Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?
Comics have been around for a long time and range from newspaper prints to published graphic novels. Comics are a competent form of story-telling and could be seen as for children solely because of the illustrations, to adults this could feel unrealistic and childish compared to a novel. However, there are themes and tones represented in a lot of comics that are targeted at a mature audience. The themes may not be present at face value but is shown implicitly through the subtext. Comics can definitely be enjoyed by children and adult as Farr (1991) have stated that Herge’s target audience age range from seven to seventy seven. Although everyone is looking at the same images, not everyone sees the same picture. Everyone's interpretation of the comic will be different, that is the beauty of illustrated comics.
How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin’s appeal to adults?
From the readings I have understood why Tintin's adventures suit for adults as much as for children. According to Farr (1991), appreciation for Tintin can be found at many levels, due to Tintin being a protagonist that "would appeal to children as much as for grown-ups" (p. 2), though often for quite different reasons.
Younger are groups inclined to join Tintin in this partially fictional world with your usual sidekicks, and defeating your typical enemies in a heroic fashion. Whereas adult readers will find political satire, parody, puns, prescience (Farr, 1991, para. 15) and see underlying messages that Herge inserts in his comics. Examples of political satire in the comics is the invasion of China by the Japanese and the smuggling as well as the issue of war. At the time of each comic, Herge would draw things or events to keep some realism in the world of Tintin. Farr (1991) states that Herge had kept an archive of photos, from vehicles to foreign towns, and used them as a model for his comics. Another factor adding to Tintin’s popularity among adults is the “complex language” that Herge uses (Yip, 2011).
Many people start reading Tintin as children and this could lead to a “self-generating” process, as Farr (1991) describes it, which means that eventually these children will become adults. The parents possibly themselves will continue to read Tintin and introduce it to their own children therefore keeping the tradition alive.
References
Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.
Yip, W. Y. (2011, Nov 12). Tintin fans mostly adults. The Straits Times, pp. n/a. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/903501643?accountid=8440
Thanks Nistha, a very well thought out post. Yes, I agree that the adult content is often embedded as subtext. Can you think of a specific example of this subtext from The blue lotus?
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