ABSTRACT
Contemporary comics have become increasingly parodical, relying on a substantive history of traditional narratives reworked in meta-fictional form. Comics from the Far East, rising steadily in numbers since the Second World War, have also penetrated western markets, feeding new ideas and technologies into what at times appeared to be a languishing industry. Walt Disney’s original favourites Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck thrived in both comic and cartoon form, as did Hanna-Barbera’s Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and the Flintstones. The 1960s and 1970s also witnessed the establishment of Japanese comics, or mangas. Originally created for ten- to eleven-year-olds, their readership quickly expanded to include all age groups and social and professional categories. The 1980s are characterised by the birth and development of cyberpunk comics, based on a hegemony of electronics and genetics, the explosion of the modernist metropolis, the revenge of the slums, and creeping fears relating to an all-encompassing technocracy.
