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Bam! Pow! Krakoom! The everlasting allure of the American comic book
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Bam! Pow! Krakoom! The everlasting allure of the American comic book

The Seattle Times·JOSEPH WILSON The Associated Press·17 days ago
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pick one up. Be seduced by its glossy cover. Gaze upon the impossibly muscular body clad in a skin-tight suit. Our hero or heroine will surely be soaring, shouting, blasting a villain into next week. They are ridiculous. They are addictively great. Comic books, of the superhero variety, are 100% American. Compare the thin comic book to Europe’s graphic novels, and they come off looking flimsy, infantile. Compare the American comic to Japanese Manga and they appear innocent in their fixation with heroism; they hark back to a departed American age. Once a nickel, a dime, a quarter, now the price of a latte, they are objects of America consumer capitalism. The comic is literature in junk-food version. Candy for the eyes, candy for the mind. Yet what truly makes them American objects is what plays out in their 32 pages month after month, decade upon decade.…

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