My grandson is discovering comic books. And I well remember when I did--and also my own kids. I think I had an early Batman once upon a time (maybe issue three or four).
At four, Kevin can barely follow the stories (which are very violent and dark now) but he knows this is the stage he is supposed to be at. He thinks Winnie the Pooh is too young for him, much to my regret.
I was mostly an Archie and Veronica person. How about you? Were comics a large part of your childhood? Do you read graphic novels now? Did you parents look down on such literature. Does anyone remember classic comics? Do your kids read them?
I have a friend who has almost every Little Lulu comic. Do they still make such tame fare or is it all ultra violent?
36 comments:
I never was into comics much but I've always been a ravenous reader. Encyclopedia Brown, Hank the Cowdog and a few other series stand out as favorite series.
Marvel has an "all ages" line called Marvel Adventures Super Heroes as well as a magazine called Marvel Super Stars Magazine. I think those might be up your alley. I've looked at a few and found them very entertaining, and I'm not even the target audience.
http://subscriptions.marvel.com/combo/Marvel_Super_Stars_Magazine_and_Marvel_Adventures_Super_Heroes
Really, won't sit still for Milne? I finally read the two books late, when I was nine or so.
There are still Archie comics, though they are not so completely innocuous now, I gather, and utterly rainbows and cheer comics aimed at all ages.
One of my first memories of reading was an issue science-fictional comic from DC that I haven't yet re-identified, presumably from about 1968 or '69...I was reading at four or three, depending on which parent tells you at what time of day, but I definitely was by four. After a brief dalliance with Tintin in CHILDREN'S DIGEST at around age five, most of my comics reading from ages 8-11 would be horror comics, though I was eclectic and picked up on Walt Kelly's POGO at that time, just as Kelly died (I was already a big PEANUTS reader and enjoyed DOONESBURY and such).
Read MAD at this time, as well, and became aware that the undergrounds were doing interesting things by about 1976 or '77, but didn't know where to find them; finally caught up with Fantagraphics and LOVE AND ROCKETS and TWISTED SISTERS and the like in the latter '80s, and while I read some of the early manga imported by Charlton Comics for their titles such as GHOST MANOR back in the early '70s, never have gained a taste for full-length manga so much as the more American-derived traditions of graphic novels, often out of serialized materials, whether Alison Bechdel's or Lynda Barry's or Peter Clowes's.
Don't know exactly when I started reading Jules Feiffer, but he and Kelly definitely where my first long-form comics storytellers, by about age 9 (beyond the comparatively short stories in DC and Marvel and Charlton and Dell/Gold Key and other newsstand comics, and the few Iintin installments I got to see).
Thanks, Chris. I will look for them.
I was never a comic strip reader. Couldn't seem to get into the brief stories. Kind of ironic now.
Someday I am going to read all of Doonesbury so I will know what I missed.
Encyclopedia Brown brought my son more fun than anything else. Maybe it was responsible for him becoming a prosecutor even.
I grew up reading comics and I still read them, although my tastes have shifted away from super-heroics in the last ten years or so.
Re: dark stories and violence, the thing is... there really hasn't been a younger generation springing up to take the place of older readers as they shift away, and so comics have been forced to keep up with the readers they have by offering more mature content. Your average super hero comic reader now is in his twenties or thirties (or even older, like me). But like Chris mentioned, there are still lines devoted to younger readers.
I don't look down on comics etc., but never had much interest in them. My father and brother were and are big fans. My Dad: Prince Valiant, etc. My brother: Richie Rich. I tried some, Batman, Sgt. Rock. My mother loves ones with gender slants, and crossword puzzles. More recently, I enjoyed Persepolis.
I liked the Western comics: Kid Colt, Outlaw, and The Rawhide Kid. And also Millie the Model.
I have a passel of RICHIE RICH so my kids must have liked them.
What do younger readers read and please don't say nothing. Perhaps games have taken the place of comics. Similar graphics.
Never knew any of these existed, Naomi. Different worlds, I guess.
Naomi, those Western comics were GREAT. Those, and Two-Gun Kid too. Those were as much a part of my youth as Batman, Captain America, etc.
I loved my father's old tattered copes of "Classics Illustrated." They're about 70 years old now and at my brother's house. When his last kid leaves home I hope they'll come over to my place.
My own comic buying was pretty much anything but super-heroes. I loved DC horror comics as well as war comics like UNKNOWN SOLDIER. I think I bought the whole war line for awhile.
For Marvel I had a lot of tie ins. I loved Conan, Star Wars (especially between the first two movies), Micronauts (should've sucked but it was really good) and Tomb of Dracula which might've been the best long story arc of the 1970s
My (just turned) 11 year old nephew is a huge Pokemon fan. He's also been into Calvin & Hobbes and recently discovered Garfield.
I don't read grsphic novels very often. I did read comics as a kid but was never the huge fan my brother was.
Jackie says: Little Lulu and Richie Rich, Archie & his circle, plus Superman and his.
Jeff M.
I think Classic Comics introduced me to many books. I distinctly remember picking up THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER once I had read it through CC.
Nancy and Sluggo, too, Jeff. And I still have many Archies although I gave some to a friend's daughter.
Younger readers (and this is just my personal experience, with my daughter) seem to like manga more than traditional American comics. The Kate likes Full Metal Alchemist, Kingdom Hearts, Soul Eater, etc. Granted, those are still comics, but it's a whole 'nuther head.
And I am wondering about Pokemon. Is that super violent too?
Pokemon is such stylized violence that it almost isn't violent at all. Creatures zapping each other.
WEIRD WESTERN featuring Jonah Hex was the DC western comic of my choice...until, many years later, there were Joe Lansdale western comics...
My comic book reading was as narrow as my novel reading, I think. Too bad.
Todd, Jonah Hex was so great. And Lansdale's version was a lot of fun, too. Did you read any of the current series that just ended?
I love comics. Been reading them off and on (mostly on) since the late Fifties. I also still read the comic strips in the newspaper every day and have for as far back as I can remember. (Shows how old I am that I actually read the paper every day, even though it's a mere shadow of what it once was. But then, so am I.)
We get the Times, which has no comic strips. And nothing much to laugh at either.
Except the ridiculousness of much of the reviewing (and too much of the "reporting").
Heath, I haven't read the most recent HEX stuff, yet...I might not've even read all of Lansdale's LONE RANGER yet...
Heath, I know your question was for Todd, but I'd like to say I LOVED the most recent Hex run that Palmiotti and Gray wrote. Not for kids, certainly, but some fantastic stuff. Loved it was always on time, the stories were self-contained, and the art was consistently excellent. I'll miss it, but at least I have the trades.
I used to read the comics in the newspaper, but haven't for years. The last one I read regularly was For Better or Worse, but stopped when Lynn Johnston quit doing new ones. I bought comic books when I was young, but don't remember which were my favourites. Classic Comics cost 15 cents when the other ones cost 10. That I do remember.
Probably had to pay copyrights.
Don't know what is offered for younger readers these days. I didn't really start reading comics until I was about 15. Then I only read a few before giving it up. Only lately have I gotten back into graphic novels.
I read a few comics as a kid, but as a younf adult I became a serious comic collector. I published a few fanzines, attended cons, and wrote for Inside Comics and The Monster Times. That all faded by the mid-'70s when I was struggling just to eat every day.
You ought to check a comic book shop for collections of Little Lulu or Richie Rich, and other Harvey titles. Early Archies were entertaining, and the Duck Tales stories were great for kids of all ages.
Finally, a post after my own heart. Comics and comic strips were a big part of my childhood and now they are a huge part of my adult life. My father encouraged me to read and buy comics from the time I was in first standard (grade) — that was 'cause he read 'em too. I still buy, read, and collect comics. My teenage kids read 'em too, mostly ARCHIE, TINTIN (not without Haddock), and ASTERIX (always with Obelix). I read and own a little of all that's mentioned above. I don't read graphic novels for two reasons: I don't have storage space and they aren't worth buying for the price they're sold in India.
My fav comics? BATMAN, MAUS, CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, SWAMP THING, HULK, RIP KIRBY, TARZAN, MANDRAKE, and everything under the DELL, GOLD KEY, CHARLTON, HARVEY and EC banners. And comic strips? ANDY CAPP, AGATHA CRUMM, HAGAR (mainly Dik Browne), BLONDIE, PEANUTS, CALVIN & HOBBES, and FRED BASSET.
This is longer than your post, Ms Abbott, but thanks very much for asking.
Naomi and Chris: To KID COLT, OUTLAW, THE RAWHIDE KID and THE TWO-GUN KID, I would like to add JESSE JAMES, THE DURANGO KID, BILLY THE KID, THE CISCO KID, and THE LONE RANGER — all great Western comics. I'll have to go scavenging one of these days. Hey, how come no one mentioned war comics, notably COMMANDO and BATTLE PICTURE LIBRARY, or the British girls comics like BUNTY, JUDY, DEBBIE and MANDY. I think we have pretty much covered everything now. Or have we?
Read some of those tales of the supernatural in my childhood (the 1960s). Years later when I saw the movie "Creepshow," the little end-caps of each vignette reminded me of those old comics which I hadn't thought of in years. The only graphic novel I've read is Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME, her autobiographical story of growing up in a refurbished funeral home (hence the title) with a closeted father and an emotionally-distant mother. A very good book--but somehow it didn't make me want to read more graphic novels. As far as I know, my kids (all girls, all at various stages of teenager-dom) have never been interested in comic books, anime, etc.
Does India have some of their own comics or is it a western thing (other than Manga)?
I am always happy to have people seize my post and offer more than I have to say about something.
My kids read a lot of comics until about age ten and then they disappeared into boxes in my attic.
You could write a small anthology of Indian comics. Now there's an idea! The most popular are AMAR CHITRA KATHA (Eternal Picture Stories) numbering 500+ based on Indian folk tales and historical and mythological stories as old as India's civilisation. Some two decades ago, leading paper The Times of India used to publish western comics, PHANTOM, MANDRAKE, FLASH GORDON, RIP KIRBY, BUZ SAWYER etc., under the Indrajal Comics banner. It included an Indian title called BAHADUR (The Brave), a modern-day vigilante who fought against evildoers, in the rural heartland. True, western comics are very popular in India but that's because the Indian comics market is akin to a drop of water compared to the vast ocean that is the American comics industry. Indians love their DC-Marvel superheroes. Rumour also has it that Steven Spielberg is going to release TINTIN first in India this November. The boy reporter and the Gallic warrior have loyal fans here.
The Disney comics - both Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck - are still published monthly. Asterix and Usagi Yojimbo are beautifully drawn, especially the latter, and tell wonderful stories.
Milne and the world of Pooh and Christopher Robin (who was older than your grandson!), Pooh, Piglet and Eyeore are NOT too grown "young" for him! If he think that, he is mistaken. I wonder where he got that idea??
Rick--perhaps from Disney's cartoons.
Prashant--we haven't yet dealt with the romance comics, the crime comics (beyond BATMAN), the humor comics (though I mentioned MAD, without specifying the early comic-book issues, nor such children as PLOP! and NATIONAL LAMPOON and BITCHY BITCH, though the latter and to extent the first had other ancestors, too), and no doubt others (EC had a pirates title at one time [and was probably not alone], in case anyone thought Alan Moore made that up by himself).
Patti--I doubt that CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED had to pay any royalties to the writers adapted...all public domain, I suspect...but they knew they were the title that parents would readily buy for the kids. No JDs spawned by them!
I agree, Todd. We have merely scratched the surface. Maybe we ought to start from FAMOUS FUNNIES, THE YELLOW KID and THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS nearly a 100 years ago and work our way up (or down?) — earliest comic strips that pioneered the US comic-book industry we see today. I remember reading romance comics in the distant past but right now I can only think of the black-and-white palm-sized STAR Picture library, much like the war and western comics of yore. CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED — well, I like the art and colour in the 1990s edition by Acclaim Books. They are gone too. Here's to Mutt & Jeff who for some reason remind me of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
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