Sunday, June 09, 2013

Number 1381: Cat and mouse

Comics helped me learn to read before I went to school. I don’t remember reading these two stories specifically, but they’re the kinds of comics my mom would help me with, picking out words and learning sentences. That was two-edged, though...by the time I got to school and was handed a copy of a Dick and Jane reader, compared to my comic books it was pallid and uninteresting.

These two stories are exactly the sort of thing I loved, with funny drawings and rocketships and a sense of wonder at what was going on in those colorful panels. Since I have never lost touch with that kid I was (the “inner child”) I still love this sort of thing. Or, it could be I’m going through my second childhood. Or seventh...or tenth.

From Felix the Cat #16 (1950); art and story by Otto Messmer:

















From Coo Coo Comics #45 (1949), art by Milton Stein:











More Milt Stein and more Felix. Click on the pictures:





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1 comment:

  1. Daniel [oeconomist.com]11:57 PM

    In the early mid-'70s, for her master's thesis, my mother investigated the use of comic books to remediate reading problems. Her results were negative; she found that the vocabulary in the comic books of that era was too demanding.

    (I remain amused about this outcome, as, going into the study, she didn't have much respect for comic books as a form of communication.)

    I don't know what effect comic books had on the development of my own reading abilities.

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