This document provides guidance for analyzing comics as part of a GCSE media studies course. It outlines several areas for analysis, including palette, design/layout, representation, narrative, audience and genre. It then discusses analyzing audiences of comics by considering the intended audience, potential alternative audiences, how the comic might attract or gratify audiences, and how it attempts to attract readers. Finally, it examines institutions in the comics industry like DC and Marvel comics and regulation of comics through the Comics Code Authority.

1. GCSE MEDIA STUDIES
COMICS
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

2. •PALETTE
•DESIGN AND LAYOUT
•REPRESENTATION
•NARRATIVE
•AUDIENCE
•GENRE

3. •PALETTE
•DESIGN AND LAYOUT
•REPRESENTATION
•NARRATIVE
•AUDIENCE
•GENRE

4. •PALETTE
•DESIGN AND LAYOUT
•REPRESENTATION
•NARRATIVE
•AUDIENCE
•GENRE

5. •PALETTE
•DESIGN AND LAYOUT
•REPRESENTATION
•NARRATIVE
•AUDIENCE
•GENRE

6. •PALETTE
•DESIGN AND LAYOUT
•REPRESENTATION
•NARRATIVE
•AUDIENCE
•GENRE

7. GCSE MEDIA STUDIES
COMICS
AUDIENCES

8. AUDIENCES
•WHO IS THE INTENDED
AUDIENCE?
•COULD THERE BE MORE
THAN ONE AUDIENCE?
•WHAT USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS MIGHT
THIS COMIC OFFER?
•HOW DOES IT ATTEMPT
TO ATTRACT AN
AUDIENCE?

9. AUDIENCES
 WHO IS THE INTENDED
AUDIENCE?
 COULD THERE BE MORE
THAN ONE AUDIENCE?
 WHAT USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS MIGHT
THIS COMIC OFFER?
 HOW DOES IT ATTEMPT
TO ATTRACT AN
AUDIENCE?

10. AUDIENCES
 WHO IS THE INTENDED
AUDIENCE?
 COULD THERE BE MORE
THAN ONE AUDIENCE?
 WHAT USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS MIGHT
THIS COMIC OFFER?
 HOW DOES IT ATTEMPT
TO ATTRACT AN
AUDIENCE?

11. AUDIENCES
 WHO IS THE INTENDED
AUDIENCE?
 COULD THERE BE MORE
THAN ONE AUDIENCE?
 WHAT USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS MIGHT
THIS COMIC OFFER?
 HOW DOES IT ATTEMPT
TO ATTRACT AN
AUDIENCE?

12. AUDIENCES AND REGULATION
 MORAL PANICS
 Seduction of the Innocent was a book by Dr.
Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that
warned that comic books were a bad form of
popular literature and a serious cause of
juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor
bestseller that created alarm in parents and
galvanized them to campaign for censorship.
At the same time, a U.S. Congressional inquiry
was launched into the comic book industry,
and the Comics Code Authority was voluntarily
established by publishers to self-censor their
titles.

13. REGULATION
The Comics Code Authority (CCA) is part of
the Comics Magazine Association of America
(CMAA), and was created to regulate the
content of comic books in the United States.
Member publishers submit comic books to the
CCA, which screens them for conformance to
its Comics Code, and authorizes the use of
their seal on the cover if the books comply. At
the height of its influence, it was a de facto
censor for the U.S. comic book industry.

14. REGULATION
 1954 Code highlights
 Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create
sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law
and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
 If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
 Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous
or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
 In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal
punished for his misdeeds.
 Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of
brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay,
physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
 No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.

15. REGULATION
 All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome
crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be
permitted.
 All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
 Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be
published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and
in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure
the sensibilities of the reader.
 Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking
dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and
werewolfism are prohibited.
 Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which
have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
 Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue
exposure.
 Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is
unacceptable.

16. REGULATION
 Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any
physical qualities.
 Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed.
Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are
unacceptable.
 Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.
 Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
 Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not
be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures
shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or
contrary to good taste or morals.

17. GCSE MEDIA STUDIES
COMICS
INSTITUTIONS

18. INSTITUTIONS
DC COMICS
subsidiary of Time Warner
responsible for some of comics' most
famous characters, including Superman,
Batman, Wonder Woman etc
More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Comics

19. INSTITUTIONS
 MARVEL COMICS
 best-known comics titles include
The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four,
The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil,
Thor, Captain America and X-Men.
 Tended to create darker ‘anti-heroes’, unlike
DC’s more straightforward ‘good guys’.
 More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics

20. INSTITUTIONS
D.C. Thomson & Co.
Best known for producing The Dandy
and The Beano
produces more than 200 million comic
books, magazines, and newspapers
every year
More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._C._Thoms
on_%26_Co._Ltd