MARTHA THOMASES: Hey, Kids! Comics!
Once a week, I volunteer in the pediatric department of a local hospital. I teach knitting to kids and caregivers. I’d like to say I do this because I’m a spiritual person, more evolved than you – better, in fact – but that’s not true. I do it because it’s the best part of my week, and whatever problems I might have in my adult life disappear when I spend a few hours with these kids. It gives me a chance to talk about color and texture and sheep instead of war and money and politics.
Because I go to the hospital on Wednesdays, I stop on the way at the local comic book near the subway for my weekly fix. The subway ride is long enough to read at least one book, and sometimes I get uptown early enough to sit in a playground and read more, weather permitting.
For the past few months, when I’ve bought a Simpsons comic or the Jonny DC Legion series, I’ve given them away at the hospital. Again, this isn’t altruism, but efficiency. There are enough comics in my apartment without adding any extras.
I’d give them all away, but most comics are too serialized to give away at random, and it is not my wish to see these kids in the hospital every week. It would be better for them to get better and go home. And I’m not giving a kid Garth’s Wormwood, no matter what.
This may surprise you, but children are excited to get comics. They like them. Even in a room filled with computers and video games and flat screen televisions (and flowers and get well cards and relatives), kids put down what they’re doing and start leafing through the pages, looking at the colorful pictures.
For more than twenty years, those of us who love comics have insisted that the medium is one that can support great literature and complex ideas. We’re right. We’ve said “Comics aren’t just for kids,” and that’s true. Just as prose can be written for different audiences, graphic storytelling can reach many different audiences and tastes.
And yet, for some reason, a lot of people think that comics shouldn’t be for kids. I’m not just talking about the arts police, the ones who think every kind of entertainment needs a rating and a warning sticker. When I worked at a major comics publisher, my boss (who was a vice-president of marketing) once explained to me how the company would make plenty of money if no kid ever bought another comic, and our audience was exclusively males in the prized 18-to-25 demographic.
Even those who aren’t in it for the money often think that comics for kids aren’t necessary. In the early days of the direct market, when there were suddenly all kinds of comics for all kinds of niche tastes (“The Good Old Days”), I would often go to a local store with my toddler son. I’d buy a variety of comics, including a fair number of independents, but the emphasis for me has always been super-heroes. The clerk would sneer at me as he added up the prices on the colorful covers. “I don’t read this crap,” he would say. “I prefer the more challenging literature. Like Love and Rockets.”
No disrespect meant to Los Bros Hernandez, whose work I admire greatly, but I don’t find them to be the ultimate literary expression available to humanity (nor do they, I suspect). And why should I feel defensive about my purchases? It’s no surprise to me that this store is no longer in business. The stores that survive in the competitive Manhattan market are the ones that understand that all kinds of customers enjoy all kinds of comics.
Even these good comic book stores have relatively few comics for kids. American publishers aren’t publishing them. Manga is great, but there’s an awful lot of it, with lots of extended stories, and it’s hard for a newbie to jump in without a guide.
Comics may not be just for kids anymore, but do we have to shut them out?
Writer and creator of Marvel Comics’ Dakota North and contributor to their Epic Illustrated, Martha Thomases also has toiled for such publishers as DC Comics and NBM before becoming Media Queen of ComicMix.com.
Because I grew up in an era rich in high-quality comics for kids, it has always driven me nuts that so few in the major comics companies see young readers as a fertile market worth courting with intelligent, inventive comics. Even after DC had published my graphic novel and gotten pats on the back for doing so, I couldn't interest them in letting me do a kids' comic. Of course, a big reason was that I wanted to created an original character that I would own rather than play with a licensed character from TV that would require my every decision to be vetted by movie studio execs and advertisers.
Children’s literature in whatever medium is a world away from the children’s marketing business. Sometimes the literature is marketed to eleven, like our man Pooh, but the marketing schemes never go the other way. Sign me Johnny Tebbel, S.T.A.R.
Well, on the positive side, the Marvel Adventures series is pretty good. Lots of times they're better than the adult comics. At least they didn't have to suffer through the Civil War.
I remember vividly as a child going to the corner candy store (the only place in my neighborhood that sold comics), with my shiny quarter clutched in my hand to by a new Casper comic (the best were those that featured Wendy or Nightmare). The memory is only marred by the thought of the battleaxe who own the shop – Mrs. Lutz – who wouldn't let me in the store until I showed her I had money to spend and would want to make sure my hands were clean before I touched anything.
If publishers think kids aren't reading comics now, why do they think these same kids will start reading them as adults?
I had no idea there are so few kids' comics. I remember reading Richie Rich when I was little. I loved it! So much jewelry! I was always a little dissappointed that his mom resembled Aunt Bee. I wished she had been more like Nan Kempner or Pat Buckley. And speaking of Pat Buckley, I just read in the new Vogue that she died. I am so sad. Why doesn't anyone make a graphic novel, for kids, about Pat Buckley? Great job, Martha!
You should write the Pat Buckley story, sweetie! If isaac Mizrahi can write a graphic novel, so can you.
This is precisely why my brother and I been developing our comic series, SMASH, which you can preview at <a href="http://www.SmashComic.com” target=”_blank”>www.SmashComic.com. We loved superhero comics when we were young — but if we were eight years old today, I don't think we'd ever pick up a comic, let alone walk into a comic shop.
I do applaud the publishers for attempting to publish kids comics, but they never seem to last for very long. DC seems to be having success with the books based on cartoons like Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans Go and Legion of Super-Heroes. At least kids who wouldn't normally read a comic will have that recognition and might pick one up.In a way it's a shame that comics grew up with the readers. With such a limited amount of titles for the young reader, the age of the average comics reader gets older and older every year. The thought that comics might be an endangered species scares the crap out of me.
You are right, Martha: kids love to get a comic. Many of my friends have kids who are just beginning to read. Their kids love THE BAKERS: DO THESE TOYS BELONG SOMEWHERE?, so recently I have been asked "where can I get more comics for my kids? Target had a disappointing selection." My answer: (outside of NYC): I really don't know. I do mention kidslovecomics.com: they have a great recommended reading list.
Hi, Martha. There's a lot of good material out there, it's just not where we used to find our pamphlets. DC's Showcase Presents books are big hits at our house and are cost-efficient (i thought my kids would dismiss them for being "old" and for being B&W, but that wasn't the case). The Bone TPBs are good. You may want to build a library in the children's department at your hospital–those pamphlets get pretty expensive, i think, and bigger books last longer. But even if you want to stick with pamphlets, the Johnny DC and Marvel Adventures books are done-in-one–serialization is rarely an issue. Er, pardon the pun.But i don't really understand the objection to serialization, i guess.And i never find that dismissive clerk in any of the stores i visit these days. That guy got sacked.Anyway, there is a lot of good stuff coming out in all directions, particularly among independents. That makes it a little harder to find (you are right that the direct-market retailers aren't always up to speed), and it often means that there isn't sufficient editorial guidance. Hang in there!