Gory comics and family don't mix

[Spike-X]

I don't remember much of what I was reading when I was 16, but I do remember my mummy wasn't telling me what I was allowed to read.

[Charles RB]

how, graphic is this book?

It's Garth Ennis doing a survival horror comic about a plague of psychopathic rapist cannibals. You don't want to know how graphic it gets.

And then guys like Simon Spurrier and David Hine started doing it. Spurrier is a very warped man. I like his Crossed. I will also never read it in public.

Typical more-of-the-same indie bleakness, in other words, and so very typical of the industry too.

If you think Crossed is typical of indie comics, you've been reading some pretty fucking weird indie comics.

[Ship]

When I was sixteen or so, my younger brother ratted me out to my mom that I had a stash of porn mags. My mom's reply was "at his age he damn well better have some porn."

[Charles RB]

Did she then order you to share with your brother?

[dupont2005]

I don't agree with that level of overbearing censorship, but you're under her roof for a few more years.

[Sabrina_Fried]

Lesson Learned: Always read your smutty comics with your back to the wall. And certain comics are best read at night after your parents have gone to sleep.

[Donald M.]

My parents were big horror fans when I was growing up. When I was 16 I read all the sex and gore filled books they had lying around and many more besides, quickly moving beyond their interest primarily in Stephen King and the various Stephen King-like authors who dominated the horror genre in the 80's and 90's.

Anyway, this thread reminds me somewhat of Orc Breath and his legendary thread about being caught fapping it to a copy of Wolverine. I still wonder sometimes whose sockpuppet he was.

[Kizmet]

I don't remember much of what I was reading when I was 16, but I do remember my mummy wasn't telling me what I was allowed to read.

When I was in High School my mother actually had quite a bit to say about what she'd prefer I read. Most of it was around preferring I spend my time reading things which had value (classics, non-fiction) vs. things that didn't (sci-fi). Still she was willing to entertain debates about the value of my reading material and mostly the argument was about how much of one vs. the other rather than an all or nothing proposition. Comics as a whole were classified time-wasters with little to no redeeming value.

Anne Rice and "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" were the only things forbidden out-right, Mom didn't like the way those books approached dark topics.

[Paradox]

Seems an odd combo. Weak, overly-romanticized vampire stories (although better than Twilight) and a series full of simply unlikeable characters. I don't think I'd view either as dangerous to young minds, just simply not very good.

[tony ingram]

When I was in High School my mother actually had quite a bit to say about what she'd prefer I read. Most of it was around preferring I spend my time reading things which had value (classics, non-fiction) vs. things that didn't (sci-fi). Still she was willing to entertain debates about the value of my reading material and mostly the argument was about how much of one vs. the other rather than an all or nothing proposition. Comics as a whole were classified time-wasters with little to no redeeming value.

Anne Rice and "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" were the only things forbidden out-right, Mom didn't like the way those books approached dark topics.

When I was a teen, in the unlikely event that my mother had tried to dictate what I could and couldn't read, she'd have been in for quite a fight. And my father would likely have come down on my side.

[Jeff Brady]

If you think Crossed is typical of indie comics, you've been reading some pretty fucking weird indie comics.

Don't bother, Charles. Let him have his unfounded prejudices.

[Charles RB]

But damn it, I want to read those fucking weird indie comics too!

[dupont2005]

But damn it, I want to read those fucking weird indie comics too!

I bought a little book about the weirdest comics ever published or whatever. I still have it here somewhere actually. I was so excited to see what comics made the list and then jump on eBay and buy them. Bummed out when I realized I had either read or long known of most of the comics on the list.

[StoneGold]

She sounds like a lovely mother who cares about her sick and demented son's psycho future.

I let my three year old watch an episode of Avengers and now he can't stop talking about snake aliens with knife fingers. Oopsy.

In fairness, I can't stop talking about snake aliens with knife fingers either.

[Brian Gravity]

Can't recall any gory comics, but my wife took issue with a stack of underground comix she found in the garage. I can kind of understand her point when I flipped through one by S. Clay Wilson, which was basically some kind of disgusting hand-drawn smut. I had forgotten how obscene those comix can be, and sold them before my two young daughters found them...

On another note, I have a few pre-code horror comics that I do not want to part with...and those are just as gory as anything Garth Ennis is coming up with these days.