Does class affect our perception of the comic image?
In the beginning of comics, they were for the most part short comical stories put into newspapers. With this in mind I think that in the beginning of comics class did not really affect much of our perception of the comic image. But, in the coming years when comics would take off in popularity, I believe that class was and still is a factor in determining our perception of the comic image. In addition to class I believe that age affects and molds our perception of the comic image.
Before comics really started to become popular, there were similar magazines called Pulp Magazines or Pulp Fiction that are said to be the ancestors of modern comics. The name pulp was derived from the type of paper that the magazines were printed on, which was cheap wood pulp, during this same time were their more expensive counter-parts which were called “slicks” or “glossies” were sold for twenty-five cents a piece, while pulp magazines were sold for a mere ten cents a piece. Due to the intended audience of both the pulp magazines and the slicks, which were the lower classes and the upper classes respectively, I think that comics have inherited the same intended audience and reputation as its predecessor.
Another concept that affects the comic image, which is as well in the intended audience, is that comics are meant strictly for children. This comes from the idea that comic stories are only about superheroes. But we fail to take into account the cognitive effort that it takes to read these books, and because of this only see comics as children’s books instead of books that can span an age range from children all the way up to adults.
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