Michael Tierney of Collector's Edition and The Comic Books Store in North Little Rock, Arkansas read Mark Dudley's most recent Talk Back (see "Mark Dudley, Illustrator and Sequential Artist, Responds") and offers his thoughts on establishing a uniform ratings system for comic books:

Mark Dudley recently wrote; " I think parents don't take enough responsibility when it comes to what their children do, see or hear."  That seems to be a common response to the subject of providing better content guidelines for comics.  But it misses the whole point.  That point is that parents do want to take responsibility for what their children read, and are looking for guidance to help them.  The problem is that the comics industry is lagging far behind in this area.  It's no wonder that every other kind of visual medium, all of which have already addressed this issue, are growing, while our print runs are shrinking.

The previous system established for parental concerns was the Comics Code Authority, and it was wretched.  No one will ever lament the CCA's passing, nor desire their return.  Right now we have the freedom to tell any kind of story that we wish, which the CCA once restricted.  No one wants those restrictions returned. But nothing cohesive has replaced it. Marvel has their own system.  DC does still use the CCA to a limited degree.  But they, like most of the Independent publishers, either don't reveal what the content levels are, or sell it with the catch-all phrase of "Suggested for Mature Readers," with no explanation as to why.  That's all there is to work with.

Without cohesive guidelines to assist retailers and inform parents, comics have become too difficult to sell.  People buy the wrong thing, then complain, and the establishment caught in the cross hairs of angry parents pulls the comics from their shelves and another outlet is lost.  Wal-Mart no longer sells comics in the South because of exactly this kind of scenario; neither do grocery stores nor so many other avenues that were once an entry point into the hobby.

Better tools are needed to help provide the information that parents demand.  But these tools are not a form of censorship.  A cohesive system of establishing Target Audience Guidelines (or whatever you want to call it) are an avenue to grow the comics industry, and enable us to continue telling any type of story that we wish.  If someone were advocating restrictions on comics content, I'd oppose that.  I've fought against censorship before, when the Arkansas legislature enacted an unrealistically restrictive rewrite of the state display law, Act 858, which has since been stricken and abolished.

I know there is resistance by some in the industry against providing what they term as 'labels.'  Misguided resistance, in my opinion, fueled by a fear of a return to the dreadful days of the CCA.  But this resistance is far outweighed by the demand from customers who desire more content information.  And, in my book, the customer trumps all other considerations.  Giving the customer what they want is the mantra of success in the business world. After all, I'm not here to hang art in a museum. I sell comics to the public.

This opinion was heavily reinforced when the statewide paper, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, recently featured me on the front page of their High Profile section.  It was a very flattering piece, well researched by reporter Ron Wolfe, also a published comics writer, who put special emphasis on the many times I've spoken out on this very subject.  For the last month, every parent entering my stores has thanked me for my efforts, and then spoken in great detail about their frustrations when trying to buy comics for their children.  This is something that parental customers need, and demand.

If we want our industry to start growing again, we need to be attentive to the needs of this segment of our customers who feel ignored, and not blame them when all they want to do is buy more of our product.

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.