'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

Comics had been and still is understanding as sexist. The reason being is that all the comics are based on mostly male readers. Comics such as superheroes, crime, horror, and violence comics are targeted for the male readers not female readers. It might be obvious result because most female do not read comics as much as male. Therefore, comic industries had to create comics mainly for male readers. However, by doing so, it will stop the consumption for female readers even more. This pity situation had been repeated for many years in the comic industries. Even though, there are few female super hero character like wonder women, it is targeted to the male readers at the end of the day. But it is ironic to say that comics are sexist. The reason most comics are targeted and made for male reader is that they are the biggest reader in the industry. It is not fair to call comics sexist, while they are just doing what they need to do sell their comics. If female readers think that comics are ...

In my opinion, comic books were and still can be considered sexist. From the creation of the first comics, the stories have always been geared and set up for the male reader. It was not until several decades after they started producing comics that the first major female character, wonderwoman, made an appearance. Because comics were already setup with the mindset that their readers were going to be mainly male, it made it easy for them to obtain the sexist title. Even when Wonderwoman made her debut, the creator intended for the series to be read by mostly males. He made the right decision in directing it to males, because something like 90 percent of people who read Wonderwoman were men. In female's defense, Wonderwoman did do what no comic had ever done before and represented a strong independent female who could fend for herself. With that being said, one character is not enough to change my opinion that comics are and will continue to be sexist.

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...

Because of readership, comics have typically been at the forefront of social transformation since their inception in the golden age. This did not change in the 60's with the silver age. Spider-man was witness to a protest on a college campus for better housing. Other comics were portraying the Vietnam War in a patriotic way, but with hindsight, we can say that those comics were actually quite critical of the war. However, I also think comics were lagging a bit. Unlike WWII where superheroes from the DC universe went ahead and attacked Nazis and Hitler, the new superheroes and other comics were not doing this. They were in fact doing it at the same time as the events were undertaken. Having said that, the comics dealing with the Vietnam War were at the forefront. They highlighted what many Americans were to protest later, in the 70's: unwanted war and unnecessary death and destruction. Comics thus were attempting to appear at the forefront of social transformation, but ultimatel...

I don't think that comics were at the forefront of social change in the 1960's. They were certainly a reflection on the current social situation, but I feel that to say they were at the forefront would imply a more active role. Comics for much of the the 1960's were still influenced by and recovering from the censorship of the 1950's and the Comics Code. They had to work very hard to get away from the increased camp of their images, and it took time for people to shift back to being interested in superheroes. No, comics were more of a tag-a-long for social change than standing proudly at the forefront of it. It is impossible to mention comics in the 1960's without talking about two publishers: DC and Marvel. DC had an interesting role in the 60's. They were stuck with comics that no one seemed to take seriously for most of the decade, and they were apparently happy with this fact. However, they did re-style and relaunch many of their past characters from the ...

Comics where neither at the forefront of social transformation, nor did they lag behind. They simply had a mini revolution of their own to update into what was emerging as the new American values, creating and updating characters to fit the new standards of the American dream and American normalcy. DC comics did this by changing some of its older characters origins, and changing the broader genre of their super heroes from fantasy to science fiction. By taking the Flash and the Green Lantern and making them experiments gone right, it reinforced the nations need to continue scientific exploration and glorified the space race. It easily stayed within the code, and the figures of a cop by day, super heroes by night sat well with the American public, and created a sense of unity between the hero and the secret identity, instead of contrasting, or juxtaposing it. Marvel comics did this by creating characters with more emotional depth. It was a new idea, t...

Where comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960s? When asked were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960s I would have to say it’s a little of both. Comics were not the front of behind, they were mainly at the side of the social transformation. I say this because I don’t believe comic were behind the social transformations but at the same time I don’t think they were leading different movements either. They were mainly just reflecting events of society through comic books. For example when Peter Parker was caught in the middle of the riots on the college campus, the comic wasn’t necessarily ahead of its time but at the same time the comic wasn’t lagging behind this event in society, it was more at the same pace and just reflecting an event that happened. Comics did create comics that could relate to the average American like Spiderman and the social issues in the comics (mainly Marvel) were made so the Average...