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Linguistic and Sociocultural Features of the American Comic Book Movies

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Linguistic and Sociocultural Features of the American Comic Book Movies SHS Web of Conferences 50, 01093 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001093 CILDIAH-2018 Linguistic and Sociocultural Features of The American Comic Book Movies Olga Kuznetsova*, Nadezhda Karacheva, Ivan Solsoev, and Mikhail Kuznetsov Foreign Languages Department, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia Abstract. The article analyzes the linguistic and sociocultural features of the American comic book movies. The purpose of this article is to identify the distinctive features of American super hero movies, as well as to analyze the changes that have occurred in the images of the main characters and their socio-cultural preconditions. Introduction - In 1933, «Eastern Color Printing» published a similar newspaper (but with fewer pages) «Funnies on Nowadays comics are constantly present in our lives - in Parade». advertising, newspapers magazines and on the Internet. - In the same year, «Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comic books are a developed industry, especially in the Comics» was published by «Eastern Color» in United States of America. It seems relevant to consider collaboration with «Dell». This publication, intended for comics precisely as a linguistic and sociocultural sale in the network of stores «Woolworth», opened the phenomenon in order to follow changes in the culture story of the American comics. The price was not and traditional values of the American people. «Scholars indicated, and the magazine was sold for a dime a copy, have opened up many new avenues of exploration as which became the standard price for comics for years to they begin tracing ways in which modern culture come. In 1934, the edition became periodic, having engages with the world» [1]. In addition, modern generated a whole wave of imitators. In 1938, the American mass culture is mainly aimed at promoting the magazine «Action Comics # 1» appeared, presenting the American way of life and Western values in other world with a new hero - Superman, and with it a new countries, which also makes the study of various genre – super hero comics» [2]. sociocultural phenomena of this country relevant. «There In «The Secret History of Comics» [2] the author is a lack of works on the American comic’s history. gives the following periodization of the history of Meanwhile, the developing industry of painted stories American comics: provides the need for the information about the history of the industry to a broad audience, and it would be The Golden Magazines were sold in huge foolish to deny it» [2]. Age editions. The most popular form of The purpose of this article is to identify the (1938-1950) entertainment of Americans before distinctive features of American super hero movies, as this period was reading pulp-fiction well as to analyze the changes that have occurred in the (cheap paperback books printed on images of the main characters and their socio-cultural low-quality paper), by the end of the preconditions. decade, the publishers of the ««pulp» Results and discussion. massively mastered the publication of Comics – a kind of «commercial art», a paradoxical comic books. National Publications phenomenon of the post-cultural era. Comics first (DC Comics now), which launched a appeared in the US in the late 19th century, and were new cultural trend with the release of presented in the form of funny pictures series (the Action Comics, created a series for modernized form of the alphabet) aimed at teaching many other superheroes. Batman, children to read and write. «By the term «comics» we Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, mean what the Americans call a «comic book», that is a Flash and Sand Man crushed the kind of separated comics magazine. The birth of this gangsters on the colored pages of primordially American form did not happen their editions. The main competitor immediately: was the publishing house Fawcett, - In 1929, the publishing house «Dell Publishing» which released comics about Billy released a sixteen-page newspaper comic book called Batson adventures, a boy capable of «The Funnies». turning into the mighty Captain * Corresponding author: [email protected] © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). SHS Web of Conferences 50, 01093 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001093 CILDIAH-2018 Marvel with the magic word turning point was his comic «Shazam!». The same period includes «Challengers of the Unknown», the first steps of the Marvel company which generated a whole wave of (first called Timely), they, among similar comic books. In these stories, other things, published a super- ordinary people (brilliant scientists, popular series about the adventures of of course, handsome athletes, etc.) Captain America. faced sci-fi threats such as alien The peak of the superheroes invasions or sinister travelers in time. popularity was achieved during the In the same period, the first union Second World War. By the end of the of comic books and television took 1940s, new genres gradually took up place - the series «Adventures of place: crime (stories about gangsters), Superman» was so popular that one horror (horror comics, either of the minor characters, the young exploiting popular cinematographic reporter Jimmy Olsen, received his and literary images, or printing own comic book series. original stories with O. Henry finals), The era ended when DC Comics war comics (about military returned to the pages of their adventures), romance comic genre magazines Flash – the hero of the (sentimental stories). Superheroes Golden Age, but in a slightly overtook the «overproduction crisis»: modified form: another alter ego, huge quantities with low quality. another suit, but the same abilities. Eventually, by 1951, most of the While the «old» Flash mostly fought superhero series had been closed or with gangsters, the new one dealt redone to meet the new genre with fantastic villains. formats. The Silver Age Thanks to the success of Flash, The Comic- This period is sometimes (1956-1971) DC again took up superheroes. Their Code Century considered a part of the Golden Age, colleagues from Timely-Atlas (1950-1956) and sometimes is called the Atomic became Marvel: in ten years they Age (the world situation of the fifties, created a galaxy of the most popular of course, affected comics as well). heroes – the Fantastic Four, Spider- Meanwhile, these six years are Man, the Avengers, X-Men, strikingly different from the previous Daredevil and many others. era, and the theme of peaceful atom DC again occupied the screen in and nuclear war was one of the the late sixties with the series features of that time. «Batman», which became popular The period of decreasing interest even in Japan, where it was based on in superheroes coincided with the manga. Marvel launches a series of anti-comic hysteria that spread over animated series, performed in the the US in the fifties. Extensive advanced (and extremely cheap) harassment, deployed in the media, «motion comics» style. reached the Congress, and as a result, Collecting comics came with the so-called Comic Code was collecting coins and stamps. From established. Comics that did not fit this time, this was not a hobby for the accepted standards simply did not children any more, but a serious appear on the shelves and widespread business: catalogs were produced, distribution on newsstands, which in intermediary companies started those days, when there were no looking for old circulations, and specialized comic bookstores, meant prices were rising. If at the beginning 80% of the success. «Thanks to of the Silver Age the target audience Comic-Code crime and horror genres of comics were twelve-year-olds, by virtually disappeared from the market the beginning of the seventies until the end of the sixties. Instead of publishers began to focus on students. classic horror came a new genre - Feedback between editors and readers monster comics, such as «King occurred through the letters and Kong» and «Godzilla». editorial appeals, the creators were Jack Kirby created the super- not just a couple of lines in the corner popular Captain America (and in fact of the title page, but recognizable laid the foundation for military comic persons ready to make contact. By the books), and in so doing developed end of the sixties, the first comic- another genre. In the fifties, Kirby festivals were arranged and gaining worked in a variety of genres, but the strength. 2 SHS Web of Conferences 50, 01093 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001093 CILDIAH-2018 The comic book finally took a There were new publishers, and modern look: one or two stories on underground comics started being the magazine, the cover anticipates able to compete with the mainstream. the coming story’s conflicts. Fiction In addition, manga in America for the became the main genre, especially in first time appeared. With increased superhero form. interest in the old comic books, the The Bronze A new era began with the return new generation was acquainted with Age of Jack Kirby from Marvel company the works of Will Eisner, old horror (1971-1986) to DC Comics, where he created an comics and «forgotten» superheroes. ambitious (but unimportantly The authors of the comics now accepted by readers) project «Fourth took the rock star model: they World», developing his ideas about performed at festivals, went on tours the deities of other worlds, laid down around the world, and got fabulous in the annex to the story of the Torah, money. Religious status was found in «Stories of Asgard», which he the works of Frank Miller, Alan painted for Marvel. Moore, Grant Morrison and many A little later DC planned «DC others. The names of the creators on Explosion», the release of a huge covers became more important than number of new series, which would the names of the characters, an turn into the biggest crisis in the unthinkable story in fact for the history of the publishing house.
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