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Jay Stephens on Kids Comics Vs. Alt-Comics
posted February 9, 2005
 

Jay Stephens
via the Internet

Hey Tom,

For the record, I spoke with Mr. Mackay for an hour and a half when interviewed for the CBC article, of which those few lines were pulled to make his point. A wee bit out of context (though I am sort of an anti-intellectual jerk).

While I do feel that the direct market abandoned kids comics, I made a great deal of fuss over how I think Kids comics are thriving elsewhere. My main point was that kids are still reading comics... they're just not reading the old-school 24-page pamphlets anymore. Magazines like Nickelodeon and Disney Adventures provide millions of North American children a steady dose of terrific work, and I'm not worried at all about the new generation growing up without comics of their own. The renewed 'graphic novel' boom looks promising, too.

My crankier comments were aimed more at 'alt' creators who seem so unwilling or unable to create work for kids. The attempt by the 'alt' crowd at making kids comics in the '90's was a horrible failure. Measles, Little Lit, and the rest are awful... my kids wouldn't look at those books if you threatened to take away their desserts! They simply don't have the knack for that kind of material... I always get the feeling that Spiegelman is pitching his work at the hip uncles that will be buying these things for their nieces and nephews rather than at the kids it's supposedly intended for. I guess I just wish that my favourite living cartoonists were making comics I could read with my kids. Sigh...

Just wanted to clarify. I'm a jerk, but not the stupid jerk I was made out to be.