My critical response today is based off of our day three readings: Supermen by Greg Sadowski (pp. 1-124), chapters from The Superhero Reader by Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester (pp. 3-6, 7-15, 30-33), and Of Comics and Men by Gabilliet(pp. 3-17)
It was very interesting to see the process in which comic books have made its way into the huge phenomenon it is today; the path of comic creation being derived from historical contexts and various precursors is an interesting topic to burrow into. In the chapter Historical Considerations, Peter Coogan (Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre) highlights the core elements of a superhero: mission, powers, and identity (Hatfield, Heer, & Worcester 3). Branching from this observation, Coogan makes the claim that “all the… features of the superhero genre didn’t come together until the creation of Superman” (4). He then burrows into the precursors that led to this genre. This burrowing also “[places comics] in a biographical and social context” (4).
In Chapter 2 of From Comics to Comic Books, the growing comic industry is described to be influenced by the economical improvement of the late 1930s, and the overall turning point of the comic industry being heavily fueled by the emergence of the superhero as the US entered war. (Gabilliet 17)
My favorite of these reads was the chapter The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer. I was most interested in this because of the vivid description Feiffer gave about the conditions for a comic artist, writer, inker, etc. The author goes in detail, from what they ate to the many hours they’d work and how they had dreams of becoming something in the industry. My favorite quote from this chapter is: “We argued over the importance of detail. Must every button on a suit be shown? Some argued yes. The magic realists of the business. Others argued no: what one wanted, after all, was effect.” (Hatfield, Heer, & Worcester 31) I liked this snippet from the chapter particularly because it made me feel involved in a creative discussion. This was legitimately something I wondered when reading comics; some detail is dismissed, while others are highlighted. I always wondered if it was intentional, and to see that this was something that was actually discussed and thought critically about made me happy. The reading also explained the necessity of the comic medium for the stories it is representing, stating that things like costumes and animal sidekicks are cheesy in movies and cannot be properly described in prose, but the comic medium represents it perfectly, intricately, and normally.
The readings from Supermen was very interesting and fun. I can see the distinct similarities between all of these heroes and the iconic Superman. The righteous behavior that Superman abides by is also shared with the heroes in these various pieces, like “The Flame” for example. In this comic by Basil Berold, the Flame is fighting monsters and says “the odds against him are tremendous and the flame dares not use his gun for fear of injuring the police” (Sadowski 36). This ‘good’ behavior mirrors that of Superman. Seeing the hero and villain costumes in this book helped me better understand the necessity for the medium—a book could never describe what a comic book can so greatly portray. The costumes in “Another Adventure of Dirk the Demon” by Bill Everell is a great example of the necessity of the medium, for the costumes would look totally ridiculous in a movie. I mean, he’s practically in underwear!
That’s all for this week’s blog post folks. See you next week!
It was very interesting to see the process in which comic books have made its way into the huge phenomenon it is today; the path of comic creation being derived from historical contexts and various precursors is an interesting topic to burrow into. In the chapter Historical Considerations, Peter Coogan (Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre) highlights the core elements of a superhero: mission, powers, and identity (Hatfield, Heer, & Worcester 3). Branching from this observation, Coogan makes the claim that “all the… features of the superhero genre didn’t come together until the creation of Superman” (4). He then burrows into the precursors that led to this genre. This burrowing also “[places comics] in a biographical and social context” (4).
In Chapter 2 of From Comics to Comic Books, the growing comic industry is described to be influenced by the economical improvement of the late 1930s, and the overall turning point of the comic industry being heavily fueled by the emergence of the superhero as the US entered war. (Gabilliet 17)
My favorite of these reads was the chapter The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer. I was most interested in this because of the vivid description Feiffer gave about the conditions for a comic artist, writer, inker, etc. The author goes in detail, from what they ate to the many hours they’d work and how they had dreams of becoming something in the industry. My favorite quote from this chapter is: “We argued over the importance of detail. Must every button on a suit be shown? Some argued yes. The magic realists of the business. Others argued no: what one wanted, after all, was effect.” (Hatfield, Heer, & Worcester 31) I liked this snippet from the chapter particularly because it made me feel involved in a creative discussion. This was legitimately something I wondered when reading comics; some detail is dismissed, while others are highlighted. I always wondered if it was intentional, and to see that this was something that was actually discussed and thought critically about made me happy. The reading also explained the necessity of the comic medium for the stories it is representing, stating that things like costumes and animal sidekicks are cheesy in movies and cannot be properly described in prose, but the comic medium represents it perfectly, intricately, and normally.
The readings from Supermen was very interesting and fun. I can see the distinct similarities between all of these heroes and the iconic Superman. The righteous behavior that Superman abides by is also shared with the heroes in these various pieces, like “The Flame” for example. In this comic by Basil Berold, the Flame is fighting monsters and says “the odds against him are tremendous and the flame dares not use his gun for fear of injuring the police” (Sadowski 36). This ‘good’ behavior mirrors that of Superman. Seeing the hero and villain costumes in this book helped me better understand the necessity for the medium—a book could never describe what a comic book can so greatly portray. The costumes in “Another Adventure of Dirk the Demon” by Bill Everell is a great example of the necessity of the medium, for the costumes would look totally ridiculous in a movie. I mean, he’s practically in underwear!
That’s all for this week’s blog post folks. See you next week!