MCM Comic Convention Reaserch

I went to the MCM Comic Convention to show artists my work and get feedback for PPP3, however whilst there, I though it was a good opportunity to see what people in the industry think of the representation of mental health, and sensitive subject matters in comic books. Below I have displayed some of the responses I got to my questions.

Liam Shallo.

When I asked Liam Shallo if he thought comics did a good job at displaying sensitive subject matters such as depression, this was his response: "I think comics do a better job than most, comic books are an industry where you can take more risks, and experiment. Like 'The Crow', everyones read 'The Crow'. The Crow was a book created when the authors fiance got killed by a drunk driver. He did it as a coping method, comic books can be so personal. Like Jeff, a very famous comic book writer, he dedicates a lot of his character names to his son. There been spousal abuse, depression, suicide, LGBT. The first gay kiss in a comic was way before anything on T.V. It's a good place to get your head around subject matter."

You can see this at 6:12 in the video link here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ro9I_xoGsI

Martin Griffiths.

WheN I asked Martin Griffiths if the thought comic represented subject matters like mental health and depression, he replied with this. "I think they always try to do things like that, such as the drug problems in the sixties in comics, I haven't seen many comics lately, I must admit, I haven't seen any of those kind of relationships. Maybe more of being gay in comics, or something like that. I haven't talked to many people so I can't give you their views, I would imagine the odd comics are out there that are good, there are writers out there dealing with those subjects probably but I haven't seen or heard of anything.'

I thought it was interesting how both artists so far started talking about homosexuality, and so I started to ask that question more often, and thinking about maybe bringing in this element to my work.

You can see this conversation at 1:35 in the video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XPhr2NyzA

Sam - assistant editor at Panini comics.

I said to Sam I was looking into how comics deal with hard to talk about issues like depression or homosexual superheroes, and if he thought comics represent that fairly at the moment. This was his answer. "Well I don't know if you know Rob Liefeld, he was responsible for lots of the 'Image' stuff and then he came to do 'Heroes Reborn', quite a controversial figure in the industry but recently it 'X-Factor' one of the character that he created in the 90's, and he's a bit of a jock in america, but he's an x-man, and they decided that he was gay, and they started to play around with that in 'X-Factor'. Rob Liefeld actually came about and he said 'I didn't intend this character to be gay originally', and it's interesting. Have your read 'Muas' for instance? Thats dealing with something very depressing, and like yourselves he anthropomorphises animals, so mice are jewish, the cats are nazis. If you handle it with the gravity and a sense of humour then I do think there are ways of doing it properly. 'Black Hole' as well, I can't remember who its by now, Charles Burn! Give that a read because thats very much about coming into your own as a teenager. It's kind of the same with any medium, if you handle it well, if you handle it with a sense of imagination I think you can tell any story.

You can see this conversation at 8:08 in the video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5I8MwbnsVI

Lee Bradley.

I asked Lee Bradley if he thought comics were sensitive enough when dealing with issues people could relate to strongly such as depression and his answer was this. "I think a comic book is there to entertain, its like a film. Is a film sensitive enough to deal with those issues? If the film is about those issues, then it should have a layer too it about that, but if its not about that then its about characters, and what drives these characters. It comes down to the subject and the source material and what the aim is, so I would say yes and no.

You can see our conversation here, at 5:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnpOKG8Sb_E

Phil Buckenham.

I asked Phil Buckenham if he thought comics were sensitive enough when dealing whit sensitive issues like depression and this was his answer. "I think over the years they have shown, weather its alcoholism or drug abuse, that they can deal with those subjects, yes.

This is available at 3:41 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jGaYv_ffsc

With this information, i've found that most artist seem to either know or think it's possible to infuse these issues with the comic book medium, and some have even given me direct books to look at for secondary research.