-B

DeBT, thanks, I hadn’t seen that either. I don’t find the “it was a joke!” defense very compelling, since I don’t see anything funny about it, but if I recall correctly, this was also the comic shop that did a “photo shoot” with a scantily dressed woman leaning on the shelves and used a similar defense when people questioned that message about their customers.

DC is crazy baby-levels of sensitive about how co-op gets spent.

-B

Dwight, I think maybe it’s for the Batman movie? Given the media emphasis?

@gdwcomics, Understanding you’re using a bit of hybole with your question, the irony here is that companies like Viz are trying to re-establish themselves in the direct market. Look at the how the size of their Previews section has grown over the last year. With the closing of Borders and B&N cutting back on their manga sections, manga companies are finding that they have to return to their roots-the comic shops. So it feels like this poster is something of a backlash against the return of manga to the direct market.

They do here in California. They’re stupid if they don’t. Asian demographics and the more culturally adventurous tend to buy more manga and they tend to live on the west coast. However, I have seen comic shops in Texas selling entire rows of manga that rival those in my home state.

As a longtime reader of your column, I’m disappointed that you chose to indulge in this kind of hyperbole.

re: “I think the source of the report says so much about the intent of the report, don’t you? Hence the usage of the school-kids.”

Right. Because we never see the other side using kids to make a point do we? Oh wait….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7L3xpElK0Y

Whoops, looks like we do. Guess it’s okay as long as the kiddes are selling a message that you like, eh Dwight? Lord save me from hypocrites.

Do comic shops even sell Manga anymore?

Looking at it from the angle of pitting the superhero crowd (a catagory his customers no doubt fall into) against the manga crowd, then that kind of makes sense. It’s crass, but I get what they’re going for. Not so sure it’s a failure if they don’t sell manga in the first place.

I don’t see how any of this hurts DC at all. If anything it just serves to rally a fanbase that thinks the stuffy media snobs are attacking their comic books, much the same way music was attacked.

As for the labels, probably doesn’t matter much if they specify 13 or 18, just that they have something to say “look! We put a warning, see?”

“While the tone was definitely exaggerated muckraking”

I’m glad the comic book websites never engage in that sort of unseemly behavior and remain, as always, above the fray. :D

I think her point of going to the school was to broadcast a message of “THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!” Yet when she is the one exposing them to it herself, well…

Too bad she didn’t ask the kids if they even read comics as I doubt many have. Though that one kid that said “It’s kind of cool” may start thanks to her.:)

Yeah Catwoman and Red Hood’s first issues were about the sex. My main problem with Catwoman and Red Hood wasn’t that they were about sex, it was that they were badly done stories with sex.

I like stories with sex, heck Palmotti and Conner’s Power Girl issues had sexual innuendo out the wazaoo. Yet they were done so well that I enjoyed the heck out of it.

I’m not saying those books shouldn’t exist. I’m simply saying that if you sell books based on (for example) sex, you shouldn’t be surprised when someone else points that message out. Some of the reaction to the piece was “how dare they, they’re so wrong!” While the tone was definitely exaggerated muckraking, I think the underlying point is valid.

Santo, I agree, the logo isn’t bad when put on the top left corner of a comic. Looks pretty bad on a book spine, though.