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I interviewed four of my nephews (separately, so that they wouldn't influence one another's answers) about comics.
How do you define comics?
David, age 6: Sometimes they're funny and … cool.
Michael, age 9 (almost 10): Comic. I define them as a way for people to get away from … well, have a laugh, usually. Or I describe them as a way for people to get away from work and just read, and it has a good basic storyline and plot.
James, age 11: Comics are action or comedy that you find with pictures.
Alex, age 14: Comics are a way to express the culture of an era.
Do you know what a graphic novel is? How is that the same or different?
David: Yes. A graphic novel is like something from Marvel, like Wolverine or Spider-Man.
Michael: No.
James: Yes. A graphic novel is long book that has a plot to it and is narrated with pictures.
Alex: Vaguely. Well, graphic novels have more of a plot, and comics are usually just in the paper, like comic strips.
What comics do you read?
David: The funny ones.
Michael: Batman, mostly. And Deadman, because I like zombies and stuff like that.
James: Mostly newspaper comics: occasionally a superhero comic, like Batman or Superman.
Alex:
Pearls Before Swine,
Get Fuzzy,
Doonesbury: all the ones that are in the paper every day. Oh, and
Lio.
Lio is a good one.
What comics do you have?
David: The funny ones: yep, just the funny ones.
Michael: I've never really
had any, but I usually go around town and look at these old antique stores where I read them. I sit there for hours reading these old comics that I find in there.
James: None.
Alex: Like comic books? Yeah. I've got a
Transformers comic, it was really cool. I've got a few comics, but they're not really like comics, they're just knockoff comics. […] They're from movies and stuff: they just give them out free at movies so they can get you to get more interested in the movie. And a lot of the time it has nothing to do with the movie, anyway.
Where do you get your comics?
David: The mail.
Alex: Just everywhere, I don't know. The hobby shop, sometimes, I'll go over there to see what's there. In the line at the grocery store, sometimes: they gave them out at the movies a few times, but not really as much.
Does [your hometown] have a bookstore?
Alex: [My hometown]'s actually got two – three bookstores, and then they're building a new one, which is right by my mom's place, which is pretty cool.
Do you know if they have any comic shops?
Alex: They don't. They have a hobby shop, and that's it, really, for comics.
Do you read comics on the Internet?
Alex: I do read comics on the Internet.
Sam and Fuzzy,
Ornery Boy,
Skully, and, because I don't get it in the
San Jose Mercury News, I read
Lio sometimes on
GOcomics.com.
Do you ever make your own comics?
David: No.
James: Sometimes, yes.
Michael: We've tried a lot of times, but we've never actually finished them.
Alex: Sometimes, yeah. They're just random little comics and I scan them into my computer.
Would you consider putting your comics online?
Alex: I would consider putting my comics online.
Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2010
