Burton voices Black Lightning for animated DC film
Posted by: Rich Watson on August 21, 2009 at 10:21 am
“…People ask me all the time, because I did Reading Rainbow on PBS for 25 years, ‘How do I get my kids to read?’ And I say, ‘Find something that they’re passionate about.’ If it’s comic books that they want to read, then buy them comic books, for goodness sakes. Comic books are good literature and, like science fiction, they have a tendency to really draw us toward that part of ourselves that imagines that which we create…
“When I was a kid, it was comic books that pointed me in that direction and from comic books I went to science fiction literature, which is still one of my most favorite genres of literature to read. Don’t underestimate the power of comics and what they represent for us and how they inform us on the journey of being human – because it’s powerful. It’s very powerful. They give us permission to contemplate what’s possible. And in this world, in this universe, there’s nothing that is not possible. If you can dream it, you can do it.”
5 Responses to "Burton voices Black Lightning for animated DC film"
3 | Angela Shortt
Thank you for tweeting about this, Claudia! I started out reading the Brother’s Grimm (my favorite as a child, which tells you a lot about me), then I became hooked on Marvel’s Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men…and it was from there! I became a writer and an English teacher, so reading comic books definitely didn’t do any harm to my reading speed and comprehension. In fact, when I read them today, I have to have a dictionary near by! And I read Beowulf and Canterbury Tales in the original versions!
My son started struggling with reading around the 4th grade, so I did exactly what LeVar Burton talks about here–I bought him books that he would love to read. For him at the time, it was the World Wrestling Federation. I bought him wrestling magazines, taught him how to sound words out, and he took it from there. By the 6th grade, his reading speed and comprehensive went into the stratosphere. He finished and understood Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” before the summer break, and had excellent grades all through college!
5 | Rich Watson
That’s an awesome story, Angela. Thanks for sharing it.
