Comics in the 1980's were different than another time. Comics in the
1980's were very dark. In the 1980's there
were increase of crime rates and violence and drugs were a big problem as well.
The comics of this time were trying to reflect off of this. Comics had heroes
who tried to stop these villains and this ended up becoming very popular. People
were into this rebel type behavior and the sales proved it. Sales soared during
the 1980's. As the market grew so did the readers. The average age of readers
increased and this was a definite positive for the comic book company's. Comics
in the 80's definitely had more of a dark tone to them and some people were
very into that dark tone. These comic book writers needed to relate their
comics to the current times during the 1980's and they definitely did. Comics
in the 80's were very serious compared to other years and the types of readers
and fans were proof of that. The more serious the comics got the older the
average age of the readers got. The 80's was a serious time and comics was a
great overall reflection of that.
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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