海角大神

How comic books set me on the road to reading

My earliest companions included 鈥淩ichie Rich鈥� and 鈥淟ittle Archie,鈥� but also 鈥淛ane Eyre鈥� (the comic).

Confession: I still read comic books. They got me started, after all, on the road to actual books, and were daily staples of my childhood, usually purchased for 10 to 25 cents. I鈥檇 lie on a towel in the backyard after a swim in our neighbor鈥檚 pool, dripping on them. On family vacations I鈥檇 buy a new one each morning at the little roadside store en route to the beaches of Cape Cod. Pages filled with sand, some were lost to wind and tide. They were not meant to value beyond the first read, I blithely thought.聽

Little did I know what some of those slender paper ephemera could fetch now. An Ohio man just donated his collection of some 140,000 comics valued at $2.5 million to the University of South Carolina, where the rarest will be relegated to an underground safe alongside medieval manuscripts and Hemingway papers.聽

In a way, I鈥檓 glad I had no idea. As a kid I simply and happily devoured comics, hardly aware that I was actually reading. I cannot remember not reading them. I was born at just the right time, in 1950, not long after comic books began to become popular in the United States and Britain. Their golden age took root and then blossomed in my preteen youth. Comics introduced me to word play, jokes, and the rules of trading (the neighborhood was replete with comics), not to mention the rich, imaginative worlds of true literature found in the 鈥淐lassics Illustrated鈥� comics series. 鈥淛ane Eyre鈥� was a book, too? And 鈥淭he Hunchback of Notre Dame鈥�?

My all-time favorites included 鈥淩ichie Rich,鈥� 鈥淟ittle Archie,鈥� and best of all, the aforementioned 鈥淐lassics Illustrated.鈥� What I wouldn鈥檛 give to have that rich collection of densely illustrated fare today, with their intricate and irresistible illustrations and word balloons. But my mom kept none around once she figured we鈥檇 surely outgrown them. I never truly did, of course. And so I turn to eBay or Amazon to find replacements.

My grandson is spending his eighth grade year at a boarding school, and as light relief from the rigors of an intensive academic regime, I mail him a couple of 鈥淩ichie Rich鈥� comics each week. Mea culpa, academic advisers. But my reward came in his latest letter home in which he exclaimed, 鈥淭hey are soooo much fun to read.鈥� Take note, academic advisers. Until 鈥淩ichie Rich鈥� came onto his horizon, Connor read nothing that wasn鈥檛 required. He had no trouble reading; he just could not be bothered to do it. He鈥檚 on a slippery slope now, and if things go according to my devious plan, he鈥檒l be into 鈥淭he Great Gatsby鈥� before long. The book, I mean.

I had childhood friends whose parents banned comic books, thinking them too frivolous. They became prodigious readers, too, so I鈥檓 not saying such light early fare is the way to go. Whatever works, and comics certainly did for me.聽

The comic book market in the U.S. is valued today at just over a billion dollars. Think of the many other places that money could go! But it was always money well spent for me as a child, pennies at a time. And it鈥檚 added up to decades of an engagement I don鈥檛 plan to break.聽

I鈥檝e just ordered a few dozen of my favorite comic books for Connor, to parse out in weekly mailings. But you鈥檇 better believe I鈥檓 reading them first. Right after I finish rereading 鈥淭he Great Gatsby.鈥澛�

The book, I mean.