frbd1-1, Exercise 3: Testing two claims

Model answer (check the details):

Claim: "Comics are for children."
- Evidence to look for: the range of titles in a large French bookshop or library; readership surveys by age; prizes won by adult-oriented works; publishers' catalogues.
- Where to find it: bookshop and library shelves, festival programmes, publishers' sites, trade statistics and academic studies of readership (check what is available).
- Care: shelf space shows supply, not who reads; surveys measure what people say.

Claim: "BD was invented by Hergé."
- Evidence: earlier picture stories (Töpffer in the 1830s, check), early French strips such as Christophe's Famille Fenouillard (1889, check) and Bécassine (1905, check), and Tintin's first appearance (1929, check).
- Where to find it: comics histories, museum exhibitions and the early albums themselves.
- Care: Hergé made major contributions to the form (the clear line, the adventure serial), so the claim is a simplification, not a pure invention.

Other claims can be handled the same way: say what would count as evidence before looking.