Essays on Comics

COMM 495: Communications Studies Senior Capstone

Introduction The present portfolio is a compilation of different works that I completed throughout my studies at UMUC. They illustrate my understanding of the different communication theories and concepts that I learnt in these classes. In the first part of this portfolio, I presented my work samples and briefly explained their background and purpose. In the second part of the portfolio, I reflected upon the manner in which these works added to my body of knowledge and developed my communication, critical thinking, writing and analyzing skills. The final part of the portfolio is a resume. I believe that this ...

Exercise 1

 Driving in winter, especially on snowy, icy roads can be less troublesome if you take a few simple precautions. First, put on snow tires if you plan to drive on snowy, icy roads very often. Second, check the amount of anti-freeze in your radiator and add more if necessary. Next, add antifreeze to your windshield washer fluid; otherwise, the fluid will freeze and possibly break the container. Finally, it is also a good idea to carry tire chains, a can of spray to unfreeze door locks, and a windshield scraper in your car when driving in winter weather The ...

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 ...

Western society (and to a lesser extent near-Eastern society as well) has felt the impact of the Classical world for thousands of years. The philosophy and political processes have all made their mark in one way or another, but it is the impact which Classical mythology has had on the world at large which is most well-known (or is at least more visible). From the use of classical imagery in famous paintings and sculptures, to the slightly less salubrious twisting of Greek fertility Gods into representations of Evil, classical mythology and imagery has saturated our culture from almost the ...

Batman: The History of Origin

Created by the artist-writer duo of Bob Kane and Bill Finge, the superhero character of Batman first made an appearance in Issue Number 27 of the popular DC Comics’ series Detective Comics in May 1939. So instant was the popularity of the orphan boy who uses his intelligence and ingenuity to develop cutting-edge gadgets to fight crime in his native Gotham city, that DC Comics launched an entire new comic book series dedicated to the new character that was titled ‘Batman’ in 1940 . The secret identity of the superhero was that of the heir Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the ...

Poetry, though it dominated literary studies for centuries, has declined in recent years for various reasons. From Homer and Virgil to T.S. Eliot and Walt Whitman, poetry was a literary mode held in greater regard by the general public than mediums such as the novel and theater. While one may argue, this decline results from verse being an obsolete mode of expression, the more likely cause for poetry’s growing obscurity takes the form of growing elitism that excludes anyone who has not studied poetry from enjoying verse. The modern era has brought with it a culture that values ...

For many years, animation has been one of the most effective and interesting media formats. More recently, the growth of the Internet around the world has made animated media available to everyone. Animation provides artists and filmmakers with a very creative tool. This tool can provide a range of different content to children, young people, and adults. Moreover, animation can send a variety of messages in very creative and unusual ways. This technique has been used in many fields, such as multimedia, TV ads, web design, teaching programs and some other media products. Statistics demonstrate that Japan and America ...

Manga and anime are two of the most defining parts of the Japanese culture that are known worldwide. Considered as Japan’s authentic forms of animation, manga and anime play a big role in propelling the Japanese culture further into worldwide recognition. Manga is defined as the Japanese comic animation or the animation that the Japanese produce in print while anime refers to the Japanese digital animation or the animation that the Japanese produce digitally through multimedia. These two distinct forms of Japanese animation have been an integral part of popular culture for years in Japan and have played ...

Animation has been one of the most effective media product for a long time. Within time, the world development and the internet popularization made animation and media available to everyone. Animation is a very creative tool, which shows many different content to children, youth, adults and everyone. Moreover, animation can send massages in very creative and phenomenal way. This instrument has been used in many fields like multimedia, TV ads, web design, teaching programs and some else media products. It is obvious that in Japan and America are the biggest producers of animation in the world. Knowing that animation ...

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 ...

The term “manga” refers to Japanese comics or comics written in the Japanese language with the use of specific Japanese style. Nowadays, the manga is popular not only in Japan but also all over the world. With the growth of the international popularity, it often becomes the object of condemnation due to its sensitive content. This paper aims to study the development of manga and the roles it has played in society at different times. During its history, the manga was mostly used for political mockery, but through the years, it became more diversified and started to be the ...

Miraculous might be the most popular elements in visual culture throughout the history. The term first appears in the religious context, and is now widely adapted in popular culture including films, TV shows, and animations, etc. Synonyms of miraculous include: supernatural, magical and marvelous etc. The audience of those miraculous visuals, whether religious or not, is always attracted to this interesting element. It is different from the violent or the sentimental since the visuals target a really wide range of audience, regardless of age, race, sex, and taste. According to Hood, “ever since we are born, we generate knowledge ...

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 ...

Throughout the book ““Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media”, Anne Cooper-Chen explains how and why Japanese cartoons have been prosperous at a time when Disney cartoons have spread all over the world. It indicates that some salient features of the Japanese culture makes its cartoon resilient in the presence of stiff competition. This paper uses cultural diversity that closely relates to proximity with specific examples and personal views to illustrate the global adaptation and popularity of Japanese cartoons. One of the questions about Japanese cartoons is whether their global popularity is because of its exoticism to people ...

Since the early 1930s, readers of comic strips and comic books have been entertained by cartoons depicting heroic characters such as Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, and, of course, Batman and Superman. With improvements in mass communication, exposure to heroic values represented in make-believe people with extraordinary abilities reached out to millions of fans world-wide. Boys and girls of all ages identified with the struggles of these heroes as they battled evil villains and monsters, relating to their human shortcomings and needs. Perhaps the two most famous of the fictional superheroes are Batman and Superman. The fictional superhero Superman was ...

Spider-man has become a symbol of the ultimate underdog around the world. The 12-cent comic book has helped to create an empire of Marvel comics, tv shows, movies, toys and a culture that celebrates superheroes. The writer of the comic book (Lee, 1962) was able to witness the success a lot of his superheroes, as they became symbols of hope after World War 2 and during the very height of the Cold War (O’Neil, 2016). When it comes to this one character, Spider-man, the idea of a man being transformed into an insect was not new. It can ...

Vladek's Mental Illness in Art Spiegelman's Maus

In recent years, a lot of comics are very mediocre, quite often they have similar super-heroes and antagonists. Not many comics evoke some powerful emotions, not many of them have a strong sense of compassion for the characters. They shock the readers very rarely. One of the graphic novels, which cause such a feeling, is "Maus." This is a comic of Art Spiegelman. He used the stories of this father. This is the book about the life of one family, about the survival of the mind and body in conditions where the word "destruction" is not an abstraction, but ...

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 ...

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 ...

Comics are a simple and engaging style of storytelling with the help of images, visual art and words. The images are arranged in a panel and into a sequential narrative. Words might or might not be used and usually, appear in a box or balloons near the images. The essay discusses MAUS graphic novel, its content and visual strategies used by the illustrator to convey the information. It evaluates as to how some specific concepts of comics are employed by the author of MAUS. When one mentions a graphic novel, it conjures images of illustrated books and comics. There ...

Achewood is one of the most important and critically-acclaimed internet comics of all times. He treats many important societal issues through anthropomorphic toys, including stuffed teddy bears. Specifically, in the ones that correspond to January 8th and 11th of 2006, the author Chris Onstad explores the social construction of masculinity and sexual relations. These interesting comics reveal masculinity as having to do with aggression sublimated by society, both through its norms and the market. The first comic shows this through the invitation to “The Badass Games”. Different male characters receive a small letter that tells them to assist to ...

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 ...

Questionnaire

For the viewers of “The Walking Dead” Are you a fan of the zombie genre in general? yes, I read/watch all/most things in the genre; no, “The Walking Dead” is my sole interest in the genre.

How familiar are you with the show’s source material: the comic book series the show is based upon?

I had read the comics before the show started; I started reading the comics during the show’s run; I am planning to read them; I have not and do not plan to read the comics.

What made you interested in watching the show in the first place?

its public acclaim; raving critics’ reviews; source material; recommendations from friends/family.

Are you watching the spinoff show: “Fear the Walking Dead”?

yes; no, and do not plan to; no, but plan to start. If you are watching ...

It is interesting to note that two heroes a thousand years apart can be so alike. It is their humanity that makes them real, it is their strength that makes them heroes, and it is their persona that makes them vulnerable. The audience that observes the hero seeks more than just a person who is victorious. Heroes are subject to the same human frailties as those who follow their exploits, but "a hero is someone who rises above his or her fears and limitations to achieve something extraordinary a hero embodies what we believe is best in ourselves" (Fingeroth ...

Raced Body in Design and Visual Culture

Since the dawn of our civilization, people have been trying to identify themselves and the purpose of their existence. Our ancestors’ eagerness to examine and repeat the structure of the universe in the scale of human communication made them unite into tribes and families. Such a process is impossible without applying a list of criteria, which make people somehow connected, either by same origins or territory. However, if there is such a process as unity, there should somewhere be a concept of separation. Derived from the human wish to dominate over others, racism and other kinds of discrimination occurred. ...

Definition Draft: The Walking Dead

‘The Walking Dead’ is an American television series, which has become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed shows in American television history, both domestically and abroad. The show is based on the series of comic books with the same title created by Charlie Adlard, Robert Kirkman, and Tony Moore (“The Walking Dead”). Frank Darabont, a renowned Hollywood director and screenwriter, who had earned his stripes by adapting several works by Stephen King, including widely applauded “The Shawshank Redemption”, developed the series with the assistance of comic book writers (Seibert). The show was first announced by AMC in ...

Book review

The Plot summary Comics have their own share of readers who seek amusement and entertainment via visual elements of text and the effectiveness of comics lies in their efficient use of their imagery and textual components in them. However, the above-stated assumption is majorly limited to the visible elements of communication like images (cartoons) and the texts in spite of the fact that there are many other significant elements of visual communication used in the comics which jointly craft the desired impact. ‘Understanding comics, the invisible art’ is a book which encompasses the conceptual application of various such elements ...

Comic Analysis: Critical Analysis of the ‘Drama’ by Raina Telgemeier

Comics is a part of a genre that is not only difficult to define, but also tricky to describe. Comics, as noted, must not include or incorporate text, and differ with single cartoons through the production of a more sophisticated pattern through the spatially sequential arrangement. Drama as a comical device is a graphical novel that presents some art work in the form of drawings and meant to convey a particular message. Since inception, the comic has made it possible to have some sense of persuasion and also helps by way of motivating people to take certain actions. Hosterman ...

(Tutor’s Name)

Steven Pinker brings a new topic to his readers’ attention through his article ‘Mind Over Mass Media’. The topic is worth discussing in the context of growing concerns over the dramatic growth of technology-based knowledge sharing headed by new forms of media. Pinker says that the world has been affected by ‘moral panic’ at the advent of each form of media like “printing press, newspapers, paperbacks and television” for centuries (Pinker). All these developments were once considered as threats to people’s ‘brainpower and moral fiber’, and today internet is no exception. Pinker lists out some ...

F1010.016

Feb.3.2016 604 words

My First Kiss

Everyone dreams of their first kiss and what it would be like, often practicing in the mirror or on our hand, longing for someone else’s sweet lips to touch our own and wonder what it would feel like when it happened. When I was 14, my parents sent me to my grandmother’s home on vacation. I remember, it was a hot summer. It was so hot that you could feel the sweat drip down your body and there was no means of air circulating. However, I felt the boredom kick in day after day ...

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is one of the unique graphic novels in the genre of literature. Unlike other comics with super heroes and flashy graphics, Maus is a story of the Holocaust presented in comic style. It gives an account of Art Spiegelman’s father, Vladek’s experiences as a Polish Jew . All the characters mentioned in the comic have been presented in the form of animals, such as the Jews as mice, the Americans as dogs, the Germans as cats and many others . The framework of the comic is not only simplistic framework, but also terrifying as Spiegelman ...

Introduction

The minority of works is appealing to find an association between the popularization of the anti-hero concept with the trends and moods actual in the society of nowadays. Therefore, in order to both provide the reasons for anti-hero popularization and explain the importance of this concept for modern society, the following research will consider the most popular and significant anti-heroes depicted in modern literature. In particular, the research will focus on anti-heroes created by Marvel comics due to the fact that comics provide the easiest and the most favorable way to represent the heroes, anti-heroes and villains to the ...

Introduction

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” These words by Stephen King illustrate the concept of the modern literature: what is treated as an imagery shall become a fixed figure of the culture. The effect of the mass culture provoked a big irreversible changes of the European culture into the mass one. For example, a vampire no longer rises from his grave and turns into bat to fly from place to place. Skinner Sweet, an anti-hero born from the comic book series by Stephen King and Scott Snyder, is the first American ...

Violent Media is good for kids

For several years, it has been argued that fantasy violence depicted in video games, television shows, or movies have a negative impact on the lives of children. However, other people such as comic writer Gerard Jones have opposing views by arguing that violent media does not affect the life of children. This paper provides an analysis of Gerard Jones's book Violent Media is good for Kids by analyzing the different viewpoints the author used to support his arguments. While the author used an array of examples to support his arguments, it failed to persuade me to believe that violent media ...

The essay presents a comparative analysis of the iconic central characters in the two movies, 'Batman Begins' and 'The Queen'. In spite of the presence such an iconic character in both the movies, the movies employ distinct techniques in portraying these characters in a peculiar way. It is important to understand the differences in the genre and the type of audience suitable for the two films. The stage setting of various scenes in both the movies varies distinctly in order to present the required effects. In the movie, ‘The Queen', the stage setting aims at creating an impression about the royal ...

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 ...

Introduction

During the 1940’s and the 1950’s, the people had various opinions about the purpose of comic books. While a section of the society believed that comics had a huge negative impact on the children as they instigate criminal behavior, yet a larger section of the society asserted that the comics had a positive impact on children and worked as a source of education. In the articles, Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics and Seduction of the Innocent, the authors have put forward various ways in which the comics can contribute towards educating children or polluting their minds. Wertham, the author of ...

The superhero comic book genre, as it has existed for the past few decades, is rife with a variety of stories, many of which involve virtuous heroes who stand for Truth, Justice and the American Way while saving innocent children from a burning building while non-lethally taking down some robbers. However, as comic book audiences have matured, comic books themselves have matured with them, leading to characters that are far more unscrupulous and ambiguous in their morality. Central to this line of morally-grey antiheroes is Marvel Comics’ the Punisher (aka Frank Castle), a man with no superpowers – just an arsenal of ...

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 ...

Introduction

The “Walking Dead” is a television film series focusing on a world filled with flesh-eating as well as walking zombies. This film is a dramatic post-apocalyptic series of horror genre based on the “Walking Dead” comic book authored by Charlie Adlard in collaboration with Kirkman Robert and Moore Tony. This American-based film series is a development of Frank Darabont, who is a writer and a co-writer of six episodes of the first season of the series. Season one of the horror series begins with the awakening from a coma of Rick Grimes, the sheriff’s deputy, only to confront the zombie apocalypse. In the event of ...

Scott McCloud book, Understanding comics: The Invisible Art uses symbols and concepts like human reflection. Often, artists recognize these concepts, blend this creation of symbols, simple or distinct, to invoke different feelings and reactions within the readers and to deliver certain messages and emotion to the audience. McCloud makes the reader an active partaker within the comics and to create own realism based on own visions and ideas. Arguably, when taking the images, symbols, icons, and drawings and putting them in a picture, language and reality, differentiating them from abstract, the realism, and considering all icons/images that fall between, one ...

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 ...

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 ...

On a first look, the visual similarity between Pavitr Prabhakar and Peter Parker are unmistakable. Spider man’s costume is unmistakable. Beyond the immediate recognition of spider man, however, are characteristics that the American audience will immediately recognize: this Spiderman wears a highly stylized and impressive version of what looks like the Indian shalwar kameez or dhoti. Together with the sandals, the representation of Indian culture is apparent. Whereas both of these superheroes learn the lesson that “with great power comes great responsibility” in the same way, the stories are different. Prabhakar does nothing to help a woman in distress; Parker does ...

SECTION 1:

1.2) Genre analysis: Consider the role of genre in understanding comics and manga. Compare comics from two different genres and discuss your results. You might find the reading by Coogan (posted on the course readings page on Desire2learn) useful in your answer. The genre analysis handout, which you might find helpful, is posted to the Desire2Learn exam materials page. Comics are considered as a genre of reading materials accompanied by distinct imagery that is presented in a form of conversation between the characters through the use of conversation balloons. Emotions and presentation of distinct human element in each comic arrangement ...

The book, “the ocean at the end of the lane," by Neil Gaiman, starts with a prologue that acts as a window to the idea in it. The prologue begins with the narrator at a funeral, dressed for the occasion. He states that he has done his part through the speech that he was to give. The writer wants to escape the tense situation in meeting all the people that he had known when he lived in his hometown. Page nine discloses the narrator’s discomfort at being asked personal questions when his life was so unorthodox. He was divorced, practiced pure ...

1. I read Akira Vol. 1 by writer and illustrated Katsuhiro Otomo. I borrowed a copy of the version published by Dark Horse Comics in 2000. The series was first published, however, during the 1980s in Japan. 2. I selected this specific issue because it introduces the readers to the interesting world created by Otomo. When I started reading Akira, the story immediately grabbed my attention because of intriguing story and the interesting characters. Moreover, the idea of a post-apocalyptic Japan was both stimulating and daunting. 3. Otomo worked on Akira. What I like best about the illustrations is ...

Marvel Comics and Studios is a media franchise based and owned by American business persons. Its basic line of operations includes the production of a fictional universe shared on a super-hero film basis (Howe 13). The characters of most of the eventual productions are founded on publications by Marvel Comics as a line of production. Over the recent and subsequent years, the Marvel comic has extended its line of production to include short films, television series and comic books (Butler 26). It is important to note and record that the irreducible minimum is the crossing over effect created in similar plots, cast, characters, ...

Peter Parker, also known as the Amazing or Spectacular Spider-Man is one of the most celebrated super heroes of all time. This is not only illustrated by his world-wide appeal but also buy the numerous media that have been dedicating to telling his story. This media includes over 15 comic book titles, a Broadway musical and two movie franchises. With so many Spider-Man stories being and have been told, one of the fundamental question of Spider-man fans and followers alike is how is continuity achieved across so many platforms. This question is especially pertinent when considering the comic book Spider-Man ...

Brian K Vaughan’s hero in Ex-Machina, Mitchell Hundred, is a reimagined hero.

While the hero as a literary figure exists in a variety of literary contexts, comics are the literary medium where a hero feels most at home. Though comics can be written to explore any theme that can be explored in any branch of writing, comics are most commonly associated as having a hero. An example of the traditional archetype of the super-hero would be Superman or Batman. Comic scholar Christopher Gonzalez defines this as America’s idealization of the individual. (Gonzalez, 2011). He breaks the mold of the traditional hero. What is the political and social significance of this story? The creator ...

Is a Picture Really Worth a Thousand Words

In Art Speigelman’s graphic novel Maus I and II we get many actions illustrated in pictures instead of words. The novel portrays his father holocaust survival story and relationship with Vladeks. The comic book style pages show a powerful message through symbolism and the mimics. The novel begins with generalizing the Jews, the Polish, and the Germans with different animal characters. The Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, and the Polish as pigs. His novel depicts cat and mouse gaming struggles. The Jews were suffering, when were closed in this circle being sent into concentrations camps by the ...

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a fictional novel by Junot Diaz. The book chronicles the lives of its main characters in two contexts, New Jersey in America and the Dominican Republican. The main character in the book is Oscar Wao, an obese boy growing up in New Jersey who is obsessed with fantasy and science fiction books as well as falling in love. Oscar is also obsessed with a curse has he believes has plagued his family for many years. The book also features a host of other characters with one of them being Yunior who is Oscar’s ...

When you watch Arrow, an American show based on DC Comics hero character, Green Arrow, you know you are going to enjoy hours of suspense and action. Arrow, ideally, captures the story of a rich youth Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) who after five years of being stranded in a deserted island returns home as a secret vigilante with the core aim of fighting crime and corruption in his home city, Starling city. Just like any other Television Show, Arrow has its own share of highs and lows that may impact differently on different segments of the viewers. The show’s characters ...

When you watch Arrow, an American show based on DC Comics hero character, Green Arrow, you know you are going to enjoy hours of suspense and action. Arrow, ideally, captures the story of a rich youth Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) who after five years of being stranded in a deserted island returns home as a secret vigilante with the core aim of fighting crime and corruption in his home city, Starling city. Just like any other Television Show, Arrow has its own share of highs and lows that may impact differently on different segments of the viewers. The show’s characters ...

Introduction

Every culture has its heroes and villains. Heroes are utilized to teach us important themes on good and evil and to help set the framework for acceptable behaviour in society. Children grow up learning about heroes and villains as examples of how the ideal person behaves and what happens when an individual turns ‘evil.’ Children also grow up imitating these stories as they internalize the lessons. We all have memories from our childhood where we pretended to be a good guy and captured the bad guy to prevent him from wrecking evil on the world. Modern children also engage in ...

Spider-man is a fictional character, which firstly appeared in comic book as the super hero that saves city citizens from evil and cruel anti-heroes. This idea came up to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. There were no such comics as Spider-man in 1962, but he has been shown in Amazing Fantasy (cover-dated Aug. 1962) comic book. This fresh idea became a revolution in comics; people loved it. Kids waited in line-ups to get a new, just published comic book with another story that happened to our hero. As we look through comics, we can see that this series can last long. Spider-man ...

History of Developing Manga

Isao Shimizu, author of ‘the history of Manga’ / ‘Manga no Rekishi’, cites drawings from the 12th and 13th century as the first manga texts. Today manga is part of the pop culture in Japan and the world over. It comprises of story-driven narratives (usually a complete novel-like work of an author), composed with stylized illustrations, flexible use of linguistic text (onomatopoeic and spoken) and discursive frames. It uses visual designs manipulated to function as iconographic. Manga has identifiable vocabularies and registers temporal spatial relationships into the characters in the narration to give them multiple voices, personalities and mental states ...

Violent media is good for kids

Thesis statement The negative impacts of violent media as opposed to the opinions that will be brought forward through a critical analysis of “violent media is good for kids” by Gerald Jones

Introduction

We live in an environment where media forms the basis of our lives. It affects our thinking, interactions and social behavior. Media can be used for positive or bad purpose, depending on the kind of media an individual is exposed to. Gerald Jones, in his article, seeks to argue on the effectiveness of violent media as a means of shaping a child’s character. He encourages parents to expose ...

Children’s Literature has often been ignored by the academic world, especially when it is examined strictly on its content matter. The level of sophistication, as a story and as a study, is questioned especially when pitted against criticisms that do not take into account the structure of children’s stories. A narratological approach may be a way to elevate the reception of Children’s Literature study and also give a deeper understanding of the story at hand. Before going on, perhaps it would be wise to understand what the term “narratology” means. Narratology refers to the branch of literary criticism that examines ...

Batman is a famous long time superhero that transcends one generation to generation. He is known for his bat costume and abilities that roam silently in the dark. He is a hero on his own. His might and power has been proven to be a sole merit for people to recognize his abilities. Batman is a solitary superhero for a long time. While it is true that Batman survived many of his heroic quests alone, fighting the good fight for freedom and justice for the society can best be won when fought with a partner. For Batman’s case, the presence of Robin plays a significant ...