Research about understanding and effects in reading comics

 

Canziani (1968) studied the comprehension in reading comics showing 31 comic pictures to 130 kids from 3 to 15 years old; He asked them: “look attentively at this picture, and tell me what does it mean”; He found out that a good comprehension of comic books graphic significances is not possible before being 9 years old.

 

Leoni (1970) studied the reaction when some male adolescents in front of violent images of comics; the researcher found out that when aggressive behaviour is acted by human characters, it causes more disease than when the aggressor is an animal or an humanised animal.

 

Imbasciati and Castelli (1974) studied the effects of black (noir) gender , especially when subject is stressing, erotic and aggressive (Diabolik, Kriminal, Satanik exc.). Researchers found out that black comic books influence the mood, causing anxiety and depression. It happens especially with female readers and almost when reader and chief character are of the same sex. It confirms the result found by Quadrio(1966): fantastic hostility is higher in females who have to inhibit it in their behaviour.

 

Detti (1982) said that comic books heroes behaviour influences readers behaviour only when they’re psychologically weak, and their I.Q. is less than 80. This Author tells also about negative effects of  stories full of reprimand, morality, censure and reproof. This kind of stories could let children feeling fault, for the difference between their behaviour and the always perfect behaviour of characters.

 

Gelati(1985) showed 12 strips of Peanuts (by Schultz) to 50 universitary students of medicine; she found out that the misunderstanding of those strips was more than 50%. So she told that scientific way of reading, typical of students of medicine, doesn’t allow to understand Schultz’s spirit and all the stories of classical intellectual gender .

 

Minelli (1992), studying a sample of teen-agers, habitual readers of Dylan Dog, found out that many of them suffered the death of a parent or a relative (and it wasn’t true for the group of non-readers). So he theorized that Dylan Dog comic books, in which death themes are often discussed, are therapeutic instruments to elaborate mourning.

 

Normally the negative effect of reading comics, declared by some pedagogists, is not so terrible; but it is normally related to the difficulty to understand the language of comics book that is not so easy….

 

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