In Terms of Race Do Comic Books Offer Stereotypes? In terms of race comic books do offer stereotypes. But when the comic book characters were first created it was not intentional. The creators were well intentioned liberals, trying to make progressive steps for minorities in comic books. The exaggerated characters created became offensive in most characters. Comic books are very concentrated versions of society. Stereotypes of minorities aren’t created by comics but they were enforced, perpetuated and emphasized. Comic books accent certain characteristics of the character being created. Most often when it is an African American character the comic creator may accent the elements that construct the subject as “Black”. When the creator does this, they exaggerate the elements making the character not only look African American but then also creating the character to “act black” this then creates the “super black.” Because of the heavily embellished elements of the African American character a generality is made. The generality is made because when a black character is created and defined he then represents the race creating or enforcing a stereotype.
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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