Next, with girls’ comics, their male characters are typically villains, fathers and authority figures they are rarely friends or equals with females. Unlike boys, there is little about girls’ hobbies except fashion. Their stories are based on school, home and family relationships. The stories centre on emotional and personal issues such as isolation, family problems, divorce, going to a strange school. There is no action in girls’ comic – only emotional battles and arguments. The girls are seen as victims, even the main characters- they do not show anger. The girls who demonstrate action end up in disaster, girls who are passive find happiness or love, which is quite the opposite to real life.
There are many reasons why comics should be seen as positive for children. For example, comics and graphic novels have often challenged stereotypes and have engaged in social and political issues. Comics allow children to learn to read in an informal way, and often in a more motivated way. They are often very visually literate with sophisticated images that need interpretation. Comics also have a very serious side that might not be too obvious to the audience but still cover the issues of bullying and other school or/and personal problems. A comic can start off as a comic but then the characters of the stories can be included in spin-off materials such as merchandise like toys, video games or/and films and cartoons. That is how a lot of famous characters have started out such as recent ones like Spiderman, The Hulk and X-Men who all started out with Marvel Comics and have eventually expanded to a worldwide scale. There have been complaints that comics present a violent influence on children and are the reasons for their bad behaviour but there is still no solid evidence to support that opinion.
Comics do also have a negative side as well. For example, they do include some violent content that might be unacceptable for the targeted audience. Even though the comics do include written words, the literacy level is poor and possibly not good enough to increase a child’s vocabulary. Comics are also very affordable for children on a small budget which can refuse parents their control over deciding what comics are suitable to buy and children can become addicted to them, buying hundreds of them while only using a portion of their pocket money.
Overall, not all comics are good or bad. It is dependant on what the comic contains. If violence and immaturity is promoted in the comic, then parents are less likely to buy these types of comics. However, if children are persuaded to stand up to bullies and learn how important friends are through a comic (most likely girl’s comics), then this positive reflection will convince parents to buy them.