Comic books and their times subject of lecture
Courtesy photo T. Andrew Wahl will talk about comic books and how they reflect the story of their times in a lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday.
MOSES LAKE — Comic books and how they reflect their times will be the subject of a lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Moses Lake Civic Center.
Admission to “Superhero America: The Comic-Book Character as Historical Lens” is free. It’s sponsored by the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center and Humanities Washington.
Back in the day comic books were entertainment for kids, but speaker T. Andrew Wahl said they always had an adult audience too. “Comic books were incredibly popular with GIs during World War II,” Wahl wrote, and the industry always had two kinds of comics, some targeted at kids and others at adults. “The EC comics of the 1950s clearly had an older audience in mind, and wrestled with themes like war and race.”
Graphic artists of the 1960s, who grew up with comics, used the format for their works, which “definitely weren’t for kids,” Wahl said. Over time comic books moved from the rack at the grocery store to bookshops and specialty shops, he said. “Today there are comics and graphic novels being published for readers of all ages.”
Wahl’s lecture will focus on superhero comics, currently an obsession in the movies as well as in comic books. Wahl said he will use the audience’s memories of superhero comic books gone by to illustrate how they reflected the times they were published.
Even as adults have come to dominate the comic book readership, Wahl said he would argue they still are fun, more than ever. “And the accession of ‘geek culture,’ both online and at a growing number of comic book conventions, provides a powerful communal aspect for fans and casual readers alike.”
Movies and television have become the dominant entertainment mediums, and that has had an impact on comic books, he said. “The fact that we as a society have grown more visual is certainly part of comic books’ ascendance, but the best comic book works are always driven by the power of story,” he wrote.
“Comics have never really been just for kids. Comics are a storytelling medium. And stories are for everyone.”
Wahl is a self-described “lover of comic books, hoops and history,” and said he has read more than 20,000 comics. He is head of the journalism department at Edmonds Community College and is a former features editor for the Wenatchee World.