Tandra Page 1097, June 20, 2010

Created on 06/21/2010

by Hanther

Back as World War II was getting started, Hal Foster who created the syndicated newspaper Sunday page, “Prince Valiant” said with some pride he always knew where the German armies were advancing because that was where his comic strip was being cancelled from local newspapers. Foster was not the only creator who kept up with German advances in such manner. The same cancellation process kept Alex Raymond who created “Flash Gordon” up to date on German activities. Fact is, there were quite a number of American comics artists who saw their comics refused by the new world order because the Axis powers could not abide the anti-totalitarian sentiment expressed by American comic strips and American comics creators were justifiably proud the world’s dictators were offended by their commitment to the ideals of the American Way.

Fast forward to today’s popular appeal newspaper comics. When is the last time you were made aware a newspaper comic strip was cancelled by a subscribing newspaper because the strip’s content offended a bloody dictator? In today’s politically timid climate, is sadly more likely a syndicated feature will make an issue of condemning the United States for perceived or imagined crimes and/or insults against bloody butchering dictators rather than defending victims against such subhuman thugs. Syndicated product is simply not in the business of defending virtue against crime and corruption in our politically correct age.

Defenders of appeasement policy will justify their failure to stand against evil by saying they are in business to turn a profit and it is simply not good business to drive away potential readers. A comic strip that irritates readers is a comic strip that does not long survive, so what good is a product no one reads? Considering this position, one would be justified in making the assumption that newspapers and the comics they contain have reader numbers that are through the roof. Such does not appear to be the case as readers continue to abandon newspapers in droves and people who do not read newspapers do not, of consequence, read the comics found in those papers.

So tell me again, how does the policy of appeasing evil translate into higher comics reader numbers?

Hal Foster did not create “Prince Valiant” with the avowed objective of driving away his readers. The man was not stupid. What Foster did was to create a Sunday page with moral conviction and a story with a clear standard of virtue overcoming evil so that readers knew for absolute certain the direction in which Foster’s moral compass was aimed. There was never any doubt how Foster stood on the issues of good versus evil and the result was that “Prince Valiant” became one of the classic pages of all time.

Today, comics have no moral compass and try to appeal to everyone with the result that no one pays them any attention. Perchance it is time creators of syndicated products decided to take a stand on issues of good and evil and rediscovered their moral compass. If they did, readers might once again discover them.

May the sun always shine on your parade!

Next Week; “Water Rations!”

Tandra...more than escapist fantasy, it’s a revolution!

Hanther

[ Go Back ]