Trix are for kids but comics don’t need to be

Please read comics. If you stop reading here, that’s the main thrust. Go read comics, I’m begging you 🙏

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get my pals more into comics.

I want more people to read comics regularly, mostly because I want more people to talk about comics with. But it’s not exactly a medium that lends itself well to sharing with the uninitiated. In fact, despite comics being very much front-and-center in the cultural zeitgeist thanks to juggernaut film franchises and *shivers* The Big Bang Theory, comics readership in the U.S. pales in comparison to its other entertainment contemporaries. While this isn’t an exact analogue, Google Trends data helps demonstrate the drastic differences in demand between mediums based on how frequently each topic has been searched over the past 5 years.

Google Trends, Past 5 Years (2019 - 2024).

So comics are a niche medium, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying to introduce it into water cooler conversations at the office or nights out at the bar. At best though, my evangelizing is met with a patronizing “that sounds really cool.” It’s kind enough but ultimately dismissive. I think there are a couple of reasons for this but chief amongst them is equating comics with kids stuff.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Written and drawn by Scott McCloud

I love the way Scott McCloud illustrates this exact misconception in the panels above but just to say the most important part a little louder for the people in the back, comics are a medium not a genre. Or said another way, comics are more than just superhero stories. Like TV, film and literature, comics are a vehicle that can, and have, been used to explore all types of genres.

I don’t really blame folks for this association though, especially since it’s far from baseless. The modern American comic book was the brainchild of Max Gaines, an unemployed novelty salesman (think whoopee cushions and hand buzzers), who alongside his friend Harry Wildenberg sold the idea of repackaging newspaper comics as books for publication to Eastern Color Printing. Comics are also a uniquely Jewish cultural contribution to America, but that’s a story for another day (check out The Adventure of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon if you’re interested). The point here is that a guy who failed to sell novelty toys to kids invented reselling newspaper funny pages to kids, so it’s no wonder comics are still synonymous with kids stuff close to 100 years later.

It doesn’t help argue the point to draw on my own personal experience either, since I got into comics all the way back in 1st Grade when a friend brought in their copy of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Beginning for show-and-tell. Not exactly an origin story that screams sophistication to the people I’m lobbying. That won’t stop me from trying anyways though. I mean LOOK at the cover art of this book. It had me hooked then and still gets me now.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Beginning. Written by Michael Gallagher. Penciled by Scott Shaw and Dave Manak. Inked by Jorge Pacheco and Bill White. Lettered by Dan Karosis and Bill Yoshida. Colored by Barry Grossman, Nanci Tsetsekas and Lyrad Namlede. Cover art by Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante and Scott Shaw. From the vault of Adam Gerber

Okay. So where does that leave us then? How do I, a lowly ne'er-do-well sitting on the floor of his apartment surrounded by a menagerie of trade paperbacks and graphic novels, convince you that comics are more than just kids stuff? Thankfully, I don’t have to. Over the years, exceptionally talented writers and artists have done the grueling and often thankless work of slowly elevating public perception on comics through the sheer force of their creativity and passion. One person in-particular was more instrumental than most for legitimizing the medium in America— Will Eisner. But first, a quick detour.

I’m sure you have a passing familiarity with the term “graphic novel” thanks to seminal works like Watchman, Persepolis, V for Vendetta, or Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Compared to comics, the graphic novel sounds positively highfalutin. Hell, it’s got the word novel in it. No way that’s kids stuff. I’ve intentionally avoided using it up to this point though, not because I have any grudge against Richard Kyle or his essay The Future of “Comics” where the phrase was originally coined, but because I feel that calling comics graphic novels is often a crutch used to rationalize why an adult should bother reading them in the first place.

Admittedly, it’s hard to deny the marketability of the term and its impact on influencing adult comic readership. Plus, it’s a very handy definition beyond just pretending you’re not three kids in an overcoat reading Betty & Veronica. A graphic novel describes a comic that tells one complete story you can pick up off the shelf and enjoy without any supplemental materials. And Will Eisner’s 1978 graphic novel A Contract with God (I told you I’d be brief) is to thank, as it’s commonly credited for being so popular it influenced the mass adoption of the term.

His career is actually a beautiful metaphor for the trajectory and reputation of comics. As Art Spiegelman, writer of the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus which in its own right has had a profound effect on legitimizing comics in the mainstream, explained in a 2002 speech honoring Eisner; “he started one of the first comic book sweat shops when comic books were still an extension of the rag trade, invented by a Jewish printing salesman named Max Gaines.” Yes! That’s the guy from earlier. “Will was in on their creation even before Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster invented Superman, the circumcised immigrant from the planet Krypton who taught the medium to fly” (Art Spiegelman Presents Will Eisner with a Lifetime Achievement Award, The Jewish Quarterly Art Reviews Archive).

Eisner did more than engineer schlock and write one good book though. As far back as 1940, he was revolutionizing what a comic could be with The Spirit. Thanks to longer page lengths, Eisner was able to tell complex narratives with more adult-themed heroics, and all the while accompanying these stories with art that was way ahead of its time.

The Best of the Spirit. Written and drawn by Will Eisner. From the vault of Adam Gerber

If that’s not enough for you, this guy also inspired Brad Bird, an animator famous for The Incredibles, The Iron Giant and some of my personal favorite episodes of The Simpsons.

“Like Father, Like Clown” The Simpsons S3 E06

Hopefully the dynamic duo of Eisner and Spiegelman convinced you. If not, you’re antisemitic. Just kidding. Unless that motivates you to read comics. Then I’m not kidding and you need to educate yourself…by reading more comics.

More recently, I’ve been experimenting with gifting comic books as a way of both putting my money where my mouth is and motivating adoption through guilt, a Jewish fast-ball special if you will.

The Uncanny X-Men #141 (Days of Future Past). Written and drawn by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Inked by Terry Austin. Lettered by Tom Orzechowski. Colored by Glynis Wein. Complements of Marvel Unlimited.

The hit rate on gifting has varied wildly to say the least. Some friends have outright told me not to bother because they wouldn’t read anything I got them anyway. Others have beaten allegations of overall illiteracy and surprised me, voraciously consuming birthday presents I got them last minute and on a whim. Even when it seems my missionary work is a veritable success though, maintaining momentum and getting these pals to pick up the next issue/trade paperback/graphic novel is a real challenge.

I haven’t quite cracked the code on how to atomic habits the people closest to me, but as I round out this treatise on why to comics, the very least I can do is offer a few tips on how to comics for the kind souls who made it this far and are all fired up.

1. Don’t let the perceived culture around comic book shops intimidate you. These spaces have a reputation for folks with unearned superiority complexes quick to lord their knowledge over you (think Comic Book Guy). This dynamic can understandably twist burgeoning curiosity into anxiety because G*d forbid you expose yourself as a novice or get patronized to by some *sshole. I’ve been running into this myself as I pick up vinyl collecting and the best solution I’ve found is to…

2. Just lean in and ask for a recommendation. Good news! You at least know one person who loves comics and I am MORE than happy to offer my tailored services when it comes to finding a place to start. This article kinda ballooned out of control so I’ll work on a companion piece w/ specific recommendations, but please don’t let that stop you from just asking me directly (or in the comments). I’m also not the only schlub out there who can help. People with passions tend to love sharing them. I’d urge you to think about your local Comic Book Guy as less of a threat and more of a resource. If you can narrow down what you’re interested in and ask for help with some sort of specificity in mind I guarantee it’ll go a lot further than you think (ex. what’s a good Spider-Man story? What about a comic with a particularly good romance arc?).

3. Comics work a lot like movies. If you’re the type of person who has a favorite director, screenwriter or even actor, then you know thinking about cinema in terms of the people behind the work can make a vast universe infinitely more digestible. Comic book writers, artists and characters work in much the same way. If you get a good first recommendation, I’d urge you to pay attention to the creatives who made it possible or the character traits that really hooked you in. This is a great way to build the muscle for exploring on your own, asking for more nuanced recommendations and just generally getting the flywheel going.

4. Lean on the Eisner Awards. That’s right! The guy I was gushing about for most of the word count today is the namesake for the Oscars of comic books. This is by no means entirely representative of comics as an industry in much the same way that the NYT bestsellers list doesn’t represents the totality of literature, but if you’re looking for scaffolding that helps guarantee some degree of quality and variety, this is an excellent resource.

Some final thoughts— before bookclub last month I had some time to kill, so I stopped into one of my favorite comic book shops in the city, Forbidden Planet. I ended up buying a few single issues of a new series I’m hooked on right now called Local Man because much like Carrie Bradshaw…

“The Power of Female Sex” Sex and the City. S1 E05

Too excited to wait, I started reading one on the 4 train when a woman tapped me on the shoulder. She asked if I liked comic books, and oh boy if only she knew. I managed to play it cool, said yes, and explained the premise of the story. Then, something amazing happened. She asked if she could read it after I was done. Contrary to what the joke above implies, a single issue comic book is typically about 14 pages, is part of an on-going monthly series, and usually only costs about $5 or less in the year of our lord 2024. Needless to say, it wasn’t much of a loss. Plus, if it meant the opportunity to introduce a perfect stranger to a new comic, well that was just a dream come true. I sprinted through the issue and was positively delighted to hand off well before my stop.

By the time I left the train car she was deep, like shooing her kids away deep. Whether I was an accomplice to parental neglect or not, witnessing that immersion first-hand helped clarify the magic I know comic books can create for adults.

So go forth. Be audacious. Ask for a stranger’s book on the MTA. That’s the parting lesson here. I’m sure it’ll work out great for you. Happy trails!

–Adam