I absolutely loved reading this. Thank you
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Beautiful column, Selwyn.
I loved comics in the early '50s. I liked reading them and trading them. My favorites included Little Lulu and all the Disney ones, especially when Mickey went on an adventure to a foreign land. I liked many of the Archie ones, Katy Keene, and some Superman ones.
RIP, Stan Lee.
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Hip hop is hardly the "language of the outcasts," at least not for the last 20 years or so. They won the cultural battle. Hip hop is the language of the most profitable and most cynical pop music in the western world. It hasn't become the rotting corpse that rock n' roll is because the most typical radio-friendly hip hop has a simplistic beat that young party animals prefer. These days the hip hop "outcast" is Flash Thompson bullying the Peter Parkers off the stage.
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This is the loveliest tribute I could imagine. Thanks, and excelsior.
4
As a kid in Amsterdam back in de the 80ties I also read a lot of comics, X-Men, Hulk, Spidey, F4, Avengers and so on.
Listening to the local Radio station that played the best import Rap and R&B... best time in my life.
I remember that a friend of the family came to our house once with a stack of spidermans and other Marvel comics from the states. My english reading at that time was quite well so I was over the world with joy.
4
Did not like comic books as a kid and view rap as a plague upon humanity. Never understood the attraction of comic books to anyone - apparently they lack the imagination to read without garish illustration and delight in simplistic and unrealistic stories. Not happy with the way Hollywood has abandoned real filmmaking for comic books come to life.
To each his/her own. This is America. Maybe someday the movies will return to storytelling not based upon Sci-Fi and Comic Books and the plague of Hip-Hop/Rap will be replaced by something that requires more than running one's mouth over a drum machine.
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When I was in grade school the kids who read “Thor” picked up on Shakespeare with ease. And the comment about rap is just uninformed. Ever heard of “Hamilton”?
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@David Gregory
In the year 2018, I find it hard to believe anyone would find fault with ANY kind of book that might cause a young person to disengage from their electronic devices for any notable amount of time.
And, as for my beloved hip-hop, perhaps you should give a listen to the Pulitzer prize-winning hip-hop artist, Kendrick Lamar. And, yes, he produced the score for Black Panther.
Per pulizer.org:
"Recording released on April 14, 2017, a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life."
You call rap a plague on humanity. Pulizer says otherwise.
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kendrick-lamar
7
Nice read. Marvel in the early 80's had some great story arcs that were more about the human side of the superheroes. I'm so glad that comics are getting the respect they deserve.
6
Comic books and rap music. It's pretty funny how much two such different things can relate. Stan Lee has made this possible through such inspiring work. Since Stan Lee inspired kids at such a young age, they grew up looking up to his ideas and thoughts through his comics. Lee's comics were not just about violence. Lee's comics had deeper meanings that were learned overtime. Throughout the years things have changed in how things get out into the world. You used to be able to write and publish things to the newspaper and everyone would read it. Now it is much different. People would rather listen to stories on their phones then read about one in a newspaper. These ideas are still going out to the public, just in a different way. The new way that was adopted overtime was telling stories within music. If you looked deep into a song's lyrics, you could find real meaning. This new way has helped get out the ideas of Lee. The people that grew up with Lee's ideas in mind has published his ideas with a new generation's twist. The ideas of Lee are being passed on through other ways throughout the generations.
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