What happened to DC Comics?

[Arizona_Mike]

I enjoyed some of their Sgt. Rock types of comics, war comics. The Flash is a good comic, more or less. It’s not the same thing as when one could buy a comic for less than a dollar, less than a half-dollar and they were entertaining, now if you pay $4 for a comic, the artwork may be good but I don’t think the story-telling is very good.

I read all of the brands of comics, Marvel is probably the most popular brand but I didn’t care for that, I enjoyed even Charlton, the kid’s comic company Harvey Comics (Richie Rich, Casper the friendly ghost, etc.). Those children’s comics were actually probably pretty good, Little Audrey and so on.

I read a lot of Charlton, too. For a Catholic, I was a pretty big fan of Hot Stuff, the little devil kid, and Stumbo the Giant, his back-up feature. I think the theology of Hot Stuff was a little obscure (how did devils have a kid?) but the stories were often charming.

Charlton was interesting, as publishing comics was kind of a second thought for the company. They had a massive printing press business that took up much of the town of Darby, Connecticut and which printed magazines, newspapers, etc. night and day, so to shut down the presses cost money. They started publishing comics as just an extra income source and to keep the presses and printers from becoming idle. They did some interesting work (especially when Steve Ditko worked for them). I liked a lot of their war comics, too. Their superhero line was eventually bought by DC when Charlton went under and became the basis of DC’s popular “Watchmen” books.

Comics are a great medium for education. The Army realized that and hired comic book legend Will Eisner to create a comic book that taught proper maintenance for army vehicles and weaponry (“PM,” featuring Sergeant Halftrack and Connie and Bonnie). Comics are used nowadays by the major publishers (DC and Marvel), often to advance a social and secular agenda without much pushback by Catholics.

As I’ve written before, Catholicism has a long history of using comic books as a form of education and evangelism, through the long-running Catholic comic book “Treasure Chest,” which ran from 1946 to 1972 and which was given to us in class in parochial school and was a high-point of the month for every kid. The UCCB should restart it - it would be a great tool for education and catechesis. I would love to write for it.

You can find several on-line archives for all the issues, such as here: archives.lib.cua.edu/findingaid/treasurechest.cfm

http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/26305/vol01no03-01display.jpg

http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/28744/vol15no18-11display.jpg

http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/29281/vol18no12-14display.jpg

http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/29278/vol18no09-30display.jpg

http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/29278/vol18no09-27display.jpg

 

[edwest2]

I’m new here so forgive me if this thread is in the wrong spot. Any ways I am a casual comic book reader and cant help but notice whats been going on in dc comics. Some chaacters are gay( like alan scott the old green latern), Others are lesbian(batwoman), and even bisexual(one of the creators confirmed constantine is bisexual). I am not sure if they have always been that and not to mention the over-sexualized(little to no clothing) of the super-heroines. Just wanna know people’s thought on this. Also, looking forward to the new dc comic movies?

P.S who is the character inbewteen red tornado and zattana and the character inbewteen fire and firehawk in the first image?

moviepilot.com/posts/2014/05/26/justice-league-movie-who-can-we-expect-to-see-1449549?lt_source=external,manual

DC Comics and comic books in general no longer have standards. They have been taken over by people who have an agenda. This agenda is far more important than telling good stories. As a person who knows people currently working in the comic book industry, including Marvel and DC, they simply do as they’re told. As an artist who enjoys drawing superheroes, I would never work for either company. Relativism has infected too many comic books and publishers.

There used to be a “Comics Code Authority” that reviewed all comic books to ensure they were suitable for children and adults and did not contain offensive or immoral content. I will never buy a modern comic book again. I sometimes buy the older books because I was assured that the content was about fun, intriguing and unusual stories, not about political agendas. Comics are for kids and I applaud the father who took his son to a comic book store, looked at what he selected and put some comics back on the shelves since he was a responsible parent. He didn’t want his son to believe that bad was good.

Also, a long-time comic book collector I work with summed it up: “I want superheroes that are heroic.” Too often, some “heroes” are just a little less bad than the bad guys. Anti-heroes, revenge heroes, immoral heroes. Comics have been spiraling downward for a while now in terms of content. I have access to actual sales numbers and it’s really sad. Comics, especially superhero comics, should be about heroics, not agendas.

I still look at the occasional modern comic and put it back. Hopefully, one day, the management of these companies will wake up, but like the rest of the media, I think it’s safe to say it won’t happen anytime soon.

Best,
Ed

 

[edwest2]

I didn’t grow up reading comic books (or doing a lot of mainstream stuff; I was pretty sheltered) so I don’t know everything about the hobby. I also haven’t seen how these characters are “coming out” and how their orientation is portrayed.

And when you say “children” what age are you talking about? Like adult humor in animated movies I imagine the sexual orientation goes over their heads. You are concerned about the message being sent, as am I, but I have don’t have a problem with a regular superhero character being gay. There are going to be young people who are gay so why not let them have their hero, not some special character that disappears after an issue but a regular character that just happens to be gay.

I’d rather they skip the marriage stuff. How often do comic book characters get married anyway? Because if they typically don’t then gay characters shouldn’t be either. Also, how many characters are gay? I think it’s silly to have so many gay characters it might as well be a gay comic. I don’t care which side one falls on - ham handed agendas are annoying.

bleedingcool.com/2011/11/23/exclusive-archie-comics-gay-wedding-cover/

Ed

 

[Path_Finder]

I read a lot of Charlton, too. For a Catholic, I was a pretty big fan of Hot Stuff, the little devil kid, and Stumbo the Giant, his back-up feature. I think the theology of Hot Stuff was a little obscure (how did devils have a kid?) but the stories were often charming.

Charlton was interesting, as publishing comics was kind of a second thought for the company. They had a massive printing press business that took up much of the town of Darby, Connecticut and which printed magazines, newspapers, etc. night and day, so to shut down the presses cost money. They started publishing comics as just an extra income source and to keep the presses and printers from becoming idle. They did some interesting work (especially when Steve Ditko worked for them). I liked a lot of their war comics, too. Their superhero line was eventually bought by DC when Charlton went under and became the basis of DC’s popular “Watchmen” books.

Comics are a great medium for education. The Army realized that and hired comic book legend Will Eisner to create a comic book that taught proper maintenance for army vehicles and weaponry (“PM,” featuring Sergeant Halftrack and Connie and Bonnie). Comics are used nowadays by the major publishers (DC and Marvel), often to advance a social and secular agenda without much pushback by Catholics.

As I’ve written before, Catholicism has a long history of using comic books as a form of education and evangelism, through the long-running Catholic comic book “Treasure Chest,” which ran from 1946 to 1972 and which was given to us in class in parochial school and was a high-point of the month for every kid. The UCCB should restart it - it would be a great tool for education and catechesis. I would love to write for it.

You can find several on-line archives for all the issues, such as here: archives.lib.cua.edu/findingaid/treasurechest.cfm

Thank you, I am sure I will read every single page.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I quit reading comic books years ago. They just became unbearable. When I read up on current storylines and trends now, I’m often left scratching my head. A big part of why I quit reading and can’t bear the thought of getting back into it is that a lot of the sex put into comics seems to be written by porn-addicted, emotionally and developmentally stunted fanboys who have never talked to a real girl, let alone kissed one or been in a relationship. I’ve seen too many stories where they work in inappropriate innuendos about the sexual ramifications of a character’s powers, and the last time I was in a comic shop literally every book I picked up had some degree of gratuitous sexual content. As for the sexual preferences of the various characters, a few months ago I was reading up on some current characters on Wikipedia and at least half the ones I looked up were either gay or bisexual. When my son was younger he went through a period where he started getting into comics. That was the last time I read current comics with any regularity. As much as I had to police his purchases back then, there’s no way I’d let our younger kids read comics now, other than the kids comics they pick up on Free Comic Book Day.

 

[edwest2]

I quit reading comic books years ago. They just became unbearable. When I read up on current storylines and trends now, I’m often left scratching my head. A big part of why I quit reading and can’t bear the thought of getting back into it is that a lot of the sex put into comics seems to be written by porn-addicted, emotionally and developmentally stunted fanboys who have never talked to a real girl, let alone kissed one or been in a relationship. I’ve seen too many stories where they work in inappropriate innuendos about the sexual ramifications of a character’s powers, and the last time I was in a comic shop literally every book I picked up had some degree of gratuitous sexual content. As for the sexual preferences of the various characters, a few months ago I was reading up on some current characters on Wikipedia and at least half the ones I looked up were either gay or bisexual. When my son was younger he went through a period where he started getting into comics. That was the last time I read current comics with any regularity. As much as I had to police his purchases back then, there’s no way I’d let our younger kids read comics now, other than the kids comics they pick up on Free Comic Book Day.

I’d be buying comic books today if it wasn’t for the things you mentioned. If I had a boy that showed interest in comics, I would find either original or reprint comics that I read as a boy. And this isn’t about nostalgia, but right and wrong. God willing, I’ll be writing and penciling comic books as I once did (lettering was a chore but it was fun as well). A sense of wonder, awe and, like a movie, briefly visiting a fictional world was great. Today? Politics and gratuitous sexual content.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I’d be buying comic books today if it wasn’t for the things you mentioned. If I had a boy that showed interest in comics, I would find either original or reprint comics that I read as a boy. And this isn’t about nostalgia, but right and wrong. God willing, I’ll be writing and penciling comic books as I once did (lettering was a chore but it was fun as well). A sense of wonder, awe and, like a movie, briefly visiting a fictional world was great. Today? Politics and gratuitous sexual content.

Peace,
Ed

When my son first got into them the one local comic shop had a cheap box full of comics (almost all Marvels) from the late 70s through mid 80s or so. Nobody else was buying them and since he knew I was giving them to my son, the owner would usually let us take whatever we wanted. It was great because we’d come home with a stack of 20-40 books and each of us would take half, read them, then trade. Years later, we tried doing that with more current comics but there were very few that I wanted to read myself, or that I would let him read, even as a teenager. Aside from the content, the stories were so decompressed (fewer panels per page, less actual story content per panel) that you were only getting about 1/2 to 3/4 of what you used to get per issue. From what I’ve read, with $4-5 cover prices, it’s even worse now. The last time my son picked up any comics was a year or so ago. They were bad enough that even he decided to stop reading them.

 

[BrokenWing]

I can’t draw my way out of a wet paper bag with openings at both ends…I really enjoy the concept of Comic Book Heroes, I’m also a huge fan of Superman but I don’t typically read comics. I find that most comic stories just get really bizzare and hard to follow at a surprisingly fast pace. This year I started watching the more recent Justice League cartoon which I have really found entertaining. I also went back to playing Champions Online off and on (when I’m not busy with Star Trek Online) and spent some time recreating my Super Hero character, the Time Siphon.

With all this going on, I decided to try and get into a comic, so I look up several and found that I was turned off by most of them. We had Lesbian Batgirl, the overly eye roll inducing half-black, half-Hispanic Spiderman (I actually don’t care about the race, the eye-roll comes from the half and half, where it just looks like Marvel is hoping to get both more black and Hispanic readers for one book, not making a compelling black or Hispanic character), female Thor (again…I love female super heroes, so make a new one that stands on her own and doesn’t have to first launch from a successful male hero’s series), and some really weird Batman stuff.

I did however, find Captain Marvel. I’ve found her series really interesting so far, the story-line hasn’t gotten wacky and she’s in a normal relationship with a person that I can actually believe exists somewhere. While it’s true there have been male Captain Marvels, the character has been re-written from the ground up several times and at this point “Captain Marvel” is as much a call sign as anything. I’m still waiting for the proverbial shoe dropping though. I half expect a perfectly straight character to suddenly become gay (Torchwood, you were so promising) or a tri-racial character to show up that just happens to hit several important demographics. Incidentally, Marvel is terrible with this sort of pandering.

I have also seen Ms. Marvel. I haven’t read her book, but that character is a Muslim American Citizen. No problems there except the excerpt I read had me rolling my eyes. There was a quote from the Koran that I happened to know and it was just oh so slightly re-written by Marvel so it couldn’t be interpreted in the way it was meant to be read. If you’re going to have a Muslim character, treat the faith appropriately and don’t edit their holy book to be more politically correct.

 

[Maxirad]

A big part of why I quit reading and can’t bear the thought of getting back into it is that a lot of the sex put into comics seems to be written by porn-addicted, emotionally and developmentally stunted fanboys who have never talked to a real girl, let alone kissed one or been in a relationship.

No offense, but even though I’m well into my thirties, I can’t say that I’ve ever been on a romantic date–let alone kissed a human female. I’d prefer to read a comic book from the '70s or '80s myself.

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

I’m new here so forgive me if this thread is in the wrong spot. Any ways I am a casual comic book reader and cant help but notice whats been going on in dc comics. Some chaacters are gay( like alan scott the old green latern), Others are lesbian(batwoman), and even bisexual(one of the creators confirmed constantine is bisexual). I am not sure if they have always been that and not to mention the over-sexualized(little to no clothing) of the super-heroines. Just wanna know people’s thought on this. Also, looking forward to the new dc comic movies?

P.S who is the character inbewteen red tornado and zattana and the character inbewteen fire and firehawk in the first image?

moviepilot.com/posts/2014/05/26/justice-league-movie-who-can-we-expect-to-see-1449549?lt_source=external,manual

Lesbian have been less than amused about Batwoman after W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III left.

autostraddle.com/drawn-to-comics-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rape-in-batwoman-266910/

Batwoman being a lesbian has turned into yet another case of women’s sexuality being used to service heterosexual males.

You’ve seriously got to wonder where the values of DC when they won’t let Batwoman marry her girlfriend, but lesbian rape is acceptable.

 

[Pat_Albertson]

P.S who is the character inbewteen red tornado and zattana

Elongated Man

and the character inbewteen fire and firehawk in the first image?

I don’t know.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

No offense, but even though I’m well into my thirties, I can’t say that I’ve ever been on a romantic date–let alone kissed a human female. I’d prefer to read a comic book from the '70s or '80s myself.

I’m guessing you understand what sort of personality I’m describing. If you’ve been around comic book/geek culture enough, you certainly know the sort of mindset I described. That breed of fanboy seems to constitute the bulk of who’s creating comic books nowadays. Back in the 70’s and 80’s you still had adult professionals creating the books. It wasn’t until the early 90s that you really started getting the lunatics running the asylum. Now the old, competent professionals can barely find work while the sex and violence-crazed, pin-up splash page storytelling imbeciles are in control of the industry. When the people creating the books are the ones who grew up on the Rob Liefeld imitators, you have virtually no chance of finding anything of substance from the big two.

 

[edwest2]

I’m guessing you understand what sort of personality I’m describing. If you’ve been around comic book/geek culture enough, you certainly know the sort of mindset I described. That breed of fanboy seems to constitute the bulk of who’s creating comic books nowadays. Back in the 70’s and 80’s you still had adult professionals creating the books. It wasn’t until the early 90s that you really started getting the lunatics running the asylum. Now the old, competent professionals can barely find work while the sex and violence-crazed, pin-up splash page storytelling imbeciles are in control of the industry. When the people creating the books are the ones who grew up on the Rob Liefeld imitators, you have virtually no chance of finding anything of substance from the big two.

That is what happened. Those who wanted change at any cost. Those who wanted control at any cost. And those who decided seasoned professionals, with standards, would do nothing but get in the way of new blood. And the new is always better than the old, right? The reality is this: do whatever you want, but expect me to not buy your version of comic books along with others. This ‘new normal’ will disappear because there are talented people who have standards and who can do comic books with real heroes with standards as well.

Human nature being what is, the descent into the dark was predictable. As a publishing professional, I encourage others to do what they can - positive things.

Peace,
Ed