Sometimes you think the reality that came into you live never Intend to drive from a different path, but since the beginning of time, the human being have learn how to manipulate all the things that surround him in a way to improve his way of life.
He had learn to use the violence, de money, the ideas to influence the behavior of those around, but with the industrial revolution, which had collect all that it can from the invention of the Guttenberg’s print and the evolution of the education in the modern age, but most of all with the fruits of the Illustration period, people begun to see the important use of the information as a tool to achieve power.
In this point, using something present in Marcela Pizarro’s work, we have to define the difference between communication and information. Which, to be honest, it’s very simple. Communication is the capability of all human being to get in contact with all the creatures in the world. It’s the ability to shape myself into one culture and be able to interact with others. Then, information is the message, the purpose behind the ability to communicate.
Now, in the field of visual arts, even though I’m not an expert, we need to say that all of those who use communication/information as a way to influence in some part of society have found to make their point more directly a very useful allied in all their manifestations. Today we want to narrow the speech to one of these very powerful arts, the Comics Books and the Graphics Novels.
We can get into our time machine and travels to the eighteen century, in the heat point of the French revolution, and find a numerous group of artist who use cartoons to irrigate the illustrate message to all the society through the colors and lines presents in the pictures. It was an easy way to spray a message that change lives around the world.
But these artistic trends come hand to hand with other two phenomenons: the encyclopedia and the new urban way of life.
The encyclopedia became an open window to the world for all the society in the old regime. It helped to show, most of all in a graphic way, all the things that weren’t familiar to the people, like animals, flowers, inventions, etc. Next to it, was the fact that the people from the European country left their fields to take a place, no matter how small o dirty, in the new society created by the industrial revolution, even though it was only in its first stages.
In the nineteen century the reality wasn’t going to return to its early years, no matter how much the monarchies tried, don’t forget the Vienna’s Congress. The non-stop process of the industrial revolution brought a spectacular advance in the mass media and of course in their capacity to change or influence the way all the society saw their reality. And, in this picture, week after week the editor reserve an special location to graphic stripes who tell stories about the new worlds that had been discovered, the new technologies or the new way of life in the big cities. Take for example stories like Tarzan, a white man lost in the jungle of Africa during the colonization period, or the new horizons open by Jules Verne or Sir Conan Arthur Doyle.
With the urban development and the technological development, came new problems and new heroes. The children were interest in the stories about wild adventurers or intelligent detectives. And the media work to give them what they want.
But in the 1930’s, in the middle of the Great Depression two young sons of European immigrants change the face of comics forever with Superman.
The concept of a super hero wasn’t new. The epic literature is full with examples of characters with super human strength and abilities beyond ant human dream. But Superman was the first to come from out of space and embrace the spirit and values of the American ‘people’ to become the ultimate immigrant, who fight for the freedom and the American way. He came to help the United States to get out from the economical crisis and the government to improve the New Deal.
In this time, comics of super heroes weren’t seeing as a tool to send to the world the message of an American dream. That still was a role for the cowboys. But in the home front Superman and his friends became a household name, and a powerful force to be taken in count if you want to transmit a message to young audiences. For example, Popeye was creating to push younger audiences to eat more vegetables in time of crisis. All this change in “September 7 1941, a day that will life in infamy”.
As international crisis loomed ever larger in the American consciousness, comic books already applied their particular way to deal with this kind of problems. Arrives a new kind of hero, with the American flag in his chest, and urge the nation to unite forces against all kind of foreign aggressions as the ones that were taking place in Europe. Was the time for Captain American, The Submariner, Green Lantern, Superman and The Commando Boys to take action against the evil group of villains headed by Adolf Hitler.
The war years were a time of change for American families. The years of Depression were finally over and larger paychecks find their way to moms and dads around the country, which lead to more money for their children and more sales for the publishers of comic books.
Now we saw the first copies of Superman travel to overseas to go with the American troops to Africa, the Pacific and Europe. It was a shock to the other countries in arms, who think that this was a clear prove of the immaturity and unsophistication of the American culture.
Back in the States, the publishers saw this war as an opportunity to boost their image by linking their products to patriotism and the war effort. Superman and Batman urged readers to donate to the Red Cross and buy bond wars to support the troops. Captain America teaches how to recycle paper.
And this was an opportunity that the government understood and uses the power of modern media to influence public attitudes, using government agencies like the Office of Facts and Figures and the well known by Hollywood, Office of War Information.
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