1. According to Horricks (2004), how have
perceptions of comics as a media changed?

2. What does Baetons (2001) mean by
‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and the ‘graphiateur’’?

3. What does Khordoc think the Asterix
series does better than Hergé’s Tintin?

4. Compare the relationship between images and
words differ in Hergé (1933) and Spiegelman’s (2004) works.

5. Discuss your reaction to both The Blue Lotus and the Spiegelman extracts. What is your opinion of them? Can you take 'pleasure in the text' (to quote Roland Barthes)?

Well comics started from being published in news papers but now it has changed where comics are published in magazines,booklets,pc games,tv to movies and many more. Horricks stated that by reducing the amount of comics being published can reduce the amount of violence that has influence young readers...

If you guys got more ideas please feel free to comment...

In Horricks (2004), it said that in the 1950's, there was an anti - comic campaign held in New Zealand inspired by the United States and Britian. Bill Pearson wrote "The comics erode the most fundamental habits of humane, civilized living and they erode them in the most vulnerable element of our society, our children...if we ban comics we are reducing the chances of war and preventing the further perversion of the world's children". Which means that the anti-comic representatives at the time veiwed comics as a negative genre. Due to the fact that children being vulnerable and not knowing the difference between good and bad, parents or their guardians will have to fight on their behlaf causing riots which may even lead to wars. And so, by preventing riots and wars, the genre of comics should not be tolerated.

After this, comics or graphic novels are veiwed in newspapers and magazines.There have also been other positive things happening to the comic / graphic novels and thier authors also.Like awards and teaching the genre in other countries like here in New Zealand. Comics / graphic novels are viewed as positive genres today. The negativity of comics then has been forgotten about, but only towards the comics. It has now moved on to other genres like music.

Guys, I may be wrong on how I interpreted the first question...but I'd like to know yours!

I think both Annie and Erica answered most of the first question, and personally i disagree with Horricks perception on how reducing thr number of comics being published or censoring comics will some how decrease violence among youth/teenagers. Comics are not the only form of media that "influence" violence, there's music, tv programmes etc. so to put such a censorship on comics is simply just killing the art of comics.

Hope that made sense :S

It's true how Bessie aka Sh0rty disagreed that comics being censored to decrease the amount of violence around the world or where ever. But if we look at it, we will see that putting such serious matters into a comic, society will automatically think that we are mocking others who are in political parties or other countries who are trying to fight for their right. I think that it is fine to turn serious matters into a hilarious one, just don't over-do it. After all we are trying to make this world a better place if it will ever turn that way. And if we over-do it...then you can figure out what happens next and by over-doing it will also kill the art of comics as Bessie said, so it's up to the author to be careful what they are publishing on their comics.

And now to answer number two of the questions by dr paul mounfort: GRAPHIATION: The graphiateur is the person who develops the graphiation. Okay, let me elaborate. Graphiation developed from ennunciation. Ennunciation in the sense of writing... we can see it as another way of narrating, it is the act of producing a sign or utterance of some sort (Baetons, 2001). In a comics case we would see this through pictures right? And in the comic we read the story through the pictures guided by the speech bubbles and short narratives underneath every sequent or box of the picutre(s). So what Baetons (2001), means by graphiation, it is getting the message across through the pictures itself. So to distinguish the difference of ennunciation in through plain text and comics...Baetons (2001) calls ennunciation through graphics/comics GRAPHIATION. And that is what Baetons (2001) says about graphiation.

This is continued from my last post of (question 2) graphiation. This time it's GRAPHIATEUR: Graphiatuer...SIMPLE! It is the person responsible for creating the graphiation (Baetons, 2001). It is kind of like the author of the comics.

part three of the second question. MONSTRATION: Monstration is when the story is acted out in public, which would mean that the story itslef does not need a narrator. The actros acting the story out would narrate itself, (Baetons, 2001). Anyone disagree? I think this is inaccurate...

Now for question three: Asterix is more "noisy". "The representation of sound is therefore one of the most numerous strategies in this comic which contributes to creating humour" (Khordoc, pg. 159). What Khordoc is saying here is that Herge's Tintin may be enjoyable as it is, but if it was to turn into an audio vision, the sound effects would not match up to the pictures and how people would imagine it to be. Whereas, Asterix has a number of strategies in the comic itself so that when it is turned into audio visional pictures, the sound effects would be effective as the author would picture it to be.

question four: The first difference that I found between Herge (1933) and Spiegelman (2004), was the fact that Herge's comics were of adventures fascinated by the author itself. These adventures are fictional and which has not been held in reality. Spiegelman (2004) on the other hand, writes comics which turns past serious political matters into humerous political matters. "I wanted to make comix - after all, disaster is my muse...Besides, nothing has a shorter shelf life than angry caricatures of politicians and I'd often harboured notions of working for prosperity - notions that seemed absurd after being reminded how ephemral even sky scrapers and democratic institutions are". (Speigelman, 2004)

Images in my opinion in Herge's Tintin, would have been drawn from imagination, due to the fact that Tintin is a fictional character. However, images from Spiegelmans (2004)work is from real life events. These images are crafted in his mind and which cannot be removed. The only way I reckon that Spiegelman could control the nightmare of 9/11 is, by having fun with it and using it as a comic storyline (like I said earlier, the author needs to be careful not to turn it into overboard mock material). "The pivotal image from 9/11 mornign- one that didn't get photographed or video-taped into public memory but still remains burned onto the inside of my eyelids several years later". (Spiegelman, 2004)

My reaction when I first heard Paul say that we are going to be reading Tintin and The Blue Lotus, was "oh no, here we go with the comics". I got sick of comics when my Vietnamese friend was reading them back at high school. All she could talk about was comics. Pictures and words of reading them backwards and then the captions at the bottom. However, at the time I had no clue what comics were all about. I really wasn't open minded about the text really. I shouldn't have judged comics before I could actually get through one. Anyways, the Spiegelman extract. Very interesting how Speigelman put it.The fact that he wanted to be a comic artist with serious real life situations...something I never thought of, and it is true how political events have a short life on the shelves. But to take pleasure in the text? I don't know really.

For part three of the second question "Monsstration", i agree with Annie. I do think that it is inaccurate to say that the actors acting out the story would narrator itself as Baetons 2001 suggests. The comics graphiateur ( author of the comic) is in sole charge and narrates what happens in the comic using his or her graphics. Without the graphics we could still have a storyline but it wouldn't grab our attention or make sense if the graphics weren't there to help us understand the meaning of the story and what the message is. I mean if there were no graphics to narrate, we could hardly call it a comic.
Well that's what I think.
Anyone disagree?

To answer question 3, it seems that the Asterix series is more modernised than Herge's Tintin, so it encompasses different feautures like the representation of sounds which to me would be more appealing....

i am agree with what voluspa said comics were mostly puplished in newspapers but now thigs have changed comics are everywhere such as in magazines,pc games, tvs,movies etc..

I am sort of agree with shorty about being disagree with what horrick(2004) states about comics..In a way you are rigth shorty comics are not the one influece violence but also other media forms too. But countries like in japan in china where comics are very famous may really influece more than other media forms.

Hi Annie,

I agree with what you said in the first part of your answer to Question 1, ‘the anti-comics campaign’ in the 1950’s. And according to Horrick (2004), the focus of such campaign has now moved on to other media such as gangsta rap, television, the internet or video games. Moreover, comics or graphic novel are regularly being reviewed in NY Review of Books and have also been awarded with prizes like, the Pulitzer Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. Horrick (2004) also mentioned that in the past twenty years or so, a number of theory, research and criticism focusing on comics have been growing steadily. One significant publication to that discussion is Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, first published in 1993. In McCloud’s 216-page comic book about comics, it looks at the history, language and formal structure of the comics medium. After the publication of McCloud’s book, responses from academics, critics and cartoonist have submerged. And from this, we can see how the perceptions of comics as a media have changed.

Alby ^_^

Question 3

Hi Annie,

I agree with you saying that Khordoc thinks the Asterix the Gaul is more ‘noisy’ than Herge’s Tintin. One of the most important strategies in comics is the use of speech balloons as Khordoc analysed in her article, The Comic Book’s Soundtrack (2001). When Herge was asked to republish Tintin au pays des Soviets in the French comics magazine, Coeurs vaillants, the editor assumed that the readers would not fully understand a story which was solely dependant on speech balloons and at the same time be deprived of narrative commentary. So through out the entire story, they added captions under each panels in order to tell the story which was essentially being told through pictures and text inserted into speech balloons. And the end result of this was that readers found it so confusing to read simply because “the rhythm imposed by this additional text was incompatible with the rhythm of the images” Khordoc (2001, p.158). And in Khordoc’s opinion, Herge’s Tintin had lost the main point of comics, to create humour whereas Asterix the Gaul had achieved by utilising speech balloons alone in the panels minus captions under each panel.

What do you guys think? Any comment?

Alby ^_^

Thanks for your agreements Zilan, though we would like to hear more about the questions that could be of some extent new to our knowledge or that's interesting in your culture about comics? I don't know. But thanks anyways.:D

HEY Alby and everyone! :-D
It's funny because when I was reading Herge's Tintin, I understood the story of the Blue Lotus with the captions at the bottom. Last year when I picked up a Manga comic book, it was hard to understand and to keep up with because there were very few captions. I understood how the Japanese read backwards and everything but I had to keep going back in order to get the book. I don't know maybe it's just me and we are all different people with different understandings so some of us may like the captions at the bottom and some of us may not.

hi annie, some answer you given is what i really think and there is no more thing that i can write..and as i told you before in my county comics are not really popular thats why i dont really have knowledge about them. I personally do not read comics but next time i will try my best to add something more ok? thanks for reminding me that though...

Oh okay thanks Zilan...If its not popular in your country...you should try reading it in New Zealand so you can take it back with you to your homeland and spread the awesome news about the amazing comics we have in New Zealand that came all the way from Japan.:D LOL:D
-anNiE:)