By Shaenon K. Garrity
Dear Brenden:
I'm sorry your mom threw out your Spider-Man comics. I have to agree with her, though, they probably weren't appropriate for a nine-year-old. I mean, you know Spider-Man from the movies, your action figures, your coloring books, your Easy Reader books, and your own crayon drawings. You probably didn't need to see him getting his eye gouged out. And the other Spider-Man book you had was a trade collection of the first five issues of Todd McFarlane's run, which should be kept out of reach of children because it's actually not all that good in retrospect.
I've promised to make a list of Marvel comics your mom can buy for you that don't have graphic violence, sex, or adults sitting around having long, boring adult conversations about stories that were written before you were born. It's kind of a short list because comics that don't have these things aren't very popular.
To tell you the truth, I feel a little silly writing this. On Planet Comics, where I live, it's such a cliché for people to complain about how superhero comics aren't for kids anymore. I swore I wouldn't write stuff like that, even though I think it's a problem, because it's clearly not going to change. But then your mom came to me about the Spider-Man comics, asking me why they had all that swearing, and I didn't have an answer. And I felt pretty dumb.
Oh, and I'm glad to see you're enjoying the
Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. They're really fun! I think R.C. Harvey would say they're comic books because they combine word and image, but Scott McCloud would say they're not because they don't usually involve a juxtoposition of panels. The rest of Planet Comics wouldn't care because Spider-Man doesn't get his eye gouged out. All these people have the Cheese Touch and should be avoided at all costs.
Shaenon
Dear Tierney,
I'm glad you enjoyed the
Batgirl: Year One comic Andrew sent you. No, I'm afraid
Batgirl: Year Two isn't out yet. I don't think
Batgirl: Year Two will ever be out. It's a shame, but maybe it's best that you don't know what happens to Batgirl later on. It's not a lot of fun.
Andrew's been sending you all the comics he can find that you might like, but he's kind of running out. I know your demands are simple. You like comics about superheroines. They don't even have to be particularly "girl-friendly" superheroines. You devoured those Jim Balent
Catwoman comics where she gets sent to a women's prison and has naked shower fights with her giant boobs. As long as the comic is about a superheroine and she doesn't get raped or murdered, it's fair game. Even so, Andrew's getting near the end of his stash. He's got a pile of comics by Gail Simone to send you, and then it's back to the drawing board.
I should probably warn you about Batgirl before you get those
Birds of Prey books, though.
Aunt Shaenon
Dear Killian,
Sorry I only sent you one box of manga for your high-school graduation present. Let me know what volumes of
Fullmetal Alchemist and
Inuyasha you still need, and I'll see what I can do. Same with
Godchild. Man, those goth comics are like a license to print money. You don't know what Minx is, but if they'd done one damn vampire comic, they'd still be up and running. Oh, and of course I'll let you know when the next volume of
Nana comes out. You've read all of Ai Yazawa's previous series,
ParaKiss, right?
There's so much manga you might like that I have trouble narrowing the list down. Let me know what your brother is into right now and I'll recommend some stuff for him, too. I know he likes battle manga and stuff with dragons. I can think of a few series he might enjoy.
I hope you keep drawing in college. You should try starting a webcomic! It's a good way to hone your skills, and I swear it's only occasionally traumatic.
Oh, and here's the first volume of
Death Note. Even though your mom probably wouldn't approve.
Cousin Shaenon
Shaenon K. Garrity is a manga editor at Viz Media and is best known for her webcomics Narbonic and Skin Horse.
All the Comics in the World is © Shaenon K. Garrity, 2008
