The decline of comics?

Professor T W Wong twwong at cuhk.edu.hk
Sun Apr 25 08:44:05 CEST 2010


Dear all

I have been following the discussions and comments on possible 
reasons for the decline of the popularity of comics. The change in 
the media, TV, the internet .... perhaps changes in the social 
environment and education system, might have played a part. I would 
just wish to share my own experience with the Walt Disney comics when 
I was young (a Hong Kong boy).

We had one publisher of Disney comics back then in the early 1960s. 
They were published once a month, were directly translated into 
Chinese, and smaller in size than the regular US copies. Early 
stories I still remember well include Christmas in Schakletown and 
other classical stories. Later, in the mid-60s, a bilingual version 
was published. I especially liked the idea as it allowed me, a nature 
Chinese speaker, to learn more English, especially the spoken version 
not taught in class. Stories like the magic carpet (where Magica de 
Spell turned into a giant Roc), the paper chase in "North of Yukon", 
a story about big wigs, the "Horse Radish" are mong the best stories 
I've read. The subscriptions (quite expensive at that time) were 
shared by my siblings, and I shared the stories with kids younger 
than myself, earning my reputation as a master story-teller.

Even though the comic company ceased publishing Disney comics in Hong 
Kong, I still follow the comics when I grew up - US versions from 
various foreign magazine shops (which were very expensive), and 
whenever I travelled. (But they were hard to get even in the US 
magazine shops, back in the early '80s.)

My child grew up with Disnel comics, still maintained in good 
conditions. And I feel that the stories had a good influence on 
children. There is always a 'moral' of the story, and the good guys prevail!

It is a pity that Disney DUCK (my favorite) comics are on the 
decline. I am sure the world would be a better place, and our adults 
in future would be better persons if they all read and love these comics.

A $crooge fan.


At 18:13 24/4/2010, you wrote:
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>I remember a study in which Chinese native speakers read Chinese 
>Texts to very young (<1y) children. Later in life the children were 
>able to speak Chinese sounds which were not part of their own 
>language, even though they never learned Chinese. When the same 
>experiment was repeated with records instead of human readers no 
>effect was found. So the human interaction (emotion!) seems to be 
>absolutely essential for motivation and learning even (or 
>especially) at this young age.
>
>I have repeatedly heard from adults who had never read comic books 
>in their own childhood that they had serious problems reading comics 
>now because they did not know where to start or how to preceed. They 
>had not learned the "language" of comics at an early age.
>
>I believe comics are very good source of reading material for 
>children because they have pictures which is very important, the 
>feature recognizable characters, and they have the appeal of "not 
>just for kids" which marks most great childrens' books. I have read 
>Donald Duck and Asterix to the children of friends and they liked it 
>very much. And once the children start learning to read you can 
>alternate: The adult reads the first panel and the child the second one.
>
>I also noticed how much children, even at the youngest age, 
>recognize and appreciate quality. Not only do they instinctively 
>prefer Barks' stories over others' but they even know which Barks 
>stories they like best. They are very good critics.
>
>Cord

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