Ashley Walker- Tintin Comic Genre

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

Comics have been around for many years and are a way to express ideas to their audience with the use of illustrations and some text. They started off as being published in the newspaper to now being published as comic books. Comics are known as suitable for children as there is more illustrations than text which children enjoy more than reading text is looking at pictures to understand an idea. But i believe that comic books are suitable for both target audiences children and adults.

Comics can be for both children and adults as they can send a important message that can be suitable for both audiences that lets children and adults to both enjoy the comics. For example Tintin was targeted for mainly children but as Tintin comic's developed it became a well known comic that adults could enjoy as well as children. As both audiences could interpret the comic in different ways and understanding it differently.  Farr (1991) said that children will be interested by the excitement of Tintin and that adults will find the political sarcasm and puns and prescience. This tells us that the target audience is for both adults and children and that Tintin displays different themes that the audience can understand or even relate too. and tells us that children are more interested of the idea of Tintin and how he is in the comic while adults are more interested about whats going on in the comic with the hidden message. As adults are more mature they will notice will the use of history and violence in the comic rather than the idea of a boy going on adventures. 

Farr (1991) also talks about that “there will always be something that the reader can feel connected to the comics such as, characters or stories every time they read it” this suggests that the audience can relate to the character and themes in Tintin doesn’t matter how old you are or if you’re a child or adult you can connect to this comic from its ideas. Every comic will be interpreted differently from the audience that reads it. Children see comics for entertainment and enjoy looking at the visuals while adults will see the history and racism and violence that is in the comic. 

So I believe that comics can be for both target audiences and the hidden message towards the comics can be interpreted differently from both children and adults. 

References:

Farr, M (1991). Tintin: The complete companion. London: John Murray.

Hergé. (2005; 1935). The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.