When reading the early pages of Tezuka, I was surprised by the amount of scientific knowledge displayed in the story. Not that any of this knowledge couldn't be found within a ten second google search, but the decision by Tezuka to employ this knowledge, such as different fossils of animals and the corresponding dates of when they lived, seemed like a bit of an odd choice. The science is slightly out of place, especially on page 42, which I just referred to and which we talked about in class today. Tezuka isn't helping it blend with the other pages any better by completely changing the art style of this page. It's as though, in the middle of the story, the reader has stumbled upon an exhibit at a children's natural history museum, and then the story continues after that as if nothing had happened. In fact, I would argue that Tezuka didn't need to even include that page, as he already gave out some fossil knowledge the page before, with identification of the ammonite fossil (41).
The paragraph above represents quite a cynical view of the science-in-comics debate. However, it's not truly representative of how I feel about these pages of Tezuka, because I actually really appreciate them. He knew that the main audience for his comics would be young children/young adults, so why not take the chance to inject some real, tangible knowledge into his pages rather than just having a superhero fly around beating up bad guys (not that there's anything wrong with that). I appreciate Tezuka's awareness, and while the science facts aren't always streamlined into the story or dialogue, the attempt to add some meaningful learning to the comics is a welcome sight.
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ReplyDeleteI agree, Gabe. Page 42 seemed completely out of place, not only in terms of narrative, but stylistically as well. It’s kind of a comical transition. I imagine it as a stream of conscious narrative told by a kid with bad ADD. Same thing with page 80-81. It would be different if this transition popped up again elsewhere in the comic book, but it goes by unaddressed. Bizarre, and I appreciate it. It’s almost like Tezuka is messing with his audience. But I know he had different intentions, and I value those motives. This “museum display” drives home the fact that this is not a normal comic, especially compared to what we have previously been reading. On that point, this comic breaks all the rules of everything we’ve previously been reading: different types of transitions, borderless panels, a sad ending, etc. It sounds like each reader really had a different experience reading this comic book, and I’m not sure that can be said of the “sterile” Superman or Wonder Woman.
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