My students have been so deprived!

[HardyGirl]

So, this is Cartoon & Comics week in my class, (it's good to be in charge), and at the end of every day, I ask my kids trivia questions in exchange for gumballs out of my Flintstone's gumball bank. (remember those?) Anyway, I know that there are a LOT of cartoons on TV replacing our old faves, but a lot of them are still on Boomerang and OnDemand and satellite. My kids don't know:
most Looney Tunes characters
the true identities of Batman, Robin, Superman, Spidey and the Hulk
The Scooby Doo Theme song (although they're trying, that's worth 5 gumballs)

Most of them also don't read comic books. Now when I was a kid, I didn't know anyone who didn't read comics, even if it was Archies or the Sunday funnies or something! This 10 year old doesn't know how to say Marvel (Mar-velle) 'cos he never heard of them!

What I wanna know is this. You guys who have kids, do you share your old school passions w/ your kids? Do you watch cartoons, & read comics to them (complete w/ sound effects!)?

What's your take?

[The Toyroom]

Yeah my kids' brains have been purposely warped with all of that stuff.

[namtab29]

my girlfriend and i dont have kids, but there are lots of nephews, nieces, and other kids around. i give them all comics and stuff so they know all the important things in my life.

--the son of the couple that introduced tracy and i LOVES comics, so i bring him some every time i come over. he's only five, but he knows EVERY spidye villain, and almost any marvel character you can throw at him.

last year, i got him the treasury-sized superman vs spiderman comic, and he's read it so many times its in tatters. next week i give him the treasury-sized batman vs hulk comic!

--i've been giving my nephew the issues of Monster Society of Evil as soon as IM finished with him!

--i got a friends' kid a subscription to Archie digests, because she loves archie so much.

no kid around me is NOT gonna know comics!

rob!

[namtab29]

man, lotta typos in that last post. sorry 'bout that.

rob!

[RussG]

I have 4 nieces one is 17 and her sister is 9 they spend almost all their time with me (the oldest is almost like my little sister, and the 9 year old is almost like my own kid) Then the other two are 13 and 8 they live with their mom so I see them maybe once a week.

the 17 year old can almost keep up with me and is a hard core Spiderman, and Scooby Doo fan. The 9 year old loves Batman and Star Wars and knows most of the comic basics. Many of the 9 year old classmates know nothing but maybe Spiderman. I have a vintage style Batman T-shirt and one kid told me that that's not Batman that Batman has a black costume ... and he didn't know that Batman and Robin were a Duo But he did know Robin was Teen Titan.

my other two nieces know the new Teen Titans, but not much more than that. But the 13 year old could talk circles around me when it come to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The 8 year old, well, I don't know she likes little girl things

It's sad that a lot of good stuff is overlooked now days. So many lame cartoons that kid flock to anymore. I put in some of my favorites and my nieces love them and so do their friends.

-Russ

[Marvelmania]

My nephew and I share a few things. While I have got him interested in Megos (he's got a few) and vintage toys, comics and old cartoons still don't appeal to him. I'll watch some of the cartoons he's into just to share the interest but to me they don't come close to my old favorites. It's hard to compete with the video games of today plus now he's getting into skateboards (which I can relate to) and girls (don't stand a chance there!).

[Adam West]

We don't have boomerang but I have 3 kids and they would probably earn a lot of gumballs for the old cartoons.

As far as comics, I don't think I'd let my kids read any of the more recent comics (except maybe the 12 year old). The comics seemed to be geared toward older teenagers and adults now and the content is a little mature for pre-teens. I wouldn't them reading reprints of the vintage comics but it's hard enough to get my 12 year old to read anything so a comic book would feel like a chore to him more than an enjoyable read.

[Dave Mc]

My 8 year old has comics. He can indeed answer all the questions you posed to your class, and even will hum the background tension music from the 60's Spiderman cartoon, which he doesn't really want to remove from the DVD player right now.

In short, he's been corrupted. He knows Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, he knows tons about Superhero's and Star Wars, he's watched Land of the Lost and knows what a Sleestack is. I couldn't consider myself a good father if I didn't share true culture with my son.

[Earth 2 Chris]

My kid is well-versed on the characters I grew up with. This weekend I found "The Best of He-Man and MOTU" DVD in the $5.50 bin at Wal-Mart. My kid has been digging them, and enjoying playing with my MOTU figures.

My wife and I alternate reading our son bedtime stories, and on my nights, I read him Golden and Silver Age stories. I not only do sound effects, I do different voices. I have a lot of fun with it, and he loves it.

Chris

[toys2cool]

ask them any video game question and I bet you'll run out of gum