Week 4 - E.C. Comics (2 points)

 

    Many of these horror comics seem to focus the theme of justice or karma. As in, “really bad things only happen to those who deserve it.” It kind of reflects the Christian view that “bad” people go to hell, which many adults take comfort in. In a way, it allows people to engage with these stories, which were very obscene for the time, under the guise of scaring the reader straight. If there was no karma for the people doing bad deeds, then adults might not guiltlessly enjoy these stories as much. At the end of the day, human enjoy images of violence – it’s exciting. But the violence is much more enjoyable if you think it’s happening to someone who deserves it.

    I find it interesting that the people who get murdered often in these books are the average white man or women seen in comics. I did see an instance of a white man being murdered by racist caricatures, but never the other way around. This could tie into my above theory about karma and scaring the reader straight. The authors want the reader to empathize with the protagonist/murder-ee so the scene of their death is even more scary. The reader might think, “Oh geez, that could happen to me!” Hence why the targets of these murders are unassuming, “average” (white, pretty, male, etc.) looking people.