The Four Color Media Monitor comments on a series of newsstories reporting that various Arab nations are banning the Wonder Woman movie because it’s title star, Gal Gadot, is Israeli in origin. Although a revealing-outfited woman who beats up bad guys soldiers–all male–probably didn’t make them happy, either.
Okay, let’s do this. We’re starting this one with nightmares, daydreams, and what not. It’s kind of going full-circle since we started on fantasies. I want to see Wertham blame comics for daydreams considering ANY good story regardless of medium can make kids (and some adult) fantasize about being the hero of the story. They may want to be Superman, or Sheena, or Robin Hood…wait, Robin Hood stole from people and in some tellings isn’t the purehearted hero he is in others. Did you ever see that show When Things Were Rotten?
Well in at least one version those expenses including parties for themselves, and they even invited a rich guy to one of those parties in order to rob him. So one of literature’s heroes isn’t always a hero. But he’s from a book so he’s okay. You can fantasize about being Long Jo…I mean Jim Hawkins because he’s a book character. You can’t fantasize about being Superman because he’s from a comic. Do you see what I mean about the snobbery?
But read the article in question and judge for yourself before I resume where I left off.
“When do I get a turn?”
Transformers: Escalation #3
IDW Publishing (January, 2007)
WRITER: Simon Furman
ARTIST: E. J. Su
COLORIST: Zac Atkinson
LETTERER: Neil Uyetake
EDITORS: Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Remember that direct-to-video Batman & Harley Quinn movie I talked about back when I discussed something other than Seduction Of The Innocent? (Ahh, good times. Good times.) Well before it hits home video you may get the chance to see it in theaters. Either attend San Diego Comic-Con or check out this movie theater event hosted by Fathom Events. I wish I could do either so let me know if it’s any good, would you?
As kids we all dream of being larger than life heroes, especially our favorite heroes, or at least sharing their abilities and talents. This is true no matter what medium your heroes come from. Unless you’re Fredric Wertham, M.D., then it only makes sense if it comes from a book. One of the reasons I bring some of the villains of books is because Wertham doesn’t understand, or care to understand, comics as a medium. He didn’t grow up with them so they are wrong, even though books give you the same characters and alleged lessons that comics do. They just take longer to read so you have more exposure to the likes of Captain Ahab, Long John Silver, or Count Dracula.
It’s Wertham’s inability to accept and work with this new medium that is troubling, but if the kids are only reading bits and pieces while looking at the pictures they are reading the comics wrong. And if Wertham were honest about this he would try to see what the stories are actually trying to show and convince these troubled kids they are taking the lesson wrong, which can happen with everything from books to the nightly news. He is not honest about comics because he is biased against them not only as a therapist but as a reader who holds his favored medium in such a high regard that he will not allow anything else to even have a spot. I have read books since I was a kid. I have read comics since I was a kid, and I love both. Wertham doesn’t believe that’s possible, which makes them a good scapegoat for kids doing bad things. Influence is one thing but there is a read we are drawn to different stories or images while others, including other kids as we’ve seen, are repulsed by them. So how does this affect the heroes these kids seek to emulate?
Don’t forget to read this section yourself first if you haven’t already. After all, we’re all about reading here.
Even dead Goku is a happy boy.
Dragon Ball Z #8
Viz Comics (1998)
originally published by Shuesha, Inc (1983) for Bird Studio
“Two Generations, Two Kinds Of Training”
WRITER/ARTIST: Akira Toriyama
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Gerard Jones
TRANSLATION: Lillian Olsen
TOUCH-UP ART/LETTERER: Wayne Truman
EDITOR: Trish Ledoux
Gary over at Crisis On Earth Prime just added to his annotations of Infinite Crisis, another symptom of DC’s Eventitis. He need help identifying a girl in some new added art for the trade. If you can help him out, that would be nice of you.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
