Jim Crocker of Modern Myths in Northampton, Massachusetts saw the comments on Mark Dudley's response to Steve Bennett's last column (see "Mark Dudley, Illustrator and Sequential Artist, on Steve Bennett's Latest Column" and "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--The Most Unexpected Black Lanterns of All"), and had this to say:

Just wanted to take a moment to comment on the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth that Mark Dudley's response to Steve Bennet's latest desperate pine for his lost childhood evoked.  My take was a little different, and that it's that Mr. Dudley was pretty much right on target.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I read non-judgmental words like 'perverted' and 'dysfunctional' (right out of Seduction of the Innocent!) used in relation to the no-worse-than-anything-on-prime-time soap opera antics on
the JLA book specifically marketed as the 'edgy' one.  I also smiled to read about how one does not discuss anything about one's sex life at work because it's just not appropriate.  Given that last response came from an 'Elementary School Librarian,' well, no, I'd guess you wouldn't discuss your sex life 'at work,' but if you were with the boys at the bar, and you had been in bed with two supermodels, might you not want someone to know that fact, especially if they showed up on the TV and the guys started talking about them?  Seriously, Hal may be a great guy, but he can't let everyone think only Ollie has any fun.

The idea that the "undergrounds" "died" because they weren't carrying the torch for decency and family values is as absurd as the Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Vertigo, Avatar, et. al. catalogs are full of sex and drugs.  They
didn't die, they went mainstream and guys like Crumb and Williams and Spain et al are hugely respected in the 'art comic' scene that has produced the comics that actually win mainstream literary awards.  But that's not the
superheroes they read as kids that they want back, so I can see how that stuff might have gotten by under the radar of some 'comics' readers.  Just a reminder that it's as much 'comics' as Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.

Luckily, though, there are comics for children!  Dozens of them, published regularly by most of the major publishers, including Marvel and DC, with thousands available in digest and TP form!  There are comics for fans of NCIS.  There are superhero comics where they talk about their love lives and superhero comics where the heroes are clean-cut American-born paragons of old-school virtue.  Pretend for a second that it's a big genre, with a big tent that can include every kind of story.  Making every superhero comic a culturally-homogeneous paean to 50s values isn't going to 'save comics.'  Retailers educating themselves about the vast array of options and how to sell them to different audiences, though, including offering smart, relevant, non-judgmental advice on what books to avoid with particular target audiences, might.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.