Comics being an art form unique to America

The reading and lecture are both about the comics being an art form unique to America. The author of the reading provides three explanations supporting his argument. The speaker challenges the claims made by the author. He suggests that these explanations are incorrect. To begin with, the author states that the first commercially successful comic strip was Hogen’s Alley which was created by an American cartoonist and is published/printed by an American newspaper in 1890. This specific argument is challenged by the speaker. He says that the first popular comic strip commercially was in Britain and Switzerland way back in 1790. Additionally, he says that cartoonists and publishers for Hogen’s Alley were Immigrants and not native Americans. Secondly, the writer suggests that the first popular comic book “Actions Comics” is also American. He further mentions that this comic book featured an American created first hero “Superman”. The speaker, however, disagrees with this by mentioning that 16 years before the release of “Action Comics”, there was a comic book “Adventures of Tin Tin” released in Belgium which is still a popular comic book and it predates the Superman character. He further contradicts by bringing up that artist who created Superman was a Canadian and not American. Finally, the author articulates that Americans invented and exported comic art to the rest of the world. Moreover, in the article, it is stated that Japanese and European comics were influenced by American comics. In contrast, the speaker’s position is that Japanese comics were influenced by Traditional Asian arts. Further, asterisks and smurfs are drawn by European cartoonists in European comics. So, he notes that comics in the rest of the world are not influenced by American comics.