Comics as Culture - Softcover

Inge, M. Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0878054081 ISBN 13: 9780878054084

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 1990

Synopsis

Comics and cartoons are ingrained in American life.

One critic has called comic books "crude, unimaginative, banal, vulgar, ultimately corrupting." They have been regarded with considerable suspicion by parents, educators, psychiatrists, and moral reformers. They have been investigated by governmental committees and subjected to severe censorship.

Yet more than 200 million copies are sold annually. Upon even casual examination BLONDIE, ARCHIE, MARY WORTH, THE WIZARD OF ID, and SHOE--among the many comic strips--will be found to support some commonly accepted notion or standard of society.

Why do comics both amuse and arouse controversy? Here is an attempt at an answer in a sharp-eyed comic-book lover's probing look at this step-child genre. He finds comics both loved and hated, relished and sneered at. In their relying on dramatic conventions of character, dialogue, scene, gesture, compressed time, and stage devices, he finds the comics close to the drama but probably closer kin to the movies.

About this title

Book Description:

These ten essays by one of America's foremost authorities on popular culture survey the influence of the comic strip and, despite the legions of detractors, show it to be an art form that has enriched and reflected most of American culture.

About the Author:

M. Thomas Inge is Robert Emory Blackwell Professor of the Humanities at Randolph-Macon College. He has edited or authored over sixty volumes, including books on Schulz, the comics, William Faulkner, and Oliver W. Harrington. Inge is the general editor of two University Press of Mississippi series, Conversations with Comics Artists and Great Comics Artists.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0878054081
• ISBN 13: 9780878054084
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192