Just to broaden the the discussion a bit, what don't you want your kid reading, and why don't you want them reading that stuff? I only ask because I had no one filtering what I read, and looking back I'm really grateful for it.
I appreciate that those were different times in that there were probably fewer comics containing adult content (sex, realistic or pornographic violence), and that those that did were reasonably clearly signposted, but some of the stuff I was reading was pretty edgey. 2000AD, for example, was punk in comic form. It was scary, nihilistic and much more violent than, say, the vast majority of popular American comics. It was also fantastically imaginative, innovative, politically conscious, humourous and featured some pretty out there art that never failed to bend my 9 year-old head, but, ya know, in a good way. Amongst many other things, it introduced me to racial conflict, politically motivated abuses of power, the concept of law (and issues of jurisprudence), environmentalism, the anti-hero and the deconstruction of the heroic narrative. Through 2000AD I had my first exposure to Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, along with numerous other talented and thoughful creators. 2000AD also spurred me to pick up other British comics like Scream - a wonderfully imaginative, surprisingly nasty (if not particularly graphic) horror anthology comic, that fuelled my fantasy life for pretty much the length of its run. And later books like Crisis - a "mature readers" book that tackled global poverty, political corruption and, again, the abuse of power - and Revolver - the comic book companion to the rave scene, which augmented my teenage interest in psychedlia and surrealism.
My point is that I think that 2000AD actually did me a lot of good, even if it did sometimes scare and disturb me, and even if it did expose me to adult themes and grown up issues that might've been a little beyond the scope of my nascent mind.
I'm not trying to tell you that you should let your son read any old thing, but I think you should check any knee-jerk impulses. He might just benefit from being a little freaked out.
Of course, ask me again in a few years, once my soon-to-be-child is old enough to sniff around my comic collection, and I might have a very different opinion. |
