As stated by Horricks (2004), back in the 1950’s, New Zealand had a growing concern that over the comics that were distributed to the young readers as they might be heavily influenced. New Zealand’s academics such as teachers, politics and intellectuals as well as concerned parents elevated an anti-comic campaign similar to ones in United States of America (USA) and Britain. The American based comics had chauvinistic themes, explicit violence and were anti-communism which the socialists and social liberals were most concerned about. The comics had attentions for the wrong reasons many spoke against it.
Nowadays, comics or graphic novels are spoken about it with such praise to the extent that courses are offered across the world including New Zealand. This is because the themes of jingoistic, violence and anti-communism issues that got adults fuming was shifted to other media’s such as video games and television. Moreover, no fears are attached with comics, young readers are free to pick up any comic issues, and the reason being is that the word fear is associated with gangsta rap, terrorists and explicit video games.
In my opinion, the reason why fears were objected to comics was because it showed the expression of the individual as a mean of voice. The parents and the academics concerns is understandable as during the 1950’s, everyone wanted to forget the war and the atrocities that occurred in the world and comics brought that fear back, not so much to the young readers but the adults. Therefore, I believe they were protected themselves from more emotional damage and lessen the young readers thoughts on war and violence, which is justifiable. However, even nowadays comics are not dismissed from still being too violent and influencing the young minds, the problems in 1950’s still occur today.
Reference:
Horricks, D. (2004). The Perfect Planet: Comics, games and world-building. In Williams, M. (Ed.), Writing at the Edge of the Universe. Christchurch: U of Canterbury Press
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