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Poetry Friday Meets Free Comic Book Day
Today may be Poetry Friday, but tomorrow, Saturday, May 3, is Free Comic Book Day!
The first Saturday in May, independent comic book stores across America offer a selection of free comic books. There’s always an assortment for different age groups from a mix of large and small presses. (Two of my favorites last year were a collection of early, rejected Peanuts strips and the first issue of Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber’s Whiteout, a great mystery/suspense set in Antarctica.) Visit your local comic book store, pick up a handful, and do a little shopping while you’re at it!
In recognition of Free Comic Book Day, here are some superhero-themed poems I found online. First, in recognition of one of the hardest-core professions out there:
Female Comic Book Superheroes
are always fighting evil in a thong,
pulsing techno soundtrack in the background
as their tiny ankles thwack
against the bulk of male thugs,
They have names like Buffy, Elektra, or Storm
but excel in code decryption, Egyptology, and pyrotechnics…
(read the rest here)
— Jeannine Hall Gailey
Next, a humorous ode to the superpowers of any teenage boy (or girl, for that matter):
Steve the Superhero
I'm Steve the Superhero
and you simply won't believe
the superpowers I possess
by merely being Steve.
My smile can crack a mirror
and my breath can make you faint.
And when I take my socks off
it's been known to peel the paint...
(read the rest here)
— Kenn Nesbitt
And finally, a darkly humorous, adult-oriented (you’ve been warned) musing on just what those caped men are up to as they leap from rooftop to rooftop:
Superheroes
You have to jump,
and it's a long one,
but you make the leap.
Far below, a few cars are moving,
their lights illuminating
the fog from within,
its swirls and eddies the internal organs of
Ghosts.
You stumble and catch yourself
on the next roof with the fingertips
of your right hand on the gelid
Tar. You wiggle your fingers to
obscure any possible prints and
stroll over to the skylight.
She is waiting, alone in her bed…
(read the rest here)
— David C. Kopaska-Merkel
To complement these poems inspired by comics, how about some comics inspired by poetry? Check out Mother Goose on the Loose: Cartoons from the New Yorker, edited by Bobbye S. Goldstein (Abrams, 2003)! As you might expect, it includes dozens of single-panel cartoons directly inspired by nursery tales, ranging from smirk-worthy to laugh-out-loud funny. School Library Journal recommends it for grades 6 and up, and I have to agree; most of the humor will fly over the heads of younger children. (There's occasional adult humor in there, too, but nothing that'll kill 'em.)