Comics With the Kiddo

Every parent wants to connect with their child, and one way we humans connect is by sharing what we love. I’ve mentioned here previously that my daughter and I have a habit of reading together at night, and that we’ve recently been reading the Unico series, but that’s not the first graphic novel series that we’ve read together.

There’s no better way to turn someone off of a hobby or art form than to try to force it on them, and so I’ve avoided doing that with her (and really, why would I anyway? They’re just comics). Instead, she, like I, and many other folks my age came to comics by way of animation.

One of the first movies she and I watched together was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That gave her a certain appreciation for Spider-Man, but what really sparked her interest was another adaptation I don’t often hear people talk about: Cleopatra in Space, a two-season animated series released as a Peacock exclusive at a time when few people were even aware that NBCUniversal had its own streaming service (the show is now more widely available).

After learning she was into the show, I mentioned that it was based on a graphic novel series by cartoonist Mike Maihack and that maybe we could read it together. She was into it, and away we went on a six-volume space opera adventure.