Charlie Brown is so stealthy

While reading a chapter from Schultze's book about comics, I thought to myself, "nope, I don't read comics, this doesn't apply to me." But then I remembered, actually, all the comics that I used to read. Every time my parents would get the Winnipeg Free Press, I would rush to grab it so I could read the comics in the Entertainment section (but only the ones with the bright pictures and the least amount of reading). Peanuts, Marvin, Family Circus, Baby Blues...those were my favorite. Every now and then I'd actually take our comic books from my school library (Tin Tin anyone?). As I got older, I began to realize that some of these "secular" comics had some strong Christian values in them. As Schultze mentions in this chapter, B.C. and Wizard of Id were among the few that I noticed to mention something of Christianity. I thought this very clever: overt Christian values subtley placed in the Free Press...nice.

When I was in my pre-teens, I was a subscriber to a magazine put out by Focus on the Family called Brio. At the back of every issue, there was a comic featuring a girl very much the same age as the girls subscribing to the magazine. I always found this comic to be cheesy...but for some reason, I found myself unable to just pass it by. Bright pictures...bold words...just so much fun!....(taste sarcasm?). Despite my attitude towards it, I'm sure many girls were inspired by these things, and even if I wasn't a huge fan of the comic, I don't doubt that it shaped certain things in my mind.

But now, in my wise old age (hmm...), I occasionally stumble across a comic or two and the ones that stick in my mind are ones that I will read in an Evangelical Confrence magazine making fun of themselves or things like it. I'm one who needs to make things light hearted, when I see others finding the same humour in things it draws me in.

Perhaps now that I have been reminded of comics and their ability to be so stealthy, I'll keep a look-out for more.

(p.s. Apparently I could not open a certain website to blog about it: http://www.wacc.org.uk/wacc/content/pdf/1329 )