Newspaper Comics

This week, I had a chance to read "The Complete Peanuts" and got a glimpse into the early days of comics and how they appealed to their audience. While Peanuts began as whimsical short stories for various age groups, it slowly evolved to include more adult themes while still retaining its humorous take on life.
I also read some of “Flash Gordon”, which appeals to a much different audience, using fantastic and greater than life heroes to entertain its audience. It also shows the beginnings of comic books as a medium of entertainment, aside from the newspapers.

Both these stories seek to entertain similar audiences, yet take drastically different approaches in terms of themes, styles, and medium. I thought this was a very good example of how wide an audience comics sought to reach.