Ask Slashdot: Which Comic Books To Start My 3-Year-Old With?

JeepFanatic writes "I've never been one to read comic books, but I've always enjoyed superheroes. My 3-year-old son is really into superheroes (especially Spider-man) and I thought it would be a fun thing to do together to start reading comics to him. Any suggestions on comics that would be more appropriate to start him out with?"

Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge

[StefanJ]

I've been reading collections of the first years of Spidey, the Fantastic Four, Green Lantern and such. They're probably fine for young'uns.

But I'd also look into the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic adventures. The Duckberg folks go on a lot of neat adventures. They have great stories, great artwork, and it will help show that there's more to comics than superheroes.

Fantagraphics is producing a reprint series, and previous collections are readily available.

Comics are great!

[SpasticMutant]

I learned to read with comic books as a 3 year old, so these are perfect. Why not take him down to a comics store and let him choose a few for himself? He's 3. He'll spot what he likes immediately. You can then mix in a few of your old time favorites. Naturally these comics will form the basis of his over-idealized belief system, so be careful to balance it out with regular age appropriate reading material. Otherwise, you may see him jump off the roof one day, or try to pick up a car. If he starts swinging from the rafters, hold on - you've really got something there... My favorites were Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Batman, Black Canary, Hawkman, Superman, Archie (with Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc.), and all the Justice League stuff. No wonder the world is so confusing to me now.

Pooh Bear

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Try Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner -- read him A.A. Milne, with individual voices for Piglet, Pooh and all the others. You'll both have a ball. Keep him as far away from Walt Disney's insipid versions as you can.

Almost anything will do...

[urbanriot]

I was a late bloomer, as far as reading went. I didn't feel the need as my intuitive rationale at the wee age of five was that it simply wasn't necessary; I can do what I want, function just fine without reading, so why waste time learning... ... then my mom brought home some comic books from the convenience store down the street, a Spider-Man and a Fantastic Four, and while I enjoyed the pictures, I really wanted to know what they were saying. The Fantastic Four had less exciting imagery yet an abundance of speech bubbles so I figured, these guys must be saying something important. This strongly motivated me to learn and I was reading rather large books by the age of 10 (my fifth grade teacher felt that that uncut version of Stephen King's The Stand was inappropriate at my age and was shocked, both positively and negatively, that I understood the context and ambiguities of certain scenes). That all being said, it's my suggestion that you grab a stack of comics that range in terms of popularity, style and maturity and he'll be motivated by what he likes. Perhaps check on eBay for used collections of comic books as they go cheap there. The classic comic books may have less violence and more of a moral high ground than current day comic books.

Re:Surely none

[Patch86]

Superman = invincible person who has magic powers for no other reason than accident of birth beats up people with advanced PhDs.

That's always been the big mystery of America superhero fiction to me. The heroes are usually powerful by complete accident (just born that way, bitten by a radioactive lab animal, etc.), while the villains have a strong work ethic, work hard, are very intelligent and highly qualified, etc. And the heroes always win. The moral of the story seems to be it doesn't matter if you work hard, you can't overcome dumb luck. And that intelligence and qualifications are something to be wary of.

Re:Tandy Computer Whiz Kids

[TrekkieGod]

Classic Fritz the Cat, and maybe some of the S. Clay Wilson stuff with motorcycles.

OK. Wait until he's 7.

Seriously? Read real books with him. The comics will come on his own, without encouragement.

I don't remember not being able to read. My parents tell me I learned when I was 2, as they read comic books to me.

I had an uncle who was into them, and seeing him read them made me very interested. My parents then bought comics that we're more appropriate for children so they could read them to me. The end result is that I got so hooked, it made me extremely motivated to learn to read so that I'd be able to read the stories when my parents didn't have the time (they read to me every day, but I asked them to read constantly.

Moral of the story: read anything to your kids that gets them hooked, even comic books if that's what's doing the trick. Help them to learn to read when they get interested and other stuff will will come later, when they're able to read for themselves.

As for recommendation, in my case they were "Uncle Scrooge" Disney comics. I have no idea if they're still published.

Pippi!!!!

[fritsd]

Superheroes.. moral, positive message.. sounds like we need to go back in time a bit...
to Sweden in the seventies...
Pippi Longstocking [wikipedia.org]!

If Pippi and Spider-man were in combat, she'd drive him to tears with a few well-placed jokes, I'm sure of it! (and afterwards invite him over for tea).