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A speech I gave yesterday at the high school I work at

Started by Drummy,

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Drummy

Drummy

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Hi all -

 

I'm sorry for the formatting problems, but I have posted below a copy of a speech I made yesterday at the high school I work at. Every year the faculty members are invited to give "faculty speeches" about any topic, just as all of our seniors (it's a small independent school) give a speech sometime throughout the year.

 

Since my focus is on a specific comic book, I thought you might get a kick out of my example and my message to the kids.

 

Thanks!

 

Dan

 

IMAGINATION MATTERS

 

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” -- Jules de Gautier

 

 

When one is born and raised in the harbor tundra known as Duluth, Minnesota, as I was, and is part of a lower-middle class family with an alcoholic father at its head, as I was, one of the things one needs to carry close – along with a hooded parka and a sense of humor – is an imagination. As many of you may know from looking at my office walls, my imagination was originally kindled by comic books. And not just any comic books – no DC’s or Dells or Golden Keys for me – but Marvel Comics, the creators of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, among others.

 

(holding comic) THIS ratty collection of stapled colored paper is a copy of Fantastic Four #172, and is itself the first comic book I ever read. I’m sure you have all read this particular classic, written by Roy Thomas and Bill Mantlo, and featuring art by the legendary George Perez. Since it came out in July 1976, however, it’s probably been a long time since you read it and you might need a refresher. In this text, our four heroes – Reed Richards (aka, Mr. Fantastic), his wife Sue (aka The Invisible Girl), her brother Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm (The Thing) do battle with a golden gorilla named Gorr before realizing that Gorr has come to earth from outer space to ask for their help. Gorr serves a creative man-god called the High Evolutionary, who has just created his own planet called Counter-Earth, modeled after our own. The High Evolutionary needs the Fantastic Four to help him battle The Destroyer, a metallic herald of the legendary Galactus, who treks the universe looking for populated planets to devour. Our intrepid foursome march into space and the Thing fights the Destroyer one on one, only to be faced at the end of the book by Galactus, whose awesome hunger must be sated. Because “Galactus MUST live,” he says in the last panel, “Counter-Earth must die!!” To be continued in issue #173...

This particular comic, like most of the titles published in 1976 by Marvel, DC, and others, is full of garish action scenes drawn in primary colors and replete with intriguing sound effects written in huge letters: “Skrakk!”, “Wom!”, “Ka-thram!”. It is also, however, a written text, designed not only to be watched but to be read. Like most of Marvel’s comics, this book’s vocabulary is surprisingly advanced; this comic alone contains the following words:

 

Forsworn succumb infuse inanimate

Husk casement appease millenia

Circumnavigate emissary repulse perpetual

Stasis bedeviled pulverize apparatus

Anthropoid asbestos interstellar adapt

Precede guise breach herald

 

Before I knew it, this seven-year-old was looking up a lot of words in the dictionary. Through comics like these I was not only receiving an insidious education, but more importantly I was enjoying both imagining what would happen next and eagerly awaiting the next month’s installment of the story. Would Galactus destroy our heroes and consume Counter-Earth like a piece of popcorn in Fantastic Four #173? Or would Mr. Fantastic and company thwart his plans as they had in three previous encounters?

 

My discovery of comic books ignited what had already been a strong sense of imagination in my childhood. I always liked to draw things – unicorns, dragons, mazes, alien computers, and the like. Drawing led to reading drawings (comic books), which led to acting out these dramas with my neighborhood friends. At first we played super-heroes; I liked being the Hulk from time to time (his straightforward vocabulary appealed to me: “Hulk smash”) but such a role was one-dimensional and I lost interest. Sometimes I played Iron Man, a wealthy industrialist named Tony Stark who needs his powerful suit of armor both to do good in the world and to keep his injured heart beating; his armor keeps him alive in more ways than one. This role was meatier. When my friends and I played the Fantastic Four, however, things got more interesting because I somehow always got cast as Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl. I distinctly remember my friend’s father, Mr. Hoff, upon hearing us claim roles before a game of super-heroes in his backyard, comment: “Who are you? Sue somebody? I never heard of no boy named Sue.” References to the popular Johnny Cash song aside, as a seven-year-old I wondered why the fact that I would play Sue Richards made such an impact on him. His words to me were a threat; in the adult world, it was apparently unacceptable for a boy to pretend to be a girl. I’ve often looked back and wondered if it was “weird” that my imagination took me in that particular direction, however. It truly wasn’t that strange – my dad was an impatient, sometimes explosive guy, my parents argued at night in the kitchen as I tried to sleep, my brother liked whacking me from time to time, and I lived among a working-class culture where imagination was not necessarily valued that much. Given all this, I wasn’t particularly interested in becoming a girl named Sue; but I would, I think, have liked to become invisible. Maybe it was important that I, from time to time, became Iron Man, who required a powerful suit of armor to protect a damaged heart. In either case, my imagination allowed me to exert some power in my life, and to thrive, despite a less than supportive reality.

 

Our imaginations, however, are not only a tool for escaping an unwanted reality; they are also a tool for transforming a current one, however good it may already be. Albert Einstein reminds us that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.” Imagination binds us to possibility and can transmute the present “what is” into “what could be”. Therefore, to me, imagination and any acts of creation – whether it is a game where I play The Invisible Girl, or a drawing, a dance, a film, a computer program, a piece of clothing, a song, a stage role, a dirt-bike track, an essay, a friendship, a science project, a better way of doing something – are what makes us unique.

 

We at our School must also be on our guard in the battle against reality and exercise the muscles of our imaginations at every opportunity. I’d like to go back to Fantastic Four #172 and use its story as an allegory for us. Who are we in this particular cosmic drama? I could argue that, unfortunately, we are Galactus in our stories, the all-powerful world eater who exists to judge and to consume. While in real life we don’t literally eat one another’s worlds - just as Mr. Hoff wasn’t out to destroy me with his comments about my role in our game - but anytime we assume something about people – based on looks, on grades, on socio-economic status, on sexual orientation, on race, on talent, or on any group trait that denies individuality – we can harm them. These assumptions and judgments represent our minds at work, always seeking ways of patterning and ordering society around us, but sometimes at the expense of the person in front of us. Be mindful, therefore, of the Galactus within you. I can ALSO argue, however, that we are actually the High Evolutionary, that we have the power to imagine a world, to actually create it, and to protect it against annihilation by someone else. This is our soul at work, in the moment, imagining ourselves and others in the best possible way while working to create a better...something. Cultivate the High Evolutionary within you.

 

Finally, I can imagine us as the Fantastic Four, human beings summoned into a cosmic struggle we did not create, balancing the Galactus’ limited needs with the High Evolutionary’s hopes. What should our response be? On page 30, panel 2, Ben Grimm, The Thing, is trading punches with the Destroyer on an asteroid overlooking Counter-Earth and wondering why he’s even trying – he knows (like the reader) that the Fantastic Four will not be able to defeat Galactus in combat. He thinks to himself, “But I gotta protect this place. Even if that ain’t our earth down there, it’s still an earth! A livin’ blue marble floatin’ around smack dab in the middle of a dead universe! It’s somebody’s dream....and it’s got a right to live.” In this let us emulate Ben Grimm, the super-hero. Let us respect the dreams of others as we might our own, for they too have a right to live. If we can accomplish this, exercise these muscles of our imagination, I promise you that our community, this school, will have everything turn out all right. How do I know this? – well, let’s just say that I strongly encourage you to read issue #173; it’s a barn-burner.

 

 

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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Pretty cool, drummy... pretty cool...

 

I am a firm believer that anything that gets kids reading is a good thing. And narrow-minded parents attacking everything from comic books to Harry Potter drive me nuts, especially when it's these same parents who give their kids video games and tell them to go away...

 

People can talk all they want about comic books being too expensive for kids these days, but how much money do you think you'll save when your child gets a boatload of scholarships because he was reading as a kid instead of playing video games?

 

When I was about 9 or 10, there was a group of about a dozen of us in the neighborhood who traded comic books like crazy. Out of that group, there wasn't a single kid who wound up with an SAT score under 1140, and four of us broke 1400...

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Drummy

Drummy

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Thanks for the nice words, everybody!

 

I teach 9th grade English (one class) at my school; my "big" job is being one of the college counselors here. I always was a big reader - especially of comic books and Greek mythology stories - and I'm sure it helped my verbal SAT scores as well. When I looked at the vocabulary from that particular comic, I was pretty amazed at the sophistication of the language. Pretty "meta"! 893whatthe.gif

 

I studied English in college, too, so I guess I'm used to writing things. This speech was the first one I've done though, so it took about 7 hours to put together. I just hope it makes some of you Marvelites want to read FF #172 again! 893applaud-thumb.gif

 

Dan

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ArAich

ArAich

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I just hope it makes some of you Marvelites want to read FF #172 again!

 

At the very least...it makes me want to read more comics to increase my intelligence quotient .... makepoint.gif

 

Seriously though...outstanding speach drummy... 893applaud-thumb.gif

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BronzeBruce13

BronzeBruce13

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Bravo! Excellent Dan! 893applaud-thumb.gif

 

I feel similarly in many respects. I have always credited comics for expanding my already wandering imagination. I know that reading comics and fantasizing/dreaming as a kid certainly helped me become a creative person and also helped develop the "problem-solving" and "thinking outside the box" skills I have.

 

Send that great speech to the Discovery channel... maybe they can use that in the upcoming special on comics. Its worth a shot as it promotes collecting on a few levels they may not have considered.

acclaim.gif

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fazman

fazman

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Now, would'nt it be great if some of our schools started handing out comics to the kids as an aid to reading ??

Think of what this would do for the next genaration of comic collectors.

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Fabfrank

Fabfrank

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As a life-long comics fan (30+years collecting), I can't begin to tell you how much reading comics helped with my vocabulary and comprehension. My twelve-year old son started getting into reading comics about 2 years ago. He loves video games and I got him into reading comics through the games. He can't wait for the new Ultimate books (Spiderman/X-Men) Amazing Spidey, or Extreme X-Men to come out. He now also reads JLA and Young Justice too.

I also bought him a few TPB's. He brought them to school to read during recess. The best news is that many of his friends starting borrowing and reading his TPB's. For his thirteenth birthday I took him and 12 of his pals to see the X-Men movie. After the movie we went to my local comic shop for Free Comic Day. Now all his pals are into reading comics and picking up new issues. They prefer those comics associated with a video game (Spiderman, Wolverine's Revenge, etc.), but half the battle is getting them into the comics store.

Watching these kids get into comics the way I did when I was their age is better than any trip down memory lane.

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garthgantu

garthgantu

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Drummy, I'm all verklempt now...! I'd love to have seen the looks on the other faculty member's faces when you first held up the FF 172 ! ("Oh, s**t, what's he gonna do with that? Is that really a COMIC BOOK? Will the nearest fire hose reach this far if all hell breaks loose?")

 

I too am raising a child the right way - through comics! My daughter (turns 10 in July) is a big fan whose comic book tastes cover the early Marvel (Silver Age) titles - especially Spidey - as well as any Barks duck books. Between reprints and originals, I'd guess that she's read 75% of the ~300 or so Duck stories Barks wrote. Through her I've given ratty old comics to maybe five or six of her friends, who act like a starving man at a Carl's Jr. drive-thru when they see 'em...clearly, most kids aren't getting access to comics anymore.

 

But I sure can't top your recruiting efforts - getting 12 new comic book fans into the fold is impressive. If we could all achieve this mark, we'd be guaranteed a market for our comics 20+ years down the road...!

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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We at our School must also be on our guard in the battle against reality and exercise the muscles of our imaginations at every opportunity. I’d like to go back to Fantastic Four #172 and use its story as an allegory for us. Who are we in this particular cosmic drama?

 

You know, I really HATE posts like this.

 

"Why, Pov?" you may ask.

 

I may answer, "Basically because when I read things like this I want to go out and get a copy of FF172 and read it and ponder it and in doing so KNOW my hardline of collecting precode will be broken even more than my dalliance into superhero GA and Werewolf By Night type BA and my budget will be shot and ...dang!"

 

Great post! 893applaud-thumb.gif

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Joanna

Joanna

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We at our School must also be on our guard in the battle against reality and exercise the muscles of our imaginations at every opportunity. I’d like to go back to Fantastic Four #172 and use its story as an allegory for us. Who are we in this particular cosmic drama?

 

You know, I really HATE posts like this.

 

"Why, Pov?" you may ask.

 

I may answer, "Basically because when I read things like this I want to go out and get a copy of FF172 and read it and ponder it and in doing so KNOW my hardline of collecting precode will be broken even more than my dalliance into superhero GA and Werewolf By Night type BA and my budget will be shot and ...dang!"

 

Great post! 893applaud-thumb.gif

 

Why not buy an inexpensive reader copy? Then you can decide if you like the story whether you want to pay more for a higher grade.

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