Shadna Lang Siu/ Question One and Five

Do you think comics are a childrens or adult genre/media?

Comics have been around for a long time, before comics were published into a story book they were published in a little strip section in the newspaper. Perhaps during that time the target audience were adults considering the young children were less incline to read the newspaper, except for if adults had ripped out the comic strip section and given it to a child.

I believe the target audience for comics can be for adults and children, there are many comics that adults and children can related to, for example the comic strip Tintin was originally aimed for children, however as the comic Tintin developed and progressed a wider audience began to become more interested in the comic strip, perhaps began to see themselves in the character of Tintin and relate to him and his adventures. Farr (1991) stated that “there will always be something that the readers can feel connected to the comics such as, characters or stories every time they read it”. Furthermore, Farr (1991) also suggests that each individual interprets each comic story differently, every time a person reads a story over and over, there can almost be an instant guarantee that will always be new ideas and realisation of the interpretation of the character and story every time the comic is re-read.

Children especially boys would enjoy and relate to Tintin because how his character presents an adventurous young boy with the addition of “mans best friend” a dog. Whereas adults will see a cases of “political, symbolic, alcoholism, somewhat violent, satirical, and (I'm treading lightly when I say this) homo-erotic (also a hint of hetero-erotic with Calculus and Castafiore) undertones that can be read by certain readers if an older reader were to analyse the TinTin comic” (Tintin Fan resource, 2013).

In addition, I do believe that comics can be enjoyed by both children and adults because of how comic stories such as Tintin can be interpreted according to the understanding of either the child or the adult. It is wonderful that new ideas and interpretations can present themselves every time the stories are re-read which is why comics are still popular to this day. Every new interpretation of the story will bring to light new ideas of the characteristics and content of the story.

References

Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.

Tintinologisorg. (2013). Tintin Forum. Retrieved from http://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=8&topic=2781&page=2

Does Varnum (2001) define the difference between a cartoon, comics, and graphic novel? According to Varnum, what distinguishes comics from other media?

Varnum (2001) suggested that cartoon, comics and graphic novels did not fall under their own category of art but rather that all these genres were somewhat linked, interrelated or  loosely fall under the ‘comic’ genre. Varnum (2001) stated that “the elements of a cartoon, comic and graphic novel can be formed more than one common feature”.

Additionally, comics are distinguished from other media such as television and the internet. Varnum (2001) states, although media and comics are consists of words and visuals, the only components of comics are images, texts and some particular forms like word balloons, zip ribbons and panel frames”. According to Cook and Meskin (2012) Comics do not just provide material for adaption into other media; they are often the product of adaption from other media”.

 For example the comic stories of Ant-Man, Thor and the Avengers along with many others have gone from comics to blockbuster movies.  Which also shows a difference of comics from other media is the image, content and sound. The visual context of a block buster shows the producers interpretation of the comic story whereas when the comic is being read by the audience the story is then left for open interpretation by the reader.

References

Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds). (2001). Introduction, The Language of Comics: word and image Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Meskin, A. Cook, R., T. (2012). The art of comics: A philosophical approach. Blackwell: USA.