In terms of race, comic books certainly offer stereotypes. In the comic book timeline, we have seen a prevalant source of stereotypes. During the 1910's and 1920's, when the comic book industry was essentially started, racial stereotypes were excepted as the social norm, which is why they were often seen in comics during this time. As with most other issues in America, the comic book industry followed the culture and changes. As time progressed, the stereotypes changed, giving African Americans, in particular, a continuously changing image. At first, the comic writers were very blatant with their stereotypes. But as the times changed, they tried to be more liberal with their projections of racial stereotypes. Although the writers started to make a conscious effort to rid the comics of these stereotypes, they found it quite difficult. So although the comic industry has tried to rid itself of the negative image of racial stereotypes and has done a decent job in doing so, stereotypes have been and essentially always will be a little piece of the comic book industry.
Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
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