Comic

My magazine.

My Comic Essay 

In this essay I will be comparing the comic’s dandy and Spiderman, I will explore the differences between them both and why they have different target audiences. What connotations of the magazine front covers give us this opinion?

I choose dandy the comic to analyse, the style of writing techniques they use are very simple and plain, the words are not difficult to understand or hard to read. The made up characters names at the bottom of the comic are completely made up funny words, I think the writer has done this because young kids are used to the whole fantasy, made up creatures. The catchy mass head ‘DANDY’ is in a light quirky blue colour, outlined by two other colours it would definitely stand out above the crowd. The bright blue has connotations of boys, what boy doesn’t love a bit of blue? Throughout the whole comic the same colours, and tones and style of writing are used, the writer possibly wants this comic to be recognised from its other sellers. He wants to keep up with the whole theme. The connotation of ‘dandy’ means very good, he wants the viewer to know how high the quality of this comic will be. And involving this in the name is an automatic hit to the public; it’s another way of advertising how good the comic will be, using the mass head to do this creates an instant reaction from the public.

The second comic I choose to analyse was spider man; compared to dandy the connotations are completely different. The reason I picked this one over the other ones because instantly after looking at it, I straight away thought of so many ideas I could write about it. The thing I loved most about this comic was the position Spider man was in and the metallic masthead the reason for this is because, they tell such a story. When you see metallic colours you’d think knives, guns, fighting and war? Correct? Well Spiderman is all about fighting and anger, I thought the writer was very creative to think of that. The way Spiderman is positioned on the top of a building crouching down when underneath is a busy city also is perfect to what Spiderman is all about, knowing that Spiderman saves the world putting him on top of the building refers to him looking down on the world like a super hero would.

Dandy has one full bleed throughout the comic; the image includes a tom boy in the middle smiling, with plugs around it to tell us what is happening in the main image these are good icons to have as you wouldn’t understand what the comic was about from just looking at the full bleed. The character isn’t doing anything; it is just there face close up smiling. It’s simple and to the point. The bright yellow hair stands out above the rest of the picture. The colours used are very unisex.

Spiderman’s image is not simple, and it is not just a quick sketch. It is a fully detailed Spiderman drawn on, with all the important parts included. The buzzing lightning flashing coming off him is one of the more adult connotations that the writer has included. The dark reds, and sheepish dark blue and blacks all works well together. The reason I think this has been chosen as the front cover is because the magazine is all about this character, putting it as the main image will tell the audience that it is about the film.

On the comics front cover off Dandy the plugs are a great way of explaining to your age group what’s going on, it tells them what is inside the comic as well, when people look at the comic they will get an understand of what is going to be talked about inside. If you are interested in the comic then using the plug to look at will tell you more about what you’re reading. Secondly, the advertisement is very good. The competitions like ‘win the jackpot’ will encourage people to buy your magazine because they will want to win what’s inside.

Spiderman doesn’t include many connotations expect from the main ones, but one that I think works well on the comic is the intertextual reference this is because telling your audience it is a certain brand means people who enjoy reading Marvel Comics will automatically been more interested in your comic as well.

Dandy’s comic for unisex aged 6-10 works well for their age group, although I don’t understand the picture on the front and why they have picked that as their image because if they are trying to represent that it is a girls and boys comic then using an image that you can’t really work out if it is a boy or girl you wouldn’t understand what the comic is about. Also, it’s boring there isn’t any detail to look at, the fact it is a younger age group comic I don’t understand why they have made the full bleed to be so confusing.

Compared to dandy, Spiderman is meant to be for 10-14 year olds and it so much easier to understand than dandy’s full bleed. In my opinion Spiderman is a great success, the person doing this has put so much effort into thinking about all the little details of Spiderman, and it has worked out a treat. The background scenery is the most exciting part of the comic, it explains so much about what’s going on in the comic, the connotations all work well together as well. The dark black metallic-ness throughout the back drop creates a scary midnight fight atmosphere, you feel like you’re there with Spiderman.