Comic Books College Essays Samples For Students

Comic books are a part of every society in the world. They represent ideas that the young minds who read them, can understand. In essence, comic books play a huge role in depicting what the society. In many comic books, there are always the protagonists and the antagonist, while they can be seen as villains and heroes fighting for an individual cause, these characters often represent the forces of good and evil in the modern contemporary world. The essays describe America as it is seen, through examining the cultural artifact – Comic Books and American Cultural History anthology – Arguments within ...

Final Reflective Portfolio

This paper is a reflection of the skills I have gained in this class. It focuses on four texts and analyses them as indicators of my development as a reader and creator of literary and cultural texts. Three of the analyzed texts were created for this class while the fourth was written for a math class.

Part 1: Texts

The Ultimate Book of Martial Arts
Fay Goodman's book entitled The Ultimate Book of Martial Arts is already an entertaining read by itself. However, different parts of the book contain paratextual elements that give it a new meaning and make it a more ...

Typically when we think of comics we think of children. Their excitement mounts as superheroes defeat villains or save damsels in distress. Comic books are one dimensional and transparent with little to offer the adult world other than nostalgia. Or is there something more to them? It would be difficult for the average person to open a comic book and understand that there are a multitude of communication devices at work on the vibrant pages of Batman or X-Men. It would be equally difficult to ponder of comic books were actually more relatable because they were drawn as cartoons, than if ...

When someone hears the word hero, it brings a feeling of respect. Each country has its heroes and honors them, perpetuating their names in books, movies and memorials, composing songs about them and their idealized images. But there are some heroes that are unreal and were composed by people with certain purposes and during a certain period of time. One of them is World War II that brought not only destruction, but also creation. It is a turning point it the world of comics, as many of the iconic heroes began in WWII period and are still popular with ...

Analysis of Volar by Judith Ortiz Coffer

Introduction
Volar embodies a story of freedom from the confinements of human life. The author of the nonfiction story narrates of a life imagined in a dream where she was able to live life devoid of the inhibitions brought about by living life as a human being. Throughout the story, various aspects of the language and emotion employed in narrating the story helps the readers steal glances and sneak previews into the author’s desired life. In the analysis of the tone in the story, the paper will highlight the different ways that the personality of the author manifests in the story ...

Compare and Contrast

Compare and Contrast

For a better part of 19th century, various expressive art forms such as orchestral music, Shakespearean drama, sculptures, paintings, and opera enjoyed mass popularity and high-cultural status. However, in America, people shared a culture that was less organized (hierarchically), and less divided into rigid adjectival categories. With time, American arts became increasingly renowned for a growing chasm of “high” and ‘low” culture. Specifically, highbrow culture appeals to the affluent sections of the society who have enough disposable incomes to spend on services and goods that are more expensive and of higher quality. It requires a culture ...

The definition of the Western Canon is always changing, according to literary critic and Yale professor Harold Bloom: but is that mutability a good thing? Bloom, a rather conservative literary critic, believes that there should be literary standards that outlive the fashionable theories of the day. In our times, these literary theories include ideas borrow from Marx, Foucault, New Historicism, and ethnocentric and gender perspectives, among other lenses through which to view the production of literature.
Amidst these ever-changing standards and definitions of a “classic,” Bloom believes the study of literature and good reading habits—to read well and ...

Introduction

Superhero movies have in the recent years dominated the box office with an increasing number of viewers willing to embrace the films. The recent advancements in technology could be possibly attributed to the phenomenon since film makers have been able to apply the required super hero effects on the movie casts and pull the effects off in the appropriate way. The unique cinematic techniques attract the attention of most viewers who are then influenced by the message passed across by the films. The massive surge of comic book lovers could also be attributed to the growing demand for superhero ...

We live in a world where there is good and evil. Since time immemorial, stories told by humans have always had heroes and villains. Human culture has always been rife with tales of heroism, both real and fictional, wherein awe-inspiring individuals faced immense adversity only to overcome it and accomplish good in the end. In the last century, these stories have taken a new turn in introducing fictional characters that are superhuman. The heroes in such storylines who’re more commonly referred to as superheroes are capable of feats that, by any standard, far exceed human capabilities. It is ...

Ethnography: Fans of “The Walking Dead”

In order to fully understand the scale of the phenomenon that is “The Walking Dead”, the critically acclaimed and widely beloved television series that continues to break rating records with each new season, one would have to conduct a bit of a research on the very people, who keep tuning into the show and supporting it over the years. The fans of “The Walking Dead” are made up of quite a diverse crowd, encompassing television lovers of all ages, genders, ethnicities, races, and sexualities represented in the U.S. Therefore, researching them gives one insight not only into the intricacies ...

Introduction

Japan is known as a leading nation in the production of comic books, graphic narrations and video games. There are numerous categories of such publications and productions available on the market. This presentation will examine Manga, which involve a set of comics that conforms to a style of comics which became popular in Japan in the late 19th Century. This is a period known as the Meiji period where the Japanese were defining their self-expression and formulating a culture that could be used to preserve their national identity and also tell their stories in different forms. This presentation will ...

Introduction

Pop Art or Popular Art originated in the Great Britain around 1950s. The word pop was first used to define popular culture existing but as the artist started using popular culture in their artwork the Pop art was created. Although the Pop art movement started in Britain, it achieved its full expression in U.S. American soil nurtured the movement providing a solid base for Pop art. It flourished so much in America that it became an integral part of American everyday life. The art found its way into things like newspaper photographs, Advertisements, Coco cola bottles, used car parts ...

The Drowning Girl is a major artistic work done by Roy Lichtenstein in 1963. The painting is sometimes referred to as “Secret Hearts” or simply “I Don’t Care. I’d Rather Sink.” It’s an oil painting done on canvas to depict some artistic information (Lobel 118). The painting in itself passes on a lot of information in regards to women’s emotions. Nonetheless, the book is ordinary as it uses the universally accepted conventions of comic books. Due to its uniqueness, it’s regarded as an iconic work and continues to play a crucial role in the ...

Passionate Journey is a wordless graphic novel written by Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel. Unlike other general comic books, Passionate Journey is composed by images with no colors, hence, offering readers a greater chance to expand their interpretation and give them several variations of the plot. Published after the World War I, the book represents the experiences of an early 20th-century ordinary citizen in a modern city. The book intends to present the ups and downs of common people living int those days, specifically showing their life style in post-war period. In order to highlight the trends of that ...

In early June of the 2010, author and New York Times writer, Steven Pinker, wrote an article titled “Mind over Mass Media”. The article itself is a personal favorite of mine, and captures my attention at all angles. In essence, Steven Pinker is making the argument that mass media doesn’t have a negative effect on our brain, as so many people believe. Throughout the article he uses examples of comic books in the 50’s, as well as video game exposure in the 90’s. During the time period of the 1950’s, people believed that comic books made your ...

In his argument about the film “American Splendor,” Hight (2007) seems to propose that adaptation of the comic into a film overcame most of the challenges and barriers that face such an attempt. In order to prove that Hight brought about this argument, there is a need to look into arguments by other writers with regard to adaptation of comics into films. This paper does so by looking at arguments by two film analysts. It will first look at the challenges associated with adapting a comic into a film. With this background, the paper will then look at how the producers ...

The influence media has on society is often underestimated because it contains subliminal messages that are, by definition, absorbed unconsciously. The media, including magazines and television commercials, normalize attitudes toward sexually explicit images, gender roles and unrealistic body expectations. In particular, the article "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," the author, Jean Kilbourne argues that advertising has acquired an important role in portraying females as objects and normalizing overall attitudes toward the female body. In contrast, Susan Bordo's story "Beauty (Re) Discovers the Male Body" focuses on the distorted image of the male body. In spite of describing the ...

For my narrative reflection and journey into a visual experience I chose to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It exhibited many pieces I was able to connect to McCloud’s theories about closure and visual literacy (6). Certain pieces stood out more than others, inanimately, but somehow speaking to me. Collections spoke, punctuated, and ended themselves as comics do with direction, icons, and framework. McCloud’s philosophy on our sense of self in relation to what we see around us was also very present during my excursion (10). I saw myself differently depending on what exhibit I ...

Superman is an unadulterated example of a contemporary legendary hero. Superman was made by American author Jerry Siegel and Canadian-conceived American craftsman Joe Shuster in 1933. In opposition to his current incarnation, he initially showed up as an uncovered, clairvoyant lowlife determined to overwhelm the world. He was called "Super-Man" in the short sci-fi fanzine "The Reign of the Super-Man" that was distributed by the pair in 1933. Siegel and Shuster chose to re-compose the character as a legend and took out the hyphen, renaming him Superman and reconsidering him with no likeness to his prior incarnation.
Super Man was ...

Dear Executives of Marvel Comics,

I feel immensely pleased in writing to you as Marvel has been one of the best publishers of comic books and continue to entertain its readers from the time it came into existence, which was in 1939. Since the beginning of your company, you have delivered great entertainment to the people through excellence and strong commitment to your work. Your company has undoubtedly given us some of the most gripping superhero stories which have kept the readers amused and wanting for more, every time they read it.
The introduction of new teen superheroes and the existing list of many ...

For my narrative reflection and journey into a visual experience I chose to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It exhibited many pieces I was able to connect to McCloud’s theories about closure and visual literacy (6). Certain pieces stood out more than others, inanimately, but somehow speaking to me. Collections spoke, punctuated, and ended themselves as comics do with direction, icons, and framework. McCloud’s philosophy on our sense of self in relation to what we see around us was also very present during my excursion (10). I saw myself differently depending on what exhibit I ...