Superheroes became dark in the 1980’s because they reflected the dark events happening during this decade. In the 80’s, crime rates, violence, and drug abuse were increasing in society. Cocaine, in particular, was used among many people. As a result, comic book creators added these elements into their stories to gain public interests in the Comic Book Industry. They wanted to attract a more mature age of readers, instead of the children that was their main audience. Also, the political and social events in the 1970’s left a mark on Americans entering the 1980’s. The country’s lost in the Vietnam War, The Watergate scandal, and protesters and riots against the government made many American confused and glum about the future. Superheroes, especially Batman’s in Frank Millers’ The Dark Knight Returns, reflected the countries need to pull out of their “funk” and return to time that was better for Americans. A time when American values were important and the country thrived and prospered off of them.
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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