BW Media Spotlight

Here we are at long last. There were times I didn’t think I’d make it but this should be the last time I have to read through and discuss this book outside of the wrap-up. It’s been a long, disappointing journey, hasn’t it? It hasn’t been easy but it’s a series I’m not sorry I did and it was very important to do so. Because what we saw in the days of comics still happens every time a new way to tell a story is created. It happened with comics, it happened with video games. Even a medium that is simply another form of an already established medium, like TV, isn’t born without scrutiny. It’s easy to write something off, but more rewarding to push not the limits of good taste but the limits of what a media format can do in order to tell a good story.

This is Doctor Wertham’s final chance to convince the reader that comic books are inherently bad for kids, but we’ve seen a lot of that is based on bias. Bias based on a certain locale. Bias based on preferred reading or artistic style and tastes. I don’t doubt Wertham wanted to do good, but he came from such a bad place that he just got so much wrong. The road to hell IS often paved with good intentions and Wertham knows how to spread that asphalt. So let’s finish this book already!

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