Enough! Enough Already!

Yesterday, Reuters reported that in Action Comics #900, Superman is mulling over renouncing his American citizenship and becoming a citizen of the world. Last year, Archie Comics announced that there would be an openly gay character hanging out in Riverdale. Last season, the NFL had players wearing pink gloves and cleats to bring awareness to breast cancer.

I hate to sound all unpoliticalcorrectthink, but I am sick and damn tired of being preached to when all I want to do is enjoy myself.

I know, I know, I'm selfish, I'm heartless, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, I know there are problems in this world. Got it. But does the world's problems have to be advertised in every medium ? Why can't I read a comic book without being preached to about social justice or the flaws of American foreign policy ? Why can't my kid read an Archie comic book without being preached to about equality for homosexuals ? Why can't I watch the Miami Dolphins embarrass themselves without being reminded of the horrors of breast cancer ?

Here's a news flash for DC Comics, Archie Comics, and the NFL: (And this goes double for the bourgeois socialists in Hollywood) We The People want to be entertained. We don't want or need to be preached to every waking moment. If the entertainment industry would stop being so self-righteous for a second, it would realize that We The People are not idiots. We know the world sucks and sometimes we need an escape from it.

Here's a news flash for DC Comics, Archie Comics, and the NFL: [ . . . ] We don't want or need to be preached to every waking moment.

As a lad, I bought comics in the '70s with the expectation that they would appreciate in value like the comics in the '40's did. The truly valuable collectibles are those things that no one would think to keep. I also liked reading them.

But I was of the last generation of kids reading comic books.

If you look at Gesell guide to child development (written in 1950s), ten years old is the peak of boys reading superhero comics. Now, go to one of the few stores that still carries comic books (e.g. Borders) and pick up sone of the non-Manga superhero titles, and it is clear that they are now trying to sell comic books to the same generation that was buying them in the '70s. Too many insider references, certainly a lot of subject matter innapropriate for youngsters.

IF a comic book can find a way to make its story onto the newswire or blogs, then the odds of a bunch of people who ordinarily don't buy them might pick up a copy. Collectors always like round numbers, and #900 is pretty impressive in terms of comic book numbering (Action beginning in June, 1938).

So, it's like when Superman or Batman gets "killed" (always resurrected), Superman marries Lois Lane, or the entire comic book universe gets destroyed (Crisis on Infinite Earts), it is all about selling books. Then, after the comic sales drop off, it is time to bring back Superman, Batman the Barry Allen Flash, and all the rest.

Now, in the case of the Archie comic, I think that was a HUGE mistake. Except for the too perfectly shaped Betty, Veronica, Midge etc. wearing too little starting in the '60's, these comics were considered harmless compared to the horror/crime/satire genres erupting in the 50's (See "The ten cent plague").

Once in a while, Archie comics were even open to explicitly Christian mesages (sometimes coming from unlikely characters like Mr. Lodge).

The homosexual character introduced certainly gave Veronica #200 a big bump in sales. Tens of thousands of aging sexual deviants bought a copy to place next to the Playbill from La Cage Aux Folles and a stack of Barry Manilow CDS.

The cost to Archie Comics is that parents can never trust the content of said comic magazine ever again. And youngsters who don't want that stuff in their comic books will avoid them. And frankly, they should NOT have let Jughead anywhere NEAR that character; he takes enough abuse as it is.

Comic strips, and by extension comic books, have a reader base that is more averse to change than most. Dagwood must never get a new hair cut. Dilbert's tie must (almost) always be sticking out. Lex Luthor and I (Dr. Sivana) must always be trying to take over the world. It could well be that we are pretty much at the end of (non-manga) comic books as a medium. Better to let it die than to ruin an entire epic history with cheap shots of heroin like a deviant Archie character or a Superman who rejects the American Way.

Another thing I can’t stand is all these businesses that advertise that they are “green” and the endless sponsoring of various “charitable” events, bike rides for various cancers, mailing in seals from yogurt etc.

I always get the feeling that companies aren't showing support for sufferers of diseases so much as exploiting them. "Ad Exec: The disease of the year is breast cancer. We'll cut our red dye usage by 50% to get pink, print a ribbon on the packaging and sell the hell out of how much we oppose cancer. We should net $250 million from it. Any other diseases? How about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis? What do you mean that the New York Yankees already have Lou Gehrig's disease trademarked? Run it by legal before we start fighting the the Steinbrenner family."

“. . . it’s becoming almost like liberal mind control.”

And you’re right again. The “announcements” or advocacies are never for things I care about.

Even one of my favorite shows, “Bones”, pushes that stinking Prius by integrating the car into the show. Last night, it showed the car parking itself. Moments after that, a Toyota ad played. It was for the Highlander. The ad series for the Highlander is one of the most offensive I have seen in a long time. There are several, all with the same theme - parents are uncool and need their children to choose their vehicles for them.

It’s not so much the money as it is the angst.

So you feel sorry for starving children, you feed the children. Then, no matter what you do, there are even more starving children.

Combine that with the angst produced by advertisers. NEVER believe, even for a second, that advertisers are doing you any sort of favor.
They are there for one purpose: to make you unhappy with what you have so that you will go out and do something different. That seems to me to be pretty much the bottom line. Perhaps I’m a bit too cynical, but if I am, it’s not by much!

We are a people who are basically being programmed to be unhappy.

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