MESSAGE COMICS

I miss message comics.

When I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s, I read a lot of comic book stories that had some sort of message, including some that were reprints or back issues from the late 60’s.

Some of my favorite comics of all time are the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW stories from the late 60’s.  Some of them leaned left like when they made fun of Spiro Agnew, brought down an environmentally unsafe corporation, or even the incident that started the whole series arc in #76 when Green Lantern protected a white slumlord from a mixed race mob of justifiably angry tenants.  He was immediately chastised by one of the black tenants and dropped his head in shame.  Then the observing Green Arrow chimed in too.  We can probably assume that the rich, white Oliver Queen was previously some sort of conservative, but then he lost his fortune, grew a beard, and became the super-hero liberal to beat all super-hero liberals!  Some would say that he was the heart of the DC Universe.  It’s a shame that version of Green Arrow is gone, possibly forever.  Now, on TV and in the New 52, Oliver’s rich and clean-shaven again and any trace of social concern seems gone as well.  Green Arrow became an obvious liberal as soon as he changed his clothes.  For Green Lantern, the process of expanding his social concern would take the whole rest of the series—which was cancelled with issue #89, even though the series was making news nationwide and probably increasing in sales.  Some of the issues the stories tackled could be seen as conservative concerns though, as there were strong stories against drug abuse and cults.  They tackled racism, Indian rights, overpopulation, and standing up to (the Guardians') authority (the last of which is ALL Green Lantern seems to do the last few years!).  In issue 87, they introduced the still popular John Stewart as the first black Green Lantern—as well as DC’s first black super-hero!  I didn’t see any of these as propaganda though, they just made for good stories.  And you want creators to tell stories that they care about—even if you disagree with them—because that will make for better stories.  After the book was canceled, the green team went their separate ways in separate back-up series—Green Lantern ended up in the back of THE FLASH and Green Arrow continued in the back pages of ACTION COMICS.  Here, Elliot S! Maggin continued the social relevance by crafting a multi-issue story about Green Arrow’s crusade against drugs.

A few months after GREEN LANTERN was canceled, Stan Lee and Gil Kane gave us three issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (numbers 96-98) that appeared without the Comics Code Authority stamp because they contained drug references and Peter’s friend Harry Osborn was sent to the hospital after an overdose of pills.  (Interestingly, Gil Kane was the longtime GREEN LANTERN artist before Neal Adams took over.)  Issue #99 had Spider-Man break up a prison riot and then go on the Tonight Show where he made a plea for prisoners’ rights!  It’s hard to imagine that these stories weren’t somehow inspired by the high profile GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW stories.

When Neal Adams went on to start his own company Continuity Comics in the 80’s, some of the best stories were ones that he wrote himself and often contained an environmental message, especially in his MS. MYSTIC issues (first published by Pacific Comics in 1982 and then reprinted at Continuity starting in 1987).

From 1973 to 1981, Spire Comics published 60 Christian-themed comics all by longtime ARCHIE artist Al Hartley, with many of them starring Archie Andrews and his Riverdale friends.  While these are some of the most well-loved and remembered Christian message comics of all time, there have been a number of other Christian comics produced before and since these, some with overt Christian themes and some more subtle.  With his millions of comic-style tract booklets, Jack Chick is potentially the world’s most published author.  There are a lot of Bible adaptations all over the world, and some of these are the biggest-selling comics ever.  THE PICTURE BIBLE illustrated by the incredible Andre LeBlanc has sold in the multiple millions and its revamp by LONE RANGER artist Sergio Carriello looks to be just as popular in the years to come.

The messages and histories of other religions have certainly been represented in comic book form too.  Philosophies make their way into comics as well, as seen by things like Steve Ditko’s MR. A.  Even scientific theories like Neal Adams’ (him again!) expanding Earth theory make their way into at least short stories.  Robert Kanigher's war stories are considered to be really "anti-war stories."

The underlying theme of the X-MEN comic has morphed through the years.  The early stories tackled the idea of just being different, and how being different is not a bad thing.  That book also was canceled at the height of its powers under artist Neal Adams (they like to cancel him!) and writer Roy Thomas.  After it was revived with a multinational cast (the Canadian Wolverine, the African Storm, the German Nightcrawler, the Russian Colossus, etc.), the being different theme changed a bit into an anti-racism theme as mutants and regular humans are still brothers under the skin and shouldn't hate or be fearful of each other.  In recent years, the theme has expanded to include a gay/straight analogy.  No matter which era the book is in, the ongoing theme seems to be “Don’t hate others just because they’re different than you.”  Perhaps we can call this series an example of “long-term message comics.”

In the 60’s and 70’s, a lot of younger, socially conscious writers and artists were coming into the business and making their mark.  And they wanted to talk about these things.  Even the SUPERMAN stories of the era were about something!  An old school artist (Curt Swan) and editor (Julius Schwartz) coupled with young (even teenage!) writers (Cary Bates and the aforementioned Maggin) brought something new and interesting to the classic hero.  As the most powerful being on Earth (and much of the universe), Superman was often given challenges of the morals and the mind rather than just punching things.  Over at Marvel, Steve Englehart put CAPTAIN AMERICA through a crisis of (patriotic) faith and Steve Gerber gave us HOWARD THE DUCK and DEFENDERS stories completely unlike anything that had come before—stories with a variety of messages.  Amazingly enough, some of the best stories about the human condition starred an all-powerful alien from Krypton or a talking duck from another dimension!

In the years since, at both major companies as well as smaller or independent ones, there have been attempts at message stories here and there—maybe an “anti-gun story” over here or a “drugs are bad” story over there, but nothing really high profile, long-term, or effective.  Though I suppose the long CIVIL WAR crossover event at Marvel a few years ago could be seen as a veiled discussion about gun registration as the super-hero community was torn down the middle about registering their powers and personal information with the government.

For the most part, mainstream comics have settled into plain action/adventure stories and that’s it.  Like “movie industry-lite,” they just want to do special effects spectaculars.  And, surprisingly enough, that’s not comics’ strongest suit.  Comics’ strongest suit is that they get you to care for the characters.  A mix of big budget movie-style action and low budget TV character development over years of stories, comics can delight and thrill and make you care.  And like in real life, drugs, racism, abortion, gender relations, religious conflicts, and countless other social issues should crop up in our characters’ lives.  And how they deal with these issues determines to a large extent how we care about them—the characters AND the issues.

Without a strong, thought-out handling of these issues, comics (and movies, and TV, and books, etc.) are just a bunch of punching and explosions.  And that might thrill in the moment, but those aren’t the stories that stick with you.  Whether you agree with them or not, at least message comics make you think.

I miss message comics.