Posted by Qin Chan, 5/29/04 at 11:04:36 PM.
Comics and me.
I remembered after picking up chunks of the left over comic books under the rubbish chute, I walked back to my room with a bunch of torn comics. I had just experienced another episode of my father's rage, and this time my comic books were the innocent victims who took the brunt of his anger. There was little I could do but sit and watch my father as he tore up my comic books into shreds and shoved them down the rubbish chute. I watched him a bit of curiosity at how hard it was to tear up those comic books. They were, surprisingly, rather sturdy for books which were suppose to be meant for the trash. But before my dad had a chance to show off more of his brute strength and after a dozen of my comics went down the chute, my mum came over and pulled my dad away to calm him down. I figured he relented because it was getting too tedious to tear up each comic book he was going to throw after considering the fact that I had another thousand over books in my cupboard. He might have argued that he could have just thrown everything down the chute within minutes if he wanted to, but I knew better.
Luckily, even after the traumatic experience I had with my dad at the age of twelve, I continued to read and buy comics for the next 10 years. My preference for comics over books has not changed much over the years despite the fact that comics have doubled in price over the last five years. Comics have stayed in the entertainment scene for teenagers and young adults for a long time, which were made popular by the creation of the many famous fictional characters such as superman, spiderman and batman etc. But I was never exposed to the American comic culture, so I will move away from these American comic heroes and focus on Japanese and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place>Hong Kong</st1:place> comics. I would not claim to be an expert on the subject since some of the comics I read when I was young had already started, but I do believe I have an insight on why comics are still so popular and why do people read comics.
It all started with the dragonball comic series. It was the first original comic series which I remembered buying while I was still too short to see the guy behind the cash register. It was always an exciting experience to wait for each week to pass by, and I will run down to the bookstore near my elementary school to get the newest episode on Wednesdays. That was exhilarating for me as a ten year old boy. Although comics have stayed much the same over the years since I started reading, the contents and drawings have adjusted itself to the new generation of comic readers.
Comics have always been an intricate part of my life. Comics have literally been there and around me all the time. Comics provided me with an avenue to stretch my imagination to explore and let my thoughts go wild. We talk about developing creativity in children and young adults, and I believe that things like comics do help spur the creativity in people. There are many other things that could help stir the pool of creativity, but for me it was comics and TV. Since I was a usually thinker, or should I say that I was a dreamer. It was not helpful to get distracted when I was supposed to be thinking or doing something important. Thus, reading comics was the time when I allowed my mind wander free. It was like allowing cattle to graze in the field freely everyday, and after the allocated time, the farmer would gather them back and lock them. This was my purpose of reading comics. Since I could not stop my imagination or my mind wandering, I decided to control it. To allocate a given period of time for my mind to indulge in fantasies and fun stuff, and after a while I would get back to my work. Of course, things did not go as planned at the beginning, which resulted in the episodes of my parents feeling frustrated with me reading my comics. It was difficult to control at the beginning, but as time went on, I was able to keep it under control and balance work and play.
One might ask how one can continue to read the comics that have already been read more than once. This is the part of the experience of comic reading that most non-comic readers do not understand. Reading comics is similar but can also be very different from reading a book. You may be able to read a book once, twice or even thrice, but after a while it just does not seem plausible to read the book any more. But this is different for comics. I can read each comic book a dozen times, and get something new and different from the comic, like sucking on a popsicle but only the flavor changes each time you taste it. Because a comic book is mostly composed of pictures, it is easy and quick to read. But each read could turn out different interpretation. I may be reading the same comic for the sixth time in a month, but I could still find new pictures or words that I did not notice before. This is the beauty of reading comics, and if it is a well planned and designed comic, it would only mean that I, as reader, could read it a few more times before ever getting tired of it. This is part of the comic reading culture.
The production of a comic is similar to producing a movie. A storyline is first conceived, and if it is approved, a meeting is held to discuss about the design and appearance of the characters in the comic. The obvious difference between a comic and a traditional book would be a comic has pictures, but another difference is the medium in how the story is told to its reader. It is important to note that the pictures tell the story, not the words. Many a times when I buy a new comic, I could get the essence of the story by just glancing at the pictures while flipping through the pages. In less than 5 minutes, I would be able to formulate a storyline with my own imagination and guess work from the previous episode which I had read. You can’t do this for a book. Pictures, to me, speak louder than the words, which are only written to complement the drawings. Of course base on the requirements and objective of the artist the emphasis of a comic could change, but, I would, personally, love to be given the opportunity to stretch my imagination just by looking at the pictures.
Parents and teachers still argue over whether children should be encouraged to read comics, in addition, the debate over whether comics are, in fact, not suitable as entertainment still rages on. Critics have cited that on numerous occasions kids have literally taken the roles of their comic heroes and have done dangerous acts of violence. Anything with sex and violence has always been blamed to be the source of all evil. A high school Japanese student stabbing his teacher during class was found to be reading and watching violent comics (manga) and animes (Japanese cartoon). It could be argued that the violent nature of the comics could have induced the underlying violent behavior of the student to commit such an act. But I believe what we should be more concerned about is why did the student respond in such a way? Did the comic make the student violent? Or did he already possess the violent nature in him? I believe the latter is true in most cases, and it would be irresponsible to simply point our fingers at comic books as the culprit, and not explore the truth behind the problems in teenagers, in general. Sex and violence materials have now become so rampant in our cultures that was once used to value humility and virtues. There is a shift in the nature of how comics are now drawn. Comics used to be cute, bubbly, and harmless characters to children, which would make them laugh. Now, comics have turned to target a wider range of people, young adults in their twenties or early thirties. Obviously, these people seek a different level of comics which artists have successfully captured with their more explicit drawings and provocative materials. I believe changing the contents of a comic to target another group is what the entertainment industry does. But what people did not expect was that these comics slowly began to take over the bubbly, cute cartoon comics which kids once liked to read. The demand of the more explicit comics increased as teenagers turn to it as another source of entertainment to satisfy their raging hormones. Of course, I do agree that comic artists should refrain from going overboard with their drawings, but it would be unfair to restrict their drawings and put blame on their work when such so called bad influence on youngsters are so rampant everywhere. In the end, it may still boil down to the responsibilities of parents. Parental control is crucial yet it should not be over done. It is a delicate job which needs to balance between giving advice and not over powering and demanding.
My mum still does not understand why I had packed thirty of my most favorite comic books in my luggage. And I can still see her surprise and disapproving look when I brought the comics along on my trip overseas. I don’t suppose she will ever understand, nor do I expect myself to understand what my children will be indulging themselves in future. But, at least, a mutual understanding and respect to each other’s likes and dislikes has developed over the years of tantrums and quarrels. The truth is that some people enjoy a good drive with the wind in their hair, others like reading an interesting book, or maybe watch a movie (which i enjoy too), and some people love to listen to some jazz music at night to relax the body and mind. And so I have made the decision to read comics as my pastime.
Discuss
