Can we talk about how a toddler changed my whole take on Silver Age comics?

I was at a comic swap meet in Portland two weekends ago, and this kid maybe 4 years old grabbed a beat-up copy of Superman #122 off a table and just sat down on the floor flipping pages with this huge smile. His dad said he didn't even know how to read yet, but the colors and the goofy poses just hooked him. I always thought those old stories were too silly and outdated, but watching that kid get so into it made me dig out some of my grandpa's Silver Age issues when I got home. Has anyone else had their opinion flipped by seeing a comic through fresh eyes?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthewdixon1mo ago

Man, that hits close to home. I had pretty much the same thing happen with my niece last summer. She grabbed a copy of The Flash #123 off my shelf and did the exact same thing just sat there staring at the covers for like twenty minutes. It made me realize those books work on a pure visual level that grown ups overthink completely. If you want to get the full experience, try reading one with the sound off and just look at the panels, let your eyes bounce around. The storytelling is way more straightforward than you remember, and honestly that's the whole point.

wadew511mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, pure eye candy (no shame in that).

mark_carr71mo ago

The kid sitting on the floor thing really gets to the heart of why those books work. Once you strip away all the adult baggage about what comics "should" be, you're left with pure entertainment. A guy in a bright cape punching a giant space robot, that's all it needs to be. And there's something almost meditative about reading them that way, just letting your eyes follow the action from panel to panel without worrying about some deep plot. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that the more I try to find hidden meanings in Silver Age books, the less fun they become. Sometimes a story about Superman accidentally turning into a lion for an issue is just a story about Superman accidentally turning into a lion, and that's fine by me.