Category: But I Digress…

Elfquest Under Attack

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published August 27, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1345

It always gives one a nice, tidy, false sense of security to think that the only comic books which undergo attacks by watchdogs or misguided individuals with no clue as to what the First Amendment is all about, are those comics that somehow “deserve” to have it happen. Over-the-top pørņ, raging obscenity, stories that seem to encourage violence towards women or in some other way make you feel ever so slightly unclean just for having to defend it.

I want to welcome you, then, to the latest case to fall into the docket of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, as a part-time dealer in comic books—selling them at flea markets—finds himself facing two counts of trafficking in selling obscene material to minors. The name of the ever-so-foul comic that this scumwad was dealing?

Elfquest.

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The Punisher

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published August 20, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1344

There are two characters in comics whom I have written and never want to take another try at. This isn’t to say that the characters are necessarily bad, or that other writers with a far greater affinity for them couldn’t producer cracking good stories for them. Indeed, writers whose work I have nothing but respect for have done exactly that. Nevertheless, I personally have no affinity for the characters whatsoever.

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Movie review: South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published August 6, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1342

Given how free speech is constantly under assault in this country, it’s somewhat amazing that one virtually never sees any movies on that subject. One would think that Hollywood would be leading the fight to protect the right to free expression, for if any industry depends upon that right, it’s films. Instead, we’ve seen the opposite: Hollywood being the first to bend over and taking it up the tailpipe, and asking “Please, sir, may I have some more” when it comes to everything from the V-chip to the ratings system.

So it’s nothing short of amazing when one of the big summer movies not only revolves around the concept of free expression, but also manages to encompass everything from the American compulsion for laying blame to the end of the world as we know it—all without seeming the least bit muddled or scattershot.

I am speaking, of course, of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, a double-entendre title that surely must have slipped past the MPAA (not to mention Paramount) for I suspect that it never would have gotten through.

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