This week's focus on comics in class has been quite a new experience for me. I think the last time I read any type of comic was when I was little, and stumbled on a big hardcover Calvin and Hobbes book that was kind of like a hand me down from my cousins. Other than that, I'd never really gone out of my way to read a comic, I'd never intensely discussed comics with any one the same way I talk about my favorite book, and no one has ever gifted or given me a comic. I just didn't really care for comics, sure they could be funny sometimes like in Calvin and Hobbes, but otherwise they were a "boy thing", with superheroes, and violence, and more "boy things".
With all this in mind, it caught me a little bit off guard when in Show and Tell, McCloud talks about/ demonstrates through comic strips that traditionally, "... truly great works of art and literature are only possible when the two are kept at arms length." He demonstrates this with a slightly dramatic drawing of him stretching his arms out, showing how far we go to keep the two apart.
I felt like I was being wrongfully accused. I wanted to say " Hey! maybe if someone had let me give comics a chance, if someone had introduced them to me at all, then, you could talk about how I'm just letting art and literature be separate and not appreciating comics enough."
Reading Maus and Show and Tell opened up a whole new genre for me I literally couldn't have cared less about before. I had never fathomed the idea that comics could be about more than superheros. It's disturbing to wonder, why are comics seen as just a boy thing? Less filled with evil scientists, robots, and superheroes saving damsels in distress, maybe more comics would win Pulitzer Prizes. Maybe then, they would earn the same global respect many works of art and literature do, if they weren't just a "boy thing", and everyone gave them a try.
With all this in mind, it caught me a little bit off guard when in Show and Tell, McCloud talks about/ demonstrates through comic strips that traditionally, "... truly great works of art and literature are only possible when the two are kept at arms length." He demonstrates this with a slightly dramatic drawing of him stretching his arms out, showing how far we go to keep the two apart.I felt like I was being wrongfully accused. I wanted to say " Hey! maybe if someone had let me give comics a chance, if someone had introduced them to me at all, then, you could talk about how I'm just letting art and literature be separate and not appreciating comics enough."
Reading Maus and Show and Tell opened up a whole new genre for me I literally couldn't have cared less about before. I had never fathomed the idea that comics could be about more than superheros. It's disturbing to wonder, why are comics seen as just a boy thing? Less filled with evil scientists, robots, and superheroes saving damsels in distress, maybe more comics would win Pulitzer Prizes. Maybe then, they would earn the same global respect many works of art and literature do, if they weren't just a "boy thing", and everyone gave them a try.
I agree with your thought that comics are considered a boy's thing. And in my life, I have seen many boys than girls reading comics. Like you, I was also not exposed to the amazing nature of comics until now. After reading "Show and Tell", I think that pictures in comics are not only funny or interesting but also have some intellectual stuff. Also, the comic "Show and Tell" enlightens me with the hard work that cartoonists suffer to create these masterful comics which are very intriguing. .And I agree that comics won't become famous until they win some "Pulitzer Prize".
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