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Ask Slashdot: Which Comic Books To Start My 3-Year-Old With?
JeepFanatic writes "I've never been one to read comic books, but I've always enjoyed superheroes. My 3-year-old son is really into superheroes (especially Spider-man) and I thought it would be a fun thing to do together to start reading comics to him. Any suggestions on comics that would be more appropriate to start him out with?"
I've heard Owly is a great starter comic. It's about woodland critters, so appropriate. But there's no dialog, so he could flip through it by himself.
I don't know about comic books per se
But you can't go wrong with the ALA Caldecott winners and honorees. The ALA takes childrens books seriously so you can count on their recommendations to always be top notch. Many public libraries will even have a seperate display of caldecott winners to make it easier for parents to find them.
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for a kid how about the english translation of astrix
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At 3 years old he should be able to read himself - why do you need to read to him?
Reading to your kids is a great experience for both you and the kid. I started reading to my daughter before she turned one year old. It helped her fall to sleep. To start with, since she wasn't actually listening, I read her whatever I happened to be reading. I wonder sometimes if that was a mistake, and she spent nights awake in her bed, listening for the hellish howling of a gigantic hound on the moors...
Later we went through every one of the Terry Pratchett stories and a lot of the Heinlein juveniles. This went on until sometime last year, when she became a senior in high school, and was too busy for me to read to her anymore. I regret that.
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In 2012, I don't think there are any. 55 years ago there were, but even then, it was more starting at age 6.
Stick with "Hello, Moon", Dr. Seuss, etc.
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The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day. There are plenty of kid comic books out there and the Marvels and DC's even have young versions of the top titles/hero's. Here in Las Vegas, we have some great owners who are very helpful and any good store should be able to find out what the kid likes and suggest a few to start. Maximum Comics woo hoo. (selfless plug).
Absolutely. Look for the ones by Carl Barks. It was an inspiration for Indiana Jones.
Absolutely. Look for the ones by Carl Barks.
And Don Rosa, too, who has carried on Carl Barks's tradition of complex, well-written stories that are accessible enough for children but interesting enough for adults and which incorporate lots of actual details from real-world history and mythology.
It isn't really superheros, but it may be something he could enjoy. I don't recall if there was anything that would be inappropriate for for someone of his age aside from a little bit of violence.
um cept dad already stated that he is not into comic books and the kid is wild about spiderman, RTFS genius
I second the recommendation for Captain Underpants. Those books are a mashup between a chapter book with pictures and comics. I would read them to the kids at bedtime.
The first comics my children really got into themselves were Calvin and Hobbes then Tintin and eventually Girl Genius.
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at 3-4, OWLY is fantastic. published by Top Shelf
Marvel put out a line of comics called MARVEL ADVENTURES with much more "kid appropriate" comics with the big icons of the Marvel U. They can be found in the digest sized format.
Chris Eliopolous also put out a marvel comic based on Franklin Richards of Fantastic Four fame, it reads like Calvin and Hobbes with Franklin as Calvin and H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot from the 70's FF cartoon as his Hobbes. Delightful. digest format as well.
Your local comic shop should also have either Essential Collections or Marvel Masterwork tradepaperback collections of the early Marvel Comics of the 60's. Amazing Spider-man 1-20 for $20 in black and white. or 1-10 in color. might be a little early for a lot of that stuff.
Fantagraphics is publishing the complete Carl Barks library right now. vol. 2 is due out shortly.
Fantagraphics is also publishing the Complete Peanuts. 2 years per volume. They are in the early '80's right now.
Lastly, use your local library if you can. You'd be amazed at how much is being purchased by librarians right now to keep kids reading. 741.5 is your dewey decimal. Also, your kids/teen room will usually just have a whole shelf of graphic novels now a days. free looking.
Lastly part two. Let your kid be a kid as long as possible. Don't force violence at them before they're ready. Most of the above recommendations are way over the head of a 3 year old. Let alone an 8 year old.
Enjoy. my now 16 and 13 year olds have 2 bookshelves of classic Marvel and DC books. They're also huge fans of Bone and Mouseguard and other great age appropriate stuff...
You mean Asterix and his sidekick Obelix, I think.
Lucky Luke, Cubitus, Spike & Suzy, and Tintin could also be worth a look, as well as the classic Donald Duck / Scrooge McDuck comic book stories written by Carl Barks and Don Rosa
You may want to look at some classic child cartoons:
Books by:
Animated:
To me it seems to be a great inflation in superheroes, especially if you compare the early Superman comics with the modern. Their weaknesses seem to be much less pronounced in modern comics.
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Superman = invincible person who has magic powers for no other reason than accident of birth beats up people with advanced PhDs.
That's always been the big mystery of America superhero fiction to me. The heroes are usually powerful by complete accident (just born that way, bitten by a radioactive lab animal, etc.), while the villains have a strong work ethic, work hard, are very intelligent and highly qualified, etc. And the heroes always win. The moral of the story seems to be it doesn't matter if you work hard, you can't overcome dumb luck. And that intelligence and qualifications are something to be wary of.
Superman hasn't changed that much, but the comic book stories about him now are more writers looking to deconstruct him rather than actually presenting him as the classic icon of good he was generations ago. It's like Batman, he's gone from being the Dark Avenger to the ultra-paranoid who almost let Max Lord screw up the world with O.M.A.C.