Is that your Spider-Sense tingling, or are you just happy to see me?

In the Seventies, Marvel Comics and Planned Parenthood teamed up for a mini-comic.

I presume Planned Parenthood either paid Marvel to do this, or Marvel did it as a charitable write off. I doubt that any serious thought or concern went into the story. I'd bet that Marvel wanted to avoid any blunt talk about sex, pregnancy, and protection, so the message about the importance of getting good information about such issues was squeezed into two very awkward pages, that make the villain look like the bearer of a straw man argument.

The misinformation that the villain gives seems crafted so that it doesn't come across as a social conservative or liberal. Instead he looks like a nut, vaguely promoting careless sex, and saying that getting pregnant is no big deal. What the heck kind of agenda is this? W.T.F.?

It's pretty sad, considering how Spider-Man handled the issue of drug use in a much more mature, logical, and dramatic fashion in his regular book in the same era.

For one of comic's better attempts at Sex Ed issues, there was Vertigo's Death Talks About Life from the early Nineties. Then again, it was not a story, but fictional characters talking directly to the audience about AIDS prevention. No tap-dancing around the issue: Just the facts, with a light touch of humor.

(via Ed Driscoll)

Tilting @ Windmills: Return of the Death Issue

In the latest Tilting at Windmills by comic retailer Brian Hibbs, there's a comparison of the events of Captain America #25 this month, and Superman #75 fourteen years ago.

Both big milestones, that suddenly got lots of attention in the mainstream media. Each led to sellouts and speculation. But things are different today, and Brian explains why.

Tilting @ Windmills 2.0 #38: America Dreaming

Fast news cycles beat out slow comics distribution system.

Augie DeBlieck shows how, when out of the blue, a comic gets major news coverage (such as the recent Capt. America #25, and the death of Superman in Superman #75 over a decade ago.), the Direct Market has limits as to flexibility.

It's only a shame that the retailers didn't listen to Marvel when they were told how big an issue this would be. Marvel can't give out the full spoilers to impress upon retailers how big an issue this was going to be. Retailers don't trust Marvel for various reasons. Marvel did as much as it probably could do, in overprinting the issue and giving as much warning as possible for weeks in advance.

…

In some ways, it's a no-win scenario. The Direct Market doesn't have the infrastructure necessary to handle this kind of event, period, and that's everyone's fault. We've built our house of cards and have to live with the consequences now.

Read the whole thing, it has some good analysis, and warnings against panics about the future of the business.