In the land of superheroes

Moin Uddin

Kathmandu

I started reading comic books when I was a child, from the age of eight. I have a huge collection of them. I used to read comic books about Spiderman, Batman, Superman, and Ninja. All these have helped me in shaping my subconscious mind in such ways that I can do everything like flying off from the terrace to jumping off a cliff and using powers like they do when helping people against enemies. I always used to wonder that if Spiderman could bring out a web from the wrist, then why couldn’t I? I read that a spider had bitten the hand of an ordinary person, and he became Spiderman with superhuman powers.

During my childhood, I wanted to become like Spiderman. Once, I went to the old store room in my house. There were lots of spider webs and some big spiders hanging from them. The scenario was so scary, but somewhere inside me I had a desire to be like Spiderman, to help people and carry my girlfriend in my arms. Of course, I did not have a girlfriend, but wanted to show heroism and keep swinging from one romantic place to another just to prove that I was a real super hero! So what happened that day was that I irritated one of the spiders and it actually bit my hand. I felt so happy that I was going to become like Spiderman. But you know the reality, I was a stupid boy. My hands became swollen and my parents immediately rushed me to the hospital as I was lying unconscious in the storeroom. When I became conscious, my parents scolded me so badly that my interest in being a super hero like Spiderman faded instantly. I remember those days and sometimes I laugh at my innocent behaviour as a child. However, recollecting those times always relieves me and reminds me of my folly. So when I meet children who take stories like that to be true, I try to explain to them that they are merely make-believe and advise them not to emulate such acts.

There are some teen comic books that are liked by the teens worldwide. They include Romantically Apocalyptic, Two Guys and Guy, Were Geek, Everyday life only Epic and Namesake. You may be asking how many people read comic books regularly. At least 50 million people read comic books, and 90 percent of them are in Japan. Approximately 300,000 regular or semi-regular readers read comics like Marvel, DC, Superman and Spiderman. The top selling comic sells about 115,000 copies a month. These are some facts. The comic book reading culture among teenagers is still alive like it used to be many ages ago. It is good for cognitive power as it stimulates the mind to generate new ideas. It also helps in developing one’s ability to read and write with sparkling creativity.

Published in the newspaper The Kathmandu Post (TKP) on  17-04-2014 08:39