Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
on a recent day Sacramento At native Lecho López’s comic shop in town, his 5-year-old nephew read his first words aloud: “Bad.” It was from a graphic novel.
There was an irony in his first words, as Lopez credits comic books for many positive things in his life. That’s why he supports repealing a 1949 city ordinance that prohibits the distribution of many comic books to children and teens. It has not been implemented today.
“It’s a stupid law,” Lopez, who has a red-and-black tattoo of the Superman logo on his forearm, said in an interview at his store, JLA Comics. “A lot of good things come out of comic books.”
A City Council committee voted unanimously this week to advance the repeal and designate the third week of September as “Sacramento Comic Book Week.” It will now go to the full council for a vote. This ban applies to comic books that prominently feature crime scenes that depict images of illegal acts such as arson, murder or rape.
In the mid-20th century, as comic books grew in popularity, fears spread over their influence on children, with some arguing that they could promote illiteracy or inspire violent crime. Industry decided to regulate itself and local governments Los Angeles County In Lafayette, Louisiana – some comics were banned to protect them from young people. While some cities like Sacramento still have those laws on the books, they are rarely enforced.
Now, supporters of repealing the Sacramento law say it is necessary to reflect the value of comics and help protect them from the modern wave of book bans.
Local artists push for cancellation
Comic book writer Eben Burgoon, who started a petition to overturn Sacramento’s ban, said comics have “this really valuable ability to speak truth to power.”
“These antiquated laws kind of establish this threat where bad actors can work harder to jeopardize this medium,” he said at a hearing held by the City Council’s Law and Legislation Committee on Tuesday.
Sacramento is a great place to dedicate a week to celebrating comics, Burgoon said. The city has an “amazing” comic book community, he said, and hosts the comics showcase CrockerCon every year at a local art museum.
Sam Helmick, President of American Library Associationsaid there is “no good reason” to impose a Sacramento-like ban on the books, adding that it “contradicts modern First Amendment norms.”
History behind comic book bans
The movement to censor comics decades ago was no exception in American history, said Jeff Trexler, interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which fights to protect the free-speech rights of people who read or create comics.
For example, New York created a commission in the 1920s to review films to determine whether they should be licensed for public viewing, based on whether they were “obscene” or “profane” and could “corrupt morals” or “incite crime,” according to state archives.
“Every time there’s a new medium or a new way to deliver the medium, there’s an outcry and an attempt to suppress it,” Trexler said.
California The Supreme Court ruled in 1959 that a Los Angeles County policy banning the sale of so-called “crime” comic books to minors was unconstitutional because it was too broad. That’s probably why Sacramento’s ban doesn’t go into effect, Trexler said.
Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University in Florida, said there hasn’t been much recent research on whether there is a link between comic books and violent behavior. But, he said, similar research into television and video games has shown no link to “clinically relevant changes in youth aggression or violent behavior.”
Comic-Book Lovers Explain Their Benefits
Moving through comics like EC Comics’ “Epitaphs from the Abyss” and DC MiracleIn collaboration with “Batman/Deadpool”, Lopez showed an Associated Press reporter images of the characters breaking a car windshield, punching someone in the face and attacking Batman using a bow and arrow – the type of scenes that could be regulated if Sacramento’s ban goes into effect.
But comics with storylines including violence can have positive messages, said Benjamin Morse, a media studies lecturer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“Spider-Man is a very mature concept,” said Morse, who became a fan of the “X-Men” as a child and later worked at Marvel for 10 years. “This is a kid who loses his parents, his uncle dies in violence and he basically swears to be responsible.”
Lopez’s mother bought him his first comic book, “Ultimate Spider-Man #1,” when he was about 9 years old, he said. But it was “Kingdom Come,” a comic featuring DC’s Justice League, that changed his life at an early age with its “ultra-realistic” art that looked like nothing he’d ever seen before, he said.
He said that his interest in comic books helped him avoid getting involved in gangs growing up. They also improved his reading skills as a person with dyslexia.
Lopez said, “The only thing I was really able to read that helped me absorb information was comic books because you had a visual aid to help you explain what was going on in the book.”
And a comic book can offer a lot, Burgoon said at this week’s hearing.
“It creates imaginative thinkers,” he said. “It doesn’t cause widespread crime. It doesn’t cause social harm.”