Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre media?
Though comics are something that are closely related to children, I believe that they can be enjoyed by both children and adults. I find when reading a comic, even if it is aimed at children, it will most likely have some sort of underlying adult humour or message that is universal to both children and adults. It is also nice to be transported back into your childhood when reading comics as an adult.
Tin Tin by Georges Hemi made it’s debut on the pages of a newspaper in 1929, and was targeted at children. The story follows a boy, Tin Tin, and his dog , Snowy, travelling the world and fighting crime and corruption. However, the comic’s instant appeal gained it a universal appeal (Farr, 1991). Tin Tin has now sold over 120 million books in more than 50 languages (Laser-Robinson,n.d.).
When I read comic books as a kid, I only understood the messages and storylines that were on the surface. I enjoyed comic books because they had pictures and not so many words. As I grew up and started recognising comic books as actual pieces of literature, I started to see so much more than just a children’s story. Characters such as Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker are actually extremely three dimentional, emotionally vulnerable characters. As a kid I regarded these characters as superhuman, but as an adult I realise that whilst they are superheroes, they are also human too. They are experiencing very human and relatable issues.
After reading Tin Tin I realised that Georges Hemi has carefully crafted his Tin Tin stories to be filled with accuracy and detail. Each story contains a fair amount of political propganda, the main one being the anti-communist propoganda (Farr,1991). This is something that has caused a lot of controversy around the comics (Laser-Robinson,n.d.). So, whilst Tin Tin is an enjoyable, visually pleasing and popular comic among children, it can also appeal to adults due to it’s underlying themes and messages that children would most definitely miss when reading it.
These themes aren’t meant to be understood by children readers, but become apparent to the mature audience. In my opinion, it is a very smart way of writing and allows comics to have a very wide range of audience.
References:
Farr, Michael. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.
Hergé,. (1936). The Blue Lotus.
Laser-Robinson, A. (n.d.). An Analysis of Herges portrayal of various racial groups in The Adventures of Tin Tin. Tintinologist. Retrieved from http://www.tintinologist.org/articles/analysis-bluelotus.pdf
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