GREAT job with the questions everyone, its really interesting to read everyone else's point of view!! Can't wait to read more! =)

1. According to Horricks (2004) how have perceptions of comics as a media changed?

As Horricks (2004) states; in the early 1950s there was widespread concern in New Zealand about the influence of comics on young readers. "The comics erode the most fundamental habits of humane, civilized living and they erode them in the most vulnerable element of our society, our children..... if we ban the comics we are reducing the chances of war and preventing the further pervasion of the world's children." He then goes on to say that over time the perception of comics has moved from being too violent to being widely praised for their works, even being reviewed in the the 'New York review of books.' He then goes on to say that video games are the ones getting the slack for being too violent for children these days, which i think is true. I myself are often surprised by the level of violence in the Xbox games my step brother plays. all of them are filled with shooting and people getting blown up with is a bit extreme for a 12 year old.

What does Khordoc think the Asterix series does better than Herge's TinTin?

Khordoc states; Herge has not displayed, in my opinion the full range of sounds which can be represented graphically in other words, this series is not "audible" or as noisy, as others. This may be related to the fact that tintin, like some of the other Belgian adventure series, is grounded in a fairly intricate plot, thus, it is more highly narrated, through indeed the characters are the main narrators. He also goes on to state that Herge's speech balloons often occupy approximately half the panel, showing that despite the detailed drawings, the series is nonetheless quite reliant on the text. In the case of Asterix, the story, despite certain variations, is fairly similar in the most of the episodes. The representation of sound is therefore one of the numerous strategies in this comic which contributes to creating humor, which is the series main purpose.

References - Horricks, D. (2004). The Perfect Planet: Comics, games and world-building. In Williams,M. (Ed.), Writing at the Edge of the Universe. Christchurch: U of Canterbury Press.

Khordok, C. (2001). The Comics Book’s Soundtrack: Visual Sound-effects in Asterix. In Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.), The Language of Comics: word and image, (pp.156-173). Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.

Baetons, J. (2001). Revealing Traces: a new theory of graphic enunciation. In Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.), The Language of Comics: word andimage (pp.145-155). Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.

Spiegelman, A. (2004). The Sky is Falling. In In the Shadow of No Towers (pp. ii-iii). New York: Pantheon.