Comical comics
Comical comics |
|
Page 31 of 34  Hot Brand Echh (Marvel Comics, 1968). Art: Marie Severin. Unsurprisingly, no consensus emerged, and in time two opposing positions took shape. On the one hand, the criticisms that had once been levelled against the pre-First World War adult comics were now modified for their new juvenile offspring. As ever, stories in pictures were maintained to be innately inferior to those in words, and it was now argued that children's ability to learn to read would be retarded by an over-familiarity with comics. This view was supposedly corroborated by the fact that strips now contained fewer words than ever before (at least the old complaint that close type strained the readers' eyesight was no longer tenable). The pre-1914 prejudice against comics for being 'reading matter for the working class' held fast. Especially in the case of children, it was maintained that comics were not 'improving', were essentially 'lowbrow', and reflected badly on the reader's background and intellect. In the case of the American comics that came to Britain, these were also seen as a manifestation of a vulgar and TV-obsessed culture. It was a short step from here to arguing that comics might actually be harmful: undoubtedly a widespread view, though never theorized to any coherent degree. Thus, many upper- and middle-class families refused to allow comics in the household (a move which only made them more attractive to youngsters, who inevitably found ways of stashing comics outside the home). |