Comics are NOT just for kids...
Aug. 8th, 2003 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Evil Influences Rant Warning: The following is indeed a rant about a possibly sensitive subject. Those who disagree with my opinions are invited to comment, so long as the comments are sane and useful.
The people over on the College Roomies From Hell!!! Forum brought something disturbing to my attention today. More specifically, this. And this.
This is frankly, rather disturbing. The defendant was charged with selling a comic with "adult" material, that was marked in the adult section of the comic store to an undercover police officer. Mr. Castillo didn't believe he had done anything wrong, since he was selling to an adult. Neither do we. And the lowest of the low is the prosecutor taking advantage of the fact that the comic store was near an elementary school to influence the minds of the jury into finding the man guilty for doing his job. And now, since the High Court has declined to hear the case, there's possibility that it could happen elsewhere.
I fear this more than usual becauswe as a reader of manga, there's a better probability that someone will want to take it away, since (Two stereotypes alert - Sarcasm ON):
a) Comics are for kids.
-and-
b) All that Japanese stuff is just pornography anyway.
(Sarcasm OFF)
First, with a) Comics aren't for kids. Even Bugs Bunny cartoons had material that only the adults would get in it. So do comic books. Some of them do display violence, sexuality, and all those other "adult" things. Of course, today's kids are exposed to that and more on television, but that's not important. Newspaper comics... well, Doonesbury is a quick example of currently running comics that are definitely for adults, mostly because of the politics that they make fun of. Bloom County, definitely not for kids. Even Calvin and Hobbes went away from kid stuff. Granted, none of those comics have anything that we consider "adult": realistic violence, nudity/sex, etc. Even so, comics are turning away from kids. The average age of a comics reader is going up, the artists and writers are adjusting... kids don't buy comics anymore. Why is that? Probably because their parents don't want them "reading that filth." Paradoxical at best, hypocritical at worst. Why don't we make up our minds...
Regarding b), I'm being mean in general, but there are still people who beleive that. It's not. Go watch Tonari no Totoro or Kiki's or even Spirited Away, and that stereotype is shattered.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------End Rant----------------------------------------------------
In other news, didn't work, unfortunately, but I did get farther along in some oldschool gaming. Now all I have to do is a lot of levelling up. A large lot of levelling up so that I can take on the evil ones once and for all! Or something like that. Maybe I should start programming a game that let's a player take on all the modern evil influences... would take a while to code, I would think, with so many possibilities.
The people over on the College Roomies From Hell!!! Forum brought something disturbing to my attention today. More specifically, this. And this.
This is frankly, rather disturbing. The defendant was charged with selling a comic with "adult" material, that was marked in the adult section of the comic store to an undercover police officer. Mr. Castillo didn't believe he had done anything wrong, since he was selling to an adult. Neither do we. And the lowest of the low is the prosecutor taking advantage of the fact that the comic store was near an elementary school to influence the minds of the jury into finding the man guilty for doing his job. And now, since the High Court has declined to hear the case, there's possibility that it could happen elsewhere.
I fear this more than usual becauswe as a reader of manga, there's a better probability that someone will want to take it away, since (Two stereotypes alert - Sarcasm ON):
a) Comics are for kids.
-and-
b) All that Japanese stuff is just pornography anyway.
(Sarcasm OFF)
First, with a) Comics aren't for kids. Even Bugs Bunny cartoons had material that only the adults would get in it. So do comic books. Some of them do display violence, sexuality, and all those other "adult" things. Of course, today's kids are exposed to that and more on television, but that's not important. Newspaper comics... well, Doonesbury is a quick example of currently running comics that are definitely for adults, mostly because of the politics that they make fun of. Bloom County, definitely not for kids. Even Calvin and Hobbes went away from kid stuff. Granted, none of those comics have anything that we consider "adult": realistic violence, nudity/sex, etc. Even so, comics are turning away from kids. The average age of a comics reader is going up, the artists and writers are adjusting... kids don't buy comics anymore. Why is that? Probably because their parents don't want them "reading that filth." Paradoxical at best, hypocritical at worst. Why don't we make up our minds...
Regarding b), I'm being mean in general, but there are still people who beleive that. It's not. Go watch Tonari no Totoro or Kiki's or even Spirited Away, and that stereotype is shattered.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------End Rant----------------------------------------------------
In other news, didn't work, unfortunately, but I did get farther along in some oldschool gaming. Now all I have to do is a lot of levelling up. A large lot of levelling up so that I can take on the evil ones once and for all! Or something like that. Maybe I should start programming a game that let's a player take on all the modern evil influences... would take a while to code, I would think, with so many possibilities.