The History of Comics

Throughout history, comics have changed in many ways. From being in all black and white, to color, and then even down the subject matter, comics are a bookmark to specific time periods.

The Archie comics, for example, demonstrated a time of what people thought teenage years should be like. It was almost this "guideline" for the younger audience of the time. It was as if it told you the biggest things you'll be worried about as a teenager is who is dating who, what kind of clothes you're wearing, etc.

In terms of the style of comics, they started to cary from more realistic to cartoon, and from black and white to color. The subject matter also ranged from completely silly to serious. It was as if there was a comic that could cater to any kind of reader.

Of course with more dated pieces, there were many comics that contained racist jokes and humor that favored making women look stupid or useless. Sometimes it wasn't as "degrading" but it still had an undertone of women coming second to men.

Thankfully, though, comics have progressed and the messages in them have become more modern. Women are now being seen as heroes independent of men. Colored people are also much more included in comics too. Sexuality is also being discussed a lot more too.

I know for myself, I prefer comics that are short, straight to the point, and have some humor. On our trip to the library, I definitely gravitated more towards comics like Peanuts for this reason. What's interesting is that even through the comics were a lot older, the humor (at least in my opinion) still held up and actually seemed pretty relevant to today's humor. It's pretty great to see how timeless some of these comics are.

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