SIR,—On finishing Joyce Cary's article in the current Spectator, I
was forced to the con- clusion that he could never have seen a horror comic. I agreed with most of his arguments, but felt they bore practically no relation to the serious problem under discussion.
I agree that most normal children (and 1 have three myself) demand, need and enjoy a fair ration of violence and adventure in their reading, and usually rejoice in the blood- thirsty and horrific. But the comics which are under fire today do not cater to these needs. They appeal to the same instincts which took our forebears to public floggings and execu- tiorsb.e
believe as strongly as Mr. Cary in paren- tal responsibility, but we have to recogiiise that there are parents who fail in their responsibilities, and the appeal of these comics is largely to the adolescent of working age, whose reading matter can no longer be cen- sored by parents or teachers.
1 have recently returned from the USA. where they are usually less ready than we are to control or censor. But so great has been the outcry against these comics that -publishers have been forced to promise a clean-up. If this fails, 1 believe that public opinion there, as here, will enforce stronger sanctions.— Yours faithfully,
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