Throughout the Easter holiday I was contemplating ways to approach my research. Receiving information from my friend was greatly helpful. I had insight into comics' history, and therefore more understanding of the perspective of comics by the public. I also found relevant material concerning comics' educational value in the form of a couple journal articles depicting the views of librarians and the inclusion of graphic novels in elementary school libraries. Those would serve as support for my argument regarding comics' unique ability to educate its reader. I then searched more examples of well-received children's comics; there was Jill Thompson's "The Scary Godmother" comic series, which combines the characteristics of a children's book and comics together; and Doug TenNapel's "Monster Zoo" and "Ghostopolis", which seemed to targeted towards slightly older children; and Jeff Smith's "Bone", an adventure comic that has been highly regarded even in the academic world. Things seem to be lightening up for my research, and I will continue to read on.
Here is an updated Essay Introduction:
Essay Intro (29/03/16):
Comics. Hearing this term
many may consider its ubiquitous presence in the media these days. From its
humble beginnings as disposable newspaper strips to prized collective items to
the now blockbuster film adaptations on the silver screen, comics stand as a
prominent form of entertainment. As comic films become increasingly widespread,
they have also drawn people back to the original source material. And with
that, fervent comic readers begin emerging, and discovering an immensely
comprehensive world of comics. The following of comics range diversely from
male to female, and from children to adults. But some believe that some comics
are of negative influence on children. Those who advocate this would state that
comics, especially those of the horror genre, are too violent and frightful (footnote)
for younger readers. For them, these horror-related comics hold no educational
value for children. Yet those people seem to neglect the idea of why comics,
even the scary ones, are so effective in engaging its readers. Scott McCloud
puts it this way, as reading comics require “closure” --- the act of viewing
parts but perceiving the whole; it forces the reader to participate, to connect
the broken sequences of images into a coherent story (footnote here). Closure
builds upon the reader’s learned knowledge, and by doing so, involves them in
the comic reading experience. And this is the heart of comics. Children are at
a stage where their imaginations run actively, and comics can accommodate that by
providing them with rich, whimsical and even frightening worlds they can get
lost in. As aforementioned by McCloud, comics require input from its reader, so
that they are contributing their own imagination rather than just a passive
looker. But has comics truly lived up to its potential? In the digital age,
comics seem to have yet take full advantage of its ability to exist in more
than one form of media. Comics’ ability to draw the reader in is uncanny, so
are there ways to further the reader’s contribution to the story? There is also
no limitation for comics, whether if it is the subject matter, genre or media
(footnote here). And there should be no limitations for who can read them either.
- I believe I have made a connection between horror comics and children, it may be still too weak, but it is present. How can make a stronger relation between the two? Perhaps begin with the horror comic genre?
- The spontaneous jump from children to the comics' medium has been fixed.
Cover page for "Containment Area", a side project that I am working on. Lu and Xiao are the protagonists of this comic.
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