Comic books

Are `Doraemon', `A boy with three eyes' and `Dragon Ball Z' popular comic books? Why are they so popular? What are the merits and demerits of reading comic books? Are they a good medium to be used for educational purposes? In reality, comic books are probably the most popular form of reading material for youngsters in Hong Kong.

Reading comic books helps to release stress in our daily life. Due to the heavy workload in schools or in offices, students and workers are under great stress. The hustle and bustle atmosphere is  likely to make people feel stifled. Therefore, people try to read comic books to relax. It seems that they can get out of the real world, and transcend to the unreal world by reading comic books. As a result, reading comic books has become prevalent.

There are both merits and demerits of reading comic books. On the positive side, youngsters can develop interests. For instance, `Slam Dunk' is a comic book about basketball, and playing basketball has become a popular sport among teenagers. Recently, the number of people playing basketball has increased dramatically due to the popularity of `Slam Dunk'. On the negative side, readers' minds are defiled. The violence of `Dragon-Ball' and the pornography of `Arm 1/2' corrupted the minds of the readers. Besides, some of the comic books are very expensive; each weekly edition costs over thirty dollars. Some young people may not be able to afford to buy them; and the habit of buying comic books may cause young people to become lavish. Furthermore, reading comic books encourages teenagers to read more pictures and read fewer words. This affects their language proficiency.

The influence of reading comic books should be properly made use of or for educational purposes. Instead of promoting reading materials which are not suitable for young people, the materials of the comic books should inspire young people through the plots of the stories. One of the properties of comic books is that they can bring   impossible and incredible  reality into pictures. This kind of `virtual reality' such as `UFO;, `four dimensional space' can often inspire readers' creativity. They help to  foster youngsters' interests in science. Moreover, the comic books  written about  love  should transmit the wholesome aspects of love to teenagers, instead of just dealing with dating and sex. Young people can easily follow what the comic books says, so a good comic book can give them merits; a bad one, demerits.

All in all, it is not possible and not necessary to discourage young people from  reading comic books, but  to guide them to choose good ones to read. Hopefully, young people have their intelligence to avoid being `contaminated' by the bad materials in the comic books, and to foster good character!