Give your kid a comic book to inspire a love of reading

All comic books in this post are Trademark and Copyright of 

their respective owners and are featured under Fair Use

PERHAPS THE GREATEST TRAGEDY of our modern era is the degeneration of reading skills and comprehension.  As a grammar nerd, I will admit I sometimes become perturbed when someone misuses a word in a sentence or a homonym of a commonly-used word (such as there/their/they're or your/you're).  My annoyance gets kicked into high-gear when a person tells me they no longer care about reading (because there is YouTube and Google), writing (more than 144 characters), or proper sentence structure (because there is spell check and auto-correct).
     A recent news story reported an alarming drop in the number of kids who read on a regular basis.  Couple this downward trend in reading with the rise of technology such as smartphones, texting, apps, streaming video, and tablet ownership; it's clear we are facing a very negative future in regards to basic reading mechanics.  So what do we do to turn the trend around?  Do we outlaw tablets, video game consoles, and television?  Do we deny the inevitable from our kids, or do we innovate?

We are using technology wrong

     You would think that with the advent of the internet, people would be reading and learning more rather than less, but it appears social media is making us dumb.  Yes, there is more information available to more people than ever in our history, but most kids spend their time on social media platforms rather than skimming through the wealth of information stores on history, fine arts, or STEM subjects.  Kids know how to use the tech around them, but they are using the tools at their disposal to see what rude thing Kim and Kanye said to a photographer instead of reading about the history of Kinescope or who helped invent Bluetooth and wifi.  So, instead of taking away the tech, we need a bonanza.  With the current zeitgeist obsession with superhero action films and television series, I say we, the dads of America, strike while the iron is hot--we crack open our comic collections and start a conversation with our kids that leads to a lifelong love of reading.  How do we do that?  I'll come back to this subject later.

My teachers hated comics

     I learned to read before I began kindergarten.  My teacher was alarmed when I spontaneously started reading from a book on her desk one day in the late seventies.  Once she recovered from her shock (I was the only kid in class who could read), she asked me how I learned to read.  I will never forget her look of disappointment when I told her I was reading Batman comics in my uncle's collection.

Robin likes hanging out with

other teenagers with no 

strings attached (DC Comics)

     When I was young, I would spend many rainy Saturdays sitting on an old, Navy footlocker full of comic books.  Stories from DC and Marvel Comics thrilled me, but something was missing:  I could see the pictures in the books, but I couldn't understand them.  I would carry the book to an adult family member, but most would dismiss the idea of reading a comic book to me.  My mother would simply say "sound out the word."  Through sheer determination, and a lot of correction from family, I made my way through a few comic stories.  Within a month, I was reading the books aloud by myself.  So began my love of comic books.  I carried comic books with me everywhere.  I read them at night on Boy Scout camping trips or at home.  The heroes in the stories became the friends I could always count on.  Comics were there for me when I was sick in bed or lonely.  Comics were there when I was happy, too.  I would sit outside of my house on sunny, summer days with a stack of comics and a glass of lemonade.  To me, if I could combine the outdoors with superheroes, it was a good day.  Unfortunately, my love of reading comic books didn't translate very well with my studies at school.  If I chose to read a comic book in class during quiet reading time, I would be chastised by many a teacher who found no value in comic books.  One of my elementary school teachers scoffed at me when I expressed my views that Justice League of America was quality literature.  This same teacher was later dumbfounded at my knowledge on a class field trip to an art museum; I was the only student who correctly identified a kind of stone used in an Egyptian carving.  When asked by the curator where I had heard of black basalt, I quickly replied with "Hawkman."

Heroism is mocked for all the wrong reasons

DC Comics with art by Alex Ross

     A few years ago, a young adult in Missouri attacked a neighborhood shopkeeper, stole a bunch of cigars, and stormed down the street.  Eventually, the man encountered a police officer.  After a brief altercation with the man, the police officer shot him dead.  What followed were riots, looting, and assaults against innocents.  National conversations on police brutality sprang-up, with the narrative being police are going too far to enforce the law.  In addition, a false narrative was forwarded that the man in question was surrendering to the police, but was shot anyway.  By the time the investigation revealed the officer was justified in his use of force, the damage had already been done.  Many developed a strong distrust of police on a lie that was propagated in the news.
     Truth, justice, patriotism, honor, citizenship, civic responsibility--these concepts are openly mocked by many in society today.  Occupations, such as military or police service, are consistently ridiculed or marginalized in entertainment and news media.  What once were honorable professions, they are now treated as war criminals.  While it is true there are bad people in every profession, the vast majority of those who serve are honorable.  Nevertheless, they are regarded with contempt and malice.  I've noticed the simultaneous rise of superhero action movies and the decline in favor of heroic occupations and declared it to be more than mere coincidence.  As heroes are hated in real life, we uplift heroes in our fiction.  We could debate what makes a hero all day, but at the core of the argument, the thesis remains:  Mankind needs heroes.  Superheroes provide the archetype of what it means to be a hero.  Though there are different varieties of hero found in the pulp pages of comic books, it is this variety that enriches the concept of heroism.

Children deal with problems...so do heroes

The night Batman

was born.  (DC Comics)

     Batman is a grim avenger of the night.  Haunted by the deaths of his parents, Bruce Wayne dedicated his life to fighting crime on the streets of Gotham.  The Fantastic Four are a family of science-based heroes who do not necessarily fight crime, but they explore the larger issues of science while battling intergalactic threats.  Spider-Man will spend all night fighting one of his many villains, while a soliloquy about how he needs to spend more time with his Aunt May will play out in his thoughts.  After defeating his nemesis, an exhausted Spider-Man will slip through his small apartment window, and barely make it to bed as the sun rises--knowing full well he has to have his photos from last night's battle on his boss's desk in an hour.  As he drags himself out of bed to leave, Peter Parker finds an eviction notice nailed to his apartment door.  The life of a hero isn't easy, and neither is the life of a child.

(DC Comics) A child struggles with the seduction of gang 

and gun violence in Batman:  War on Crime

     Children deal with a multitude of challenges in their everyday lives.  Eating disorders, poverty, drug use, alcoholism in the family, the death of a parent, child predators, bullying, violence in the home, and school pressures are just a few of the themes explored in comic books.  In addition, creators use their comic book characters to navigate these themes toward a heroic outcome that may or may not be realistic to the reader, but the feeling I always got when I read these stories was for the reader to be good and do good.  Powerful storytelling resides in the pages of a comic book that will thrill as well as provide a means of coping with the outside world.

(Marvel Comics) Miles Morales is the

teenage Spider-Man from a parallel 

world from the Spider-Man we know.

     Despite their superpowers, a superhero's traits and habits are relatable.  While there aren't too many billionaire playboy philanthropists out there driving through the night in a bat-themed muscle car, there are plenty of bullied kids who struggle with being different.  There is a hero out there for every kid.  Sometimes, the heroes are kids.

Heroes in every age (and variety)

     As I read more comics, I came to understand a larger world outside my door, but I also learned about the worlds inside the pages of my comic books.  I realized Spider-Man and Captain America shared the same planet, but did not usually work together in the comics.  In addition, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash lived in the same Earth as Batman, but did not share the same planet as Spider-Man and Captain America.  Each publishing company had their own reality.  Usually, these publishers did not allow their creations to meet.  Though it was fictional, the DC Comics Universe wasn't actually a universe; it was a multiverse.  In the DC Comics world, the heroes we know exist in different realities.  On one earth, the heroes are as we know them, but on other Earths, the heroes differ from the slight change to the extreme where the heroes and villains are opposite; instead of Superman and Batman, we have the evil Ultraman and Owlman who fight Earth-3's greatest heroes Lex Luthor and the Jester (the Joker).

(DC Comics) Superman and other

Earth-Two heroes team-up with the

 Justice League of America (Earth-One) 

to face a legion of villains.

     The depth of these stories drew me in.  They weren't the simplistic panels found in the Sunday papers; in comic books, Barry Allen (the Flash) ran through a dimensional portal to team-up with Jay Garrick (the Flash)--an older hero who began his crimefighting days during World War II.  On Jay's Earth, all of the heroes we know are different and older than the ones we know.  While Green Lantern on our Earth (Earth-One) wore a science-based ring that allowed his mental energy to project plasma constructs, the Green Lantern of Jay's Earth wore a red shirt, a purple cape, and used mystical, green fire to fuel his creations.  Superman and Batman of Earth-Two eventually married their Lois Lane and Catwoman, respectively.  Mr. and Mrs. Wayne raised a daughter who went on to become a crimefighter known as the Huntress.  When our Superman and Superman of Earth-Two would team-up, it was always a treat.  The elder Superman would usually mentor ours and give him friendly advice.  I saw these men as individuals who shared the same names both in and out of costume.  This enriched my experiences and gave me an immersion into a world most of my friends lacked in their own lives.  I felt my understanding of the comic book multiverse in DC Comics helped me understand science better.

Use the comics to get them to read about the characters they care about

     So your daughter loves watching The Flash every week on television.  Talk to her about the show, and who her favorite characters are.  Get really granular in the discussion.  Don't just discuss Barry, Wally, Joe, and Iris; talk about some of the lesser (but just as interesting) characters on the show.  While she knows Jay Garrick is the Flash of another world, she might be thrilled to know more about the Earth comic book Jay comes from.  She might be excited at the prospect of reading about how Catwoman and Batman finally tied the knot (and not for an elaborate trap).  Take her to a comic book store, and let the magic begin.  Studies show comics can make a reluctant reader into an avid one this way.

(The CW, Berlanti Productions, and DC Comics) Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp) and Jay Garrick from the comics (art by Alex Ross).  The Flash of Two Worlds--the television and the comic book.

     Comic book stores are in nearly every city in America.  If you don't have one nearby, many comic shops have an online storefront where you can browse and purchase comics directly from them.  This includes new and back issues of your favorite characters.  While I don't advocate spending a fortune in the stores (believe me, it's easy to do), you can pick up some fun reading from the long boxes for under a buck.  Just a few consecutive issues are enough to spark interest in classic stories.  Some of the best comic stories happened before 1986, and they can be quite affordable.  I'd say $4 for three hours of reading is time and money well-spent.

(DC Comics) Justice League of America 171-172 (1979).  The heroes of Earth-One and Earth-Two meet on the JLA's satellite HQ for their annual meeting.  Unfortunately, one of the heroes is later found dead.  With everyone treated as a suspect, the heroes of two Earths must work together to find the murderer among them.

 Back to that pesky tech

(Marvel Comics) Power Pack

is a team of siblings who 

receive powers from a dying alien

The series tackles childhood themes.

     Most of the comic books from the past can be purchased in electronic form.  Many comic book publishers took their classic stories and made them into e-books for Kindle.  This means a 40-year old comic in your collection can remain safe from little fingers.  In addition, Marvel Comics has developed an electronic comic book service akin to Netflix.  Pay a monthly fee, and nearly every Marvel comic ever published is available on your tablet, smartphone, or computer.  It is rumored DC Comics will follow suit.  A quick search of Amazon will reveal many comics from the past are available in Kindle form.  While many comic purists among us may scoff at an electronic reproduction of a classic comic, I would direct that comic collector to consider the grubby paws of a toddler and balance that against a desire to get that kid to read.  You're taking something familiar to them (their tablet), pairing it with something they are somewhat familiar with (a superhero), and rounding the experience with stories of characters they know and love, but telling stories your child never considered before.  With the comfort of the known elements--the tablet and the character--your child might really enjoy themselves while they read.
     With superhero movies and shows being all the rage these days, why not take the opportunity to turn your kids' attention to reading a comic book?  You'll expand the child's mind, enrich their lives and vocabulary (you wouldn't believe the dialogue in a comic book), and inspire a love of reading.
     We might just turn the tide in how the next generation views heroes, and put the concept of heroism--true heroism--back in the light.  --The Atomic Father