As we re all aware, comics are treated like the catfish meals of the genre food chain. It s a cultural thing, of course, since these people haven t read enough comics to have any actual knowledge behind those sneers. And a stack of comics is positively intimidating in its fannish, fringy quality. Worse, the cultural cachet attached to comic books is overpoweringly children s lit, and disreputable children s lit at that. I lost a bunch of my beloved Walt Disney Comics Digests at the age of eight, when we moved from Toledo to Denver and my parents decided they didn t want to haul those books along, so they donated them to some orphanage.
Books are more sacred, more respectable, more serious.
I ve prepared a list of ten strategies that have been useful to me in the past. Some of the tips are no-brainers, but better to list them than to forget them. Some are common sense and could be applied to anything. Those terms are way too loaded with negative cultural baggage. You might as well just toss the book on the couch and try again with someone else.