Exploring The Comic Genre

I just watched a documentary on comics directed by Canadian Rob Mann called, 'Comic Book Confidential."

As a casual fan of comic books, the documentary took me places I've been to and seen. But for someone who knows little of this art form it's a great introductory - the only problem is it was made in 1988. Nonetheless, it takes you on a wonderful historical journey right up to contemporary times.

Comic books very much reflect the youth of a particular era and by extension, the surrounding political climate and culture.

It also reveals how the concept of freedom of expression and liberty has always been under severe stress or even attack. Consider the negative impact the censorship of the Comics Code Authority, established in 1954, had on the industry. Thankfully, its influenced has waned over the years and has been pushed aside.

One part that stuck with me was the interview with Frank Miller - the man who saved Bat-Man. He brought back Bat-Man to its original roots as a merciless super hero seeking vigilante justice through violent and vicious means. Miller is a giant and a gem in the art of comics.

Miller, discussing the political climate in the 1980s, described it as "silly and scary." What's interesting about this comment is, aside from its obvious attack on Reagan, is how in every decade we hear something similar be uttered by people from all walks of life. People opposed to Obama say the exact same thing.

Americans, so it goes, live in "silly and scary"times all the time in the post-war era.

Yet.

There she stands.

Of course.