The Green Lantern is written by a jounralist who was very involved with the civil rights movement, Denny O'Neil. This is interesting to hear and is very apparent in his comic stories. Of all the comics we have read thus far, it seems that the Green Latern, while quite a Batman rip off, has many good messages that other stories never bother to touch. The 1960s and 1970s were a difficult time for the United States because of all the racial and gender struggles. The nation was not only battling soviet influence and active in Vietnam War, but there was a major issue over women's, black's, native-american's, and chicano rights. Basically everyone needed and deserved an equal voice in the United States and this was the beginnings of a better way of life in our country. As i mentioned before, I think that O'Neil had great messages in his comics. He was able to introduce a character that was brave, strong, intelligent and capable of thinking critially about issues. He also had a sidekick that was capable of doing all those things too. They often helped one another in situations that called for thinking critically. One example is the comic that we read, which showed the Green Lantern not thinking before he acted and it was his sidekick, the Green Arrown, that helped him to understand what he had done wrong. This is a simple example but there were other examples of violence and racial problems that the Green Lantern was able to battle. O'Neil really took a "B" character and touched on issues that were previlant for decades to follow. Some stories are quite relavant even today, because we are still battling with issues that are racial and gender motivated. :)
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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