Discourse Communities In Comic Books

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Discourse communities are seen everywhere, whether it is an academic or social community. John Swales, professor of linguistics at University of Michigan, says even though discourse communities are “imperfectly defined terms”, they are “…the center of a set of ideas rather than the sign of a settled notion” (Swales 469). Specifically, in the comic book realm, there are several discourse communities with different subjects. For example, there are communities that could focus on certain heroes such as Superman or Batman. These communities focus on specific heroes, their attributes and even conspiracies about the plot of their stories. However, there are also communities that focus on the genre of art in comic books. In general, art has several …show more content…
With its bright colors and use of shapes and words, such as “Pow”, “wham”, etc., there are many websites that include artists with their own interpretation of characters in comic book style. Throughout the twentieth century, there have been several changes in the style of comic book art. For instance, in the mid twentieth century, they were mostly seen in newspapers, telling a simple story and laid out in a square grid. Moving into later twentieth century up into the sixties, art took a more surrealism style, illustrating strange worlds that heroes lived in. Comic books started rising in popularity and the covers became attention grabbing with bright colors and animated characters. In the seventies, the alter-ego of the heroes got more attention and there was a more photorealistic representation of the heroes and urban landscape. With more enhanced illustrations, the audience can see more depth and light within the artistic pieces. This style of comics is arguably the most popular and where artists tend to recreate their pieces of art in a comic-like style. The eighties in comics were known as the “dark ages”; villains come to light and are illustrated with dark colors and strategic shadows. There are also more night scenes illustrated. With these villains, comes disturbing art, depicting uneasiness among readers. Today, art has caught up with technology with digital painting and 3D printing. Some artists have developed film, having the characters speak instead of print illustrations. With the changing forms of comic book art, several discourse communities talk about these different eras of art and post their own representations, forming a discourse community.
An example of a large discourse community in this area is called the “Comic Art Club”. Essentially this discourse community is for those who enjoy art and the comic book
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