The Sunday Funnies

There was a time, maybe about 25 years ago, that I couldn't call my Sunday complete until I had read the comics section. I had favorites, of course, and some I never bothered to read at all. Prince Valiant was one I never read. That said, I admired the astounding attention to detail of the artist, and that was a case where I just "looked at the pitchers". Now the comics section had changed quite a bit from the time I was a child. Some of my old favorites were gone - Smilin' Jack; Li'l Abner; Dick Tracy; Alley Oop; Mary Worth; Gasoline Alley - lost either to discontinuation of the strip or because the strip no longer existed. Over the years, lots more of them disappeared and were replaced with some stuff that just didn't hold my interest. And so, as I aged, I was less and less interested in the funnies.

Until this week. The last time anyone read the funnies to me, it was Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of NYC, who read them on the radio during a newspaper strike so as not to deprive people of the continuity of the strips that were following a story-line. But this week, my five-year-old granddaughter read Hagar the Horrible to me, giving it a twist that only she could conceive.

Bearing in mind that she is in Kindergarten, and while she is accomplished at printing her name, first AND last, and her sister's name, she has not yet learned to read, but she enjoys looking at the pictures and telling the story as she perceives it.

Thus it was that Hagar, (the boy) was dressed for Hallowe'en. He was dressed like a "warrior" who "kills people" and they "don't get alive again". And Helga, "the girl" is dressed "like a Grandmom" and "she cooks".

I'm sure the rest of the story was just as compelling, but I had to leave the room so as not to insult the child by laughing. (By this time, I was actually holding back a snort! Or maybe that's a snert?)

After regaining my composure, I sat with her and turned the page, and she was barely able to contain her delight when she realized there were even more comics on the inside pages. I offered to read them to her but she said she would read them herself. Her interpretations could actually get me interested in the funnies once again.

There's nothing like the point of view of a five-year-old to make us realize how jaded we have become.