Dr. D. Donahue September 30th, 2014
Chabon, Michael “Kids’ Stuff.” The Norton Reader. 13th Edition. Ed. Linda Peterson et al. New York: Norton, 2012. 1016-21. Print.
Comic book writers need to adapt their writing style to appeal to the child audience that they have been avoiding for so long.
Comic books are loved by children, despite the lack of options they have on the market today. Comics aimed for children should be made about them, so they can relate to the story similar to the method used when writing scripts for TV shows and movies. With the electronics on the market today, comic books have to compete for the spot of entertainment in a child’s eyes. Folly: lack of understanding,: “Over the years this quest to break the chains of childish leadership has resulted, like most bouts of inspired madness, in both folly and stunning innovation...”
Indisputable: clearly real, valid, obvious: “But the strange counter phenomenon to this indisputable rise in the reputation, the ambition, the sophistication, and the literary and artistic merit of many of our best comics over the past couple of decades….”
Rampant: raging, violent: “A pose witch they have adapted from ad modeled on the rampant pose of knowingness, of being wised up . . .”
Arriviste: having done wrong, achieving success by dubious means: “Comics have always been an arriviste art form, and all upstairs are to some degree ashamed of their beginnings . . .”
Tentative: experimental, hesitant, unsure: “I now feel obliged to offer, at the least, a few tentative principles and once concrete suggestion on how more great comics for kids might be teased into the marketplace . . .”