And today's big question is: what's appropriate for kids? In the photo above you can see, from the top, the trailer for the new Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine; then a comic of the same name, which is one of the batch that I'm currently taking into classrooms when I teach my Comic Art Masterclass; and at the bottom right a comic strip entitled Deadpool Finds A Machen (sic) Gun, written and drawn by a Year 4 pupil at a school this week.
If you've not seen the Deadpool & Wolverine movie trailer yet, one thing that is most outstanding about it is its use of strong language. Although they only, it says here, drop the f-bomb six times in the trailer, it seems like more, and it also feels grossly gratuitous. Like a nine year old has been given a free rein to use sweary words for the first time and runs down the hall shouting them at everyone they pass. Or when a foreign exchange student learns them and uses them inappropriately in every sentence.
It makes you nostalgic for the days when Eddie Murphy would make the headlines for using over a hundred in a movie (I think it was his stand up movie Raw back in 1987 that made the news at the time). But even then none would make it into the trailer. And if Deadpool and Wolverine were to continue the rate of effing and jeffing they manage in the trailer - 6 f-words in 2.5 minutes - then they'd easily beat Eddie Murphy's tame 223. (They would, as if it matters, get 213 f-words into a 90 minute movie at that rate. But since their movie is bound to be nearer two hours, that'd give them 288 f-words. NB, I am fully aware they won't be doing that.)
My question is : should I now be bringing Deadpool & Wolverine comics into a class of 8 year olds? The comic is pretty safe reading. The images are borderline strong, I mean they wouldn't pass the Comics Code Authority rating of my childhood, but there's no x-rated language, no nudity, and although people get shot up and cut up, they all turn out to be androids and there's no blood. (I tell a lie, there's one scene where someone has made a totem pole out of body parts. Oh god, I've been taking this into primary schools!) (And I now spot that, in tiny letters on the front cover by the bar code, it says "Parental Advisory". Oh god!!)
The thing is, the pupil who drew that strip - and he is not alone among the kids I teach - was already more than familiar with Deadpool. And indeed he's a character I'm asked how to draw more than most others, and usually by primary school kids, so under the age of 11.
So, if I am (from now on) banning Wolverine and Deadpool comics from the selection I bring in and show to children, what else should I be editing out? Is it appropriate for me to be regularly drawing Harley Quinn on the flipchart at the start of the class, as in the example below, when she already stars in an age-inappropriate adult cartoon on TV, and is about to be played by Lady Gaga in a very dark and undoubtedly R-rated version in Joker Folie A Deux?
In short, where are the boundaries, and how is anyone supposed to know them?
Once, long ago, it was pretty easy. Fifty years ago, when I was growing up, stories about superheroes in spandex fighting villains were self-evidently nonsense for children, and were marketed and branded accordingly. All US comics had to carry the Comics Code badge and have no content that was unsuitable for an 8 year old to read, and the British equivalents followed a similar unofficial code. Since the 1980s we've had comics for, so-called, grown-ups; since the 90s we've had the f-word in mainstream comics published by, first, DC, and then Marvel; and this century it's been a relative free for all.
But my job is, variously, writing and drawing comics for kids, and teaching comics to kids. I want them to understand and enjoy this artform, and I'd like to introduce them to the widest range of content as I can. But I clearly have to draw a line, in places where I previously didn't have to.
I can show them "safe" Wolverine, and tell them his history and his place in Marvel comics lore. But I then have to say "stop - out of bounds" when it gets to the most recent movie and the latest comic version, which is on the shelf in our WH Smiths between a Simpsons comic and Commando Picture Library.
The movie then begs the question of how we prevent our kids being exposed to language we don't want them to hear, and a movie environment that normalises it and makes it attractive to use, in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kids like to complete the set, they like to watch everything in the collection. So an obsessive 11 year old, who's devoured every Marvel movie from Iron Man to, god help them, the third Ant Man thing, will simply have to watch Wolverine & Deadpool. And, knowing Marvel, they won't be able to follow the plot of the next movie that comes out if they haven't watched it.
It's an f-bombing minefield. Am I alone in my concerns?
