Skip to main content

Comic Book are American History


Before I know it, I'm sure someone will ask me why a class on comic books. This is the natural question to ask, especially since I and my colleague William Svitavsky are gearing up to teach HIS 235: American Graphic Media. This class is dedicated to studying comic books and what those comics can tell us about U.S. culture in the modern era. While we are both highly skilled intellectuals:), we will still get troubling looks from someone. Nonetheless, the chance to challenge assumptions and create new ways of considering contemporary issue abound studying comics.

Comments

cocoababez87 said…
I have never really gotten into comic books, but I was very interested in the Batman movies and the superman shows. This course will be an opportunity for me to gain knowledge in the fields of comic books, especially since I couldn't distinguish between Marvel and DC comics. I also want to learn about the historical references seen in comic books, the racial aspects of the time reflected in these works. I also wonder what is the fascination with comic books as we see with grown-ups? I hope after this class I will actually appreciate comic books after this course.
January 18, 2008 at 12:53 AM
jkeeley said…
I have always loved comic books. Or, I have always loved the heroes behind them. In chapters one and two I was surprised how much information I learned about comics through such an imaginative text. Ideas such as my driving a car becoming an extension of myself was a concept that never occurred to me. Or how often humans see themselves in inanimate objects, provided they have a circle and dot representing an eye ball. When I saw that 90 pages of total reading was assigned I frowned, but as I got into the reading I was hooked. I look forward to discovering more of the history of comics (such as their origins in hieroglyphics) and the people behind them.
January 18, 2008 at 8:56 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why blame comics for societal failure?

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.
2 comments
Read more

Mythology and Superheroes in Comics

Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...
2 comments
Read more

The 1950s Are Often Portrayed As A Period of Social Cohesion...

People didn’t set the standards; the standards were set for you. The 1950s were not a time of social cohesion but it was misleading because it was a time of “don’t air your dirty laundry.” Women were to act perfect; the “Stepford wife” if you will, while the men went to work like “Don Draper.” Although the comic codes were in full fruition, people found ways to cause a raucous. Comic books were the reason that children were acting violently. Comic books are a media outlet and they didn’t have to follow the conservative nature that the decade seemed to promote. One of the most popular selling genres of that time was the Romance comics. The romance comics not only attracted male readers, but female readers as well. This, alone, can be alarming for the “social cohesion” of the 50s because men expected their wives to be at home all day cooking, cleaning, caring for the children, etc. They didn’t want their wives spending any additional time reading comic books. Perhaps the comic co...
Post a Comment
Read more