Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 17:10:03 CDT
From: Bill Hayes <[IANR 012] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]>
Subject: Volume 4 Issue 8 Part 4
February 22, 1994 The Comics List Weekly Vol. 4 No. 8 Pt. 4
This Week: Violence in Comics - 1989 Claremont Today Show interview
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From: Jim Perreault <[j--p] at [acsu.buffalo.edu]>
Subject: Claremont Today Show interview
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 94 8:49:22 EST
Here is a transcript of an interview that Chris Claremont did on the
Today Show a few years ago. The date on the file was Nov 28, 1989 so
it was probably aired a few days to a week before that.
Jim
What follows is an interview with Chris Claremont that was broadcast
last Tuesday morning on Today. Originally I posted this to the local
discussion, but I think perhaps more people would like to see it.
Bryant Gumbel: On After Eight today, violent comic books. Don't laugh, if you
haven't thumbed through a super hero comic lately you may be
shocked by whats on the shelf. It used to be the violence
was kids stuff. A BAM or POW to the jaw was the extent of it.
No mess or blood, but not anymore. In the last decade the
dosage of extreme graphic violence and sexual suggestiveness
has been on the increase, in many comic books, where the
primary color is red, blood red. The books may be costly, but
the blood flows freely. Grisly reality and outright sadism
has replaced the sanitized, bloodless violence of yesteryear.
As a result, some critics contend, a dark, excessively cruel
hostile world is often depicted. Pyschaitrist Dr, Thomas
Radecki has studied the trend, and he's concerned.
TR: We're getting used to the old violence. We want something more violent,
more thrilling, more exciting, more blood, more decapitations; something
more brutal and hideous than before.
BG: The increasing mature themes may in part be fueled by a growing number
of adult enthusiasts, who account for a significant percentage of sales.
Mind you not all superheroes have changed, some continue to fight crime the
old fashioned way. Yet on the same rack beside the realitively restrained
Spiderman you are likely to find: Green Arrow, kneeling in front of a
crucified prostitute; a bloody scene of Void Indigo; or a very adult
subject drawn in Electra:Assassin. Buddy Saunders operates a chain of
comic and hobby shops in Texas is among the many concerned by the
direction comics have taken. Doesn't the seal make it clear who the comics
supposed to be sold to?
BS: Your talking about the comics code?
BG: Yea.
BS: The code is no longer a guarantee in any way that the content is
appropriate for children. In most/ a great many comics do not have any kind
of seal at all.
BG: How do you determine at your shop whose able to buy what?
BS: With great difficulty. I don't think publishers are being very
responsible in providing retailers with the kind of information they need
when we order the books and when we receive the books. The information is
just not there very often.
BG: Talk to me about whose buying these kinds of books that I have laid out
in front of me. What/Whose your customer?
BS: Most customers are older readers. We have a hight percentage of adult
customers. We don't have a big problem there. My concern as a retailer
and as a parent, is that these comics are also being aggressively promoted
by publishers to the children's market. I don't know of any publisher or
retailer that doesn't want children as customers.
BG: Do you think the problem is that widespread? Have I picked out a
representative grouping with that piece of tape?
BS: The violence is extremely widespread. It is growing worse, and I feel
as a parent that I can't allow my children to read most of the action-
adventure super hero comics, in that particular genre.
BG: Let's talk to Chris Claremont a little bit. He may be one of the most
successful and best selling comic-book writer in America today and
Good morning Chris. "Good Morning" How come were seeing this? I mean
why are we seeing comics more violent than when you or I were kids?
CC: Well I think actually; When you said was that a representative sampling,
I don't think it was. It was a sampling of a specific end of the market,
and what you have in comics today is an offering by the publishers that
is as wide and varied as the audience. In the case of the Void Indigo and
the Electra:Assassin, those books are offered by Marvel's Epic comics line
which is an imprint specificly geared toward the adult market. On the
other hand, Marvel offers Star comics, which is for children and is
acceptable to very young kids; and the mainstream Marvel books, which are
geared supposedly/intentionally to the mainstream audience.
BG: Wait just a second, and we'll talk about the kid and the mainstream .
Let's put up that shot again of the Green Arrow in front of the prostitute.
That's pretty gory stuff, and yet I'm holding here a little statue/doll
[of Green Arrow] that is obviously meant for a child.
BS: May I interject here? D.C. feels that Green Arrow can be marketed to
children. They've told us that, and they continue to tell us that.
BG: What about it Chris?
CC: By the same token, you see a lot of Lucasfilm produce, for example
Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, marketed to kids and a lot of people
found material in that film objectionable. I think what you have here is
a dichotomy between the merchandising side of a comic book publisher (
or any publisher or a producer) and the creative side. What the publishers
are trying to do is to differentiate their material according to an
audience that is larger than there ever was.
BG: He says they're not differentiating it well enough.
BS: They are not.
CC: Well I think that has to come under a matter of opinion. I can personally
speak for Marvel which is trying very hard to address this problem; to give
the retailer enough information in its solicitations.
BS: Marvel is a much more responsible publisher than say D.C. Comics.
BG: Well you've written to the publisher, when they write, what do they tell
you?
BS: They tell me in essence that I'm from a backward state, that people on
the east and west coast are much more progressive, and that they feel
that this material is appropriate for the children. They tell me that this
kind of material is actually good for kids, it teaches them how the world
really is. And that leads to something else: the way women are handled in
these comics. If a were, I don't have a daughter. If I were/ If I had a
daughter I would be concerned about the message young kids are receiving in
as far as relationships with women. Read these comics and you get the
impression the only way you can have a relationship with a women is using a
gun or a knife.
CC: But I think again the flaw in the reasoning is the presumption that you
can apply this attitude to the entire industry and that isn't so. I think
that there are specific books that have to be addressed specifically.
BG: Do you think it is a parental problem or an industry problem. He's got
a good point which is 'Hey if you go to the movies _Debbie does Dallas_
is playing next to _Bambi_ , and you can rea anything you want on the
adult rack right next to _Shane_ in the library.' Why should your
attitude be different?
BS: Parents definitely have a responsibility, but the comics industry has a
responsibility too. I as a retailer have a responsibility to get the
appropriate material to the right audience. Without knowing whats in
comics now, if parents come in and tell me I should sell anything to
anyone, I guess I would acquiesce and not like it. But I don't think
parents feel that way.
BG: What do you mean, censorship?
BS: NO! Of course I don't want censorship.
BG: You want a ratings system?
BS: I would like to have, number one, when you order these comic books, for
the publishers to tell us what's going to be in them. That Green Arrow
comic that we saw [shown again] , D.C. told us that that could be sold
to children; and when we received it there was nothing there to tell us
it could be. It was labeled mature reader. D.C. tells us mature reader
means you can sell it to kids.
BG: Do you resist a ratings system?
CC: I figure it would be self-defeating and I think again Marvel has a de-
facto ratings system in the sence that you have separate imprints the way
a mainstream publisher would have separate imprints. But you also notice
in films when you have the PG and the R, the tendency is to push the
heavier and heavier stuff.
BG: I'm gonna have to stop this guys and end it like so many of the comics
do with a blurb at the bottom 'To be continued'
CC: Yea.
BG: Mr. Claremont, Mr. Saunders, thank you
CC & BS: Thank you.
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End part 4, more to follow...