Schools Turn to Comics as Trial Balloon

Re:and people think …

Finally American audiences are reaching the conclusion that, just because it’s a comic book or a cartoon, doesn’t automatically mean it’s for kids. However, when it comes to titles like Superman and especially Batman DC and Marvel also realized that a huge portion of their reader base is not as young as some people think. A massive part of comic readers are the 18 and over variety.

However, using typical American short sightedness, they don’t really inform readers that they’re purchasing a comic with a more mature storyline. After all, they don’t want to scare anyone off. Thing is, that most comic readers would expect blood, violence, rape, and gore in a Batman comic. Batman’s storyline is very dark, almost gothic. There’s murder, violence, rape, and savagery. That’s as much a part of the Gotham skyline as the Batsignal. On the other hand, Superman is the all-American boyscout who saves falling trains and the like. Metropolis and Gotham are nothing alike, so I think it’d surprise a lot of readers to see rape, murder, etc. in a Supes comic.

I really think there should be some kind of rating or warning or something on a comic with a mature storyline. Sure there’s room in the DC comics and Marvel comics universes for adult storylines. After all, some characters really lend themselves to that. Batman and the Punisher are all about revenge. Superman and the Fantastic Four are all about truth and goodness and happiness. Obviously one set of heros are darker than the other.

There are some steps being made. Someone mentioned that DC tends to publish the dark stuff under the Vertigo banner. Marvel uses a Marvel Knights banner. That’s where you’ll find the gritty stuff. But yeah, more and more, the lines between the banners grow thin.

On a final note, someone mentioned the manga and how it’s popular with kids. The really interesting thing about manga and it’s target audiences is that the Japanese really go for a target audience and make the story and cover art so there’s no doubt what’s inside. Yu Gi Oh looks like teen and young adult stuff. Hamtaro and Pokemon look like kiddie fare. Golgo 13, on the other hand, looks like it’s for adults, which it is. And then things like Urotsukidoji, looks like it’s XXX rated, or hentai as the Japanese call it. The point is that, unlike American comics, they really understand who their stories are for and who wants to read them and they do everything they can to target that market.

The problem is that, when the manga or anime reach America, dimwitted American companies may modify or change the work to reach a broader audience. Sailor Moon, for example, has a lesbian undertone that offends the Japanese not at all but is considered somehow unclean for American audiences. So they removed it. Now when a kid goes and buys a non-modified manga or anime, they may unwittingly snag something they had no idea existed.