Yeah, I have nothing topical to talk about at the moment, so I have decided to make this very personal. I say that, I'll probably keep this flippant, cold, unfunny narrative throughout the brief history of this blog. Nonetheless, I am here writing in the middle of the morning to talk about my first comic experience.
You'll never guess what I was reading. It's quite obvious and it's a character that I will never fall out of love with. Even if he's made deals with not very nice people.
Spider-Man. Fucking hell, Spider-Man
My brother was actually the first one to pick up an actual comic. It was a PANINI Collector's Edition comic called the Astonishing Spider-Man, which contained three issues of various Spider-Man series about four years behind the actual continuity in the USA. Oh yeah, I'm in Britain, if I haven't mentioned before. My brother seemed to keep reading and re-reading this thing with a card cover and a weird advert for a toy on the back. He was two years younger than me, how dare he enjoy something that I'm not?! It happened with Pokemon, but it's not going to happen this time, godammit!
Asking him very nicely, at the age of 10, if I could read his comic, was a blow. A major blow. I could've punched myself in the face with a brick and it would've been easier. Yet, ask I did. He quickly said yes, as at that time he wasn't an angsty little thing. I opened it and started to read.
What the fuck? There was no Spider-Man in the entire thing, just some brooding idiot called Dusk fighting a man who fought with glue and a guy dressed as a purple bee fighting the Vulture. Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin was a well respected businessman. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Spider-Man apparently committed the murder of some moron named Joey-Z. It was extremely confusing for a first time reader.
I was hooked and continued to buy what else I could find. Except X-Men. There was a guy throwing pink exploding cards, that's dumb.
So yeah, it reminds me of a topic that comes up nearly every week. A jumping on point. Back in the day, every issue was capable of being a jumping on point. When you're a bid, you don't care. You read. You see. If it's any good, you enjoy. What the guys behind the comics need to focus on, especially the Big Two, as that's is what most kids are likely to read, is not the jumping on points.
In fact, just getting somehow, kids to read them. Calm down the violence, forget dredging up stories from 40 years before. Don't worry about making it so accessible, it's patronising.
They'll pick it up. They'll understand. Every issue is a jumping on point. Just let them jump on.
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