Reading children in comics: a sociohistorical mapping

Abstract

This article seeks to map a social history through examining children and 'childish' or childlike drawing styles, and hence the presence of children, in comics. Traced across different print formats, this history reflects the changing readership of different kinds of comics, ranging from the mixed, primarily adult readership of newspaper comics, the young readers of comics albums and magazines, and the mature readers of contemporary book-length comics or graphic novels. Unfolding through a changing matrix of affects incarnated by comics children, this social history shows how different kinds of power relationships between adults and children are articulated in the comics discussed. The carnivalesque liberty and laughter of early newspaper comics contrasts with the nostalgic gaze towards childhood imbuing many graphic novels that cater to a mature readership. Unfolding across a select corpus of key comics formats, this sociohistorical reading of comics children is channeled through affects and power struggles.

Chinos and palomillas: Comics, Childhood and Race in Colombia and Peru (1920-1940)

“…Pedrito can be identified as a «flat character» (Ahmed, 2022, p. 350), lacking concrete agency or reaction to situations. This condition elicits an emotional response from the audience, requiring an active reader to bring the persona to life and accompany them throughout the story until its resolution (Gardner, 2012in Ahmed, 2022. The emotional response to Pedrito's experiences necessitates an «emotional community» (Rosenwein, 2020, p. 17) that perceives certain patterns of affirmation in these narratives, allowing them to confirm collective thoughts, expectations, encouragement, tolerance, or disapproval.…”