DCML Digest, Vol 86, Issue 13

Guy Lapointe lancelot1953 at msn.com
Thu Apr 22 19:11:56 CEST 2010


Hi G.E.

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

I am not complaining about America per se.  I have a second career as a teacher, hockey/soccer coach and counselor.  I have fought with the local three network stations to put some children-friendly shows on tv during the 0400~0600 pm time slot.  I work mostly with abandonned and/or impoverished children in the North Eastern states.  I just made some observation as I was looking 30 years back.

Believe me, I am all for Disney, old Hanna Barbera, Warner Brother comics - I have pushed for the Scholastic Books, I manned the town library after church to "catch" kids that could be brought by their parents.


This is a trend I have noticed.  I have to deal with children that are (to my knowledge) much more "damaged" than what I saw 30 years ago.  I am not blaming the kids, I am blaming marketing, commercialism (legal ads on TV during children hour), etc...

 

I am glad that in your part of the country things are as you describe them.  Up here, either I am getting too old or we are loosing ground.  I also have to defend (or protect) children for many problems I rarely dealt with in the past, at least at that age (rape, pregnancy, incest, drugs +++, alcohol...) I am talking about kids here, not adolescents.  It hurts, I see their pain having to face issues that would challenge an adult. One network removed "Bugs Bunny" because it was too violent for children - now, they can enjoy "Judge Alex" instead, much better...

 

Sincerely, L

 

 


 
From: dcml-request at nafsk.se
Subject: DCML Digest, Vol 86, Issue 13
To: dcml at nafsk.se
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:13:12 +0200

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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: pacrat100 at hotmail.com
To: dcml at nafsk.se
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:40:46 -0500
Subject: [SPG, Suspected, pattern=3.60]RE: Mr. Erlend's message about Disney comics sales inthe US...









I am not Mr. Leach but I am American and have lived in Europe several 
years (France, Italy, and Spain).
This is what I have noticed.  

1- The average American youth does not read much on their own, TV, video 
games, computer (games mostly) and Internet surfing has displaced books as a 
past time.  As a teacher, for many students, the only reading will be what 
they do in the classroom.  There is no incentive for them to read on their 
own and consequently, they have problems reading, i.e. it is hard/slow 
process for them to read.
2- I have not found the broad selection of 
quality comic or illustrated books/magazines in the likes of Journal de 
Tintin (defunct), Journal de Mickey, Spirou, and all the hard cover illustrated 
books that included an entire story from these magazines (Adventures of Blake 
and Mortimer and Tintin stories come to mind).
3- Finally, the American 
family is going through a transition with half my students from single parent 
families. This, along with the stresses involved makes it difficult for the 
child to have a stable, mind stimulating environment.  The TV (especially 
since "bad" TV, talk shows, confrontations, etc... replaced the children 
hours 1600~1800) has replaced the baby sitter or the parent at home.
I hope 
it helps,
Lancelot




Actually, I would like to disagree with that. 
 Maybe it's just the area you're in.  I don't collect comic books 
much, but I buy the collections and treasuries.  Not because of the 
price and availability, but because of the durability.  Hardbound and "soft 
cover" treasuries and collections just last longer for me and finding the actual 
older comic books would be very difficult.  And with a 5 year old and 
9 year old + their friends reading them, I need the durability factor.  If 
they asked me to order a subscription, I would.  But my first personal 
choice to be bought is any collection that I haven't bought yet.

 

  As to kids not getting out from in front of the 
brain drain machine, I live in a pretty bad area.  Over half the 
kids in my town are disadvantaged and many of them stay at my home 
more then they do at their house since there is no one there for them.  But 
out of the 25-30 kids in the area under the age of 12, a sizable fraction of my 
older Disney collection (10-15 books) are constantly borrowed to read on their 
own time with more kids waiting for the books to be returned so they can borrow 
them.  The newer collections (1995-present) don't seem to get borrowed 
so much, but the older Disney collections always out enough that I've been 
planning on finding and buying second books to stay in my 
library.  And it's not only Disney comic collections that are asked 
for.  The Richard Halliburton collections, Tom Swift Jr, and older Hardy 
Boys and Nancy Drews, as well as many others are being borrowed as 
well.  Some kids may have never been introduced to good reading, I have to 
agree.  But there seems (at least in my area) a lack of things kids will 
read that they enjoy.  After reading the above when it came into my email, 
I asked one of the kids why he came to my place to borrow books (2 Hardy 
Boys and Carl Barks 1978 Mickey Mouse collection) and he told me that the books 
I had were more enjoyable then the ones in the library........  With an 
answer like that, I'll keep lending them out as much as they want me to.  
If the books becomes too worn or damaged to give out, I'll replace them if I can 
find them.

 

G.E. Craig

 

BTW, while I'm here in my second post to the 
newsletter.....  Is there a good site that list older collections?  
Right now, my collecting process is very shoddy.  If I see a collection and 
I recognize that I don't own it, I try to buy it if it's for sale ($230 for a 
unopened/perfect Carl Barks Donald Duck (1978?).... Yikes!!!!  But I bought 
it for a non-lendable book), but I know there are gaps in what I have and what 
has been issued.

 


--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: shadslists at gmail.com
To: dcml at nafsk.se
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:21:52 -0600
Subject: A review of Hero Squad


Just ran across this:

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/back20100415.shtml

-- 
Shad Z.                      ^Q^

My Blog: http://www.livejournal.com/~shadzane/
My Web Site: http://shadz.homestead.com/files/



--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: abeenget at online.no
To: dve at kabelfoon.nl; dcml at nafsk.se
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:04:16 +0200
Subject: [SPG,Suspected,pattern=3.60]Re: Don't people read anymore?













Daniël wonders why kids read so little when the several 
thousand pages of Harry Potter rates so high on book sales and popularity. Well, 
I've read them all myself, and I am 40 years old. First of all, they hit kids in 
all ages perfectly. I bet there are more kids in all ages watching the films 
rather than reading the books, though. The huge numbers of pages is one cause. 
Another cause is, I think, that reading is a downpointing activity. My son 
starts 1st grade come August, and we've been told at parents meeting now to 
read 15 minutes per day in order to help the development of his reading 
abilities. Unless parents have taught their kids to read books, they are less 
likely to sit down with any book, Harry Potter or not! Being brought up on good 
books and Donald Duck weekly, I certainly hope my kids will love 
reading...

 

Erlend, Norway


--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: TheGuy at DRawson.Com
To: dcml at nafsk.se
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:42:18 -0700
Subject: Re: Disney Sales

I'm wondering if it might have anything to do with whether or not parents read aloud to their young children?


On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 5:08 AM, <UNDBKB at aol.com> wrote:











Familien Enget writes:

How come Disney comics sell so bad in the US compared to the good 
numbers in Europe, among them Norway? 

 

I guess as a Norwegian American I would have to say Norwegians are 
"Smarter" than the average American! 

 

Barry Branvold






 

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