Stories That Changed a Generation

Comic books have gained a lot of popularity over the last ten years, due to the booming movie industry and the MARVEL franchise.  Big blockbuster MARVEL movies have been an enormous hit with the general public, and it looks like that trend will continue for an unforeseeable amount of time.  I love this!  It gets me really excited that the moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas, are out in the theater watching these movies with there kids or even on their own.  I'm glad they can entertain themselves with an adaptation of a form of media that has been around for so long.  A Type of media that I have loved for my life time.  But as i said before, they love the adaptation, the movie versions, and that's o.k, but I really feel like people are missing out on the complete story.  Comic books are where it all begins, but if you bring up the word "comic book" to most adults now a days, they look at you like you've got a third eye on your head.  "No I don't read those comics, but I enjoy some of the movies."  Why is it, that the movies take hold of people, but yet the actual book is looked at as something for children, or a lesser form of media, comparative to novels or the movies with the same name? There's been a bit of an uproar about this recently, which is what sparked the idea of this post.  So I thought i'd dive into this a little deeper, and give my story, and how I feel about the comics.

          As a kid I grew a deep love for Batman.  All because of "Batman the Animated Series" that ran in the early to mid nineties.  The show sparked an interest into an entire world of characters that I didn't even realize existed at the time.  When I was at the store with my mom, I started seeking out the metal turn racks to try and find Batman.  When they didn't have any I would grab something random that caught my eye.  This is wear I started to grow my knowledge of the comic book world. High school slowed my growth quite a bit, it wasn't cool to look at comic books then, and I was very impressionable when it came to what the girls liked.  If a girl laughed at it and thought it was goofy, so did I.  So that's when the comics were pushed to the side.  After high school though, once I was married and got back into things I actually enjoyed in my life, comics came back into the picture.  My friend Chris had a big part in that, but also the movies that were coming out started to strike my interest back up as well.  The movies also struck the interest of almost every warm bodied human being in the United States of America, but most never really knew the source material, and if brought up in a conversation it was immediately discarded as information that was unnecessary to have. See that's were my problem lies, is it laziness of Americans, because reading actually takes a little bit more work than just watching the movie, and being spoon fed the story?  Or is it that everyone still thinks that these stories we call "comic books"  are something for children, never to be gazed upon with the adults eye? I'm not sure, probably a little of both, but either way, I feel sorry for these people that just don't get to enjoy the fullest story their imaginations could absorb. 

       Immersing yourself into a story that takes you into the depths of Gotham city, or into Hell's Kitchen where Daredevil is using his radar like senses to defeat The Hand from taking over the city that he loves.  While at another time you could dive into "Criminal" by Ed Brubaker, and follow a man fresh out of jail and down on his luck.  Learn why he was there, and how he actually just wants to be loved and have a family life.  "Comic Books" are so much more than just capes, and colorful pictures, they can be some of the most in-depth real stories you've ever read.  You can buy them as a single issue or you can buy the entire series in one book after they've all been published and collected. These books have pictures in them yes, and I feel like this is where people start to distance them selves from reading them.  There has been a long standing joke in society that has been said to people like, "give him the book with pictures in it, he doesn't read to well." I get it, reading is made easier when the story is drawn out for you.  But have you really looked at these drawings?  Most of the story is in the art itself, its not art like 1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish, which has its place, no this art can be real and extremely immersive. The artist and the writers are working hand in hand to create a complete story that will fire all of your senses at once.  This is why a Comic Book can be just as enjoyable, as watching the movie itself.  No, these aren't just children's books my friends, they are

All of that just to say, Stan Lee was the pinnacle of this creation.  Is it possible to have another human being that influential to arts and entertainment?  I don't think it really is, he, with a handful of other creators at the time, pushed the limits on what needed to be said, and what needed to be done in the country.  Stan used women as main characters in a story, let them have the upper hand and win fights.  He changed the game when it came to writing about politics, or adding a man with a disability like DareDevil and turning it into an advantage.  These were things being done in the early sixties, when just recently the majority of Americans became use to seeing these things.  Stan did it almost sixty years prior, and people loved it, and loved him.  Stan created a generation of story tellers, and i can not be anymore grateful for a human being that made goofy stories and make believe main stream.

Thanks Stan!