Why Comics, Particularly American Ones,Started My Love Of Reading

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Sometimes posts start by accident. This one is one of them. I was reading a Penguin paperback readers group where the question was posed "Which book started your love for reading?"

And this seems to be a common thing. This idea that a child despite all the distractions the outside world can provide will pick up a book that will change him/her.

But, especially now as it seems to be Superhero Summer let me suggest another route to a love of books. Comics.

We're talking the seventies here. No internet and just three TV channels. British comics also were taken as a whole dull and boring. The American comics were simply different. Not just better (though obviously they were that) but also every page was in colour. The stories were more exciting. It made you want to turn the page.

And, and this is the point regarding reading, these comics made you want to know what those letters inside those bubbles meant. So the plots and the characters and the colour and the writing made you want to read.

And they were capable in the seventies of going beyond the fantastic and even the Fantastic Four. One of my favourite comics of the time was The Defenders (a sort of alternative Avengers) which was mainly written by Steve Gerber (incidentally also creator of the legendary Howard The Duck). He could write for example about them facing the Sons Of The Serpent, an out and out racist organisation but in a way that comic book fans could relate to.

The point is that a love of comics nurtured a love of reading which led to novels etc.

So if people try to mock the love of reading that a comic could ignite. Don't bother to argue.

You know better.

Until the next time.

In Which Superhero Summer Continues As I Watch Ant Man And The Wasp, Buy A Comic Book For The First Time In Decades And Get Interrogated By Daughter Over My Comic Book Choices

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as I mentioned in the previous post yesterday I took Daughter to the cinema to watch Ant Man and the Wasp as promised given her sudden and unexpected interest in comics. To be honest I wasn't sure what to expect, I could barely remember Ant Man in my comic reading past and I definitely didn't recall The Wasp.

Anyway on the drive to the cinema Daughter decided to interrogate me on my comic book tastes. Bare in mind here folks that these opinions are based on when I was her age so what these titles are like now I've no idea.

"DC or Marvel?"

Now this has the important caveat that either comic book publisher had many titles. Some I liked some I didn't. But with that proviso there was really only one answer.

"Marvel".

They were just, taken as a whole, better.

"Spiderman or Superman?"

Easy question. Given that I was not from the Planet Krypton I had more chance of being bitten by a radioactive spider. So with the schoolboy logic, and that the stories were better.

"Spiderman"

"Spiderman or The Hulk?"

Never really was into The Hulk.

"Spiderman"

"Spiderman and The Flash?"

As I said previously much as I've liked the current TV series I didn't like the original comic.

"Spiderman"

"Spiderman and Batman?"

"A tie"

Leaving aside the schoolboy logic that if I was a billionaire I too could be like Bruce Wayne the dark foreboding tales from Gotham worked for me. You know even viewed from the prism of aged and cynical adult eyes Batman has always stood the test of time.

The cinema was in the out of town outlet place that was Macarthur Glen just outside Bridgend. Whilst daughter got something to eat I quickly went to The Works shop there that sells books. Including large paperbacks and hardbacks of comics. I got daughter a Justice League of America paperback given it had a lot of the DC superheroes in there.

And....well...let's say my schoolboy years came flooding back and I couldn't resist buying one for myself..

Aquaman then - Better be good - Let's say the wife wasn't impressed

After we had a quick bite to eat we went to see the film. First there came the ads and the trailers. Won't bother saying much about them. Except perhaps you'll be surprised to learn that DFS has a sale on.

What did I think of the movie? Well not awful. A sort of light summer treat from all the heavily promoted Avengers stuff. Amiably acted (the daughter of Ant man - as my daughter noted - steals every scene she's in).

Also (and this is an important test in my dotage) I didn't sleep through part of it.

Not perfect though. Too many comedy moments for a superhero film and it could have done with a more interesting villain.

Still daughter liked it and that's the main thing.

Until the next time.