Some of you may have seen my Facebook post about this earlier in the week. On Wednesday I picked up an All Ages comic from my local shop I was purchasing it for my future classroom (more on that later). The cover was cute, reflecting the content of the comic. I have purchased other all ages comics from the same creators, and my students have really loved them. So I have nothing against the comic itself and what was is “All Ages.” Then I looked at the back cover, and cringed. You see the publisher of this specific comic seemed to think that the “All Ages” audience (little kids) would also enjoy reading about a scantily clad, woman who bathes in blood.
Here’s the description of the all ages comics (from Previews) “THIS is it kids! The Cross-Over EPIC Event of a lifetime! Finally, CAPTAIN ACTION CAT meets ACTION CAT and the characters from AW YEAH COMICS! There is something EVIL out there and EVIL CAT is determined to find it! Even if it means searching throughout the SILVER AGE to do it! Could this blip on the screen be the one known as DOCTOR EVIL CAT?! We bet it is! What will happen when the SILVER AGE and the AW YEAH AGE collide! What does this mean to the Time-stream? The Fate of the comic world may change forever! PLUS, a mysterious frozen souvenir from the GOLDEN AGE makes a visit! Brought to you by the EISNER and HARVEY Award winning, New York Times best-selling Famous Cartoonists-Art Baltazar & Franco! CAPTAIN ACTION CAT is based on the classic Action-Figure Adventure-toy CAPTAIN ACTION! True story.”
Here’s the description of the comic advertised on the back- “Set against the fairytale backdrop of knights and magic, Blood Queen begins with the heartbreaking plight of a royal child, teetering between life and death. Summoned to save the princess, a young woman of untold power begins a journey that will uncover secrets, reveal forbidden desires, and stoke the fires of war. Inspired by the notorious true story of the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, Blood Queen imagines the Renaissance era as a colorful nightmare of mayhem, lust, and sorcery.” I will not show the ad, but you can see it (and what one cool cartoonist dad did to it) in the link below.
To quote Sesame Street “One of these things is not like the other…” As a teacher who LOVES comic books and wants to expose my kids to great stories and reading I sadly can’t put Captain Action Cat in my classroom library because for some strange reason I like to be employed and the rather “mature” ad on the back of this all ages comic makes it impossible. I handed the comic to another teacher to use in her class as an example but warned don’t show the back cover, don’t let the kids read it, just show a page or two using your document camera. I’m rebuilding my school comic library and unfortunately, some titles just might not make the cut… that makes me sad.
So here’s my question, because this is not the first publisher to do something like this, “What are you thinking?” I know, you have sell comics, and I know it is hard to change something that has been standardized for your entire line, but c’mon. How am I supposed to promote comics in the classroom to teacher who are already skeptical when all you give me are more reasons for them to say “No”? See, I can’t fill my room with the stuff DC and Marvel produce, because for the most part they’re titles talk down to kids and are only based on cartoon shows that are tied to selling toys. Worst case they are just a weird version of fumetti with screen shots from the cartoon instead of photos. There are some great titles by regular publishers like Scholastic and Random House, but I want to make sure my kids get a variety of all ages comics. Great comics for kids that challenge them come from the independent creators and they don’t tend to produce regularly, and then when they do the publisher puts a massive advertisement on the back and a few in the actual comic to make it impossible for me to have it in my classroom.
I’m not the only one, but we shouldn’t ever have to go to such extremes:
CARTOONIST JOHN KOVALIC FOUND CHEESECAKE ON THE BACK OF HIS DAUGHTER’S COMIC BOOK… BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SOMETHING SOMETHING!
Thanks to the co-creator of Dexter’s Digs and The Brother’s Grant for sharing that link with me, it made me feel vindicated.
Feel free to comment with your favorite All Ages title- I know I don’t know them all, and would love to get more into my new classroom.
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That leads to the announcement that I will be returning to the classroom next school year! After two years dealing with fun and frustration of working with teachers and administrators I am really looking forward to getting back to a classroom and test, and test, and test my students day in and day out. Who knows I might end up discovering that they need to know about Countess Elizabeth Bathory and I’ve missed the chance to have third graders learn something new and important. What does this mean for My Geek Odyssey? I really don’t know, but I do know that when I was in the classroom before I was able to get a comic out more regularly, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. This summer I will be working on creating a sizable buffer (I know, I know, I’ve said that before) with lots of scantily clad monkeys in every strip.
Remember I’ll be at Indy Pop Con Booth 238 stop by and say “Hi” or yell at me about being a prude who likes to be gainfully employed. I’ll have stuff for sale.