Comics of the Damned
September 25, 2013 10:44 AM   Subscribe

Celebrate Banned Books Week by perusing The comics that corrupted our kids - but mind your eyes! Meanwhile the American Library Association’s list of this year’s most challenged books is led by another comic,  Captain Underpants.
posted by Artw (42 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite


 
Oh my kids love Capt. Underpants! The No-Fun Police are after him now?
posted by Mister_A at 10:47 AM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Well, to be fair, And Tango Makes Three was also the title of my Tango and Cash slash fiction novel.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:48 AM on September 25, 2013 [4 favorites]


Captain Underpants? Really? I hardly think that toilet and fart jokes are as scandalous and soul-damning as, well, almost anything on broadcast television. And while I'd hardly call the captain's adventures enlightening, the few other titles I am aware of in that list should have "may cause self-reflection or thinking for one's self" added to the list of 'reasons to challenge'.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 10:58 AM on September 25, 2013


You could even do a two-fer and read comics adapted* from Ray Bradbury stories.

*image links appear to be broken in that Salon story
posted by Gelatin at 11:00 AM on September 25, 2013


A few months back conservative co-worker randomly brought up the subject of school libraries sticking Captain Underpants as a terrible sign of decline in the world. Now I'm wondering if it's a Facebook/forwarded email thing among right wing types.
posted by Artw at 11:01 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Chicago Public Schools removed "Perspolis"? What?
posted by hwestiii at 11:03 AM on September 25, 2013


Celebrate National Comicbook Day!
posted by Artw at 11:05 AM on September 25, 2013


I, I feel a sudden urge to vote Democrat.
posted by tommasz at 11:07 AM on September 25, 2013


Chicago Public Schools removed "Perspolis"? What?

Previously
posted by Artw at 11:09 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Luckily right-wing libertarians fully support freedom-of-speech and book publishing!
posted by blue_beetle at 11:11 AM on September 25, 2013 [3 favorites]


That is just plain weird. The City of Chicago is currently rocked by uncontrollable gun violence and someone is worried about this wonderful book. Must be quite a tail wagging that dog.
posted by hwestiii at 11:15 AM on September 25, 2013


Captain Underpants? Really? I hardly think that toilet and fart jokes are as scandalous and soul-damning as, well, almost anything on broadcast television.

There's a difference between something being on broadcast television, which people can buy or not buy if they want, and can turn off, and something being in schools, which my tax dollars paid for dammit.

Mind you, I am also opposed to censorship and also think it's silly. But I know some of the roots of the argument against (the NEA gets similar flak, and "taxes" was a big thing at the heart of the controversy around The Brooklyn Museum showing the "Sensation" exhibit, so I've had this argument before).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:19 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]




There's no telling what corruption can come from reading about Capitán Calzoncillos dealing with the dastardly Profesor Pipicaca.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:31 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Fair point EmpressCallipygos, I hadn't thought about the fact that taxes might be the bee in people's bonnets. I still think, however, that if parents and 'concerned citizens' are worried about negative influences, they're aiming their canon in the wrong direction.

That said, part of my bias follows along the lines of Patton Oswalt's observation of, "Hey, these days I'm just glad that anyone is reading anything."
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:32 AM on September 25, 2013


Violent? Read the 'Flesh' strip from the first couple of years of 2000AD. That was violent.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:45 AM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


I still think, however, that if parents and 'concerned citizens' are worried about negative influences, they're aiming their canon in the wrong direction.

Oh, hell yeah. One of my very most favoritest stories about How Clueless Adults Are About The Real Problem is when I was eighteen and I spoke at an open meeting of our school board about the need for a health clinic in the school.

And it may not be 100% "taxes," but that is a common aspect of the argument against - at the root of it may just be a personal feeling of ooginess running up against their just-as-fervent belief that a private business should have the rights to conduct its affairs in its own way. I suspect that they'd control whether these books were in bookstores were on TV or whether these shows were on television, if they could - and some do try, via letter-writing campaigns to advertisers and the like. (Actually, WKRP In Cincinnati had a good episode about that kind of thing.) But most of them realize that they can't because Constitution And Free Enterprise And All That. But "my taxes pay for this" is a loophole they see that will let them challenge things in that one arena.

So yeah, these people are indeed finding fault with all entertainment (tv, music, radio, film, books, etc.) for being "negative influences," it's just that they can't get at everything. So schools get hammered for this kind of thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:46 AM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Violent? Read the 'Flesh' strip from the first couple of years of 2000AD. That was violent.

It was no Hookjaw.
posted by Artw at 11:47 AM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Captain Underpants is fun, but a few chapters from one of the books were so viscerally gross-out (boogers, vomit, etc) that I literally had a gag/nausea reaction when I read it to my kid (he thought this was funny). I think this is just the danger that comes from being a book series based on body-fluid/potty jokes, though.

My solution was that he could read the rest of the CU series to himself, and I would keep reading the Dinotopia books to him, since they have harder words, but hardly any booger descriptions.

Given the dead-baby jokes and songs about greasy grimy gopher guts that were a feature of my playground years, I have a hard time holding Captain Underpants responsible for the coarsening of delicate youthful minds.
posted by emjaybee at 12:10 PM on September 25, 2013 [5 favorites]


So these 'headlight' comics... it think these need close scrutiny to see just how corrupting they are. Does anyone know where to find them? Asking for a friend.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:12 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


FWIW I have never read a Captain Underpants book not from the kid's school library. The things that she's brought back from there that have horrified me have all been princess or fashion related.

Right now I'm reading through Harry Potter with her for extra godlessness.
posted by Artw at 12:21 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yeah, SO godless! If you read it backwards, well, what happens is, it takes rather a long time, and it establishes that you are a dolt.
posted by Mister_A at 12:33 PM on September 25, 2013 [4 favorites]


The spells all totes work, just like Dungeons and Dragons.
posted by Artw at 12:37 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Of course you're talking about 1st ed. spells; that other stuff is bunk. Anyway,

***BURNING HANDS***
posted by Mister_A at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'm pretty sure Captain Underpamts features some kind of Prismatic Spray.
posted by Artw at 1:55 PM on September 25, 2013 [3 favorites]


It's depressing and sadly unsurprising to see Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and Toni Morrison's Beloved on the 2012 most-challenged list when in fact Beloved in particular should be part of every damn school curriculum in the country.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 2:06 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Some of the ordinary comic books have illustrations revealing crude sexual details if you look at them in a certain way. The shoulder of a man with a red scarf around his neck shows a girl’s nude body. This is so clear that it can induce the immature reader to look for such things and stir him up sexually.

I am imagining this being written between bouts of sweaty, frantic panting.
posted by The Whelk at 2:10 PM on September 25, 2013 [6 favorites]


I prefer the summary:

In ordinary comicbooks, there are pictures within pictures for children who know how to look.

...and then you grow up to be Grant Morrison.
posted by Artw at 2:14 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Those kids need a pack o' Camel straights is what they need.
posted by Mister_A at 2:30 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]






You've got to give Wertham credit, he was on the nose with respect to how racist some of that shit was.
posted by edheil at 4:40 PM on September 25, 2013


Well, after reading her a bunch of CS Lewis it seemed the right thing to do. Maybe Dark Materials next...
posted by Artw at 4:40 PM on September 25, 2013


You've got to give Wertham credit, he was on the nose with respect to how racist some of that shit was.

Hrrrmmmm...
posted by Artw at 4:42 PM on September 25, 2013


CRIMES WOMEN
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:04 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Presumably a CRIMER spin-off.
posted by Artw at 5:11 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


If anybody loves all that terrible old shit as much as I do, I strongly recommend you pick up both the excellent Fantagraphics collections of the work of insane genius Fletcher Hanks. Basil Wolverton was better at his craft, but nothing can surpass the sheer delightful madness of Hanks.
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:26 PM on September 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


Man, CS Lewis was what put me off Christianity.

Fortunately, my son is old enough that he can read the Captain Bobbette books by himself. He'll be very happy to learn that they're objectionable.
posted by sneebler at 5:59 PM on September 25, 2013


You can find many of these disgusting comics that will corrupt your mind and rot your soul at the Digital Comics Museum which has been mentioned here before, is totally awesome, and you should give 'em some money for archiving all of this sweet, sweet evil. And yes, it even includes Crimes By Women, and the thoroughly... impressive Phantom Lady.
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:27 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


Zack_Replica, you are my new hero.
posted by rifflesby at 1:44 PM on September 26, 2013






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