Why do we blame comics for societal failure? Why do we turn to them to blame when things in our world aren't right? The reason people blame comics is because they are easy targets to put blame on. While comics were read and enjoyed by many, they were also the representation of the "bad stuff" in society. Therefore, when things went bad, people said comics were the reason for it. From war to sex to drugs to violence, everything in theory could be blamed on comics. When a young kid or teenager did something wrong, comics always took some of the blame because they were supposedly influencing kids into thinking bad stuff was okay. Our society was and still is very influential, and when a controversial thing like comics are all over the market, they are a very easy thing to blame for corrupting the youth, or anyone for that matter. Although comics are often blamed, I think that it is societies' overreaction, not the comic books, that are to blame.
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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