Comments on: Starting out with comic books

By: D.C. DaCosta

D.C. DaCosta — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 00:55:53 +0000

Had to laugh. My experience was a bit different: I read Asterix to improve my French and German! The first time I tried to read one, I started on Friday night with my German-English dictionary next to me. Except for meals and church, it took until late Sunday evening to finish it!
One thing I did learn from Asterix was how to delineate characters and how to tell the story. (Sadly, the series lost both these attributes when the original writer, Goscinny, died.)
Tintin packs too much into the story and feels rushed, IMHO.

By: Kellie Lovegrove

Kellie Lovegrove — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 01:12:29 +0000

I hate to admit it, but I didn’t read comics growing up. Not because my parents did not want me to. They both read comics growing up and my older brother had an extensive collection. They just didn’t appeal to me at the time. However, I have started reading them more in the last 5 or 6 years. I now know how much I missed out on. I still haven’t read as many as I would like, but I will have to say that my favorites so far are the Daredevil that Kevin Smith did and the most recent Voltron run. I’m dying to get my hands on the Battle for the Cowl series, but haven’t been able to spare the cash for it yet. It will be mine one day though, of that I have no doubt.

I think the thing I like so much about comics is that it saws you how a great characters and stories can survive. So many of the stories have been retold to keep up with the times, yet all of the artists and writers still try to remain true to the original ideas (more times than not).

By: Stephen L. Duncan

Stephen L. Duncan — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:02:53 +0000

I had the original E&L’s TMNT #4! The big one? With the greenish cover? I made the horrible mistake of eBaying it during law school.

It’s so funny you brought this up, because my parents phoned me not too long ago to pick up my old comics. Up until the Inferno storyline, I followed X-Men religiously. I still have issue 10 double bagged and set aside. (It’s not in the best of condition.) Every now and then, I’ll pick up an issue. But I’m usually totally lost on what’s happening. All the old bad guys are good guys now and vice versa.

Keven Gardner ran a comic book shop that I frequented every time I had some spare scratch. He now runs 12 Gauge Comics and publishes some really cool stuff by Troy Duffy, Rosario Dawson, and Gale Anne Hurd. I’m covertly trying to convince him to let me write something for him.

Actually, John, that essay was one of the reasons I queried you. Comics were also my gateway drug to regular books.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:53:09 +0000

I have six-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and we are currently tear-assing our way through the Graphic Myths and Legends Series (e.g., http://www.amazon.com/Hercules-Twelve-Labors-Graphic-Legends/dp/0822564858/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348609602&sr=8-1&keywords=hercules+comic). They adore them, maybe because they’re so different from kids’ books (which they love only slightly less). In fact, a myth comic book was the first book each of them voluntary read on their own when they were skilled enough.

It did, though, have the unfortunate side affect of me having to explain why Hera hated Hercules. Ha.

By: Steve Cordero

Steve Cordero — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:54:36 +0000

Great topic. Comics helped define my writing because so much of what I do is visualization. I see everything first and then translate it into written word. In fact, I’m probably a frustrated comic book artist (something I wanted to go to school for, but my parents wouldn’t pay so I ended up going to study architecture). As for old comics I still have, the best I have of originals are the first 5 books of Man of Steel, the John Byrne reboot of Superman and the first 20 of X-Factor, when the original X-Men re-formed their own team.