Free Comic Book Day is coming. And like most years, I will try to remember to visit my local comic book store, but will probably forget.
Like most kids from my generation, I learned to love reading from comic books. I remember finding my dad's collection of 1960's Playboys and ogling at the panels of Little Annie Fanny. "Comics Got Boobies," each boy must have exclaimed as he caught a gander at Kurtzman and Elder's buoyantly rendered heroine.
And that has me wondering why a cartoon version of a nekkid woman is worse for kids to see than a narrative description? Is a drawing of two large circles containing two smaller circles (your basic boobies) worse for a kid than reading some Norman Maileresque description of "huge honkin' gazongaz," "heaving mounds" or "heavenly orbs"?
Like many libraries, ours buys graphic novels and manga. And if one book has an image of a partially nude woman or sex scene, it attracts much more attention than any softcore novel in the paperback section.
But try to find a modern book that doesn't have some page that says, "she reached for his rigid vampire cock and its heat radiated through her silver-studded leather glove." Oh, wait, vampires are old news, change that to "zombie cock" and "bite-resistant rubber glove." And yes, against all logic, zombies and vampires get hot erections. Go figure.
But more than zombie porn, comic books are useful for engaging young or even reluctant readers.
So that's why I feel like I should support my local comic book store. In the attached video, Hugh Jackman says that comics help to create a "lifelong love of reading." And I agree because he's Wolverine and he might kick my ass if I didn't.
So please, remind me when May 1 rolls around because I have a new, crisp $1 bill to buy some comics. I can still buy 3 or 4 comics for a buck, can't I?
