Comic books were really originally designed for children, but they are very popular for people of all ages, as whilst many comics are aimed at younger readers, there are plenty of satirical comic books that are aimed at older readers.

Comic books in America are pretty much dominated by the superhero genre- indeed many household name superheroes are famous because of their first appearances in comic books.

Marvel in particular have dominated superhero and villain comic books- they have hundreds of characters many of which are now very famous- Spider Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, Captain America and Daredevil are all classic examples. As well as Marvel, DC comics are also very influential in the American comic books market- they are responsible for characters such as Superman and Batman. These characters have become so famous that there are plenty of films that have been made about most of them, however reading the comics instead can give you a pretty interesting insight into what the original writers and artists wanted to do with their characters.

Although a lot of comics focus on heroes and villains, they do not do so exclusively. Although I am English, I was a big fan of the Calvin and Hobbes comics which were created by Bill Watterson and ran from 1985-1995. If you are not familiar with this particular comic book, it follows an adventurous six year old called Calvin and his somewhat derisive stuffed tiger called Hobbes. Hobbes appears as a stuffed toy to everyone but Calvin, and I thought that the cartoons were pretty funny and well worth a read.

While it wasn’t written as a comic book and more of a comic strip, I cannot help but mention the Peanuts comics written by Charles Schultz, which ran from 1950 to the year 2000, a total of nearly 18000 different strips. Of all the characters, Snoopy is undoubtedly the most famous and was one of the original four characters. You can buy collections of the Peanuts comics if you are a fan, and I most definitely am, because the cartoons themselves are pretty brilliant. I cannot help but admire a comic strip that lased 50 years and was read by such an incredibly large audience.

We all have our favourite comic books and comic book characters- why not share your thoughts with other readers in our book forum?