Understanding Comics

Before reading the book Understanding Comics i had never read a traditional comic book before. The main reason i was never interested in the books, was because i could never follow or understand them. Even though the book was written in the same form as a comic book I had no trouble what so ever understanding what the author was saying. I wish i would have read the book before i looked at the graphic novels, because while reading the collected Beowulf i found myself getting lost.

The very first chapter entitled Setting the Record Straight completly changed my idea about comic books, and what constitutes as a comic book. I only thought comic books were the ones you associate Batman and Superman with. I never thought about considering ancient Egyptian and Myian paintings to be comics. The chapter also opened my eyes to how people look down apon comics. Comic writers would rather be called diffrent names, just so they are not associated with comics. Calling a painting a comic even though it was meant to be looked at like one is considered crazy talk. I do not fully understand why such an ancient art form is so looked down apon.