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Sometimes you come across some amazing stuff on facebook like this photo that popped up and blew me away .
The photo of a man-child smoking a cigarette at the ripe-old-age of four and reading a Mickey Mouse comic book conjured thoughts of poster children for Dr. Fredrick Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. A chuckle or two later I was envisioning future Marvel and DC editors ensuring that the medium would grow and mature with their personal tastes leaving behind the more innocent subject matter that they enjoyed as children along with the audience it catered to.
This little kid would grow up to be one of the Comic Book Men from Kevin Smith’s new television venture on AMC, completely immersed in the medium, trapped in a twilight zone that only those of us who grew up with similar experiences could appreciate. I mean, there were girls that read comics when we were kids but 99.99% of them were able to shake off their passion for Archie and Lil’ Lulu. Something about comics always seemed to be a guy-thing and a certain kind of guy, derogatorily identified as geeks.
Of course we know that the stereotype, epitomized by The Forty Year Old Virgin and The Big Bang Theory is not really true. Guys that like comics just know something that people who don’t read comics do not. The comic medium is very special. It is a door to visual fantasy that has only recently been able to be matched by animation and live action film enhanced by CGI at a tremendous cost to the producers.
Thanks to Manga and more specifically Shojo, more women than ever have been bitten by the comics bug and it is this influx of the feminine touch that is beginning to blow the medium wide open. Web Comics, Indy Comics and even some of the mainstream comics are developing a sensitivity to all audiences. The idea of comics being limited to a narrow scope of genres is quickly becoming past history. We like to think that this broader scope is reflected here at CO2 Comics and we wany our readers take the time to explore our share of all that variety.
I hope that a show like Comic Book Men will make the effort to include more women into the club. The X-Men have women why can’t the Comic Book Men. Team Unicorn in their Katy Perry “Califoria Girls” parody entitled “Geek and Gamer Girls” sure had a lot of fun with the concept of women being included in this new world order of comics for everyone. Who knows, maybe some day there will be more comics for kids too, which will be fine by me so long as the little ones don’t light up while they read.
Comics are flammable after all.
Just ask Dr. Wertham.
Celebrating Thirty Years of Comics History!
Gerry Giovinco
Comic creators, please get educated on copyright and trademark laws. They can be your friends or your enemies. Don’t let your ignorance on the subject make your property a hostage as you travel that long, arduous Yellow Brick Road to success.
If you are a fan of comics and are someone aspiring to work in the field it is hard not to know that the industry was built on the exploitation of creators. Work-for-hire was the norm and many creators literally gave away priceless creations to the major comic book publishing houses for the hope of a meager, steady income.
The real pirates, the bad guys, are the ones with those vicious torrent download sites, scanning entire issues of comics, ripping entire DVD’s of major motion pictures, and cataloging music by the truckload for downloads as mp3 files. Those guys are rapists! They literally rip the food right out of the creators’ mouths by preventing them from benefiting from sales that were lost to the downloaders. The downloaders are the pirates’ accomplices, they are pirates too, red handed with stolen goods and the first ones to share an innocent link or post tainted content.
Almost symbolically, good ol’ SEAL Team 6 heroically trashed a real-world, pirate compound in Somalia and rescued two aid workers that had been kidnapped. Nine pirates were killed. Everyone is happy!
Comic art has more value than we are daring enough to place on it. Let the work declare its own value and surprise yourself. Always remember that Disney is built on the back of Mickey Mouse and Time-Warner on the shoulders of Superman. Walt Disney believed in Mickey and let Mickey’ s success establish the worth of his company. Seigel and Schuster, in a fit of desperation, sold Superman, a comic that nobody else wanted, for a lousy $130 and made someone else rich beyond their dreams.
The concept of “Truth, justice and the American way!” that has exemplified the values of super heroes since the inception of Superman in 1938 has been completely thrown under the bus with the launch of the New 52.
” reminded me of what it was like to be young, daring, industrious and resilient.
I can’t believe that 2011 is finally behind us! The year sure went fast and boy was it rocky but hey, some of us enjoy a wild roller coaster ride. Now we have to look forward to the brave new year of 2012. Thanks to the 
Regarding the current tough economic times that most creators face, inspiration can be found in Joe Simon’s words from a 2009 interview with 
Jerry Robinson’s legacy is one of creative diligence. Robinson’s lifelong fight for creators rights demands that we be better educated about the legal matters that protect the ownership of our own creations. More than ever we have the ability to be the stewards of our intellectual property and profit from our works fairly thanks to standard-bearers like Jerry Robinson who waved the flag of righteousness for creators past, present and future.
So, while we are all holding our breath, waiting to exhale, throw open some shutters and let the light in. Take a deep breath of some crisp, morning air and put your chin up. The future is only as dark or as bright as you are willing to let it be. If you love comics, I’m sure you are a dreamer of the impossible. It is time we in comics stop dreaming to live and start living our dreams of an impossibly bright future.
