The Fantom Talks It Out: The Youth Of A Nation

Yesterday I was in the store catching up on a fat stack of 70's Thor comics that I bought for 5$ on Ebay, when a young gentlemen (perhaps 11-12 years old) came into our Union Station store. He looked around at first, obliviously a bit hesitant to ask what was on his mind. Was he in awe? Was he looking around confused, asking himself, "which one is for me?" Then he finally stood in front of me, rested himself on the counter, and met me in the eyes, and asked: "What is the most expensive comic in the store?"

To be honest, the question devastated me. Its one I hear daily, and every time I do its like a Superboy Prime punch to the heart. I understand the infatuation with the rare comics of ages past, hell I got all giddy when I found a copy of Silver Surfer #4 sitting in our back room, but my issue with this question are the people asking it. Kids. Its always kids.

What we need to do is reverse this thinking. As store managers, customers, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters, we need to teach the younger generation that there is more value to comics than their value. That within their pages their are heroes to love, stories to learn from, and an ownership that no one can "value" but themselves. We need to hand them more copies of Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, Hellboy, Starman, Captain America, Nova, Action Comics, Amazing Spider-Man and Scott Pilgrim (just to name a few). The stories that fill us with hope. That show us that in an uncertain world, heroes still fight to uphold justice and freedom. Books that show us how loss builds growth, and from that growth we can build strength. But most of all, stories that entertain us.

Call it the platinum age, the modern age, whatever you want, but it is clear that we now live in a comic book age like no other. The books are better than HBO, the art could hang in galleries in France and its our responsibility, as those who survived the comics catastrophe of the 1990's, to guide this New Frontier of comics. Hand your nephew a story you love, or read a comic to a kid your babysitting. Young teenager? Hand them Young Avengers. Let them understand that Action Comics #1 is worth what it is because its historic fiction. IT IS THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE WORLDS GREATEST SUPERHERO. But explain to them, its boring, and although the events that take place in it are landmark, for a child of the 21st century, there are better superhero stories being written for them.

And then, maybe with that, the questions about equity will turn into questions about whats for me.