12 Year Old You

[Randy Jackson]

Think back to when you were 12 years old.

You were likely in 6th grade at school.

There's a good chance you were entering puberty as well, and it was both exciting and scary at the same time.

Presuming you were a comics fan, your tastes probably ran to American superhero comics. You may have outgrown stuff like the Silver Age Superman, but despite wanting something a little more sophisticated you probably still wanted plenty of action and a good fight. In other words, "sophisticated" in that it wasn't written for small children.

Given that mindset, would you be generally interested in today's offerings from Marvel and DC? Would the storylines interest you? Would you be seeking out comics on a regular basis?

[The Baron]

It's too late to edit it, but

"I have a feeling that kids today (and yes, my use of the phrase "kids today" marks me indelibly as an old guy) as a medium." 

should read

"I have a feeling that kids today (and yes, my use of the phrase "kids today" marks me indelibly as an old guy)  are not all that interested in print comics as a medium."

The Baron said:

I have a feeling that kids today (and yes, my use of the phrase "kids today" marks me indelibly as an old guy) as a medium. Even if they still enjoy the thought of seeing Captain Potato battle the Living Birthday Cake, they're less likely to m want to "consume" it the way we did in the middle years of the last century. 

Perhaps it's analogous to the way that people today get their news on-line rather than by buying a newspaper.  It may be that for young people today (definitely an old guy), print is an obsolescent. medium  Even reading "static" comics stories on one of them "Eye-Pad" gadgets may seem less interesting than watching an animated or live-action film.  (Not that actual "film" is used anymore  probably.)

Artist's representation of the Baron going on about stufff.

[Richard Willis]

Before I comment, first a threadjack

The Baron’s use of the phrase “kids today” reminded me of the song in Bye Bye Birdie, which of course reminded me of Ann Margret, who is occasionally invoked in this Round Table.

End of Threadjack

[Richard Willis]

The Baron said:

Perhaps it's analogous to the way that people today get their news on-line rather than by buying a newspaper. It may be that for young people today (definitely an old guy), print is an obsolescent. medium Even reading "static" comics stories on one of them "Eye-Pad" gadgets may seem less interesting than watching an animated or live-action film. (Not that actual "film" is used anymore probably.)

Captain Comics said:

Baron Bizarre Johnson is right!

Today's 12-year-old me would probably consider comics weirdly old-fashioned, like listening to radio when the same show is available on television. Anything I wanted to "read" I'd probably just wait for a movie, TV show or anime to adapt it. And I would probably be very into making videos, as I was very into making comic books 50-odd years ago.

These two selected quotes come closest to what I imagine I would be like today at twelve years old. Between the ages of eight and ten (1956 to 1958) I had discovered the Carl Barks Ducks and had graduated to the Superman and Batman titles of that era. At twelve (1960) I discovered the Schwartz-edited books, followed by the Strange Adventures/House of Mystery books, followed by Amazing Adult Fantasy and the Fantastic Four within two years.

Divorcing my experience from money and the lack of money is very difficult for me to do. If comic books weren't so cheap back then I wouldn't have been able to experience as many as I did. Money was so tight that we never had an actual vacation when I was growing up. My first trip away from home was when I was drafted (also because of lack of money) followed by actual driving vacation trips after the Army. If I was twelve today in similar circumstances TV and movies would probably be my thing (like they are now along with comics) except affording to go to the movies and to have Wi-Fi and streaming channels would probably be out.

[Fred W. Hill]

I turned 12 years old in 1974.  At the beginning of that year, my family was living in West Jordan, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, where my dad, in his 17th year in the U.S. Navy, was stationed for recruiting duty.  In October, was moved to Treasure Island, San Francisco, where I attended Potrero Hill Junior High School.  I was regularly collecting several Marvel Comics, my favorites at the time being Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Avengers.  Back then, although I couldn't afford every comic I wanted and often missed particular issues due to distribution issues, comics were still available at mom & pop stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, the Navy Exchange, etc.  When I lived on the naval station in San Francisco, I got all my comics at the Navy Exchange.  Once, while on a field trip in SF, I passed by a comics store -- the first I'd ever seen, and just glancing through the windows, saw many old comics (as in my 6 to 8 years old) I would have loved to be able to buy but they were out of what I could afford at the time.  The price of regular comics went up to 25 cents in 1974, which if I didn't have to pay any tax, as in the NEX, I could still get 4 comics for $1.00.  I think now someone would have to fork over about $12.00 for 4 regular issues.  I can only speculate as to what I'd be like if I was a 12 year old now, but I expect if I did get into collecting comics, it'd more self-contained series rather than the sort that are part of a massive universe in which you'd have to get 20 or 30 mags a month to try to keep up with the whole story.  I had trouble keeping up with the Marvel Universe when it was still relatively small back in the '70s.  The massive expansion of titles in the '80s was just one of the things that broke me of the habit of getting a lot of titles every month.  As I got older, I found myself buying a lot of titles and then getting bored reading them and increasingly wondering why I was spending so much money on them?  I cut down pretty dramatically and became far more selective.  Also, in the '70s, the collective backstory of Marvel wasn't yet all that monumental.  Yeah, I'd arrived late at the ongoing party and I knew I'd missed quite a bit from the previous decade, but still that was just one decade.  Now a 12 year old starting out in 2022 would have over a half century of backstories to try to catch up on, and, yeah, there's are so many collections available now that weren't even imaginable in 1972, but for the average kid most would be well beyond what they could afford, and with so many other entertainment options, I'd guess most wouldn't even bother even if they could afford all the Essential or Masterwork collections.

[Richard Willis]

Fred W. Hill said:

The price of regular comics went up to 25 cents in 1974, which if I didn't have to pay any tax, as in the NEX, I could still get 4 comics for $1.00. 

Mentioning the tax reminded me that for many years California made a distinction between periodicals and non-periodicals. The daily newspaper or a comic book/magazine that was periodical was not taxed. If a comic was labelled an "annual" or a "special" it would not be tax-exempt. I don't know how many states made a similar distinction, but I think it led the annuals/specials being assigned issue numbers in the regular run (at least at DC). Later on they applied the sales tax to everything but groceries.

[Fred W. Hill]

I know when I lived in Utah, when regular comics were 20 cents, there was a penny tax on each issue.  In that period, as there was no Navy Exchange in the area, I got my comics in whichever local stores had them.  But from October 1974 through 1981, I mostly got my comics at Navy Exchanges which didn't have any sales taxes. By 1981, I was living in the San Jose area and started getting my comics pretty exclusively from comics shops, of which there were several in the region in the early '80s. I don't have any recollection of the sales taxes by that point.  Of course, as a pre-teen kid without a lot of money, whether or not I had just enough pennies and other coins made a big difference in whether I could get 5 or 6 comics or had to keep my selection down to 4 or whether I could splurge and get that tantalizing 35 cent King-Size comic.

[Richard Willis]

In 1968 I was in the Army in Northern Virginia. I bought my comics at a bewsstand in Washington DC. It's a long time ago, but I don't think they were taxed. In 1969 I bought them in our Army PX with Military Payment Certificates taking the place of regular stateside cash. They didn't charge tax. It would have been tricky because the smallest bill was five cents (no coins). Early 1969 is when comics went from 12 cents to 15 cents.

[The Baron]

For a second, I read that as the "Army of Northern Virginia", and I was like, "I didn't think he was that old!"

Richard Willis said:

 I was in the Army in Northern Virginia. 

[Richard Willis]

The Baron said:

For a second, I read that as the "Army of Northern Virginia", and I was like, "I didn't think he was that old!"

Richard Willis said:

 I was in the Army in Northern Virginia. 

[Richard Willis]

For the curious, here's the five-cent substitute for a nickel. This happens to be one of the designs in effect when I was there. I believe the designs changed every six months. You couldn't exchange them to the new design unless you legally could be in possession of them. The denominations went up to $20, I believe. The bills were all the same size, different colors.

[Detective 445]

The last thing I remember reading that would have appealed to 12 year old me is probably the Geoff Johns JLA.

There are still some things that grab current me. Bendis' Checkmate and Tom King's Human Target among them.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

The most recent run on Flash, with Jeremy Adams as writer, would absolutely entertain 12-year-old me. It's really solid, pure superhero comics. World's Finest, as well, with Batman and Superman going on a tour of the DCU. I imagine Nightwing would, too, though it's a little more ambitious and sophisticated (and maybe a little too patient in its pacing for me as a tween).