I believe many will snicker with what I have to say next, but this is true. In the past, very few households have access to televisions. Of course, there were movie houses but people were quite selective in watching movies. The video arcades were banned by Marcos and it wasn't until the time of Pres. Aquino when the video games were available once more. Betamax, VHS, VCD, and DVD entertainment were not yet popular.
So what were the common forms of entertainment available to kids? There were of course street games, hobbies (like crochet), basketball, transistor radio, music from cassette tape or vinyl LPs, board games (like chess and checkers)--and of course reading materials.
While adults could read anything from newspapers to novels the big question is what do kids read?
The answer, plain and simple comic books and comic magazines. I must admit that comic books got me interested in reading.
I'm sure you have come across the psychology of child learning. Studies show that at a young age boys learn more by watching but girls learn more by reading (I'm not sure if this is still true). You have to understand that there are many ways people perceive learning. Some learn through watching, others by working with their hands, and another way is through reading.
Comic books get young boys interested in reading because it is visual and they could follow the action through the illustrations (in fact even the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series have ink illustrations for every chapter). Visual stimulus is important.
Aside from the Filipino Funny Comics, I was reading English comics like the DC and Marvel comics at the same time. I learned a few German words from reading Sgt. Rock comics because the German soldiers used actual German language with English translation. The more recent alternatives in the 90's were in the form of the popular Archie Digests.
There were even classic comics featuring stories like Macbeth, Beowulf, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, etc.
As kids grow their taste for reading material evolve as well. Girls move to reading short romance novels (the Mills and Boone type) while boys read magazines on their interests like basketball, music, cars, etc. Some kids even read the "choose-your-own-adventure" books where readers get to decide which course of action the lead character will take and the readers' decision could lead to the character's death or the completion of a quest.
One thing though, with the popularity of anime cartoons maybe comics with anime illustrations and hopefully with English text will work out fine. Have you ever wondered why many kids and young adults would bother reading the ink drawings of the Naruto Shippuden series?