The Double Standard

By Darick Robertson

On May 8, 2014 I was contacted by a producer from BBC radio’s “The JVS Show” in England. The producer and the host, Jonathan Vernon-Smith were friendly as they invited me to discuss what turned out to be a piece regarding a woman in Herefordshire who unfortunately discovered my Garth Ennis Co-Created comic “The Boys” in the children’s section of her local library.  

I was contacted to represent the comic, essentially, but I was a bit surprised by the tone of the questions, as the host off air was cordial, and when recording our interview, he took a bit more aggressive tone, as if I needed to be shamed for creating a comic that wasn’t for kids. The host described “The Boys” saying that ”The characters are Super-heroes living in a brutal world, and the stories often depict rape, sexual assault, violent attacks, and a large number of highly offensive sexual swear words.” He asked me “Do people really want those kind of images in a comic?” as if all people are in agreement about what is good and what isn’t. “The Boys” has been on the New York Times bestsellers list multiple times, and has won and has been nominated for many awards, including Best Series by the Eisner Awards, so someone must be enjoying it. 

This lead to a discussion with me where I needed to point out that these comics were never intended for children, and that comics enjoy a hearty audience of adult readers, but despite that, they read excerpted scenes from the dialogue out of context, and they reacted as if they had never seen or heard anything so vile. The offended woman had misread and misunderstood scenes of freaky and rough but consensual sex between Butcher and Rayner as “rape”, and Starlight’s induction into “the Seven” in issue three as if nothing like that ever happened before, when in fact, Ennis based that on true stories of the old Hollywood casting couches of yesteryear. That was his satire. But out of context, that element was lost. 

Anyone can take things out of a context and make it sound pointless and vulgar for vulgarity’s sake. For example:

“INT. REMEMBERED CAR – NIGHT

Joe’s thumbnail flares a match, exposing Anastasia on the car

seat with Joe, both nearly naked. Anastasia butterfly-kisses

Joe’s chest as he lights a cigarette.

ANASTASIA

Say you love me. Just say it.

JOE

Okay. I love you.

Anastasia purrs as her lips find Joe’s breast, trying to

nurse. A flashlight flares suddenly through the car window.

NIGHTMARE – MULTIPLE SPLIT SCREEN

Low angle Ratso bending over Joe, into camera…

… Sally Buck shocked, hand still on switch…

… Joe blinded by halation…

… Anastasia’s mouth screaming soundlessly…

… flashlights multiplying on car window…

Full frame — Anastasia catatonic in hospital gown — a

woman’s voice “What’d he do to you, Annie?”…

… gang-bang ratpack surrounding car with flashlights…

… Jackie shrieking “He loves her he loves her”…

… hands closing on Joe’s buttocks…

… hand closing on Joe’s naked left foot…

… hand on naked right foot…

… dentist leaning over Joe’s mouth…

… hands pulling Joe’s legs apart…

Zoom close-up — Anastasia screaming soundlessly…

… thermometer under Little Joe’s tongue…

… Sally Buck shoves chocolate in her mouth…

… bewigged poodle licks her fingers…

… Sally Buck hangs enema can on bedpost…

… Ratso leads ratpack chasing naked Anastasia…

… corona of flashlights…

Anastasia screaming soundlessly — flashlight shoved into her

mouth — electronic rock blasting…

… blank-eyed go-go girl in dance hall window…

… Joe held naked by ratpack…

… Ratso breaking beer bottle on Everett’s bar…

… dwarf laughing on television…

… Ratso aims broken bottle at Joe’s crotch…

… shooting gallery cowboys riddle Joe’s pelvis…

Anastasia catatonic in courtroom — between gaunt parents -

whining singsong “Raped her raped her Joe Buck raped her”…

… Fat Boy’s mouth finds Joe’s breast, tries to nurse…

… Sally Buck kisses him open-mouthed…

… slug crawls up Joe’s stomach, trailing mucus…

… Cass’s poodle laps at his toes…

… butterflies settle on his eyes…

Anastasia catatonic in courtroom between parents — who are

now O’Daniel and Sally Buck…

… drawling voice “evidence of repeated violations”…

… Bill Bonner in flag-cloth judge’s robe…

… police advancing, swinging night sticks…

… Joe running into Times Square, suddenly naked…

… Anastasia sitting in all-night cafeteria…

… freaky child running toy mouse over her naked body…

Siren screaming — Anastasia staring catatonic from rear

window of ambulance…

… ambulance racing away…

… Joe chasing naked after ambulance…

… running into the arms of the police…

… Ratso laughing as police beat Joe…”

Sounds terrible when you read it, but that ‘s an excerpt from Waldo Salt’s 1969 academy award winning screenplay “Midnight Cowboy” and if necessary, one could describe it as such:  ”The characters are a thief and a male prostitute living in a brutal world, and the story depicts rape, sexual assault, violent attacks, and a large number of highly offensive sexual swear words.” 

But that film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay; and “It is the only X-rated film to win an Oscar in any category, and one of three X-rated films nominated for an Oscar.” It was a X-rated movie in 1969, an “R” rated movie as of 1971 and is a critically acclaimed, Academy award-winning film. 

Graphic Novels have an undue burden of being presumed that they are made exclusively for children the way that Spider-man and Batman have been in the past. But no other creative medium is held to that standard, that if something is made for children in a certain format, then all content in that format must be made safe for children to recognize and consume, lest they be exposed to something awful that they shouldn’t see. ”The Boys” graphic novels are indicated on the cover as being for mature readers, but somehow if something is illustrated, it’s implied that we’ve crossed an invisible line. The material is not for children, but that it might be confused as being for children somehow means those writers and artists creating adult stories for adult audiences should cease and desist; For the sake of the children that MIGHT see it. 

 Even though there are live action films about Spider-man and Batman, no one raises alarm when a film or television show has adult content for an adult audience, even if it includes superheroes (“Kick-Ass” and James Gunn’s “Super” for example have superheroes in them, but they weren’t made or rated for kids).

Actors and special effects can portray brutal scenes in 3-D realism and that is worthy of million dollar budgets and worldwide audiences, but if I sit in my studio and illustrate something comparable, I’ve crossed a line and such material should be banned from libraries and hidden away. That seems strange to me. I’d bet that the original novel for “Midnight Cowboy” and in all likelihood the DVD of the film is in that Herefordshire library for rent, somewhere. “The Sopranos” and “Game Of Thrones” have explicit scenes with actual people performing them on television, and those are two of the highest rated, award winning shows from the last 10 years. However, those shows aren’t dismissed for having extreme adult content, they are celebrated. 

All rock music is not without suggestive themes and lyrics, but kids might hear it. All movies are not made for a general audience, and are easily accessible. Not all television shows are for all audiences. Somehow, though, comics get relegated to a standard that if they are not made clearly for children, they are a bigger offender. The real world is far worse than anything I’ve drawn. I hear all day in the news, far more real and awful things than anything in our fictional comic about people with costumes and super powers that they abuse. The actual world and real headlines, such as the tragic story of the Nigerian schoolgirls who have been kidnapped by terrorists, raped and sold into slavery are far more disturbing. At least in our stories, such terrorists meet a fitting justice. I draw the stuff that horrifies and disgusts me as a way of turning my fears into art.  

There are consequences to the terrible stuff that happens in our stories, because it’s fiction, there’s an order to it. But it’s not just there to shock and titillate, but it was described as such. I felt our material was treated with prejudice and bias, because it was in graphic novel format, but was not actually read and clearly misunderstood. 

 The reality is that no one actually gets hurt when I draw a picture of something terrible. No actual woman is degraded in the real world, and no actual person dies or bleeds. Horrible things exist in everyday reality, but somehow if we illustrate them in a fictional story, because our medium is words and pictures, we’ve somehow gone too far. Just because we are depicting evil and brutality in illustrated, sequential art doesn’t mean that we’re condoning the actions or celebrating evil. Evil sometimes needs to be depicted for the sake of story. It’s all just make believe! And no, children shouldn’t read it, but clearly the adult, rational person in the segment didn’t read it either. She just reacted to what she saw and assumed that it was aimed at her children. But it wasn’t. Somebody made a mistake. “Game of Thrones” has dragons and Kings, Queens and Princesses; but I wouldn’t show it to children. Opening the comic and reading it would have prevented that mistake. One glance tells you what you’re in for, and that’s where this segment began. But the segment attacks the material first and takes the library to task secondly. 

If you only saw the violent bits of “Kill Bill” “Django Unchained” or “Goodfellas”, you would miss the context. Even the opening scenes of “Saving Private Ryan” and “Lincoln” are full of gut wrenching blood and violence.

So there’s a double standard there. It’s absolutely reasonable to look at something that offends you and say “This is not for me” but I don’t think it’s reasonable to decide that for everybody else. So perhaps the dilemma isn’t our content, perhaps it’s the publisher’s rating system and that library’s reaction to a lack of a clear rating system.

This issue has been debated for decades, going back to the 50′s when Dr.Frederic Wertham wrote a book called “Seduction Of The Innocent” and it lead to comics being censored by the Federal Government in the USA. You can see the full story in a brilliant documentary called “Comic Book Confidential”. It all seems funny until you realize that in 1955, attitudes about comics lead to a Federal Government mandated censorship and practically drove William Gaines’ EC Comics out of business. 

This is a segment from 1955’s “Confidential Report” A report by Paul Coates. (Directed by “Empire Strikes Back” director Irvin Kershner!) http://tinyurl.com/p7mt5ll 

Amazing how the conversation hasn’t changed very much. 

(In all fairness, I want to be clear the the JVS show brought on a Graphic Novel aficionado who defended “The BOYS” and it’s better qualities, as well as being considerate enough to include me in their conversation, and I thank them.)