The Four Color Media Monitor

The Daily Aztec says the Big Two, among others, have been adapting their comics into Webtoon, in what appears to be a hybrid of comic strips and animated:

At San Diego State University, comic books have made their way into the curriculum. Taught under the College of Arts and Letters, these offered courses highlight a movement toward examining visual storytelling. What was once seen as elementary writing, is now seen as well-respected literature.

On this, I'll have to take issue - despite what they say, the whole notion comics are genuinely respected is laughable, and hugely exaggerated. When comics are exploited for the sake of far-left propaganda, as has been the sad case for years already, you can't say they're respected so much as they are considered a perfect tool for spreading propaganda, for all the wrong reasons.

While printed books may not be as popular as they used to be, comic book stories are continually growing every day with the help of digital media. WEBTOON is a great example of this.

Unlike other comic reading platforms such as DC Comics Infinite, Marvel Unlimited or Comixology, this South Korean digital platform features original vertical-scrolling content from creators all over the world. Since its founding in 2004 and its U.S. debut in 2014, WEBTOON has become a global phenomenon, averaging over 82 million monthly active users. They even have joint projects with the big two comic publishers, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

Big corporations are known to collaborate with other brands through strategic advertising to reach audiences that they normally may not have. Just a little over a year ago on Sep. 8, 2021, the first WEBTOON episode of “Batman: Wayne Family Adventures” was released as DC’s first title on the distributing site.

And what are those projects like? What if they build on the new Tim Drake-as-gay status quo DC's set up of recent, all at the expense of Chuck Dixon's hard work of the past, and come to think of it, all at the expense of Marv Wolfman to boot (one can only wonder what a guy like him, who is, alas, a liberal, thinks of this mess, which was surely done under the confidence he'd never speak out against it for fear of losing all residuals). Bounding Into Comics posted a reminder of what Bill Willingham recently said about the abrupt retcon to the civilian co-star he conceived named Bernard Dowd too. With that kind of PC insanity now running the asylum, why should anyone feel encouraged to watch these webtoons any more than read the newer comics?

“I like the idea of comics being a gateway drug because in the United States, people associate comics with children and teenagers,” said Nericcio. “That’s not the case in Japan or Italy, where graphic narrative and sequential art comics are held with greater respect. For example, with the manga from Japan or the fumetto in France, the tradition for high-level sophisticated graphic storytelling is huge.”

At least they get this right. Outside the USA, comics are usually more accepted as a literary form in Asian/European countries like the above. But it's still a terrible shame that back in the USA, attempting to convince a larger crowd comics are a valid art form for many challenging topics have largely been a failure. Mainly because of the aforementioned identity politics that're being forced into corporate-owned products at the expense of all their original components. In Asia and Europe, that's hardly the case, though over there, most comics are much more creator-owned, which could sum up the very problem with how ownership is managed in the USA - too many famous creations are corporate-owned today, and even some smaller businesses have a problem with being politically obsessed, as Archie's become in the past decade.

The written aspects, in addition to the artistic content of these comics, make them stand out from the standard comics found at stores. These new DC stories (told in episodes rather than issues like traditional comic books) are shorter and more lighthearted than typical storylines. It provides an easy transition for fans to learn more about the lore of the “Bat-Family” and become more invested. The emphasis on the everyday lives of these heroes, well-known and unfamiliar, provides a breath of fresh air for avid readers who are saturated with gore and other psychological thriller-related plotlines.

Now isn't this interesting. They come close to admitting what's wrong with flagship products, and has become regrettably frequent for over 3 decades - too much bloodletting and gore, and far less comedic storytelling. That's surely the worst part of wokeness - as UK comedian John Cleese has noted, it's had a disastrous effect on comedy. Yet none of these SJWs have any of the same concerns about violent gore, if recent movies emphasizing horror are any suggestion, and that compounds the double-standard in motion here. And something tells me these university papers aren't particularly interested in asking and insisting the entertainment scene move away from all this violence that's been clogging up movie theaters, and comic books by extension. So what's the point of even bringing it up if they have no idea how to protest a bad influence?

And again, even if these webtoons based on DC/Marvel products are seemingly more lighthearted in tone, they could still be saturated with leftist ideologies, compounding the impression that only politicized stories are allowed to be less darkness-laden. When art is held to such absurd standards, no wonder it doesn't work.

Labels: animation, dc comics, Europe and Asia, marvel comics, msm propaganda