Comical comics
Comical comics |
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Page 3 of 34  'Biffo the Bear' (The Beano, 1964). Art/script: Dudley Wathins. Other established titles followed Puck's example by making themselves 'younger', including Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips. So successful were the revamps that by 1914 almost the entire industry had reorientated its production towards readers of between eight and twelve: the age range it concentrated on until the 1980s. Almost overnight, it seemed, the adult comic had become a thing of the past. What happened as a result was that the sociology of comics reading was transformed. No longer were comics supposed to be for workers to read during breaks or on trains during half holidays. Now, they were being bought by kids with their own pocket money, without adult supervision, and were being read as part of children's leisure time: theirs to swap, discard or keep as they wished. The sense of ownership, so empowering for a child, was total. |