Comic books are a genre that is well-liked by people and frequently used to describe real-world situations, lessons, or historical events. Despite this, they are regarded as a heavily underutilized form of media literacy. They promote equality between people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, portray real-life situations or events to amuse audiences and impart important lessons, which explains why they are widely accepted. Researchers have hypothesized that comic books help learners become more engaged in their studies because they make use of comic-related resources like satirical writing and images. Two comic books featuring fictitious characters will be examined for this paper in order to comprehend their storytelling and artwork.
What sets comic books apart is it’s the ability to engaged vivid pictures to describe or reinforce ideas and convey lessons to the reader. Narration facilitates the flow of events from one chapter to the next, detailing experiences of the main character in the book. Making the fictional plot of the genre more engaging hence captures the attention of readers.
How does representation of genre remain the same or differ.
Most comic books share and differ in contextual representation; both comic books (spider man and space adventure) are male dominated. Conversely, most of the space crew are male (space adventure) which represent chauvinism in literature (Bhatia 2014). Spider man book revolves around a single character depicting his struggles and success when overcoming challenges, while the latter revolves around groups of individuals set to explore the universe and outer space.
Reason for differences and similarities occurrence
Comic books are based on transcending certain limitations of real life; they communicate and teach different lessons depending on the prevailing circumstances. The comic writer tends to focus their imagination in addressing social vices or accomplishment while considering other aspects of age, gender, and race. Similarities and differences will be reflected in this genre because writers use varying contextual ideas to create comic content.
Traditional depiction of comic books
Contemporary fiction genre traces their routes from the 19th century (Walter Scott). This type (genre) has been traditionally embedded in our culture over the years in the form of oral or folk traditions. Contemporary genres that elaborate on historical fiction receive criticism for lack of coherence or misrepresentation of factual periods and events. The comic author continue to borrow concepts and ideals from past authors’ through retaining methodical approaches ‘established by the latter of personifying events and situation as they occur in our contemporary world. The main character in the comic book spider man (Peter Parker) perceived as the hero where he saves the world from destruction by eliminating the protagonist (Hawk) who wants to overrule the world (Auerbach et al., 2013). Such ideas are borrowed from traditional author who tells vivid hero stories like peter pan, Hercules, etc. for their braveness and courage to safeguard the world.
Similarities and differences in depiction
Comic books as a tool of literate have existed since the early times of human civilization; they have been explained and narrated in various forms to pass teachings and culture from generation to the next while retaining the fundamental meaning of expressing imagery outlook of a fictional or real outlook of a given society. Both traditional and contemporary comic books genre share aspects of similarities, where both are used as a tool of literature to elaborate fictional and real situations while derive lessons and teachings and at the same time maintain a certain tempo of fun reading (Creeber 2015). Conversely, they share a broad range of differences, because of the evolvement of different cultures and enhancements of technology, contemporary comic books are more futuristic; exploring the fictional world to create humor, entertainment, and lessons for the reader. The traditional genre focused on creating real heroes and heroines who assisted people and communities from suppressions hence portraying appealing humor and teachings to the reader.
Importance to literature
Comic books have distinctly defined literature; a huge number of people may find it generally “boring” to read a novel or a book. The ability of the latter to capture the readers’ attentions while illustrating pictures and colorful words, capture the attention of any reader. These fascinating features of comic books have made permanent marks in literature hence making them a valuable tool of literary genre (Bongco, 2015). They are used to pass teachings and lessons across all genders, races, and ages without any form of favoritism.
Purpose of comic genre
Since the creation of super comic heroes in the 1930s most people (children and grown-ups) continue to be fascinated with stories of heroism and devastating effects caused by the protagonist. Comic genre in literature serves the purpose of educating and entertaining readers with the aim of instilling valuable lessons, which can be applied to everyday life as evident in many comic-literal works, i.e., courage, perseverance, etc.(Shand 2015) .
Importance of comic genre and other media
Most comic genre attributes and exemplifies the western culture and way of life. Comic genre can be portrayed in other comic forms like graphical narrative or use of kinetic imagery, to educate and charm the reader. We establish that these artistic forms serve the same functions hence cementing the latter as a mainstream form of artwork, with its defined language and diverse conventions.
Conclusion
In today’s evolved media, comic continue to dominate; technological advancements have improved creativity and delivery of fictional literature. Motion pictures have increased their involvement by bringing to life real superheroes on our screens; this has influenced cultural patterns in the modern world. Where people derive lessons from these characters depicted in comic media and apply them in their everyday life, this shows the power of comic as a genre of literature and how it influences people way of life. Social surveys experimented on individuals; where they are asked to explain the kind of superheroes or comic figures they admire and what lesson they gain from this comic characters. The results indicated most people apply valuable lessons derived from comic books in their personal life
Reference
Auerbach, E., & Said, E. W. (2013). Mimesis: The representation of reality in Western literature. Princeton University Press.
Bhatia, V. K. (2014). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings.Routledge.
Bongco, M. (2014).Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in comic books.Routledge.
Creeber, G. (Ed.). (2015). The television genre book. Palgrave Macmillan.
Shand, R. (2015). The" Family Film" as Amateur Production Genre: Frank Marshall's Comic Narratives. The Moving Image, 15(2), 1-27.
