Contemporary Comics Communicate

With a massive majority of mainstream media over taken by a select group of vested interests who is left to challenge society's tenets? To pose the tough question? Expose unattractive realities? Shine light on the bigger issues, when the direct approach has been thwarted by a degenerate political and media landscape? An entity cannot correct itself. That's what a teacher once told me. To solve a problem you must step back, out of the arena. Look from the outside in. Adopt shoes outside the fray.

Who or what better to assume the role of commentator on this, our modern state of affairs, than a medium that those who need to be challenged have historically attempted to thwart. To discredit. To condemn for perversity, a dearth of morals, triteness. To call out as having a negative impact on society. To embody all that they (politicians and media pundits alike) now do. I speak, of course, of comic books.

The comic books I speak of are not just  penny pamphlets meant to entertain. They provide a venue for vocalizing concerns. Since the 1950s, the so called "golden age" of comics, the medium has evolved. Perhaps duress forced it to mature. After all, moralistic politicians have never really been comic book enthusiasts. They have been the opposite. In an effort to cut the sudden abundance of comics in the early 1950s the Senate Subcommitee on Juvenile Delinquency (yes, there really is a group of mostly white haired men who haven't been young in more than half a century who sit around deliberating on why kids are loud, annoying, and seemingly crazy) called an investigation into the comic book industry. Remember, teenagers were still a new phenomenon (and this a frightening force ... wait, they still are, but I guess we'll just have to find solace in the fact that one day they will become one of us) as the term had only been generated in the 1940s. Old people were scared. Society was changing. Comic books were the scapegoat. And they had not even yet become all that they would be.

Leading the charge was Senator Estes Kefauver, who began his career as a lawyer and gained publicity via senate hearings on juvenile delinquency in relation to sex and violence in the mass media. On the back of his notoriety he twice attempted to attain the Democratic Presidential nomination, and twice failed. In his quest for the root of delinquency (which we are sill looking for today), he turned his attention to the comic book industry. I mean, why not? To begin his mission he sent a seven question survey to the judges of juvenile and family courts. Had juvenile delinquency increased between 1945 and 1950? Who or what was the instigator? About half of the questions followed this general format. The others, well ... In a court of law the others would, I believe, fall into the category of "leading questions"; (5) Do you believe that there is any relationship between reading crime comic books and juvenile delinquency? (6) Please specifically give statistics and if possible, state specific cases of juvenile crime which you believe can be traced to reading crime comic books (7) Do you believe that juvenile delinquency would decrease if crime comic books were not readily available to children? Will someone please reread me the definition of subjective?

So that was the beginning. The beginning of the temporal end. A beginning with no foundation in reality. But, then. politicians have never much needed that. Approximately "sixty percent felt there was no relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquency, and almost seventy percent felt that banning crime comics would have little effect on delinquency." (www.crimeboss.com/history03-1.html; excerpt from Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code) And so, comics became the enemy. Special committees were formed, witnesses were called. Even the Post Office was brought in (I mean, who knew that they did anything but make you wait in long lines, treat you like an idiot when you ask how many stamps should go on an extra large envelope, and send priority mail vis Macedonia?). To the Post Office was given a list of comic book titles, not to mention publishers, authors, and artists (I must say for a country that claims to hoist up the individual we do a great job of cutting down our creatives via blacklists). The goal in all of this was a circuitous method of censorship. It was nothing new, "Postal regulations were sometimes used as a censorship tool by the federal government." (www.crimeboss.com/history-1.html; excerpt from Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code) It failed. So the hearings began. Witnesses - PHDed men marinating in their own morality exhibiting slides. pulling from them the minutest of the miniscule. In the shadow of one character's face was found, when turned upside down and squinted at, a representation of a female's unmentionable part (I must say that such observation seem to tell more about the type of person who might find such representations than the artist who made a randomly shaped shadow - depending on who's eyes you peer through, everything is sexual and evil).  I suppose the shadow was somewhat suspect, but then again, anything remotely cylindrical or shaft-like can appear phallic - thanks to Freud's influence. This is what I term paranoia of the privates. They're everywhere!!!

Anyways, without further lingering on the issue (you can read more detailed reports on the hearings in your spare time, which I highly recommend if you are desirous of a good giggle) I will tell you that the upshot of all this pressure caused the industry to fall into a latent period of "self-regulation". There was a sudden dissipation of violent crime comics and an influx of Dinsney-esque, cute furry animal -filled ones, along with comicized (I here invoke the right to create new words that sound more pertinent than any in existence) versions of literary masterpieces. With all resolved and the spotlight shifted to more important matters, like communism, the comic book fell from its golden thrown, fell away from mainstream notice.

But not forever. The day would come when comics would reassert themselves. When they would become a modern mythology. The true golden age of comics. And this time, they would truly deserve their thrown.

That day has come. There is a contingency of comic book authors who speak to us in allegory, in metaphor. Who create worlds that are our own, and yet not. Worlds where the politicians and media are as we know them to be. Where people react realistically. To these worlds they add superheroes, as in Marvel's Civil War series, or J. Michael Straczynski's (creator of Babylon 5) Rising Stars. Or they create conflicts as allegories to those in which we are now entrenched, such as Brian Wood's Channel Zero, Jenny One, and DMZ, or Jonathan Hickman's The Nightly News. Nowhere have I seen more literate, poignant, realistic (and yes, I respect the irony of the usage of this word in relation to comics) exploration of our modern political, media, and social situation. They are not pretty. Not fantasy worlds to escape into. If you are looking for an out in the brilliantly illustrated pages of these books none will be found.

For those of you unfamiliar with the depth and complexity of many modern comics I will let you in on how they are all the things that I say they are (and remember, this is not all comics, yes there are still zombie comics that do not transcend their genre, but then who doesn't like a good zombie riot, and action comics, etc that are just meant to be fun ... these are not bad, but they are not what I am talking about - after all every genre has its kings). Civil War surrounds a conflict over a registration act for superheroes, by which all are charged to reveal their identities and, in essence, become government agents. Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, represents the superheroes for the act, and metaphorically the military industrial complex. Captain America, dear to all of our hearts, leads the opposition. He represents freedom. True freedom. Not some twisted definition of freedom warped by rhetoric. The two clash. Cicilians are injured. Friends kill friends. Both sides are told. The series, initiated by an overview story that reveals to the reader the general story of the war, is then explored in depth in the personal story of each individual involved. There is an X-men civil war, and Iron Man, Captain America, Spiderman, The Punisher, Young Avengers, and so the list goes on and on, versions of Civil War. Each reveals a different perspective. Allows empathy. Blurs the line between right and wrong as in real life. Rising Stars arises from a similar premise. Due to a strange anomaly 113 children are born with super powers. The government seeks to regulate them. To test them. To treat them not as children, but as lab rats. They are normal kids psychologically speaking, prone to the same disturbances, moral weaknesses. They grow up in a world that fears them and that they fear. As in civil war a conflict is generated which leads them to fight one another. Who the good guys are, or are not, becomes vague. To amend for their wrongs the remaining "specials" as they are called, begin a quest to make the world a better place. And they do. They're actions are the actions that would lead to a better world. But they do not make the corporations, military, or government happy. None of these entities really wish peace - where's the money in peace? So these entities seek to destroy man's salvation. And so the story goes on - I wouldn't want to spoil it!

To the non-super comics of relevance I will turn first to Brian Wood, my first love in the comic book realm. DMZ, his most successful and still running series, depicts a landscape after another civil war in America. New York (where our story takes place) has become a demilitarized zone (hence the comic's name). Matty Roth, the primary character, is an undercover journalist who has gone in to tell the true story. Of course he cannot remain above the fray and becomes more involved than he meant to be. It is an illustration of modern warfare, of distinctions between civilian and criminal blurred, of the real story never getting out, of cover-ups, and lies. Jonathan Hickman's The Nightly News is an even more direct assault on the modern media establishment, literally. A cult sets out to assassinate media pundits - and does. As a graphic designer, Hickman is very attached to charts and graphs, and inserts real statistics into his stories, breakdowns of the conglomeratization of  media, the use of ritalin and anti-depressants in America. These enhance the reality of his story. He too, like any good storyteller, looks in from both vantages, does not glorify either side. 

These are the stories that need to be told today. They confront serious issues in a serious time. Beginning with the publication of the Watchmen in the 1980s, a not so positive look at the psychology of the superhero which made the New York Times best seller list, the face of comics changed. They are not here to simply entertain us. Comics are a medium to be respected in their own right. If you are older, and past your comic book years, dispense with the mental image of comics you carry from your childhood. Pick up one of those books here referenced and take a gander. Don't trust my opinion, form your own. To those my age who think that comic books live in the realm f geeks take note, they do not. They are for everyone, and there is nothing embarrassing about reading a comic book - you have no idea how many dates I've gotten from reading a comic in a bar, how many friends I've made from reading them. Comic books are no longer a joke. They broach relevant issues and deserve the renewal of interest that they have gained due to the surge in comic books films due to better CGI. But don't stop at the movies, which I grant you are fun. They but scratch the surface of the depth that exists in many modern comics. But don't believe me. Run, don't walk to your nearest comic book establishment and read! "The world will read again!" (Vanilla Sky; Tom Cruise)