COMICS, COMIX, & THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen Pace Nilsen
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The first comic book appeared in 1933,
as shown here in Little Lulu.
• The cost of each comic book
was a dime (10 cents).
• You can tell the age of a
comic book by looking at the
original price.
• Today there is a huge
discrepancy between the
price on the cover and the
actual price of the collectible
comic book.
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Mad Magazine in 1952
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Super Heroes
D. C. Comics: The Justice League
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Captain Marvel
• The original Captain
Marvel was
published by
Fawcett Comics and
outsold Superman
in the 1940s.
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Shazam!
Ironically, DC Comics in
the 1970s purchased the
original Captain Marvel
character, but could not
put his name on a front
cover.
So, the comic was called
Shazam (after the wizard
who granted Captain
Marvel his powers).
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Marvel Comics
Guardians of the Galaxy
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Marvel Comics
The Fantastic Four
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Marvel Comics:
Wolverine—Comic Book vs. Movies
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The Avengers vs. The X-Men
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Early Comics: World War II
Everybody hates Hitler!
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Even the Fantastic Four are after Hitler!
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Today’s Comics
• …range from simple domestic humor such as The
Family Circus to the sophisticated social and
political satire of Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury.
• Cathy takes on the problems of single professional
women.
•
BC, The Wizard of Id, Broom Hilda, Zippy and many
more offer a combination of simple amusement and
allegorical meaning.
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UNDERGROUND COMIX
• The term comix is a “co-mix” of image and
words.
• Underground comix deal with the underbelly
of society as they make fun of drugs, sex,
violence, racism, elitism, blasphemy, risque
music, body functions, and crude language.
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Robert Crumb—
“the Father of Underground Comix.”
• The distorted
heads and
enlarged feet of
Crumb’s
drawings came
from his LSDdistorted view of
people and
symbols.
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Gilbert Shelton-- another drug-inspired
underground comix writer of the 1960s
• His well-received
parody of the 1960s
hippie drug culture
was designed not to
preach, but to
entertain.
• Shelton also created
“Wonder Wart-Hog”
as a parody of
superhero comics.
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ABOVEGROUND COMICS
• At the opposite end of the spectrum from
underground comix are the coffee table
comic books:
– Joe Anderson’s Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only
One Grey Hare
– Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County Babylon: Five
Years of Basic Naughtiness
– Walt Kelly’s Pluperfect Pogo
– Bill Watterson’s The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth
Anniversary Book
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Parodies of Batman
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Parody of Snoopy:
“It was a dark and stormy night….”
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MIDDLEGROUND COMICS
Between the underground comix and the
coffee table comics, mainstream
collections include:
– Scott Adams’s The Dilbert Principle
– Charles Schulz’s Happiness Is a Warm
Puppy, Home Is on Top of a Dog House, I
Need All the Friends I Can Get, and
Security is a Thumb and a Blanket
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JOHN CALLAHAN’S DISABILITY
CARTOONS
• John Callahan was paralyzed in an
automobile accident shortly after his
21st birthday. He draws controversial
cartoons about disabilities.
• One of his most famous shows a darkskinned street beggar carrying a sign
that reads, “Please help me. I am blind
and black, but not musical.”
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• In another cartoon, a man with two
prosthetic hands is ordering a drink,
and the bartender says, “Sorry Sam,
you can’t hold your liquor.”
• When under the title, “The Alzheimer
Hoedown,” he showed confused
couples unable to “Return to the girl
that you just left,” he received an
angry letter from the St. Louis chapter
of the Alzheimer’s Association.”
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Members of the Hall of Fame
Sponsored by the
International Museum of
Cartoon Art Include the
following, each shown with
one of their most famous
cartoons:
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Dik Browne’s “Hagar the Horrible”
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Milton Caniff’s “Terry and the Pirates”
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Al Capp’s “L’il Abner”
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Billy DeBeck’s “Barney Google”
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Rudolph Dirks’s “Katzenjammer Kids
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Left: Hans and Fritz
Right: Hans and Franz
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Budd Fisher’s “Mutt and Jeff”
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Harold Foster’s “Tarzan”
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Chester Gould’s “Dick Tracy”
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Harold Gray’s “Little Orphan Annie”
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George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat and Ignatz”
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Walt Kelly’s “Pogo”
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Walt Kelly’s “Simple J. Malarkey” alluded to Senator McCarthy.
When newspapers said they would no longer show Malarkey’s head,
Kelly placed a brown paper bag over his head, which added to the joke.
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Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo in Slumberland”
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George McManus’s “Bringing Up Father”
“Maggie and Jiggs”
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Richard Oucault’s “The Yellow Kid”
and “Buster Brown and Tige”
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Alex Raymond’s “Flash Gordon”
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Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts”
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Elzie Segar’s “Popeye”
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Mort Walker’s “Beetle Bailey”
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Chic Young’s “Blondie and Dagwood”
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JOHNNY HART CARTOON
• When the following Johnny Hart strip was run in The
Arab News, both the feature editor and the editor-inchief were sentenced to lashing and prison terms for
failing to recognize the blasphemy.
• Their sentences were reduced after the incident
caused an international furor.
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Arizona’s Governor Evan Meacham
• In Garry Trudeau’s
Doonesbury there is
a Mecham-like
character who
reacts to claims that
he is insensitive:
• “Lies! Lies spread
by queers and
pickanninies.”
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THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
• Graphic novels have become a major part of
modern literature.
• Many people first took notice of them in 1986
when Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize
for his Maus.
• As shown in the next slide, he has continued
to work with modern tragedies.
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Art Spiegelman’s “In the
Shadow of No Towers”
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Art Spiegelman’s “In the Shadow
of No Towers”
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ART SPIEGELMAN:
http://lambiek.net/artists/s/spiegelman.htm
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