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Comics and Cartoons

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Comics and Cartoons
Comics and Cartoons
September 6th, 2012
Lecture 1

Introduction and Overview
Comics were used to help people who didn’t read English be able to read the newspapers
The comics we are going to study all pretend to be one thing and we are going to look at the other things that they are.
Comics communicate all sorts of ideas about communication and about the ideas of communicating effectively
When reading these comics we have to think about what they say about what children want.
This is because often children are the center of the comics, the story that they tell revolve around them
Some contexts
Historical
Geography
Ethnic
Political
Sociological
Legal
Publishing
Literary
Aesthetic
Philosophical
Economic
Cultural
Regional
Some themes
City
Justice
Injustice
Femininity
Childhood
Danger
Mischief
Unconscious
Desire
Violence
Crime
Home
Prosperity
Safety
Masculinity
Compassion
Work
America
Some form
Iconography
Abstraction
Masking and identification
Closure
Gutters and panels
Continuity and transition
Line
Point of view
Symbol
Background
Lettering
Balloons and captions
Layout
Colour

Comics and Cartoons
Lecture 2 – The Yellow Kid
September 13th, 2012

Comics Scholarship and Genealogy
In the 19th century comics were at the low end of the art chain. They were not grouped with novels and opera, which were considered educational but were on the completely opposite end of the spectrum
Critics often attack comics because
Violent and vulgar
Promote rebellion
Anti religious (coloured ones printed on Sunday)
Means of encouraging illiteracy
Merely a genre, not a medium
Too involved with advertising
Cheap
Strange hybrid of text and image
Incitement to juvenile delinquency
Appreciation of comics came with McCloud’s text Understanding Comics
Our critical lenses
Context – the environment in which the text is enmeshed. Word comes from latin and means together or weaved.
Political, economical, technological,

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