James Deckert of Collector's Pair-of-Dice in Salina, Kansas saw Michael Tierney's call for uniform comic ratings (see 'Michael Tierney of The Comic Book Store on Comic Rating Systems') and sent us his thoughts:

 

I support a rating system on comics to help determine what is being sold.  This subject has been an ongoing subject on ICv2 and I have had several conversations with Diamond prior to it being discussed here.

 

I think the rating system should be structured similar to the TV ratings system so that a customer has specifics on what is contained in the comic.  'Adult' or 'Mature' tell me very little.  I don't know if it contains explicit sex scenes or there is gun violence.  It could just be a horror comic in the vein of the EC comics (no language, no nudity, just a story aimed at an older group of readers).

 

A couple of things I would disagree with Michael about though.  Someone who objectively informs me of what is contained in a product which I purchase (whether a third party or not) is not a censor.  My second disagreement is that comic publishers will consistently and objectively rate their own products.  They have a financial stake in selling the product and may prejudice their ratings.  Also it would not be consistent because different people (as well as different areas of the country) have different standards.

 

I would be interested in knowing how the Comics Code works here.  Do they read each book before it is released?

 

I think that standardization is the only way for this to work.  A board needs to review each book and rate it.  The board must have specific rules in place so that the publisher knows when he uses a certain word it will get the book an 'L' rating for language.  The rating needs to be placed on the cover of the comic in a consistent place in a standard size.  The customer should not have to search for it the way us retailers in the last few years have had to search for pricing and issue numbers on the cover (may be at the top, may be at the bottom, may be on the back, may be inside the cover, may be printed microsized, may be printed in orange on a red background, etc.).

 

It would be optimum if this was accomplished prior to the Previews ad, so the retailer could have a heads-up when ordering.  Maybe the exchange of information between publisher and ratings board could be accomplished over the web before the Previews ad is run.

 

Something else the writer/publisher should try to do is keep the rating the same for the whole series of issues.  The first issue of Fallen Angel should not be for all audiences, whereas issue 2 is for mature audiences.  Surely the writer/publisher would be aware of this kind of thing and rate it for mature audiences on issue one even if there is nothing in issue one which would be considered mature.  The reason for this is obvious.