Graphic Novels

The Graphic novel I read was The Days Are Just Packed, A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Watterson. This was a very refreshing read. As are most graphic novels, this one was in comic format where all the pages are made up of comic strips. In this case, every few pages is an entirely different story. The audience of this book is definitely young kids to teenagers.

             Believe it or not, technology is not a big part of the stories. To be fair, this is because it was published in 1993 so the emergence of technology had not already happened. The use of technology in it does actually bring up an interesting insight into the progression of technology.

As seen in the above photo, the Dad is getting angry at the son for watching TV all day and not going outside on a nice day. He states “Before there was television, kids actually DID things on nice days like this”. The television was the first technological invention that truly altered entertainment and daily lives in general. The introduction led to increased laziness and decreased time outside, as shown in this comic. Interestingly, now TV isn’t the biggest distractor to kids. The focus of the youth is no longer on TV, but more on phones, computers, and video games. Even back in the early 90’s technology was already heavily affecting lives, now just even much more so. There are other more subtle technology references throughout the book, but none as strong as that past one.