In my opinion, comics were at the forefront of social transformation in the US in the 1960's. However, comics were not exactly the "go to" form of news about social issues, especially with the television being a new form for news and entertainment. With all that being said, some comics were able to stay up with the times. Marvel Comics was consistently good at this, creating stories that were directly related to major social issues that were current in the country. Although comics seemed to have been overshadowed by radio and television by this time period, the companies were still getting stories out about social topics because they were able to create new and interesting stories to keep their fanbase buying and coming back for more. One of the other main reasons comics were able to stay at the forefront of social transformation was because they were able to change the way superheroes were created, another change that was beneficial to the industry. Spiderman, for example, was a new way of developing a hero. Even when Peter Parker develops his powers, he is still reluctant to use them for fighting crime and instead uses them to make money. Only when his grandfather is murdered by a criminal he let go does he start to use his powers for good. By keeping up with the times, comics were able to stay at the forefront of the social transformation in the US.
To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics. In Comic Book Nation , I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies...
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