Fantastic Folks
Have you ever thought of yourself as a superhero? I’ll bet your children and pets did or do. Super heroes are anybody who can do wonderful things, such as tie a little boy’s shoe laces, or wipe a child’s tears and make it all better. Super heroes are folks who put their lives on the line for others, like police, military, or firefighters. Super heroes right the wrongs, give unconditional love, and promote fairness like giving each child two cookies. Then there are the fantastic, fictional, super-human superheroes.
Superman’s birthday is June 30, 1938. That means that the first Superman comic book went on sale then. He was created by two very shy, unpopular boys who only had imaginary super friends. Jerry Siegel wrote the stories, while Joe Shuster was the artist. Though these two young men created the most famous super hero, both lived in near poverty because they naively sold their rights to DC Comics for a pittance. Read Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman by Marc Nobleman for the details.
Creator Stan Lee shows us how to Draw Super Heroes. He also includes the history and origins of the heroes, sidekicks, robots, creatures, and villains. Or read his autobiographical Amazing Fantastic Incredible: a Marvelous Memoir which is in a full color, graphic comic book style. Stan Lee created many of Marvel’s superheroes, such as the Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, and the Avengers. Many of our DVDs and lots of books were made based on his characters.
Dav Pilkey took this superhero idea and has made a small fortune with his Captain Underpants books and the Super Diaper Baby books. And this man was told by his second grade teacher to stop doodling. He couldn’t make a living by drawing cartoons. Boy, was she wrong!
Batman is a bit different. He is a regular man with so much money that he can purchase or invent all kinds of super gadgets. How many movies have been made about him? I have no idea. We have The Dark Knight Rises, Batman Begins, Batman vs Superman, and several Justice League, to name a few.
Be a super hero to your family. Bring them to our summer reading program for fun, learning, and stories. All ages are welcome on Thursday mornings at 10:00.
