“We have met the enemy and he is us"

Pogo –Walt Kelly

Ever since I can remember I was attracted to comics particularly those of El Pato Donald and El Ratón Mickey. As I got older I liked Captain Marvel and The Lone Ranger comic books.

But it was around 1968 when I first started reading The News (a Mexico City daily in English) that I was exposed to political comic strips like Pogo and Doonesbury. I was lured because I liked to read Dick Tracy, Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates.

In Vancouver by the late 70s I met and became friends with the illustrators for Vancouver Magazine. In those days their illustrations were top notch.

But because I am from that other century I have never really bothered to read adult comic books. I despise (because I do) the fantasy variety. Superman and Batman were fine when I was 15. Now I am too much of an adult (an old man?) to appreciate or collect vintage comic books and run to see the latest superhero film.

This may seem odd when I shift to the idea that the Mexican word “metiche” usually relegated to describe an intrusive mother-in-law is something that some in my family think of my Rosemary and her husband by association.

We are constantly trying to help even when some of my friends tell me that we are only the grandparents (or that our daughters are now adults and can lead their own lives).

Because it is the Steve Jobs Century, that villain who has ruined it (his century) for all of us by narrowing and shortening our attention span and as a by-product less likely to read I rarely buy books for anybody but myself.

My Rosemary and I read our daily NY Times and the Vancouver Sun. Many locals deprecate our city daily but I find that every once in a while they redeem themselves if anything by re-printing stuff from other newspapers.

But this past Saturday there was a review of Gary Trudeau’s latest book. I knew immediately that I was going to go to Chapters/Indigo on Granville and West Broadway to buy a copy (they had two) for my granddaughter Rebecca, 21. I know she will enjoy it. Why?

She and we have some stuff in common but in relation to the Trudeau book, Rebecca watches (on her phone) every Stephen Colbert monologue just as we do.

Perhaps in some near future I might introduce her to Walt Kelly and the Okefenokee Swamp.