Of Comics and Cartoons

I love reading - its been my favorite pastime since the time I was a kid. Those days were good - vacations would be heralded by a visit to Easwari Lending Library(in Gopalapuram, Chennai) and I would be allowed to take how many ever books my bag could carry. I would stock up on Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and lotttts of comics. Nobody frowned on me then, it was as though my age was some kind of licence to read books with more pictures and less words.

Like any other kid, cartoons caught my fancy early too. Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny and of course the Walt Disney classics - kids can't grow up without Mickey Mouse! :-) And I used to watch indigenous cartoons too - Dark Wing Duck, Super Ted, Alice in Wonderland(in Hindi!). People used to give me indulgent smiles then and went on with their work.

The point is, I still like reading comics and watching cartoons, but suddenly it isn't cute anymore! :-(

I don't understand why it is wrong to read Asterix and Tintin when you are 22. Their humor still makes me laugh. So it's alrite to enjoy R.K.Laxman, but not books where pictures tell the whole story, even though the plot and dialogues are sufficiently "adultish"?

And don't get me started on cartoons! I just discovered that discussing Cartoon Network with my 6 year cousin is "uncool". Cartoon Network to date remains one of my favorite channels. I still enjoy Bugs Bunny, not just for the slapstick obvious comedy, but for the subtlety of humor thats present in the dialogues, if you care enough to listen. For the same reason, I have never got company to watch animated movies like IceAge, Finding Nemo and so on. Just because it's animated, doesn't mean it's for kids. The tagline for IceAge is "They came, they thawed, they conquered!" - meant for preteens indeed!

Manfred: Guys, I thought we were in a hurry. And Diego, spit that out. You don't know where it's been.
Sid: Boy, for a second there, I actually thought you were going to eat me.
Diego: I don't eat junk food.

And I rest my case! :-)