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What Do You Really Know About Comics 2.7, with Kathy

By | July 5th, 2016
Posted in Columns | 5 Comments

Welcome back for another installment of “What Do You Really Know About Comics?,” the comic book interview series that introduces non comic book readers to the wondrous world of comics. Before we get into meeting today’s participant, Kathy, I just want to explain why it’s been almost a year since the last interview. Although these interviews are pretty quick in person, scheduling them and transcribing them has been a bit of a time suck. But, I’ve banked a whole bunch of these interviews and they will be coming out on a much more regular schedule. So I want to thank everyone who’s checked out these interviews and also a huge thank you to Multiversity Comics for giving myself and this column a place to call home.

So, with that all said, let’s get to it.

Today’s interview is with Kathy. She’s a thirty something year old woman from Long Island, New York. Let’s find out exactly what Kathy really knows about comics.

Joe: First off, thanks for sitting with me to do this interview.

Kathy: No problem. But this won’t be too long right?

Joe: Nope. These go fairly quick. Just a few questions and some ideas about your interests and we should be good.

Kathy: Okay, I have to be somewhere by one.

Joe: Than let’s not waste a second more, I’ll ask you the big question, What do you really know about comics?

Kathy: Uh. Let me think. Not much, really. I guess.

Joe: Well if someone said here’s a comic and handed it to you, what would you think? What does a comic book mean to you?

Kathy: I guess, pictures. Pictures or drawings on a page. Stories of good guys versus bad guys.

Joe: Okay. Did you ever read comics at all?

Kathy: Nope. My brother used to. I think. When we were kids. I feel like I remember him reading them in the car, if we ever went on long trips somewhere.

Joe: Okay and I know you have kids, do they read comics at all?

Kathy: Not really. I mean my kids are a little older so they don’t read, like, the picture books or that kind of stuff that they did when they were younger. Everything now is video games or the iPad.

Joe: Okay, so if I’m getting you right, it seems to me that you’re seeing comics as more aimed at kids rather than any other age group.

Kathy: Right. Yeah.

Joe: So if I ask you, something like, what do you know or think about books? Just books, no comics in front of them, what would you say?

Kathy: Books? Uh, School. Educational. Motivational. Books can be a lot. I mean, The Bible. Historical, Autobiographies. Memoirs. Now I’m just naming all the types of books. Is this the kind of stuff you mean?

Joe: I want you to say whatever you’re thinking, but it just seems to me that you think books have a lot more diversity, at least in what they can be about, the genres and such. Way more than comics. Is that a fair guess?

Kathy: Yeah.

Joe: Well, can I ask you, why?

Kathy: I think because you read comics as a kid and then you grow up and you don’t. Maybe once you start having kids you become aware of them again but besides that I don’t think much about comics being more than the little books you can read to your kids. Or maybe they can be educational. I’m sure they can help a young kid start to learn how to read more. I’m sure seeing Captain America in a book makes a child read a book more than George Washington.

Joe: Imagine if they were BOTH in the book. Captain America AND George Washington?

Kathy: You make the comics, right? I might be giving you great ideas.

Continued below

Joe: Oh, you are! I have a few more questions for you. Do you watch The Walking Dead?

Kathy: I don’t but my husband does. It’s a little too scary for me. Not that I don’t like scary movies but with kids and work I just wanna relax when I sit on the couch. That show made me too tense the couple of times I watched it.

Joe: Okay, but it’s based on a comic book.

Kathy: I think I heard that somewhere.

Joe: Right, well it’s a comic. And you’ve watched it, even if just a little, so you’ve seen the content. It’s very much not meant for kids.

Kathy: No way. I’d kill my husband if he ever showed my little kids that show.

Joe: That’s exactly the point I’m trying to get to. Comic books are just like ANY other type of entertainment. They have a wide variety of genres. Comedy, horror, action adventure, crime and on and on and on. I use TV as an example. If you put on a TV for the first time and saw Mickey Mouse, you wouldn’t just shut off the TV and say that it’s all cartoons so its meant just for kids, right?

Kathy: No.

Joe: You’d change the channel and see what else is on. But in a LOT of people’s minds, comics never got that chance. Comics and capes, meaning superheroes, are synonymous. And while I understand it, it also does a bit of a disservice to the entire medium. It’s why I do these interviews.

Kathy: Okay.

Joe: Okay, so let me speed this along. Give me some of your favorite current or all time movies or TV shows.

Kathy: You’re gonna have to give me a minute.

Joe: You can have two.

Kathy: My current favorite show is The Good Wife. Amazing. My favorite. Sons of Anarchy used to be one of my favorites. Grey’s Anatomy. Pretty Little Liars. My husband and I just started House of Cards, we actually just signed up for Netflix. Don’t make fun of us, I know how behind we are. Two kids and jobs hold you back.

Joe: Trust me, I know. I haven’t seen a bunch of shows that people love. I still haven’t seen Breaking Bad or Mad Men. But I have seen House of Cards, great show, you’ll like it. Okay sorry to interrupt, continue.

Kathy: That’s about it. If I can watch a show a few times a week that’s good. I normally check Facebook and pass out.

Joe: Well I hope you stay awake to read the comics I’m going to give you.

Kathy: I promised to do your experiment, I’ll do it. It just might take me some time.

Joe: Ooh, experiment. I like describing this like that. I might start calling this the Comic Experiment. The Mulvey Experiment?

Kathy: And I’m the guinea pig?

Joe: No way, I’ve done tons of these kinds of interviews. Unless you want me to tell you, you’re my first.

Kathy: Ha! I’m good with that.

Joe: Okay, so what about movies? Tell me some of your favorites.

Kathy: Movies is a lot harder. I go through stages with movies.

Joe: What do you mean stages?

Kathy: I will watch a movie I like, like a little kid. Ten times a day. I used to always watch Alice in Wonderland, the one with Johnny Depp that just came out, if it was on TV. Because HBO plays it almost all the time during the day. Then I went out and bought the dvd when it wasn’t on anymore. But than I never watched it.

Joe: Okay, but you liked the movie. So fantasy stuff or fairy tale stuff works for you? It’s something you enjoy.

Continued below

Kathy: Yeah, I guess. I’ll watch anything but no Bruce Willis.

Joe: Wait. What?

Kathy: I can’t stand Bruce Willis.

Joe: Even Die Hard? John McClane?

Kathy: I can’t stand him. He annoys me so much with his thin lips and whisper acting. Always Squinting. Ugh.

Joe: HAHAH! I’m sorry, this…I’ve just never heard anyone have this response to Bruce Willis.

Kathy: No Bruce Willis.

Joe: Okay, well besides getting a refund for that Bruce Willis fan club membership I had gotten for you as a thank you for doing this, I think I’m all set. So I’ll give you some books based on what I think you might like. You read them and get back to me when you’re ready. Sound good.

Kathy: Yeah.

At this point I gave Kathy her reading list, which was “I Hate Fairyland” issue #1 from Image Comics (Digital), “Paper Girls” #1 from Image Comics, (Digital), “Saga” vol. 1 from Image Comics (Print), “Revival” #1 from Image Comics (Digital), “Lazarus” #1 from Image Comics (Print), “Outcast” #1 from Image Comics (Print), and “Morning Glories” Vol.1 from Image Comics (Print).

Let’s check back in on Kathy and see what she thought about comics, now.

Joe: So, Kathy, it’s been exactly 5 weeks since we last spoke. I can’t wait to hear what you think about the books you read. So lemme have it.

Kathy: They were good. Not what I was expecting. Definitely not. But mostly good.

Joe: Awesome. But I heard a “mostly” in there. You said mostly good, what didn’t you like?

Kathy: I think-I meant to say mostly more for the way I read the books. I liked reading them way more on the iPad than the actual books. I did that thing you had suggested for double tapping the screen and letting you swipe to read. That was wonderful.

Joe: Oh, ok so you preferred the digital books more?

Kathy: Yeah, one hundred percent. When I first picked up the books to read, I didn’t really grasp how to follow the boxes and how to read the page. But the iPad books did it all for me. It works to let me really look at whats going on much better than the book. When I opened certain pages in the actual books, I felt like it was more cluttered. The iPad made is much clearer how to read it and who to focus on in the pictures.

Joe: Reading a comic can sometimes be a learning curve. But I’m glad the guided view helped you enjoy the books more. Did it help you understand how to read the print books any better?

Kathy: Honestly, I didn’t go back to them. I just read the digital ones.

Joe: So you only read the books on the iPad?

Kathy: Yeah, I’m sorry. But I did go through your comiXology account and read a few other books that weren’t ones you gave me.

Joe: Kathy, you’re re-writing the class syllabus, here.

Kathy: HA! I just liked them a lot better on the iPad.

Joe: Okay. I’ve got a bunch of questions for you right now. Let me start with this, what books off the reading list did you check out?

Kathy: A lot. But I didn’t read through them all. I’d start a page and read for a few swipes and if it got boring or wasn’t just for me, I’d quit and start something else.

Joe: You should’ve emailed me, I would have made more suggestions.

Kathy: I thought I was cheating so I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to get in trouble.

Joe: This whole thing is meant to open the readers up to comics, If I gave you one but you saw another you’d rather check out, go for it. I don’t care. I’m just glad you were interested.

Continued below

Kathy: Well, a lot of the books you had in your library were, don’t take this the wrong way –

Joe: I won’t.

Kathy: They felt super sexual.

Joe: Sexual? What books were you reading?

Kathy: Just scrolling through all the books, they all have big buff guys with skin tight clothes on and these girls with huge boobs. Very Porny.

Joe: Okay, in that context I can get what your saying. But that’s kind of the genre. The super hero genre has the Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman like super built characters. I mean these characters are throwing cars and planets around. So it just goes more towards making them seem as physically impressive as their abilities. I think.

Kathy: But all the outfits or uniforms are skin tight. Christian Bale’s Bat suit didn’t look like the ones in the comics.

Joe: Superman’s is pretty close in Batman V. Superman.

Kathy: I haven’t seen that but I guess that’s kind of true.

Joe: Okay, but that’s how you saw it and that’s fine. Did you read any of those books or no?

Kathy: Some of them. A few. At first it felt like reading a Magic Mike book. NOT that I’m against that. I was looking more at those books than reading them.

Joe: So out of all the books you read what was your favorite?

Kathy: I liked a lot of them actually. The twisted “Alice in Wonderland” book was wild. I had to have my husband read that one. He actually read a bunch with me. We both want “Revival” to be a TV show.

Joe: Yeah that book is great. So is it safe to assume you read past just the first issues of a lot of those series?

Kathy: Yeah, way past the first.

Joe: So which was your favorite?

Kathy: From what I read, “Paper Girls.” It felt like a female Goonies with aliens. Now if you described that to me I don’t think I would have liked it or read it. But I did. And I liked it.

Joe: That there is the ENTIRE POINT of doing these interviews. People trying something they haven’t tried before and something they might have a slightly misguided view about and they find out they like it.

Kathy: I get it.

Joe: I’m so glad you liked these. Now the question is would you be willing to go get your own comixology account and start reading more of these books?

Kathy: I figured you wouldn’t let me use yours forever. And the convenience of these are great. I can read them on my phone in the waiting room at the doctor instead of a six month old People magazine, in bed before sleep. It’s really convenient.

Joe: So what’s going to be the book or kinds of books you’ll start with? I mean I’d suggest some but it’s pretty clear you don’t listen to me.

Kathy: HAHA! I know, I’m a terrible listener. I don’t know I guess I’ll just look around and see what grabs me.

Joe: That’ll work. Your a fan now so that’s ok. Next we’ll see you dressing up as some of the characters from the books and going to conventions.

Kathy: I don’t know about that but I’m pretty sure my husband would love to see me dress up like Wonder Woman.

Joe: You’ve gotta start somewhere, Kathy.

Okay so that’s it for the interview with Kathy. I hope you enjoyed it, I know I did. I love how Kathy went her own way, explored comics and found material she enjoyed. If you have different suggestions that you would recommend for her pleaselet me know. In full disclosure, I would have loved to have given her “Ex Machina,” but I had previously leant it out and have yet to get the book back. Please remember, my suggestions are also limited to my library, digitally and in print. So if you have suggestions please respond in the thread and I’ll try to pick up some of the books I might not have.

Thanks as always for reading and if you want to get in touch with me anytime, here’s where you can find me: Twitter @JoeMulv E-mail JoeMulveyInc@me.com FaceBook: JoeMulvey


//TAGS | What Do You Really Know About Comics?

Joe Mulvey

Joe Mulvey is the writer/artist of SCAM #1 from ComixTribe, as well as all around good dude.

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