Summary:
First installment of a four part segment that analysis the negative factors that impact the comics industry. This segment focuses on politics, censorship, and rights.

Details or Sample:
The Twisted Face of the Comic Industry, Part 1
Mike Gagnon

The rise of censorship and paranoia

It seems to me lately the more and more there has been a shift in the media, society, and politics. Day by day more and more it seems to me that we’re becoming more conservative, sensitive, and puritanical.

This kind of atmosphere is bad for me, as these types of people are like the oil to my water.

I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend of people being swayed toward a more conservative and censored way of thinking. People are not realizing that the media and political figures who have begun this movement as self-proclaimed judges of public decency don’t lead this cause because it is for the public good, but because they are involved with businesses that have found a way to profit from this more narrow minded social climate.

I can sense this societal shift in the back of my skull every time I turn on the TV or listen to the news. I don’t think that this prospect bodes well for anyone interested in standing up for freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

I don’t know if we chalk it up to continued fallout of 911 or uncertainty about the war in Iraq, or something else all together. I feel that modern societal views are dangerously teetering on the edge of breaking out into the mass hysteria and paranoia rampant in the late 1950’s early 60’s.

With a larger and larger media message shifting towards the conservative sterilized mind set and more and more public figures acting as the morality police, telling us what we should and shouldn’t see and hear, instead of letting us decide that ourselves. It’s only a matter of time before anyone standing up for peoples freedoms is publicly crucified and burned at the stake in a figurative sense.

I really don’t like the climate I see coming where the censors are given more power than they already have. As the societal censors begin to influence our media and entertainment the future of film and comics entertainment doesn’t look very entertaining.

As in any other time in modern history when an issue of public freedoms and censorship arises, the comic industry is always dragged, kicking and screaming into the mix.

A problem of understanding is bound to arise. Any form of entertainment or literature that isn’t fully understood by those mainstream censors will be branded indecent and have its very existence challenged.

I don’t like to say this, but I fear that soon today’s modern independent and underground comics will be scrutinized in a similar manner as many great companies in the past were.

In the late 50’s a book titled “Seduction of the Innocent” was written by Dr. Fredrick Wertham. In his book Dr. Wertham blamed comic books for everything from juvenile delinquency, to crime, to homosexuality. The resultant frenzy of paranoia caused the banning and bankruptcy of many comics and publishers who are now considered to be classics and FINE LITERATURE.

Many people point to the most recognizable media figures and icons, and since most of those people preach their intolerance in the U.S. people assume that this is an American problem. This is not so.

The problem does exist in America, with legal rights violations against publishers and retailers running rampant, but it also exists in many other countries including my home here in Canada.

My real question is why are these governments so frightened of free speech and expression? What is it about people voicing their opinions through comics, film and other entertainment that has gotten the backs up of these self-proclaimed decency advocates?

North American governments especially seem to be violating their own people freedoms at alarming rates, with freedoms violations running rampant in both Canada and the U.S.

I can even list some situations I’ve encountered with Canada customs through my own purchasing and publishing shipments from several well known, and very public targets of attempted censorship;

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – Every single time I buy items from this charity that protects freedom of expression, Canada customs rips open the packages and inspects the items. For what I don’t know. When they are done pawing through my stuff they leave a note and tape the package back up.

Purchase this content for your website...

Pricing:

Make an offer

Usage:

[Add to Cart]

Downloads: 0
Written by: Mike Gagnon
Available File Types:Text
Words: 1095