Some interesting facts on the subject of comics:
1) The most expensive comic book in the world is a copy of the first issue of Action Comics. It was in it that the first appearance of Superman took place. In 2011, an unknown person paid $2.16 million for the 1938 edition. There are about a hundred such copies in the world. But almost all of them are in a terrible condition. That is why the price is only 600 thousand $.
2) Every self-respecting comic book fan knows that Spider-Man was invented by Stan Lee. But not everyone knows that the creator of the Spider-Man image was Steve Ditko, who, incidentally, has Ukrainian roots. Stan Lee himself originally planned to make the character look like Captain America. The hero even had his own shield. And the ubiquitous red and blue suit was drawn by Steve. By the way, he still wrote letters in comic book form when he was in the army.
3) Many parents consider comics very harmful to the development of their children. But British American scientists proved otherwise. They believe that reading the magazine and looking at pictures of superheroes, children develop reading skills faster and their memory improves.
4) One day Marvel received a letter from the mother of 4-year-old Anthony Smith asking for help. The boy had almost completely lost his hearing and needed to wear a hearing aid. But the child refused because he said “Superheroes don’t use those things. The Marvel staff immediately recalled one of the Falcon Eye comics in which he was forced to wear a hearing aid because he was injured. The artists drew a special in which they paired Falcon’s Eye with a new hero, The Blue Ear. “Thanks to the apparatus, I can hear calls for help from everyone in distress,” Said the hero in the comic book pages. After that, the boy happily put the device on.
5) The word “superhero” is a trademark, the rights to which are owned by Marvel Comics and DC Comics since the 1960s.
6) Interestingly, the famous children’s poet Korney Chukovsky could not stand Superman. He believed that this character embodied the cult of brute force and promoted cruelty. Chukovsky called comic books about this superhero nothing less than “a fascist American contagion.
7) In the early ’60s, the authors of girls’ manga were mostly men. It wasn’t until the mid-60s that the creations of female artists began to appear.
8) It was not in Japan that big eyes were used to convey emotions. Osamu Tezuka, who is considered the founder of the anime and manga tradition, did not deny the fact that he borrowed the technique from Walt Disney.
9) The word “manga” was coined by the famous artist Katsushika Hokusai in 1814 for his series of prints. It means “grotesques”, “strange (or funny) pictures”, so the term “manga” refers exclusively to Japanese comics.
10) Every year, everyone in Japan spends about $30 on manga. The popular manga called “Blich” has sold over 50 million copies in the Land of the Rising Sun alone. But today it is not necessary to buy books in stores, because you can read the manga online on the Internet.