Good Grief: Comics Shaped Me
Part of the reason why I love writing so much isn’t because of books and reading itself. In fact, I wasn’t really into books at all. Well, actually I take that back because as a kid I was reading, but it wasn’t your standard books.
Ok, I take that back too because comics are books too. I believe "Garfield” is serious literature whether you like it or not.
As a boy, I rarely read chapter books or anything without pictures. I’m big on pictures, always have been.
Thinking back on it, I probably wrote hundreds of book reports on children’s chapter books in grade school, but I don’t remember reading or actually enjoying any of those. From what I do remember, here are a few young-adult novels I was very fond of.
It was these books specifically:
A “Swiss Family Robinson” adaptation
“Alex Rider” by Anthony Horowitz (British, teenage spy series, I was strangely into back in like 2011)
“Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket
A couple of Harry Potter books. Yeah.
“Because of Mr. Terupt” by Rob Buyea (This book is fucking crazy, and made 12-year-old me weep)
“Holes” by Louis Sachar (I read this so many times in the bathtub. Shia Lebouf is in the movie)
Judy Blume’s “Superfudge” and her other wonderful stuff
Looking at this list now I guess there were some pretty decent chapter books from my youth. It’s always good to re-jog the nog.
My thing was comics, and it didn’t matter who it was made for, what it was about, or even if I understood it; I was consuming literally every comic I could.
I remember being in second grade and checking out “Calvin and Hobbes” collections from the libraries, and then staying up hours into the night reading (it would sometimes reach 9 pm). I’d have stacks of these little 80-page collections sitting on my bed. I’d ask my parents for the funnies page every time we got the paper, even if it wasn’t Sunday. Every time I’d go to my grandma’s I would bring home a bunch of “Peanuts” books from the 70s.
This post has suddenly gotten me super excited to go dig up old strips and books from storage. Comics rule dude!
When I was growing up in Indiana, I remember creating my own comics in elementary school. There were two creations in particular: “Banana Dude and Grape Man”, and “Tommy Carson”. Also a little later, there was a snail comic I made with my good friend Hunter that was MAHVALOUS. My friends and I made at least 30 comic books with these wacky characters.
Hell, there are probably so many more my memory has blocked out. One day I’ll try to post pictures if I ever find the decade-old books.
The funniest part was that these comic characters I made were superhero based, and I didn’t even like superheroes. The only superhero I remember liking was Batman. I was a weird kid who religiously played Mario brothers and watched Spongebob. Look at me now. Go figure.
So, instead of resorting to actual, stereotypical, superhero comic books; I indulged in Sunday funnies and adult-centered graphic novels.
Here is a list of just a few of the greatest comic books I’ve read growing up (and still read if given the chance):
“Peanuts” (It’s called “Peanuts” not Charlie Brown, but if you know me I call it “Charlie Brown” regardless of this circumstance)
“Family Circus” (My favorite child of the bunch was Jeffy, he was the stupidest)
“Garfield” by Jim Davis (Garfield would beat the shit outta Heathcliff, no argument)
Don Martin books (These were crazy, he did MAD Magazine stuff)
Any of the “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” books by Al Jaffee (also MAD)
“Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Waterson (smartest comic ever made)
To this day, the jokes, humor, and style, of all these books hold up to me. The more I try to think of comic books from my childhood, the more dusty cabinets and secret doors in my brain are unlocked.
I will definitely write another post about “comics” and “cartoonists” in the future.
I remember now! The “collections” of comics are called treasuries. It’s a compilation of strips and panels from over a course of the comic’s printing years.
Even if you’re a person who doesn’t like reading, I highly recommend checking out comics. I don’t care how old you are. I’ll put you on to some good stuff. Single panels, three panels, or five. Quick laughs. For now, I recommend revisiting these favorites above.
Also, I have bad news. Garfield the cat died today. I don’t know why anyone thought it was a good idea to routinely feed a cat pans of lasagna. But. He had a heart attack.
Nermal the kitten found him face first in a piece of meatloaf at 1:36 pm eastern time.
