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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?"
My 3 yr old son is really into superheros (especially Spider-man)
Well then how about Spider Man?
xkcd of course http://xkcd.com/674/
I've been reading collections of the first years of Spidey, the Fantastic Four, Green Lantern and such. They're probably fine for young'uns.
But I'd also look into the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic adventures. The Duckberg folks go on a lot of neat adventures. They have great stories, great artwork, and it will help show that there's more to comics than superheroes.
Fantagraphics is producing a reprint series, and previous collections are readily available.
Classic Fritz the Cat, and maybe some of the S. Clay Wilson stuff with motorcycles.
OK. Wait until he's 7.
Seriously? Read real books with him. The comics will come on his own, without encouragement.
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Never been known to fail..."
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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At 3 years old he should be able to read himself - why do you need to read to him?
Oh, saaaay, that gives me an idea: Have him read Slashdot! He'll grow up with the benefit of thinking he knows everything without wasting his life doing things like asking questions and learning or asking questions about a topic he doesn't understand. You won't even have to worry about teen pregnancy!
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Kids that age don't need superheros running around biff bam zonking bad guys.
Why not try Dora the Explorer or something.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Modern superhero comics are pretty much uniformly targeted at teen-to-adult age groups. In the quest to become more "edgy", the storylines are more violent and disturbing than ever before. This is not intended as a criticism... I likes me some edgy comics, and when I was college-aged supplemented my income doing lettering work on comic books... but don't be under any sort of illusion about the content the big labels are releasing. It's just not good material for someone as young as your son.
Most kid's TV is also either completely inane/stupid/mind-rotting, or inappropriate for 3-year-olds. There are a few shows out there which are just fine for young kids and which have a goodly bit of intelligence, worthwhile stories, and a meaningful positive "message", but I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to discover them. (Hint: one of them is a huge Internet sensation right about now.)
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
I learned to read with comic books as a 3 year old, so these are perfect. Why not take him down to a comics store and let him choose a few for himself? He's 3. He'll spot what he likes immediately. You can then mix in a few of your old time favorites. Naturally these comics will form the basis of his over-idealized belief system, so be careful to balance it out with regular age appropriate reading material. Otherwise, you may see him jump off the roof one day, or try to pick up a car. If he starts swinging from the rafters, hold on - you've really got something there... My favorites were Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Batman, Black Canary, Hawkman, Superman, Archie (with Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc.), and all the Justice League stuff. No wonder the world is so confusing to me now.
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.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Try Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner -- read him A.A. Milne, with individual voices for Piglet, Pooh and all the others. You'll both have a ball. Keep him as far away from Walt Disney's insipid versions as you can.
He's 3. Don't try to turn him into you. Superhero comics aren't for 3-year-olds. Give him age-appropriate stuff.
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).
I see your Fritz the Cat, and raise you Fat Freddy's Cat.
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.
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.
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
I was a late bloomer, as far as reading went. I didn't feel the need as my intuitive rationale at the wee age of five was that it simply wasn't necessary; I can do what I want, function just fine without reading, so why waste time learning... ... then my mom brought home some comic books from the convenience store down the street, a Spider-Man and a Fantastic Four, and while I enjoyed the pictures, I really wanted to know what they were saying. The Fantastic Four had less exciting imagery yet an abundance of speech bubbles so I figured, these guys must be saying something important. This strongly motivated me to learn and I was reading rather large books by the age of 10 (my fifth grade teacher felt that that uncut version of Stephen King's The Stand was inappropriate at my age and was shocked, both positively and negatively, that I understood the context and ambiguities of certain scenes).
That all being said, it's my suggestion that you grab a stack of comics that range in terms of popularity, style and maturity and he'll be motivated by what he likes.
Perhaps check on eBay for used collections of comic books as they go cheap there. The classic comic books may have less violence and more of a moral high ground than current day comic books.
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...
Every morning in every newspaper. Every month in every issue of New Yorker and Playboy. Every time someone posts an XKCD link.
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I bet you would.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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
...how can I avoid having grandkids?
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.
Classic Fritz the Cat, and maybe some of the S. Clay Wilson stuff with motorcycles.
OK. Wait until he's 7.
Seriously? Read real books with him. The comics will come on his own, without encouragement.
I don't remember not being able to read. My parents tell me I learned when I was 2, as they read comic books to me.
I had an uncle who was into them, and seeing him read them made me very interested. My parents then bought comics that we're more appropriate for children so they could read them to me. The end result is that I got so hooked, it made me extremely motivated to learn to read so that I'd be able to read the stories when my parents didn't have the time (they read to me every day, but I asked them to read constantly.
Moral of the story: read anything to your kids that gets them hooked, even comic books if that's what's doing the trick. Help them to learn to read when they get interested and other stuff will will come later, when they're able to read for themselves.
As for recommendation, in my case they were "Uncle Scrooge" Disney comics. I have no idea if they're still published.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
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.
Superheroes.. moral, positive message.. sounds like we need to go back in time a bit...
to Sweden in the seventies...
Pippi Longstocking!
If Pippi and Spider-man were in combat, she'd drive him to tears with a few well-placed jokes, I'm sure of it! (and afterwards invite him over for tea).
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?