When looking at comics they are most certainly male oriented. The reason for this could be that the majority of comic book writers when this medium was exploding were men. It was only until wonder woman when women began to actually have a significant influence on the hero role. Even then wonder woman had very sexist ties to her story. The writers included underlying messages with this new hero. There were undertones of bondage and a tribal message. Since wonder woman was from the amazon originally there was a very animalistic influence on her character. In addition wonder woman soon became a make fantasy so one can argue that even after wonder woman's appearance sexism still existed in comic books. Though one can say this is sexism another point of view is that it is better than having no women at all in a hero role. Once wonder woman came onto the scene other women such as cat woman and other counter parts to heros became more common in comics. Without wonder woman, women would not have developed into the role they have today. So, one must decide whether the role of women in comics is better off having certain sexist undertones than no role at all. In my opinion I believe that it is okay the way it is now. This is because since most readers are younger, they do not pick up on the same messages that an adult would notice. I think that a character like wonder woman would be a positive influence on a younger girl or boy because of the values that she instills. As long as the message of good is better than evil, what other core values can a comic hero portray? All in all, there is no denying that there are sexist undertones in comics, but one must realize that they are not strong enough to eliminate the characters all together.
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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