Maryland state senator running on the anti-comic book ticket.
Nancy King, a Democrat running for reelection for the Maryland State
Senate, sent out a direct mail piece that emphasizes her commitment to
teachers by
attacking comics.
It's a poorly thought-out ad that, as Rich Johnston says, serves as a "
stereotypical attack on comic books as not being suitable to educate
children."
It's also somewhat ironic, since Maryland has an educational comic book
initiative:
Capitalizing on a growing body of evidence that comics can encourage
reluctant readers to read more and talented students to gain in knowledge
and
creativity, The Maryland State Department of Education has partnered with
Diamond Comic Book Distributors and elicited the help of members of local
school
systems, higher education, adult and corrections education, and libraries.
The goal is to develop a Maryland plan and instructional strategies that
support the use of graphic literature in elementary, secondary, adult, and
corrections education. This initiative which is sponsored by State
Superintendent
Nancy Grasmick and the President of Diamond Comics, Steve Geppi.
Comic creator and former educator Dean Trippe has posted an open letter to
King, schooling the senator on the benefits and lessons kids can get from
reading comics:
Attacks on my industry have always come from those who haven't picked up a
comic, and the policies that have damaged our educational system always
come
from those who haven't set foot in a classroom in decades. So let me
recommend to you the anthology Reading with Pictures, part of a non-profit
effort
to offer students and teachers comics specifically suited to lesson plans
on
variety of subjects. Comics combine art and literature to create an
incredible new art form. And in fact, telling stories in pictures predates
the
written word and is used in safety instruction labels precisely because of
its
ability to simply convey ideas and actions. Your offensive mailer is just
another wrong-headed generalization, attacking a genre that gives children
heroes that don't kill (like Superman, seen in the image you used, likely
without the rights to do so) and fight against intolerance (like the X-Men,
also
featured in your mailer, presumably without permission), as well as a
medium
that anyone, including children, can tell stories in with tools as simple
as
a pencil and paper.
And writer Peter David offers a concise analysis, noting that if he lived
in Maryland and King was on the ballot, "I swear to God I'd vote
Republican."
You can see the ad at _http://www.justcomics.bravehost.com/_
(http://www.justcomics.bravehost.com/)
(_http://www.justcomics.bravehost.com/_
(http://www.justcomics.bravehost.com/) )
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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