The Comic Books between Fantasy, Science-Fiction and Politics
The Comic Books between Fantasy, Science-Fiction and Politics

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an insight into the relations two of the main genres in popular literature, namely science-fiction and fantasy, establish with the medium of comic books. In the first part of the article these two genres are put face-to-face, and some similarities as well as important differences between them, which are necessary in any discussion on the topic, are exposed. Although their approach to the same major issues is similar, and although they address almost the same public, the main differences are related to their dealing with science and technology, respectively with magic. Comic books have played an important role in disseminating science-fiction and fantasy scenarios, helping in imposing codes of representing races and places that are recurrent in stories as such (mostly in the super-hero genre, created in comic books and transposed in all the other media channels). The second part of the article investigates the presence of the science-fiction and fantasy trends in comic books, as well as occasional symbioses of the two genres. The most influential creations in the field are not just good entertainment products or works of art, but they are relevant from political, sociological, cultural and philosophical points of view.

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