Happy Father's Day! Your Kids and Comic Discussion
fredzilla
Posts: 2,131
Happy Father's Day to all the dad geeks! Also, a happy Father's Day to all the men who have perhaps taken on that role! I know many of us already have spoken about this on different levels, but I thought I'd try to get a little conversation going...
How do you share the hobby of comics with your kids? What have you tried? What has worked and what hasn't worked for you?
How do you share the hobby of comics with your kids? What have you tried? What has worked and what hasn't worked for you?
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Fast forward to sharing my own hobbies with my kids (boy, 9 and girl, 3.5) and I'm running in to the same problems my dad had. I know they're both still young and there are several other factors that play into their non-comic interests; however, in my monthly DCBS orders I make sure to get at least one book per kid. My hope is that at some point, when and if they decide to read anything, I'll have a small library just for them to explore.
Both my son and daughter started out with stuff like Simpsons, Transformers, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tiny Titans. From there my son branched out to Spider-Man, my daughter got into the Hulk and Wonder Woman.
My son wanted to read Deadpool for the longest time because of the old Ultimate Alliance video game. Told him it wasn't happening until he turned 13, and I still go through those books before I let him have them.
My daughter is much more picky in what she reads. It's best to let her find titles on her own because if you suggest one to her, she won't listen.
Happy Father's Day fellas.
When my son was young, I read him the first four Plastic Man Archives as bedtime stories, and he loved them. Once he saw the Justice League cartoon, Flash became his favorite character. I wasn't comfortable with giving him the then-current Flash comic, so I used to get him cheap back issues of the ’70s/early ’80s Flash (which were usually cheaper than the new comic on the stand). When he was in first or second grade, he wrote Carmine Infantino a fan letter, and Carmine sent a very nice reply back, along with a Flash head sketch. He took it in for Show and Tell.
When the Teen Titans cartoon started, he switched over to Beast Boy as his favorite. The next summer he went down to Orlando with me and my wife for MegaCon, so he was able to come along with me to George Pérez’s house when we filmed the Modern Masters video there during the two days before the con, and George did a really nice Beast Boy head sketch for him. So, yeah, I didn't have to do a thing.
He doesn’t read a lot of comics these days, but he really likes Manifest Destiny and Manhattan Projects. And he'll still dig through the cheap bins at Heroes every year, trying to finish off his Booster Gold (the first series) collection.
My daughter likes comics, too, particularly the Adventure Time comic. I get her the trade paperback collections, and she reads them over and over. She's started drawing the characters herself now, and she's getting pretty good at it. She's more into the licensed properties (Adventure Time, Regular Show, Spongebob Squarepants), but she loves the Tiny Titans books too. She bought a few of them from Art and Franco at Heroes one year with her own money. Not too many other superhero books interest her all that much. During the summer, she'll go with me to the comic shop most weeks, and she'll check things out, but she usually sticks with AT.
Father note: We don't watch tv with her in the room or let her play with my tablet (wife's rule so I obey it 95% of the time), but I do read on a black and white Nook. When she figured out that by swiping the screen, with her little wet hands, she turned the page, she went bananas. She just sat in my arms swinging at the nook screen (missing it about 75% of the time) giggling and smiling.
The oldest,who is early 20s,reads more modern stuff than I do. The youngest,who is a pre-teen,has a pull list and gets lots of stuff out of the cheap bins. For father's day they got me a bunch of comics off mycomicshop. Mainly filling in holes in my collection.