Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
From: [m--nl--y] at [ecn.purdue.edu] (editorsaurus rex)
Subject: SELF Magazine article on "adult" comics
Date: Tue, 17 May 1994 05:05:24 GMT

  In the April 1994 issue of SELF Magazine (a "health and fitness"
  slick aimed toward women) there is the following article:

  "Pow Zap Porn"  by Stefan Kanfer, pp 162-165

  The tag line reads: "Adult comics loaded with hostile images of 
  women are catching on big time."

  The article is accompanied by "sight bites" taken from panels of
  CATWOMAN, GHOST, a couple other CGW titles, and two black & whites
  (BETTY IN BONDAGE, I believe, and another unnamed).

  IMHO: The article is biased against the comics industry, save for
  any "acceptable" works (MAUS is mentioned favorably, as is Matt
  Groenig's LIFE IN HELL--I wonder if someone's read LIH carefully
  and consistently over the years).  Quotes from other artists and
  sellers are either taken out of context or are the answers to
  leading questions.  It seems to make every man involved in the
  comics industry a misogynist.  The author actually seems to side
  with Wertham (of SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT) in the 50's hearings,
  and manages to make Bill Gaines famous statement about the
  severed head, which I have always read as a mockery of the Wertham
  witch-hunt, into something for the reader to be incensed by.

  Throughout the article, the author refers to "adult" comics, when
  nothing shown in the "sight bites" in the layout even, to my
  knowledge, got a "mature readers" label.  One wonders what the
  author would think of some of Rhino Press' books.

  The author, who claims to be a "believer" in the First Amendment,
  reccomends complaining to the publishers as private citizens.  I
  can agree with that.  However, he also brings up Janet Reno's
  current attack on the television industry, which seems to have
  prompted the editor of SELF to set up a phone poll asking the 
  following question: (page 30)

	The story that begins on page 162 exposes the adult
	comics books, loaded with images hostile toward women,
	that are now flooding the market.  The old self-regulating
	code of the Comics Magazine Association of America is
	toothless.  No one in the federal or private sector is
	willing to suggest a definition of comic-book quality.
	
	What should be done?  When you call SELF, 212-880-5555,
	you'll be able to give your yes-or-no opinion on the
	following issue.
	
	QUESTION:
	Should there be hearings by a committee of Congress to
	investigate the effects of violence and hostility
	toward women in adult comic books?
 
  Now, I have called this number and found that the poll has already
  been changed to another question, BUT the voice-mail bulletin
  board at the number listed above does let you leave messages for
  the editor of SELF.  I left mine, asking her if she would like
  a Congressional investigation on the effects of magazines like
  SELF on women, with its concentration on advertising that promotes
  unrealistic body images as something to be striven for.

  But I digress.

  I will not distribute the article over the Net.  Sorry, but I don't
  have permission from SELF to do that, and I doubt I'd get it.  If 
  someone else would like to do so, that's their business.

  My office-mate subscribes to this magazine, and I will summarize any
  letters they publish regarding the article, as well as the poll results.

  However, I do urge anyone who is concerned with this issue to look
  the article up, read it, and then leave a message on the editor's
  voice maildrop.  Once the idea "comics = bad" reaches a mainstream
  slick like SELF, I begin to feel more than a bit wary.

  SELF Magazine
  Voice BBS: (212)880-5555
  FAX:       (800)228-SELF
  Mail:  ATTN: Reader Correspondent
         SELF, 5th Floor
         3550 Madison Avenue
         New York, NY  10017

  Sorry I don't have the editor's name on me; I cut the article out
  of the magazine for my "Now I'm Pissed" file, but didn't get the
  masthead.
  
  Thanks,

  M.S. Manley
  
--
------------------------  [m--nl--y] at [iies.ecn.purdue.edu]  ------------------------
Editor-in-chief,    |BSE 1992: Software Engineering     |       Quod
Sycamore Review and |MA  1995: Creative Writing, Fiction|      Scripsi
Rain Crow Press.    |   You got a problem with that?    |      Scripsi.


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