animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

We gotta spread the word. We gotta share the joy. We gotta get up and scream from the mountaintops. The idea is that comics are a viable and current entertainment option.

Are kids reading the comics? Are enough of them? What is the purpose of publishing them if they are only an afterthought to the more lucrative licensing aspects of the industry. They are artful and fun and created by some very talented people but if the kids are dismissing them, we will see them diminish into a novelty for the aging. Comics could become MATLOCK or FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES!

There is only one way for comics readerships to grow among children: exposure.

Give comic books to your nephews and nieces. Buy them those Archie digests and Nancy Drews. Find your surliest younger cousin and gift him with a stack of Sandmans. If your brother is just entering college, it’s time to get him a stack of Zap and Weirdos. Your neighbor’s kid is always wearing Spiderman T-Shirts? Go ahead and give him some doubles out of your long box…you know you have them. In short, it is everybody’s obligation to share their culture.  Otherwise, it could perish.

Sharing and trading among friends used to be the life’s blood of comics culture. It’s how we all learned about what books and writers and artists we responded best to. The exposure from swapping kept us all in the loop. Very few of us could afford every book as it was coming out (now it’s practically impossible) and it helped for us to see what our buddies were getting into.

People don’t seem to share anymore. Nowadays, it’s as though everyone has a hermetically sealed private museum of comics antiquity that no one else may touch. The Library is a great resource but it doesn’t beat the recommendations of friends. Open the doors of the museum, share the comic book love. Let grubby four year olds paw your books (under your supervision and after a wet nap attack on those pb+j hands, of course).

TRUE STORY:

A couple of years ago I was reading a comic on the subway. It was a super nifty issue of Hawkman with Nazi Aliens (it really was awesome). A kid in a cub scout uniform started reading over my shoulder so I opened it up so he could read along. This kid was enrapt. My stop came before the book was done and I gave him the comic.

He looked up at me and said, “don’t you wanna know how it ends?”

As the doors opened and I exited, I replied:

“I already know…the good guys win.”

I keep a pile of comics to give away. There are usually about twenty or so in it and if a friend of mine is over I let them pick through it. It cuts down the clutter and helps me know that I’m doing my part to share comics culture.

Jared Gniewek works in the music industry as a back line technician, performer, and promoter. He is also a freelance writer whose work can be seen in the recent re-launch of Tales from the Crypt and heard on The Dark Sense, an audio anthology of the macabre for which he is also the story editor — http://www.earstage.com/darksense.htm.

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