Week 1 & 2

Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?

 

I think that comics are deifnately a source of media for both children and adults. Especially nowadays the variety of genres to choose from, there are comic books to suit any group of people in all different age groups. Herge's well known Tintin comic books is a good example of this, as on my opinion Tintin is truly a comic book for all ages. Herge (n.d., as cited in Farr,1991) who is the author of “the adventures of Tintin” explains that “Tintin” was aimed at all young people aged from seven to seventy-seven. One of the main factors of Tintin's great sucess is the broadness of topics the comic book covers, even though Tintin is a comic book, the issues each story covers shows Herge's personal thoughts towards both political and social events and issues. For example when drawing the evil Japanese character in the Blue Lotus, Herge drew his face in a particular evil looking way, which in a way shows Herge's opinion of Japanese people. Though this is just an idea and not an assumption. All in all, these factors have had a major role in Tintin's long-lasting popularity - an ageless demographic has come to see children get a first glimpse of the outside world through Tintin's adventures as introduced by the adults in their life, in which they have read as children themselves; these adventures are revisited by adults much more critically, detecting misleading, farcical elements in the narrative. Nevertheless, they continued to be passed down to the next generation, as soon as they reach adulthood (Farr, 1991).

 

 

Reference

Farr, Michael. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.