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Heroes
By Ian King
Note
from Editorial: The mighty Shotgun once again welcomes the
words of our pal from across the pond, Ian King. In this feature,
Ian explains what heroes, both four-color and personal, mean
to him.
A while
ago I was sitting at my kitchen table reading a JLA graphic
novel. One of my housemates stopped and stared at me for a
minute and then shook his head and said:
"Comics
Mr. King? How bloody old are you?"
He then
launched into a well-polished diatribe about how comics were
for kids and a grown man shouldn't be reading them blah, blah
bloody blah. My arguments against this scathing attack fell
on deaf ears and I found myself becoming increasingly irritated.
Had he
ever read any of them? No. I fail to see how an argument can
have any validity if you're arguing about a subject you know
nothing about. It's more than that in fact. He was arguing
against something that he was proud and eager to say he had
no knowledge about as:
"Comics
are for kids, I don't need to read them 'cos I know they're
for kids"
Sadly
that seems to be the general opinion of most people I know.
Comics are for kids and, by implication, I'm childish for
reading them. Bollocks, to coin a phrase. Comics are a medium
of art and entertainment like any other and the good ones
are just as valid and worthy of attention as any good book,
film or play.
Is writing,
whether stories or poems seen as childish? Is art and painting
seen as childish? No they're not, so why is an amalgamation
of the two instantly dismissed as being "for kids" and therefore
of no real value? In comic books I have seen some superb art,
hauntingly realistic and beautifully coloured drawings and
I've read stories that are profound, frightening, laugh-out-loud-funny
and thought provoking.
Have I
read ones that are childish? Yes I have. Just like I've read
badly written books, seen badly scripted films and heard bloody
awful music. None of that has caused me to instantly disregard
those mediums so why should it be the same with comic books?
It shouldn't
should it? If you don't enjoy reading comic books then fine,
don't read them. Simple. But don't start belittling others
for choosing to read them and obviously enjoying them, not
when you haven't a bloody clue what you're on about.
Another
thing that seems to annoy people is the fact that I will always
say, without hesitation or embarrassment that my two biggest
heroes are Superman and Batman. They are the two people I
try to emulate as much as I can.
"But they're
not real people!" my detractors squeal. And your point is?
What does it matter if they're real or not? Surely it's what
they stand for that counts? Can there seriously be anything
wrong with looking up to heroes who stand for compassion,
justice, honesty, perseverance, courage and a myriad other
values that we should all aspire to?
If anyone
really thinks so then they've got a problem not me. No one
bats an eyelid when someone names a pop star as their idol
or hero and most of them haven't got half the integrity of
my chosen heroes, fictional or not.
I think
when all's said and done that's one of the reasons people
like me love comic books. It's not just of the fantastic things
our heroes can do, the leaping of tall buildings in a single
bound and trouncing a dozen bad guys with some fisticuffs,
webbing and a smart-alec quip.
It's because
of their very humanity that I love them. They're strong in
all the places that so many of us are weak. Every time we
witness an act of courage and selflessness it reminds us what
we as "real" people should be like. It shows us that we too
can be heroes where it really counts, just like them.
If that's
childish then I hope I never grow up.
Ian can be contacted on: JJ_Oneway@hotmail.com
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