Antics Comic website is being restored.
The Antics comic strip was created by Stephen Gillan, of Dunedin, New Zealand. Antics has a facebook page, and is called Readmorebooks on DeviantArt. It looks like there were about 242 comics published. Stephen’s email is almightyfletcher@gmail.com
When this website was allowed to expire in 2015, a new owner (me) purchased it, but I’m not sure yet how to use it.. If Stephen is willing, I could try to recover this comics from wayback machine and allow them to be findable by searchers again. It’s a shame if the comics are lost to the digital null-bin.
At the moment, on wayback machine, you could visit the very first comic, and then go Next,next,next to see them sequentially.
The Benefits of Comics in Our Lives
It’s funny how we all forget how we used to love reading comic books, as we were growing up. No matter where we grew up at, each and every one of us had their own favorite superhero. These heroes formed the bigger part our imaginations, dreams and talk. As a matter of fact, most of us were so obsessed with our revered heroes, we found ourselves spending pretty much of our time imitating them. I remember I grew up at a time when Superman was the real deal. There’s no a time cereal manufacturers made a killing, like during this era.
If I dredge up all the memories of this age, I can guarantee you that no kid in my neighborhood would dare eat from a cereal box, if it didn’t have Superman’s picture. The conviction behind this was that, if you eat from a Superman ‘certified’ cereal box, you would grow as strong as Superman. The belief was so strong, I would miss breakfast, just because I didn’t see superman on the box. My mum, just like other parents at the time, took this opportunity to cultivate a reading culture in us, even during the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. So every time she would visit the library, she would borrow a few comic books, especially those on superman, for us to read.
Later on after I grew up into a parent myself, I came to understand that some of the things that seem trivial to us parents mean the world to our children. If we can harness the power that rests in comic books, we could effectively raise our children to become meaningful people in this society. This I have learnt through my dear mum. Before borrowing a comic book, my mother used to take time to go through it and at least get the flow of the entire tale.
This was simply because she always wanted to draw some moral lessons for us, from the very comic books that we loved reading. It happened that when I was in 4th Grade, some 5th graders were always harassing my elder brother who was also in 5th Grade at the time. My brother was a quiet, timid boy who would never fight back at anything. Despite being tormented every day after school by his rogue classmates, he feared telling my mum, for he didn’t want to be labelled ‘Mum’s boy’. Therefore I just kept quiet and did nothing about it. But after several insolent teases in my presence, I couldn’t take it any longer.
So I approached my mum and because I didn’t want to reveal to her directly what was happening to my elder brother, I went to her with a simple question. “Mum, what should I do to bad boys if I find them pestering my best friend?” I guess at the time she was very busy with laundry, so she answered me in a polite but snubbing way, “Pete, just do what Superman would do.” Oh my, that was the moment of my life that I had been waiting for. After a thoughtful session that evening, wondering what superman would do in such a case, I resolved one thing, Super man would definitely kick some ass, if he was me. (Forgive my language).
Given that I had no super powers like superman, I had to think of something. Very early in the morning, the next day, I went to my Dad’s closet and chose a belt with the heaviest steel buckle and slid it in my bag. Since my mum was in the kitchen preparing a healthy breakfast and my dad had already left for work, nobody saw me. Now the 9 year old Superman lay in wait to save his brother after school. As usual, the 5th Grade boys stalked us on our way home, but little did they know that this was their last day at reign.
I am not sure, who started the badgering, but before he would lay another smack on my brother, the belt was already folded on my small fist with the buckle facing frontwards. I hurled my small body at the biggest of all the boys and sunk the buckle right at his groin. The yelling that followed deafened everyone at the scene. All the bullies ran away, including the one I had hit. He was still clutching his crotch as he flee. Since that day, nobody ever lay a finger on my brother. All the kids in the school wanted to know this 4th grade kid who had beaten a 5th Grader.
I believe that this is the work of the comics that I had been feeding my little brain with, as I was growing up. True, comics can teach children aggressive behavior like in my case, but at least, they can also teach them how to fight for their rights and also solve some of those small disputes that we parents would not be able to solve permanently. Later my mother asked me about the question that I had bothered her with earlier, concerning the bullies. My answer was simple, “Mum I did what Superman would have done.”
