한(韓) · 일(日) 로봇 만화 속 ‘소년’의 표상(表象)에 관한 만화기호학적 소고(小考) ―〈철인28호〉와 〈3단합체 김창남〉의 비교를 중심으로―

Abstract

The main book compared the cartoon 〈Tetsujin 28-go〉(1956) and 〈Kim Chang-nam, a three-unit unit〉(2008), which is based on robots, to unravel the meaning of ‘boy’ as a symbol in the two works. With a time difference of 50 years between the 1950s and 2000s, cartoons of the two countries portray the relationship between robots and boys in their works. Shotaro is a state-certified detective who can drive and shoot pistols even though he is only a teenager. The violence of Tetsujin 28, which he controls, is also recognized as a legitimate exercise of public power. Cheol-in-28, which carries out national ideology, is a reproduction of Shotaro's absent father, who is connected by radio control. Kim Chang-nam, a giant robot developed by Changnam Electronics, always looks down at Hogu, a reproduction of his mother who is absent from Hogu. Rather, Kim Chang-nam becomes a robot that uses violence at the end of an epic story while sitting on the sideline of Hogu. Chevrolet is an Android developed by capital logic and is the only friend and lover for Hogu. Unlike the times and countries, the symbol ‘boy’ in robot cartoons is always placed in a ‘growth process’ that captures the ideology and social problems of the time. Therefore, the relationship between the robot developed by the parent generation and the boy, the child generation, is a relationship between the automata and the growth doll in that they have to grow together as icons of the spirit of the times.