The fact that DC Comics is jettisoning the use of the Comics Code Authority logo is a bit late, to me, as very few comics publishers have been submitting work to the Code Authority for decades, but it is good to see them set and elaborate on their ratings. They were the last holdouts in terms of creating a ratings system. Now, if they just created comics for kids, I’d be over the moon!

Would you be willing to share a copy of that ratings poster you created?

As a reviewer, it’s hard to balance the words needed to inform parents and librarians of content without being too prudish. I remember writing a review for something that I thought was overly sexual and just inappropriate and I softballed it – and was called on it in the comments of my review. But I would have been called on it if I had been more upfront.

As a librarian, I need more guidance, because it’s impossible to read all the GNs that come into my collection. And like @Susan wrote, I hate that ages on the back of comics. Generics labeling – T, OT, etc. works much better. Once it’s labeled 16+ can I put it in my collection even if I find nothing objectionable in the comic itself?

I understand that visual information is perceived differently than textual information. Personally, I wish that weren’t so, but I know that it is and we all have to collect accordingly. I’ve had very long involved discussions about just why that’s true, and whether it is true for everyone (I know folks who are much more frightened by what they imagine from a page than what they see on a screen), but it is the way our society works at the moment.

It’s more a problem for me when I hear that a librarian can’t order titles that are 16+ as a rule within their collection and that there is no allowance given for the librarian’s decision as a selector (and I know libraries exist where that is the case.) I prefer to leave what a person can handle as up to them, as the reader, as we do with almost everything else we collect, and prefer to depend on my own feelings as a selector than go by what a publisher or vendor informs me is appropriate. I think it ultimately comes from my worry that people depend too much on ratings and don’t take into account reviews, or context, when selecting.

On that note, here’s a question for you — if you don’t have time to track down reviews for all the GNs you buy, how DO you decide what to purchase? What would help you if reviews aren’t plausible? Lists? How should such lists be organized?

I have to say I do think it’s a little disingenuous to equate controversial content in books with controversial content in GNs. Visual material IS different than written material, I’m sorry that’s just the way it is. Imagining something is different than actually seeing it in living color in front of your eyes. Even though I think movie ratings leave a lot to be desired, it’s the same concept – a visual medium given an approximate rating of appropriateness. We all have to be thoughful when we purchase GNs and not let ratings be the be-all and end-all, but they ARE important and necessary.