Comments on: Brit warns comics are only hope of stopping those pesky girls

by: The Cross Hatch Dispatch 7/8/08 « The Daily Cross Hatch

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:02:28 +0000

[...] Another teacher jumping on the “kids should read comics” bandwagon. Which is a good thing. –Jason Owen Filed under: The Cross Hatch Dispatch | Tags: Act-I-Vate, Beck Cloonan, Cory Doctorow, Dash Shaw, Fantagraphics, Gary Panter, Heeb Magazine, Joe Infurnari [...]

by: Hazel

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:31:48 +0000

Katherine F., I second your recommendation, my eleven year old was sceptical when I bought him a subscription for The DFC for his birthday but after four issues he was thanking me for doing so. It’s cool apparently.

My husband and I like it too particularly Spider Moon.

by: gene phillips

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:03:56 +0000

I seem to remember that some librarians back in Wertham’s time advocated getting boys off of bad adventure-comics by trying to persuade that audience to read classic prose adventures.

by: Carol Burrell

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:01:06 +0000

Publishers have been scrambling to figure out how to get more boys to read (the books they publish) ever since I was knee-high to an editorial assistant’s eye. Occasionally someone pipes up and cautiously suggests, “maybe boys do diffrerent things at that stage of development while girls experience the world through reading,” or, safer, “maybe boys read other things.” It would be posited that boys were off reading sports stats and… er… well… comics. Which… er… we didn’t want them reading instead of “real” books.

I’ll happily keep feeding comics to boys OR those pesky girls who keep spoiling things by reading everything. But I have to sigh at the same-old push to make books more boy-friendly as a way to close this gap at that particular age group. You’d think someone would have cracked the secret by now.

by: Katherine F.

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:19:23 +0000

They should be recommending The DFC — it’s ten times better than the Beano or the Dandy (which have both diminished to shadows of their former selves). And suitable for both boys and girls.

by: Patrick Dean

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:56:39 +0000

I’m getting that comic panel tattooed across my back this afternoon.

by: Elektra

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:48:07 +0000

I’m on the floor rolling with laughter.

Will a future world of comics have girls the primary readers of comics with publishers scrambling to encourage boys to do so?

Will young male creators not be able to get jobs because boys don’t read comics?

Will we hear “Boys can’t draw comics?”

I am going to show this to Colleen Doran who will think she has awakened in an alternate universe.

by: Adam_Y

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:32:01 +0000

We’ve been using comics here to help in young offenders institutes for a few years, with regard to literacy.

Personally, I look forward to the day when every scally in the country uses Dandy-esque phrases such as ‘cripes’ and ‘egads’.

As for the Shakespeare, its’s not meant to be read, that’s your problem, it’s a play… and whilst I’m sure a comic-book adaptation will be closer (comics are closer to plays in many ways than standard text) it’s still missing the point that really schools should teach it as a play.