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Analysis of Early Comics

From Little Nemo in Slumberland to Calvin and Hobbes and Krazy Kat, so many of early comics were primarily if not entirely based around cartoons and lighthearted, shorter "strips" of comedic observation or slapstick. Involving simple stories and characters, the objective of many of these seemed to be to attract younger audiences with the cartoon characters, never delving into more serious themes, reserving those for political cartoons or propaganda. Some early recreational comics however do explore more developed characters, such as Alex Raymond's Flash Gordan, an early adventure comic that focused on themes of science fiction, romance, and even aspects of war; (though HEAVILY filtered). These early adventure comics were some of the first comics to have continuing stories over multiple issues of a comic, involving much, much longer comics rather than a traditional "strip" of panels like previous cartoon oriented comics. These adventure stories were aimed at slightly older young to late teen audiences, giving them an outlet for adventure and romance that resonated with what these young minds wanted as they were developing into adults. All of these themes while simultaneously exploring how fantastical views on technology were beginning to develop and introductions to global affecting events like global politics, war, and space exploration; though again heavily filtered and streamlined for high adventure and entertainment. These early comics were always meant for younger minds and audiences, with some meant for daily or weekly bits of entertainment to be distributed in newspapers and a few sold as independent "visual novels," early comics covered all the entertainment of young life and began to touch upon themes and education of ideals in longer comics such as Flash Gordan.

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