Tuesday 19 January 2010

Brainiac found in lunch box



Solipsistic, irascible, acrid, reprehensible, gregarious... Not words used to describe Superman's number one nemesis, they are in fact individually, and in their own right 'word of the day', an idea that my wife came up with to improve my daughter's vocabulary.

From dictionary to lunch box via a small folded up piece of paper, so whilst she is tucking in to a cheese baguette and sucking down her carton of juice she can be attaining the dizzy heights of super human intelligence.

Not a bad idea in these challenging and competitive times, however, I thought that it would be a crying shame not to give her that extra edge over her fellow classmates. And what could possibly set her apart from the crowd and earn her the respect and admiration of every boy from 12 to 70+? Yes you've got it in one, a thorough working knowledge of the world of comics.

So for every 'word of the day' that finds its way into her lunch box, she also gets a comic book character every day! Yesterday Mr. Fantastic got the ball rolling and tomorrow Brainiac makes an appearance.

My daughter has also recently discovered the joys of Forbidden Planet and as a result is sampling the likes of Wolverine and Spiderman. Choosing books that are suitable for a 12 year old is not that easy as there really isn't that much to choose from. I was directed to the Wolverine and X-Men First Class comics on the shelf, and after much brainstorming from the guys in the comic shop, other recommendations included Fantastic Four and Runaways.

So if anyone out there has any more suggestions for an essential comic book character to pop into my daughter's lunch box, or for any ideal comic book titles for her to start reading, I would love to hear them.

2 comments:

Chris Priestley said...

How about stop putting 'words of the day' in your poor daughter's lunchbox! I'm seeing Martin from the Simpsons loudly announcing his word of the day just before he gets beaten up. Oh - I see - you meant suggestions for comics. Any of the Essential Marvel series. They go right back to the beginnings of the characters. Plus you get Kirby-drawn Fan Four & Ditko-drawn Spiderman. Who could ask for more?

pulpsfromthebothy said...

Yes,the Essential series, nice. I thought I would let her colour them in as well, as suggested on the 11 o'clock comics podcast. Oh, and all her friends gather round her in the morning, in their eagerness to see what the new word of the day is! I'm hoping that they are equally as keen to expand on their comic geekery. Here's hoping!