SPACEWARP - New Venture from Pat Mills

[IndigoPrime]

It also depends on how the individual child's passions develop. Mini-IP is 6. She mostly watches (and rewatches) extremely safe TV. This seems to be a thing with girls in her school. They don't like peril. TV is a switch-off-and-relax medium. But with music, she's really getting into proper fare. (She was dancing around to Joy Division the other day. She fires up Kraftwerk, Salad and Wire on her iPod touch.)

Reading, though, is one of her true loves. So unlike your nephews, she'll blaze through her comics and then read them multiple times. Quite often, we'll get up in the morning at the weekend and she'll have been up since 7 reading. There will be comics and books all over the place. Perhaps that will change when she gets into other things; but perhaps it won't. (Minecraft isn't a thing as yet—but she does adore Lego.)

[Barrington Boots]

Fair point. The TV is on literally all the time in my brothers house and the children psuedo-watch cartoons and the like almost constantly (they always seem to be watching TV and doing something else at the same time) so I don't think reading is their forte.

To be honest mini-IP sounds a lot cooler!

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah the boy child (9 next week gulp!) absolutely devours The Phoenix and he has a collection of back issues now which is almost a complete set (wonder where he got that from...) and he regularly read through them and his Bunny Vs Monkey collections, though Diary of a Wimpy Kid seems to have become choice number 1 of late. He's the same with his Dog Man books and a few other bits I've pimped on him.

I've bought some cheap Best of 2000ad for when I break him - his regular playing of the old Games Workshop Judge Dredd board game seems to be my best hope there as he loves asking questions about the various characters and I keep saying just ask when you want to read the comics. At the moment his favourite comics are still the more humour based Looshkin or Bunny Vs Monkey type.

Interestingly he like his comics safe but watches some quite scarey tv or films relative for his age (I think???).

Anyway IndigoPrime you mention Salad as in Marijne van der Vlugt Salad - no heard them for ages but used to  like them - must check them out again...

[IndigoPrime]

@Barrington Boots: She's a good kid—and much of that is on her. But I'm dead happy she enjoys STEM (Lego/science) and dinos as well as cuddly toys/unicorns, because that's a battle these days. The music thing's fun too—pre-lockdown, she was playing The Man-Machine to a bubble friend who dropped by for a playdate. As for comics, you probably won't be shocked to know she's now the proud owner of my two Cor/Buster specials...

@Colin: I suspect there are big variations in how children process different mediums. I have friends who've shown relatively young kids Alien and they don't give the slightest shit. My kid found Paddington too scary because of a few moments of peril. Yet we've read through books beyond her age range and with some scary moments and she's absolutely fine.

And, yes, that Salad. Drink The Elixir is a firm favourite in this household.

[Colin YNWA]

And, yes, that Salad. Drink The Elixir is a firm favourite in this household.

I've got 12 inches of all the first singles that made up the first album and some other singles too. I was quite the fan and have a set list or two I got from jumping on stage at the Leadmill as there was a phase when they (or bloody Sleeper!) seemed to support every band that played there... anyway I digress ...

[TordelBack]

I tried and failed to get either of mine interested in following weekly/monthly comics beyond the age of about 7 or 8, but both enjoy collections, even ancient B&W stuff like Charley's War and Calvin & Hobbes, and they'll enthusiastically read one-offish Rebellion projects like Tammy and Misty. They just can't seem to be arsed with 6/20 pages of a story and then a wait.

My daughter treats collected volumes much as I did individual comics, being up to Vol 15 or so on things like Lumberjanes, with maybe half a dozen series in her sights at any one time, sharing them with friends and always asking for new ones, so the ongoing serial nature of comics isn't the issue there: just the mode of delivery.  She also makes half-decent comics detailing the in-universe events of online games she plays with her friends, or spinoffs of Ghibli, kawaii or YouTube characters, so it's not even that the huge range of alternative media available to kids is necessarily supplanting interest in the form itself.

[IndigoPrime]

Mini-IP has a Peanuts treasury and a Calvin & Hobbes collection as well. She really likes the latter. Lumberjanes: I'll admit to having recently bought the first six or so Max volumes in HC, in the hope mini-IP will like them when old enough. (I suspect she's a little bit young right now.) It was one of the few FCBD comics I gave her that she wanted to keep.

[CalHab]

My 6 year old is exactly the same. She loves Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Beano, Dogman, Narwhal & Jellyfish, DC Superhero Girls, My Little Pony, Spidey and Bunny vs Monkey. There are plenty of comics out there selling well for younger readers.

I've also picked up a heap of random stuff from Gosh! when I'm down in that there London. They have the best kids comics selection of any shop I've been to.

Will have to try her on The Lumberjanes, for some reason I thought that was for an older readership.

[TordelBack]

Will have to try her on The Lumberjanes, for some reason I thought that was for an older readership.

A bit older, maybe, but not much if she already enjoys Peanuts. There is a bit of fantasy peril of the scary monster variety, but it gets resolved satisfactorily and often amicably, and there is wordplay and anagram puzzles which may go over the head of a 6 year-old,  but not to any ill effect.

My own daughter has been enjoying them since about 8 (at a guess, I forget), and she still is at 11 (as am I at 49), which is refreshing longevity these days: there are deep lessons about friendship, physical and emotional self-reliance, and some well-integrated gay and transgender themes, all of which reward the older reader and extend the appeal beyond superficial wilderness adventure. There are also chunky prose novel spin-offs, which have gone down well here too. It's just a very fine comic all round.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's just a very fine comic all round.

I've worked on a few of the OGNs and they're terrific. Glad to hear they go down well with the actual target audience and not just fify-year-old letterers. :-)

[IndigoPrime]

I rather enjoyed the series myself when I read it from a Humble Bundle, hence biting the bullet and going for the collected editions. Worst-case, I can always resell. (HCs tend to hold value rather well.)

CalHab: Narwhal & Jellyfish also went down well here, although those strips can be blazed through at terrifying speed compared to Bunny vs Monkey! Have you tried any of Joe Todd-Stanton's stuff? Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx was a big hit here, as was Arthur and the Golden Rope. (Kai and the Monkey King didn't get the same response, for whatever reason.) I keep hinting regarding Hilda and the Troll, but she's never agreed to get that out of the library, although the Netflix prose adaptations hit the spot.

[CalHab]

Yes, she and I both enjoyed The Secret of Black Rock (which I think I bought at Gosh!). Beautiful artwork with some very clear storytelling.

Hilda is also a big hit with us, but she found one of the later books a bit too scary. I'm glad to see the second series of that will be out on Netflix shortly.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm not sure mini-IP's ever read Secret of Black Rock. Hmm. Christmas present! (Leo and the Gorgon's Curse is also out now.)

[Funt Solo]

It's not a conversation I was involved in, but I've just seen it and it appears you have misread it. 'Mod B' does not call 'Users A & B' arseholes - he makes reference (in a reply to 'User C') to the well-known aphorism that opinions are like arseholes - everyone's got one. The suggestion is, in fact, that 'User C' accept that others will have different opinions.

I appreciate we've interpreted it differently. Eye of the beholder, and all that.

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Quite enjoying all the recommendations for good comics on this thread. Hilda's a big hit here, also. It's one of those mythical stories that somehow magically seems as if it's always existed.

[CalHab]

Quite enjoying all the recommendations for good comics on this thread. Hilda's a big hit here, also. It's one of those mythical stories that somehow magically seems as if it's always existed.

Yeah, I've got a few ideas for the Christmas stocking!