Theory of evolution in comics: An analysis of the magazine “learn more about Charles Darwin

Abstract

This article is configured as a documentary research with the objective of analyzing the comic book “Learn More about Charles Darwin”. This publication was marketed in newsstands, and transits between the fantasy that seeks entertainment and the presentation of concepts on Biological Evolution. For the analysis of the object, on all pages of the magazine it was observed how the comic artist used visual resources in combination with verbal language, and how they complement each other contributing to the propagation of the scientific message expressed by the comics. The results indicated that most comics have entries. In some comics of the magazine, the abrupt change in style in the drawings reveals a certain difficulty for the entertainment industry to move through the genre of science communication for children. The written texts of the comics present very accentuated discursive marks such as definitions, examples and explanations. Thus, the work presents a stable, non-problematic, unquestionable knowledge, which contrasts with the scientific knowledge itself, which is admittedly provisional, problematic, debatable. The editorial seal opts for a stereotyped view of the scientist as someone who already announced himself as a scientist. However, the importance of “Learn More about Charles Darwin” is reiterated for the promotion of reading and the democratization of the science communication language for children. Because, the analyzed journal evidences one of the most important scientific theories, which significantly changed the way we observe the natural world, in a moment of great pressure to weaken the theory of evolution, through the attempt to validate creationism as a scientific theory.

Keywords

• histórias em quadrinhos
• darwin
• teoria da evolução
• divulgação científica para as crianças