Personally, I never had an interest in reading comics growing up. When I was in elementary school, there was a very popular comic called, Bone, by Jeff Smith and it was about a ghost like figure who traveled around with different adventures and dealt with monsters and other fantasy situations. I could never find an interest in reading this comic or comics in general. In the “Bone” comic they used slang frequency, and as a young reader, I found it difficult to follow and then soon lost interest. Comics, when I was growing up, was similar to a fad, in my opinion, there was a time that everyone in my grade wanted to read them, and then it died off. As a young kid, I wanted to see what the big deal was about this comic and never sparked an interest in me. Besides my own experience in comics, I know how useful they can be in influencing the general public at times. One specific time that presents itself is war, war and the propaganda that stems from it influences the public’s opinion greatly. (Smith, Jeff).

In World War II, comics were used daily to make fun of Hitler and Mussolini; mainly, they also created one of the most famous superheroes of many generations, Captain America. In war, it is a terrible time, with many deaths and terrible tragedies. The public needed something to help ease the pain, and comics did that. This is where in, Why Comics, by Hillary Chute brings up a great point, that comics do not have to be funny. They, however, most are with the purpose of making someone laugh, but there are thousands of comics that are to point out social issues or other issues that are made fun of without the purposes of making someone laugh necessarily. Each “cartoonist” has his or her way of creating comics with a light hearted story or with deeper meaning to point out an issue.

Comics started in newspapers in the 1890s, which later during the war people would love to see the “Sunday supplement” for the comic strips. The physical books began printing in the 1930s and then the graphic novels in the 1970s. Currently, the general comic book industry is estimated to be worth over 1 billion dollars, and even though books sales are down, the comic books remain steady. Over time comics have not seemed to me that they have ever been in the limelight, but have always been there making an influence on people very sudaly. Even though today, we see comics as superhero stories and good versus evil, in the past and in stories like the one we listened to about the refugees have had a greater influence on us than we realize.

Works CitedSmith,

Jeff. Boneville.