Author and friend Remy Flagg invited me to write a post for his site about comics. I opted to write about what comics taught me growing up.
My father called them funny books.
He was a lot older than my friend’s dads. He grew up as a child of the depression, and I was born late in his life. When he called them funny books I used to chafe at that name. The phrase ‘funny books’ sounded silly and childish to me then but now… I think it’s cute. Of course I’m 40 years old now, married with a daughter, so some things change.
But seriously. Funny books. Pissed me off.
Didn’t he know that the mutants had to fight to preserve their rights in a world that wanted them gone? There’s nothing funny about that. Didn’t he know Frank Castle’s family had been killed, and that Frank couldn’t move on until he found a justice that he never would? Didn’t my dad know The Tick and Arthur needed to be friends to conquer the ninjas?