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COMICS FOR KIDS
“…I can’t help noticing that in the world of children’s literature, an overwhelming preponderance of stories are stories about children. The same is true of films for children: the central characters are nearly always a child, a pair, or a group of children. Comic books, however, even those theoretically aimed at children, are almost always about adults, or teenagers. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? Maybe somebody should try putting out a truly thrilling, honestly observed and remembered, richly imagined, involved and yet narratively straightforward comic book for children, about children.
“We can’t afford to take this handcrafted, one-kid-at-a-time approach anymore. We have to sweep them up and carry them off on the vast flying carpets of story and pictures on which we ourselves, in entire generations, were borne aloft, on carpets woven by Swan and Hamilton, Kirby and Lee. They did it for us; we have to pass it on, pay it forward. It’s our duty, it’s our opportunity, and I really do believe it will be our pleasure.”
So, how do we apply this suggestion to the Philippine comic book scene?
From the looks of if CULTURE CRASH and NAUTILUS’ CAST is already following some of Chabon’s ideas. Most of the main characters already have kids or teens. Maybe this also explains W.I.T.C.H.’s success with the so-called tweens market, for the very simple reason that the stories resonate with them.
PSICOM’s DC KIDS and DC SUPERHEROES are supposedly getting very good sales. My best friend recently told me of the time she was in the bookstore with her kids and they pointed at the DC KIDS issue and declared, “We want Teen Titans!” I guess it helps a lot that the animated series is being shown on local TV.
If some local publisher reprinted ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN and marketed it as a “teen book” would it sell well with the tweens? How about that manga-nized MARY JANE book? Would the same readers of W.I.T.C.H. become big fans of MJ too? I think RUNAWAYS would be another book that might get interest some non-comic book readers.
So, is it time to launch TEEN DARNA or KID BARBEL?
(I’m kidding.)
Or we could also create new stories, new (kid) characters, new worlds.
Something to consider.
Yes? :-)
