WANTS LISTS

I have a bit over 20,000 back issue comics in the shop. If you have a list of comics you are looking for send me an email to
crgn143@aol.com
& I'll see which ones I have & give you a price + P&P.

Neil Craig

CONTINUING CORRESPONDENCE IN THE SCOTSMAN ON COMICS

ON SATURDAY 16TH There is also a serious point here about the failure of today's schools to teach kids to read.

Comics as teaching aid


Kevin Schofield (12 April) was right on track regarding the value of comics as an aid to fluent reading. As a schoolboy during the war I was able to order from the local newsagent a copy of the Wizard, freed up as the subscriber had been called up. At 2d for the strictly rationed fortnightly issue, it was a sound investment, as careful trading in the playground meant one could read the Adventure, Hotspur and Rover without further investment.

Along with the majority of my peers I was, at 11 or 12, able to read aloud fluently thanks largely to the standard Scottish use of the phonetic tuition system (now being hailed as a recent breakthrough) and to the invaluable contribution of DC Thomson.

BILLY STEEL
St Inan’s Drive
Beith, Ayrshire

COMICS DON'T ROT YOUR BRAIN - IT'S OFFICIAL

From the Scotsman

Research finds a Dandy way to help young boys improve literacy

KEVIN SCHOFIELD
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT


TRADITIONAL comics such as the Beano and the Dandy could be the key to encouraging more young boys to read, according to a new survey.

Research published yesterday revealed that while 17 per cent of boys aged between seven and 11 do not read books outside school, 60 per cent regularly read comics.

The survey also revealed that just 5 per cent of boys read for more than an hour a day in their spare time, compared to 17 per cent of girls.

Last night, experts said that encouraging youngsters to read comics could be a vital tool in the fight to improve literacy rates.

Dr Karen McGavock, an expert in children’s literature at Stirling University, said comics had "a wealth of things to offer" young people.

She said: "It is important to expose young people to a variety of different literature, including comics and other, more established, works of fiction.

"Too often comics are seen as a low form of fiction, but that is not the case and so we should be encouraging children to read no matter what the particular format."

The survey, which sought the views of children and parents, was carried out on behalf of the Beano and the Dandy by the research specialists BMRB Access.

It found that 13 per cent of boys fail to read at all during their leisure time, but that 76 per cent spend more than an hour a day watching television.

Ben Gray, of DC Thomson, the publishers of the Beano and the Dandy, said comics had a part to play in encouraging more young people to read.

He said: "Comics should be seen as a stepping stone to get children to enjoy reading in their spare time."

&

I was pleased, but not surprised, to read that research in Scotland has confirmed that comic book reading is a good idea (your report, 12 April). We have come to the same conclusion in the United States.

Joanne Ujiie and I published a study a few years ago showing that boys aged ten to 14 who were heavy comic book readers liked reading more, read more in general, and read more books than lighter comic book readers, who, in turn, read more than non-comic book readers.

(PROF EMER) STEPHEN KRASHEN
University of Southern California
Los Angeles
California, USA


Delivery formats for "Letters"
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Mind you a depressingly small proportion of my customers are kids. Most kids are sitting on the couch rotting their brains with computer games - or am I just an old fogey?

NEW US BOOK DELIVERY TODAY

I got these new titles in today:
ANCIENT LEGACY
BLIND ARCHER
BRIGHT SWORD OF IRELAND
BURIED PYRAMID
EMERALD MAGIC
FANTASY
F.R. EXTINCTION
F.R. THE RITE
GLASS DRAGONS
THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UNDEAD
GUARDIAN OF HONOR
IN THE KINGS SERVICE
LAIR OF BONES
MIDNIGHT HARVEST
SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT
SISTER OF THE DEAD
SOUL WEAVER
THIRTEEM PHANTASMS & ORS
SCEPTR'D ISLE
CHILL FACTOR
DEADLY AFTER DARK
DESTROYER 138
OUTLANDERS 32
ANGUISHED DAWN
THE SILENT WAR
DEATHSTALKER RETURN
FORGE OF THE TITANS
FURIOUS GULF
GARDENS OF THE MOON
GEODESICA ASCENT
HAMMERED
HAYDN OF MARS
HUMAN RESOURCES
KILLING OF WORLDS
MECH WARRIOR TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY
MOONRISE
PANDORA'S BOX
SCIENCE FICTION
STAR DRAGON
STORYTELLER
WOLF IN NIGHT

MINISTRY OF SPACE - Warren Ellis (8.99)

This isn't so much a story as a delineation of an alternate history. At the end of WW2 Britain went into space & half a century later we have all those things (solar power satellites, wealth, settlements on Mars, peace on Earth under the benevolent protection of ERII) which we were promised by Dan Dare, Robert Heinlein & Gerald O'Neill. The way we get it isn't very nice (tho' not as nasty as the real world where we got Nigerian oil by helping starve Biafra) & the hero Sir John Dashwood is an out & out bastard & unapologetic about it.

The homages to Dan Dare are numerous & worth it on there own - I love the full page devoted to 2 boys with helicopter backpacks flying above a monorail & past Parliament.

There are faults. The last 2 panels are clearly in to avoid PC controversy & are against the whole spirit of the show. There is a reference to artificial gravity on the space station which is there only to allow the characters to walk rather than float, indeed Ellis, instead of having Sir John retire in England & travel to orbit for the denouement should have had him living in orbit & travel to Earth. But who cares.

This is a wonderful book in the original sense of evoking a sense of wonder about how the world we were promised in the age when Man going to the Moon was still an achievement for the future not the past.