But if you follow them from when you're a kid, you should give them up when you're a teen? That's the world I lived in. High school kids mocked me when they found out I still read comic books.

I think for some of us, we go back to comics--especially those we liked as little kids--because we realize they had a primal appeal that formed our character. Studying story-telling for children isn't just confined to the few writers and illustrators that stuffed-shirts have decided are good. You can study any story for children--from Stumbo to Charlie Brown--and appreciate the artistic intention.

This is one area where Alan Moore failed. I like the book FROM HELL very much. And a lot of his other work. But I think the underlying message in some of his later super-hero stories got it wrong. I was flipping through a book on Alan Moore in the store one time, and there was an essay that broke down the themes in a particular Tom Strong story. The essayist picked out all this stuff about fascism that went completely past me when I'd read it.

Yes, if you're an adult and you interpret children's fiction, it can seem fascistic. In MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, Andre makes the same observation about THE LITTLE PRINCE. But that doesn't mean kid lit is fascistic. It's rather that a child's power fantasy becomes fascistic when it's transposed to an adult context. You're reading the story wrong. To understand the work--you have to understand it from a child's level. If you're imposing your own adult feelings on a children's fantasy--that says more about you than it does about the story.