- Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?
- How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin’s appeal to adults? According to the second Farr extract (p.50-59), how did Hergé research China for The Blue Lotus?
- How might Hergé’s The Blue Lotus address or relate to the issue of what Said (1977) terms ‘orientalism’?
- Does Varnum (2001) define the difference between a cartoon, comics, and graphic novel? According to Varnum, what distinguishes comics from other media? How and why are comics becoming more accepted as an art form? Can/should they be regarded as a literary genre?
1. Comics seem to have the remarkable ability to capture the attention of a very diverse audience. Because of mixing visual content with text the reader experience comics provide is even more varied than any other body of text. Comics very often connect to the reality of the time they have been created in quite closely. We may recognize this in Hergé's attention to physical detail when depicting objects, vehicles, fashion items, etc. He also connected to politics and historic events with surprising foretelling ability. Other comic book artists have created many "graphic novels" which do not even aim to be children's books at all. So, while Tintin and many other comics were originally created for children, I think comics are very much an adult genre as well as children's.
2. Farr (1991) justifies Tintin's appeal to adults by the enjoyment of "political satire and parody, pun and prescience" as well as the meticulous attention to detail mentioned in response of the first question, which might appeal to both children and adults "armchair travelers".
3. Said (1977) introduces several meanings to the term "Orientalism". The most relevant of these regarding Herge's work is the statement that "[orientalism] is a distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic, [...] texts." This means that Herge represents in the Blue Lotus China by making use of all strereotypes about "the Orient" commonly accepted in the "Occident" at the time, despite the fact, that sometimes he might sympathize in the narrative with concepts or feelings not necessarily embraced by the "petit bourgeois" of the period.
4. Varnum and Gibbins cite several essays about comics and argue that a comic page becomes more than a combination of verbal and pictorial (visual) information and thus creates a "larger unit of meaning". They encourage readers to enjoy comics as an art-form (i.e. a literary genre) carrying important meanings as opposed to "lowbrow" cheap entertainment.
The differences between cartoon, comics and graphic novel lie mostly in the relationship of the text and the non-textual elements, according to the critics cited by Varnum, as the latter two often create new meaning by contrasting or contradicting elements, whereas in cartoons the visual and verbal elements are more in harmony.
References
Farr, M. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.
Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.50-59). London: John Murray.
Said, E. (1977) Orientalism. In Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. & Tiffin, H. (Ed.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader (pp. 87-91). London: Routledge.
Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.). (2001). Introduction. In The Language of Comics: word and image (pp.ix-xix). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
2. Farr (1991) justifies Tintin's appeal to adults by the enjoyment of "political satire and parody, pun and prescience" as well as the meticulous attention to detail mentioned in response of the first question, which might appeal to both children and adults "armchair travelers".
3. Said (1977) introduces several meanings to the term "Orientalism". The most relevant of these regarding Herge's work is the statement that "[orientalism] is a distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic, [...] texts." This means that Herge represents in the Blue Lotus China by making use of all strereotypes about "the Orient" commonly accepted in the "Occident" at the time, despite the fact, that sometimes he might sympathize in the narrative with concepts or feelings not necessarily embraced by the "petit bourgeois" of the period.
4. Varnum and Gibbins cite several essays about comics and argue that a comic page becomes more than a combination of verbal and pictorial (visual) information and thus creates a "larger unit of meaning". They encourage readers to enjoy comics as an art-form (i.e. a literary genre) carrying important meanings as opposed to "lowbrow" cheap entertainment.
The differences between cartoon, comics and graphic novel lie mostly in the relationship of the text and the non-textual elements, according to the critics cited by Varnum, as the latter two often create new meaning by contrasting or contradicting elements, whereas in cartoons the visual and verbal elements are more in harmony.
References
Farr, M. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.
Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.50-59). London: John Murray.
Said, E. (1977) Orientalism. In Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. & Tiffin, H. (Ed.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader (pp. 87-91). London: Routledge.
Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.). (2001). Introduction. In The Language of Comics: word and image (pp.ix-xix). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Good. Thanks Balazs. You have fully engaged with all the secondary readings - very impressive. Good solid post - the only problem with answering them all (rather than just one or two) is that it doesn't give you space to develop your own oppinion on any of the threads/questions. Thanks.
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