One of the latest comics to be banned or challenged in libraries is Raina Telgemeier's best-selling Drama, supposedly because it is "sexually explicit." Those two words conjure up images of out-and-out pornography, which might be troubling if you hear that Drama is about high schoolers and marketed to kids. But in Drama's case, they could not be more misapplied: the story features a couple of crushes, a couple of kisses, and some hand-holding, and that's it. So why the fuss? Easy: Drama includes a gay teen in its story, and the sort of conservative watchdog who tries to get books banned in the first place is often the sort who doesn't like gays in stories for kids, or anywhere else. But "treats homosexuals like people" isn't the kind of objection that might make libraries take a book from their shelves, so "sexually explicit" it is. This kind of objection goes back to Wertham, who had as much tolerance for non-heterosexuality as he did for any other deviation from his norm. He's especially notorious for claiming Batman and Robin were sexual partners, ignoring the father-and-son theme that had been part of Robin's story from the start. But he went on to accuse Wonder Woman of sexual interest in other women (it's not clear he observed or understood a difference between lesbianism and bisexuality). Many writers on Wonder Woman, including her creator in the 1940s, might have answered such an accusation with a shrug and a "So?"
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
