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Where do you think those daytime soaps got all their ideas? ...Shakespeare hammered out a lot of the classic plot elements that have been copied ever since.

I won't argue that Shakespeare wasn't a great writer, but he lifted most of his plots from earlier sources as well - Romeo and Juliet from the earlier Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet , Hamlet from Amleth, Prince of Denmark , and so on. So don't give him too much credit. On the other hand, the writers he took his ideas from have mostly been forgotten, so presumably he improved on his sources.

Back in 1954 Dr. Frederick Wertham wrote the infamous Seduction Of The Innocent, regarding the comics industry preying upon the youth of America.

"Wertham was convinced that comic books were evil, that they contributed to the delinquency of minors, and also to their sexual perversion. In addition Wertham claimed that when any questioned the comic book publishers on their product, they were conspired against, and were labelled communists."

Before you laugh off it off, recall the US Senate Subcommittee Investigation on Juvenile Delinquency in the United States. and all the recent stink about decency in television.

The comic industry, to placate the witch hunters offered self policing. Sound familiar? Wertham considered it a sham. Sound familiar, too?

For some background on Comics Code check this site and this site.

make way! make way! make way for the age of decency! 60,608,582 merkins can't be denied!

Actually the comic market was in dire straits thanks to the attention of Congress and the acceptance by the industry of the Comics Code There's a reason people often refer to the late 40's and 50's as the Golden Age of comics. EC, the publisher of MAD suffered considerable as their stock in trade was drama and horror, much of which posed ethical dilemmas to readers.

Creating a bunch of harmless super heroes who fought megalomaniacal (or just plain evil) villains was more acceptable and the industry had to find it's feet again. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were already pretty safe as they already fit the mould.

Case and Point:

In Japan today, their comics (manga) are a multi-billion doallar industry. There are manga cookbooks, manga textbooks, all genres of entertainment and reference material; everything that in the US might be done as a movie or text (they have normal books etc. too).

In the US, comic books and graphic novels are marginalized in the mainstream. Many of the few profitable companies (those that make mainstream fare) left make all their money on merchandising, and have been run completely into the ground several times each. Why is this so?

In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was created as an "Industry Association" in response to congressional coercion. Check out their standards. This quashed much of the creativity present the in the mainstreaim industry, which was about 40 years old. Many of the true creative geniuses were forced underground for nearly a decade, and the mainstream companies that followed the code rotted from within.

In the mid-fifties, the manga industry essentially sprung from nowhere, blossoming into a huge industry over a decade. The average age for a consumer buying manga in Japan is just barely below the average age of the population there, whereas in the US the average age of the comic book consumer grows older by one year every year.

In Japan, their "industrial" complex for producing games is just as developed as that in the US. If creativity is stifled by lawmakers, it will cost the US Billions in lost revenue. If any country passes laws that restrict its entertainers or artists, it will cost that country a chance for the revenues or prestige generated by those creators.

I think the IGDA is more organized and is better capable (with benefit of hindsight) to combat these sons and daughters of those who created the Comic Code than the naive comic industry of the 1950s. I don't believe that there is any less general paranoia (Red Scare vs. Terrorist Scare, same thing) than then, and its got the populace running scared and not paying attention to their freedoms (why is it times like this that would-be censors always choose to strike?).

I encourage everyone to check out the link to the Comics Code. Its stipulations are eerily similar to many proposed restrictions on interactive software today, and as such its a very relevant piece of history.

Case and Point:

In Japan today, their comics (manga) are a multi-billion doallar industry. There are manga cookbooks, manga textbooks, all genres of entertainment and reference material; everything that in the US might be done as a movie or text (they have normal books etc. too).

In the US, comic books and graphic novels are marginalized in the mainstream. Many of the few profitable companies (those that make mainstream fare) left make all their money on merchandising, and have been run completely into the ground several times each. Why is this so?

In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was created as an "Industry Association" in response to congressional coercion. Check out their standards. This quashed much of the creativity present the in the mainstreaim industry, which was about 40 years old. Many of the true creative geniuses were forced underground for nearly a decade, and the mainstream companies that followed the code rotted from within.

In the mid-fifties, the manga industry essentially sprung from nowhere, blossoming into a huge industry over a decade. The average age for a consumer buying manga in Japan is just barely below the average age of the population there, whereas in the US the average age of the comic book consumer grows older by one year every year.

In Japan, their "industrial" complex for producing games is just as developed as that in the US. If creativity is stifled by lawmakers, it will cost the US Billions in lost revenue. If any country passes laws that restrict its entertainers or artists, it will cost that country a chance for the revenues or prestige generated by those creators.

I think the IGDA is more organized and is better capable (with benefit of hindsight) to combat these sons and daughters of those who created the Comic Code than the naive comic industry of the 1950s. I don't believe that there is any less general paranoia (Red Scare vs. Terrorist Scare, same thing) than then, and its got the populace running scared and not paying attention to their freedoms (why is it times like this that would-be censors always choose to strike?).

I encourage everyone to check out the link to the Comics Code. Its stipulations are eerily similar to many proposed restrictions on interactive software today, and as such its a very relevant piece of history.

This site has the original code: http://www.comics.dm.net/codetext.htm

I post this as a reminder of an event the comic book industry is still trying to recover from. If we aren't careful, this is where video games could end up.

The first that springs to mind is Ray Bradbury. He's published at least two volumes of poetry with wide ranging subject matter (rather like his fiction, for that mattter). It's not necessarily to everyone's taste in the same sense that his short stories may not be; that is, he's obviously having fun and they're extremely un-pretentious. I enjoyed them.

While I was googling for another name (which I unfortunately couldn't find), I discovered that both Ursula K. LeGuin and Thomas Disch have published poetry. Not sure how technology oriented any of it is. I think I'll be looking for some of it though, especially Disch.

Finally, you may want to check out the Rhysling Awards (also a collection) and Star*Line, the newsletter of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

The first that springs to mind is Ray Bradbury. He's published at least two volumes of poetry with wide ranging subject matter (rather like his fiction, for that mattter). It's not necessarily to everyone's taste in the same sense that his short stories may not be; that is, he's obviously having fun and they're extremely un-pretentious. I enjoyed them.

While I was googling for another name (which I unfortunately couldn't find), I discovered that both Ursula K. LeGuin and Thomas Disch have published poetry. Not sure how technology oriented any of it is. I think I'll be looking for some of it though, especially Disch.

Finally, you may want to check out the Rhysling Awards (also a collection) and Star*Line, the newsletter of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

That's ghastly! It's like having a wall of Mona Lisas and passing out sharpies to all of the museum-goers.

I'm not (just) being pedantic here. The one original "true" Mona Lisa remains safely in the Louvre, available to all for adulation. Yet the viewer also gets a chance to make a statement. Since the great piece of art is not defaced, I don't see how it is threatened. And of course, maybe, just maybe, new art can be created.

Here's a different analogy: This is like handing out copies of a story and Bic ballpoints to people. They get to go edit the story, modify its order, change its dialog. Horrors of horrors! All that you get from that kind of mucking is... Hamlet. To quote one of many sources,

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is based on a 12th century tale by Saxo Grammaticus... the missing link between Saxo and Shakespeare may be an earlier play about Hamlet (called by scholars the Ur-Hamlet), which may or may not have been written by the Ur-Revenger himself, Thomas Kyd, based in turn on François de Belleforest's Histoires tragiques (1570), a free translation of Saxo.

ObPoliticalRant: And that's why recent and proposed copyright law -- giving unprecedented "access control" to copyright holders -- is a disaster of the first magnitude for the arts and for science. The partitioning of the public domain into private little plots threatens our intellectual future and makes a mockery of copyright law as a means "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution).

• I don't think [comic books with minors in "compromising situation" are] illegal in Japan/ul>

  Age of consent in Japan is 14.

  • What about similar comic books produced in the US? Is there a precedent? I'm sure it would apply to computerized pron

  Actually, the precedent is draconian. Comics were demonised back in the 1950's in the same way that the 'net is now, and it was decided that This Must Stop. If you want a laugh, read the original text of the Comics Code Authority and then have a look at the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund that it necessitated.

Right and wrong?

Here is the comics code.

The lessons we can learn? "distrust of the forces of law" or "disrespect for established authority" is bad. The very word "crime" can be harmful to children - and the words "horror" and "terror" even more so. Divorce is bad. As is pre-marital sex, any sort of sex other than vanilla, homosexuality, and even sexual pasion are bad. In general, that a uniformly bland and status quo world is good for children - and that children are the only people who read comics.

Gore Takes Tough Stand on Violent Entertainment

I really think that a lot of the christian hating is just based on a "please leave us alone" attitude. People aren't objecting to say, the Amish, because the Amish aren't trying to force their views on anyone else, despite the fact that most pro-technology people would find the Amish lifestyle anathema.

I do think, however, that there is something seriously wrong in knocking Bush's conservatism and not knocking Gore's conservatism. After all, I'm pretty well convinced that Bush's pandering to the Christian right is just based on vote getting... whereas I believe Gore is a true believer.

At any rate, one or the other is going to get elected and it is going to suck for gamers and people who believe in Free Speech in general no matter which way the election goes.

I suggest computer and console game developers read up on the Comics Code authority, because I forsee something similar in gaming's future:

Comic books were forced to adhere to a code which simplified and neutered the westerns, crime and romance genres. The horror comic books all but disappeared, while the funny animal comics flourished. Over a half dozen publishers went under, and a number of talented industry professionals moved into other fields for a while. --Origin Of The Comics Code Authority

The political arena thing is amusing, but it reminds me of, Are You a Red Dupe?, a final attempt at political satire from an industry that is about to have the life and creativity crushed out of it.