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Kyle Garret On Comics For Kids
posted September 9, 2008
 

First, thanks for the quote a while back. Made my day! (I'm easily amused, it would seem).

I found the Brad Moon blog you linked to today particularly curious, if not disheartening. The idea of a man searching so many stores for comics for his kids and barely finding any is, perhaps, a indictment on the industry as a whole, or at least an indictment of the stores in that part of Toronto.

But I think you might have touched on something with your comments. While Moon mentions Denmead's "Top 10 Superhero Comic Books Your Kids Should Be Reading," he also mentions walking into a store and asking for Uncle Scrooge. He's directed to a box of Archie Comics, includes the cover to an Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic with his blog, and mentions that the titles he found were all "old-school" and, given his list, mostly humor books based on cartoons.

All of which makes me wonder if the parents you mention are asking the right questions. Or, better yet, what the definition of a "kid friendly" book is.

Comics are so heavily entrenched in nostalgia that it would be easy to see a store clerk, faced with a middle aged man asking for children's comics, pointing him towards the books that came out when said middle aged man was a child.

There's also the simple fact that most people don't consider the Marvel Adventures line (easily the largest "kid friendly" line from the big two) specifically for kids. My book shelves are lined with those digests, and I'm 32. Most people consider the MA titles to be "continuity free," "one and done," or "fun" comics.

Then again, perhaps I'm spoiled. I live in Los Angeles, and both Meltdown and the Golden Apple do a good job of keeping all ages book on the shelves, if not predominantly displayed.

Still, the idea that any store these days, who have less and less space dedicated to back issues, would have boxes of Archie Comics, Ducktales, TMNT, and Richie Rich, but no Marvel Adevntures or DC animated books, seems hard to believe.