Author: Kerr

One naturally assumes that all comics are aimed at children. This is not necessarily true as history has taught us that many comic books and comic strips are aimed at adult audiences. Comics aimed at children can either be for entertainment or they can be actually educational. The comics can also be age ranged base with some targeting those before teenage years and others aimed at the older children. Censorship-age ratings In the United States the Marvel Comics have produced their own rating system so that parents will know what age of readership a comic is targeting. As of 2005 the bands are: All ages A Appropriate for ages 9 and up. T+ suggested for teen and up Parental advisory Max-Explicit content Education As so many comics are printed in a wide range of subjects that children are protected from inappropriate material. The use of comic strips in teaching is widespread. As teachers strive to make learning more motivating the idea of using a comic strip to get a learning point across to a class room of pupils is compelling. It does give the students the opportunity to become more engaged in the teacher’s lessons There are now online sites who are giving teachers the opportunities to use their software in order to utilise comic strips in their lessons.  The resources now available are huge and an opportunity which...

Comic books are periodicals that come out one a week, one a month or annually. These comics do not follow one storyline but will cover a number of characters through their own adventures. They started to be released in the 1930’s with the publication of the Famous Funnies in the United States in 1933. A Carnival of Comics was given away in Woolworth Stores in 1934 and Famous Funnies #1 was also released. In 1935 New Fun Comics became the first comic that contained all new material with no re-prints. In the late 1930’s in the United Kingdom both The Dandy and The Beano started production. The success of these two comics saw more entering the market with the most famous being Buster, Topper and Breezer. Meanwhile during this period saw the emergence of Superman and Batman into comic books. Superman started on the front cover of the first ever Actions Comic in June 1938. As time progressed and superman became more popular, the world saving character branched out into other areas of the media. Radio, television and film all attempted to satisfy the country’s appetite to be informed of the tales of the all action superhero. However, in terms of the comic industry, Action Comics continue today to publish stories of Superman although now the readership is at a new low level of around 30,000 copies sold per...

Comic strips are a sequence of drawings arranged in panels with text balloons to explain the events. They have been traditionally found in every day magazines and newspapers but in the 21st century they are now being found online in the form of web-comics. During the 20th century alone more than 200 strips were published every day in American newspapers. The popularity of the comic strips started as early as the 18th century with the Swiss author and caricature artist Rodolphe Topffer being seen as the man who started off the modern comic strip. He ran a boarding school but entertained his students with his caricatures. In 1837 he published Histoire de M. Vieux Bois which was later published in the United States as The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. In producing these comic strips he had to combine his skills as an artist, drawing the cartoons himself with being an academic and also a man of creativity and humor. The New York World and the New York Journal were seen as being the first papers to features comic strips with the “Yellow Kid” being published from 1895. The creator Richard F. Outcalt was once again responsible for the drawings and the text that he used in word balloons and the humor was aimed at the adult readership. The first comic strip to appear daily in a British newspaper was...

Comics are a way to express ideas by the use of an image combined with a text. These are often shown in a sequence of images with the text being laid out as speech balloons. The most form of comics are comic strips, editorial comics, and comic books. History Humor is associated with the comic but over time comic illustrations have been used to record historic events. Rome’s Trajan’s column was decorated with sequential pictures to record events in 110 AD. The Bayeux Tapestry in the 1070’s used sequential pictures plus text to record the events of 1066 on canvas. The invention of the printing press in 1440 enabled a separation to be made between images and words. The first comic creations centered on religious, social and political aspects on life. The comic strip evolved during the 19th century and it was during this period that the speech balloons first started to appear. This early satirical drawings received a name in 1845, cartoons. The British magazine Punch started in 1841 and referred to its own “homouress pencillings” to reflect the activities of Parliament by the use of cartoons. The first weekly comic to appear with a regular character was Ally Sloper Half Holiday with the character being Ally Sloper. Originally being published in the magazine Judy it then spun off into its own comic in 1884. With a circulation...