In terms of race I do believe that comics hold stereotypes. Race is something that signifies a particular thing about a person and each race has its general stereotypes. As we find in one of our readings, it says basically that race is there to define qualities about a person; “A way of speaking, a look, a personality trait, an emotion is given to a character that allows readers to label, recognize, and identify them”. A stereotype allows for the readers of comics to associate different traits with a character based on his race. These stereotypes are not necessarily only apparent in the comic books, they are also brought into the real world, just expressed differently in the comics. One of the most evident stereotypes in the comic books, is the black stereotype. Just because a character is black he is immediately assumed to be strong and aggressive. In most comics, not only was a race characterized by the drawings and vividly showing the color of a character but in the case of the black characters, there name incorporated "black" just to make sure you were aware that they were a "black" character. Luke Cage, the first black character to have his own comic book defines this stereotype perfectly. He is portrayed as a strong and angry person and unlike the white superheroes that overpower the majority of comic who receive their powers through perhaps a spider bite, Luke Cage received his while is was in prison. Just adding to the stereotype of blacks being strong and destructive.
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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