So, can I offer another opinion? No? Tough shit, you get it anyway. I didn't grow up with comics. They just never appealed to me. Am I weird for this? I don't recall anyone around me reading comics either, certainly not either of my parents. When I was a kid, I'd read novels - either Choose Your Own Adventure (don't lie now, you all know those were AWESOME), or Enid Blyton's Famous Five or Secret Seven (more likely the latter) books, then Biggles as a teenager and Len Deighton (I really need to read Game Set and Match and Hook Line and Sinker again) and Jack Higgins (which I'd still read now) when I was about 15 or 16 and, more recently, John le Carré and Frederick Forsyth. I know that I read less than 90+% of the board, but I prefer interactive entertainment (i.e. games, shouting at the TV during a soccer match, etc.). The first comic I can remember buying was when I was 15 was an issue of Mad Magazine (I had the boardgame, which prompted the magazine purchase) - it was an issue devoted to ripping off the Batman movie franchise, which was hilarious. Sadly, they were expensive and the local newsagent only carried them very sporadically. I don't really read webcomics either - slow internet means they take forever to load. Often, the end of the comic loads first, which kinda kills it.
Axe Cop is demented. I caught the premiere on Animation Domination and I really didn't know if I loved it or hated it. A serious-looking cartoon with serious-sounding voices and the plot from a five-year-old kid. And at times, it is fucking hilarious especially the soldier who can turn into a Chihuahua when he's ready to fight--- which is all the time-- so he's always a Chihuahua. There is one more print comic I did like as a kid, it was a NZ comic called Footrot Flats. I only had two treasuries because you cant buy them here, but I read them until they basically fell apart.
I don't think it's weird. I had a highly developed sense of humor from a very young age, and part of what appeals to me is surprise (not Pulit Surprise, Crown). None of the comics mentioned that I've read - and to be fair, I didn't spend a lot of time reading them because I didn't find any of them funny so I wouldn't go through them again - were anything but spectacularly obvious - which is the same reason I find Simpsons, Family Guy, et. al., to be very mundane. You see the jokes coming from a mile away, or from the setup. For me, not funny. But hey, maybe I'm just weird too.
I haven't watched The Simpsons in probably 15 years, and even then I don't know if I really enjoyed it. It's just boring and not funny. When I was in elementary school I wasn't allowed to watch it because of the content, but my parents though Ren and Stimpy was fine...
In 3rd grade I plowed through more Goosebumps books than I can count. I want to say about 50, but I'm not sure how many they had put out. The choose your own adventures stories were some of the most addictive. One I read was about a genie, and every path I took I ended up miserable. Goddamn sadistic authors and their tantalizing life lessons. Our school offered a reward incentives program for kids who read, and the most points were always for more mature children's stories like Where the Red Fern Grows. I hope most schools do this because kids will do anything for candy and toys, even if they're forced to make themselves smarter.
I don't know how it would work, but with the sick fucks on this board, I think we could write a 'Choose your own adventure' thread that would blow away any such offering to date.
Our school had a similar program, except the points were given out purely on the number of pages read. I saw the obvious loophole, and proceeded to read mostly picture books like "learn basic spanish" (this was a texas school keep in mind) where there were about 20 words per page and I could tear through about a book a minute. After I reach the number of points needed to get out of class and teach younger kids to read (incentive: get out of class), they changed the rules to where the book had to be pre-approved by the teacher... I thought I was just being smart.
My elementary school participated in a program called Book It! If I remember correctly, the way it worked was that if you read ten books and your parents signed the form verifying that you did, you could take that form to Pizza Hut and get a free personal pan pizza. I didn't like to read (and still don't), so I never did it. One year I did have a teacher who required us to participate and I had to have my parents sign the from saying that I read the books when I actually didn't. I think that I had some Boxcar Children, Goosebumps, Beverly Cleary, and Judy Blume books at home, so those were what went on the form.
Okay..... ...you're telling me schools reward kids for reading? Really? Times really do change over ten years (give or take). Kind of bounces off the attitude my schools carried: "Shut the fuck up, read what we tell you, or YOU FAIL." We were ordered to read specific books and read a certain amount in the library, but no reward. You would just get bad grades and call in your parents. You little shit young-ass entitled bastards. I supposed your vice principals never smashed your hands with a ruler stick too. Fags.
Really? That's the part you think is awful? Not the fact that his parents obviously didn't give the slightest shit that he wasn't reading, and enabled him to continue doing so?
You find yourself in a peaceful green field. There is an ovulating sheep. Do you: 1: Shoot it ---Go to end of book 2: Unzip your pants---Go to page 2 3: Gently stoke it's wool and think it would make a sweet sweater vest---Kill yourself
My elementary school had the same type of thing 20 years ago. Your parents document that you read for 600 minutes, and you got a free pass to Six Flags Great America. I mean I was reading anyways, why not get a free amusement park day out of it. If it wasn't for some of these incentive programs, those kids might never have read on their own. If doing it for a reward opened their eyes to literature, and they end up liking it and reading more on their own, is it still bad? I was never beat by my teachers in school. But I didn't go to catholic school, so I had that going for me.