Comic books are NOT just for kids...part 2

This blog post is (also) for all the idiots in the world who think comic books (and other fantasy stories) are only for kids.

Ok, that may have (still) been harsh, but I needed to get your attention (again) without you immediately discarding the blog post.

First of all, read this post. Then read the one below.

This post will focus on the merits of reading literature that many may deem “childish” or immature. I can assure you that this is a somewhat ignorant outlook to take regarding the issue. Fortunately, brilliant philosophical and intellectual minds like the one belonging to C.S. Lewis are here to support me in my quest to prove that comic books aren’t “just for kids.”

Here’s Mr. Lewis with this quote on fiction:

“It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one’s adult enjoyment of what are called ‘children’s books.’ I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty – except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all. A mature palate will probably not much care for crème de menthe; but it ought to still enjoy bread and butter and honey.”

-C.S. Lewis, from the essay On Stories

Comic books = ...dessert?
Now, I’m not going to sit here and analyze each line in the quote. I think if you take time to read through it more than once, it should make sense. But I am going to look at, and elaborate on, the last line of that quotation.

See, I look at that quote in a more specific way. This is my (or possibly Lewis’s in another essay or book that I can’t remember) interpretation:

When you are young (childhood age), you enjoy some form of desert (fill in cake, ice cream, brownies, etc…for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to stick with ice cream). As a kid, you enjoy ice cream whenever you can get your hands on it. At that same age, you may not at all enjoy meatloaf (substitute a meal you did not particularly care for in your youth). However, as you grew into adulthood, you may have, over time, acquired a taste for and enjoyment of meatloaf. This, however, DOES NOT mean that, in your maturing process, you lost your love for ice cream. In fact, it is quite likely that you will not only enjoy a meatloaf dinner, but you will also still savor the delicious sweetness of an ice cream cone or an ice cream sundae. While you’ve added to your palette, you haven’t necessarily “changed” your pallet.

This, to me, describes my passion for comic books. I have always enjoyed them. Since my youthful innocence when I would beg my mom to buy me Spider-Man comics in the grocery store as a kid, to buying them for $2.99 and $3.99 each every Wednesday at the comic book store, comic books have been an intellectual and mind-freeing medium of fiction that has consistently satiated my love for visual effects combined with fantasy storylines (and the “man I wish I could do that” factor in my life).

You may still enjoy THIS as a "grown-up"...

...the same way I still enjoy THIS as a "grown-up"...

The difference is, now (as an adult) I am able to enjoy so many more forms of fiction than I could in my younger years. I can read a 448-page historical fiction war novel, and be as captivated by the exploits of Alcibiades in Ancient Greece as I am with the Silver Surfer’s command of the Power Cosmic throughout the galaxies. I can be as blown away by the conclusion of 1984 and Of Mice and Men as I can by the deeply moving self-sacrifice made by Colossus in order to prevent the mutant race from being exterminated by a deadly virus.

Can you enjoy both?

To me, the comic book is simply one more medium that has remained on my palette as a form of intellectual stimulation. I refuse to “replace” it with a more “substantive” medium of fiction because I don’t feel it is necessary to do so. Can I read Great Expectations and decipher the themes and motifs within such a literary masterpiece? Yes, I feel that I am quite capable of doing so. Can I read Alan Moore’s Watchmen and find intense gravity and depth in Rorschach’s absolutist outlook on life or Ozymandias’s consequentialist attitude? Yes. Those themes (and more) are present in a work such as Watchmen. They are simply packaged in a visually-stunning comic book series/graphic novel. That, however, does not take away from the content of each page and each dialogue bubble.

So, my overall point is this: comic books, when given the chance they deserve, contain plenty of wisdom and profundity as long as they are well-written. Comics may be unrealistic fiction, but that doesn’t take away from the overall purpose of the writer’s efforts as a serious author. If a space novel or fantasy tale can be considered literature (and many of them are), then I find it hard to believe that comic books don’t deserve the same. Whether or not one thinks they are strictly for kids, the truth of the matter is that even if a “kid” can enjoy a comic book, there is often plenty of substance for a 22-year-old (or 42-year-old for that matter) to absorb and later reflect upon.

Unless you believe that name-calling and pretentiousness are the only ways to handle someone else’s passion for a literary format you have yet to examine. In which case, keep making fun of the people who read comic books.

P.S. - I understand that one argument against my C.S. Lewis quote may be “What if I never liked ice cream (fantasy stories) in the first place?” and I agree that, in such a case, comic books are probably not a fictional medium of choice for you. I can respect that. My point is that I should not have to defend my enjoyment of comic books due to the notion that they “are for kids.”

I’m also very much open to any discussion you may deem relevant in the “Comments” section of this post (or the previous one) regarding this subject. In fact, I encourage you to participate if you have any interest whatsoever. I’d love to hear some other sides/elements of this argument if you have any to offer.

I won’t be as rude as I was in the opening line. I promise.

"Spider-Man, Spider-Man...does whatever a spider can..."