Comics A.M. | Alan Moore's Neonomicon challenged in South Carolina
Neonomicon
Comics | The Greenville County (South Carolina) Library has removed two copies of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows' Neonomicon from its shelves after a mother filed an official challenge to the collection's sexual content. Carrie Gaske said that although her 14-year-old daughter found the horror book in the adult section, she thought 'it looked like a children's comic,' and would be fine for her to check out. Daughter Jennifer soon discovered Neonomicon wasn't the 'murder mystery comic book' her mother believed it to be. 'It was good at first,' she said. 'Then it got nasty.' How 'nasty'? 'The more into I got the more shocked I was, I really had no idea this type of material was allowed at a public library,' Carrie Gaske said. 'I feel that has the same content of Hustler or Playboy or things like that. Maybe even worse.'
The library allows children age 13 and older to check out books from the adult section with their parents' permission. The library system's two copies of Neonomicon have been removed from circulation while a committee reviews the content. [WSPA.com]
Creators | Darwyn Cooke takes questions about Before Watchmen head-on, politely disagreeing with those who think he shouldn't have contributed to the prequels, and explaining why he did: 'People say, 'Oh, money this, money that.' If it was about money I'd still be in L.A. doing cartoons. ' This was an enormous challenge for me, and I took it knowing I was just as apt to fail. But it puts me out there, and that's the only way to be going after something like this. And frankly I appreciate being a part of the things where the challenge is great.' [Comic Riffs]
The Mire
Creators | Becky Cloonan talks about self-publishing, her latest comic The Mire, and writing good fantasy: 'I'm such a big fan of finding the little moments. When I grew up fantasy was almost all I read. But it's common in fantasy to go big all the time, and that always feels like a mistake to me. When you see something like Game Of Thrones, the reason that show is so successful is because it takes the time to focus on character and conversation. The show gives you time to find these characters as people and live with them.' [The Beat]
Creators | Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction discuss collaborating in the kitchen, and cooking for their children, on a Food Network blog. [FN Dish]
Creators | Dick DeBartolo, the man behind the MAD satires, talks about his work, which has appeared in every issue of MAD Magazine since 1966. [The Paris Review]
Comics | Gary Phillips reminisces about the black superheroes he grew up reading about in Marvel comics in the 1960s: 'The [Black] Panther was all regal wisdom and graceful power, the Sidney Poitier of the Marvel Universe; Luke Cage was street-savvy, stubborn and built for hellacious mayhem ' Jim Brown without the referees.' [Hero Complex]
Retailing | Chuck Rozanski has more comics than Amazon in his Boulder, Colorado, comics shop, and he has lots of interesting opinions and observations, too: 'Comic book stores are specialty stores that are testosterone-driven. The Internet has allowed women to see why comics are fun. Often, women start collecting by buying online, but one thing leads to another, and they come to the stores and to comic cons. At the San Diego Comic Con, it was 50-50 men and women.' [Denver Post]
Manga | David Brothers explains why he likes Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump, which he describes as a 'smart dumb comic.' [4thletter!]
- June 7, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
- Tagged: Akira Toriyama, Alan Moore, Avatar Press, Becky Cloonan, Before Watchmen, Black Panther, comics a.m., controversy, Darwyn Cooke, DC Comics, hero initiative, Jacen Burrows, Jon Goldwater, Kelly Sue DeConnick, libraries, luke cage, manga, Marvel, matt fraction, Neonomicon, Robert L. Washington III
7 Comments
Sounds to me like the Greeville County did all they needed to do, really. Comics are the easiest thing in the world to check the age appropriateness of, and I'd wager it would take less than 30 seconds to flip through 'Neonomicon' and see it's not appropriate for most 13 year olds. You'd think flipping through it'd be the first thing you'd do before handing something to a kid when the book is (1) in the adult section, and (2) all pictures.
On Neonomicon: I've read the comic; there's some pretty graphic stuff in there. That's why it was properly shelved in the adults section. I really don't see the problem.
People need to stop looking for laws to do their parenting for them.
doesn't sound like the mother DID look at it first, which is supposedly the process for kids to take out adult books
('The library allows children age 13 and older to check out books from the adult section with their parents' permission'). so either the mother didn't check first, or the kid lied about her mother's approval, or the librarian didn't realize it was an adult comic and released it without approval.
pretty silly, but i guess it underscores how ingrained the idea 'comics = kiddy fare' still is.
I'm with these fellows blessed with a bit of common sense (that's you guys ^). It was correctly shelved, and if it requires a parent's permission to check out, then the onus is completely on her to monitor what her daughter is reading. If she's that concerned with what material her daughter reads or views, maybe she should take a slightly more active role in said control.
Indeed, this speaks to the overall topic ' comics are NOT for kids. Will this mother, or others like her, feel the same way when her daughter picks up the New 52 Catwoman trade?
I can't blame a parent for thinking that it would be OK for her kid. Yes, it was found in the adult section but 99% of the population still thinks comics are all ages. We like to tell others that most comics are not for kids but nobody is really grasping this. Libraries should do more to educate their visitors that comics are not exclusively for kids.
I read it; Neonomicon is pretty damn horrible. I wouldn't let a kid read it, but
1) it looks NOTHING like a book for kids
2) it was properly filed in the ADULT section.
Bad parenting.
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