Many people, I know, are wary of comics. At first I also tensed, but then I tensed again and remembered how I accidentally got some comic book about Donald Duck as a child, and how I was stuck on it for a long time. This was in the early 90s, and these adventures of a duck without pants, but in a sailor hat, were, of course, very fresh and avant-garde. I really enjoyed reading the short phrases over and over again and looking at the pictures, constantly discovering new details. There were no more comics in my childhood, and the next time I encountered them was as an adult. “Fi! Fun for children. I need to read normal books,” I thought, without holding a single comic book in my hands.
But then – hmm, hmm? - it turned out that many films were made based on comic books... How is it possible that an entire film for adults with a multimillion-dollar budget and huge grosses is based on some pictures for children? Breaking patterns. Reputable publishing houses produce chic books with intriguing titles and in hardcovers, and inside there is a “graphic novel”?! Another cognitive dissonance. Then my husband began to draw comics for the company in which he then worked, and I sometimes came up with stories for them, but I still believed that this low genre had nothing to do with me.
In the end, in secret from everyone, I decided to read “Pasternak,” which I condemned. “Parsnips” turned out to be strangely attractive, although I didn’t even admit it to myself. And so my child grew up, and comics began to appear in our house. It turned out that they can be used, firstly, to teach reading, and secondly, to compose stories from pictures, which in our childhood was a full-fledged homework throughout elementary school, which is not so easy to cope with. It developed speech, observation, the ability to analyze - what a useful task! And the child, yes, also quickly got into it and can look at the pictures for a long time, noticing the slightest features. And then, as a strange vision of a bygone era (oh, Pasternak again!) I saw “Funny Pictures” and “The Adventures of Murzilka.” Wow! And there were more comics in my childhood than I expected! Well, kids love comics, okay, and it turns out we grew up with them too, so be it. Everything is clear with children. Well, why do adults read them? Maybe because comics satisfy the needs of both visual and digital people? Well, just like posts on social networks: everyone loves beautiful pictures with good text underneath, right? ;) The same comics are just from one frame. Or maybe we just shouldn’t compare comics with “normal books”? The comics are drawn by good artists and their work is worth looking at, and the small amount of text leaves plenty of room for imagination.
And by the way, you don’t have to worry that a comic book that costs the same as a full-length novel is entertainment for one evening. Yes, the child will probably read it in one sitting, but if he likes it, he will return to it again and again, precisely because reading will not take much time, unlike voluminous works, most of which we reread at best case a couple of times in my life.
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