PSA: Comic Books, Porn Stars & Kids?

What do comic books and porn stars have in common? I mean, besides an overlapping fanbase of sexually frustrated momma’s boys?

At the Big Apple Con last weekend, I had to do an about-face or two while strolling the aisles with my 4-year old son so as to avoid a scantily-clad “model” selling soft-core pictures of herself to drooling fanboys while her pimp manager stood by her side moderating the situation. Apparently, compared to the bigger conventions where actual porn stars are hawking their wares alongside comic book publishers and artists, this was a pretty tame moment.

Now, I’m far from prudish but there’s a time and place for everything, and with the industry desperately needing to tap into a younger audience, I question the wisdom of this.

The “Separation of Non-Comic Book Pornography from Comic Book Related Booths at Conventions Petition” to Wizard Entertainment Group, the leading convention producer in the industry, was created by Concerned Comic Book Creators & Fans and written by Ty Gorton, and is a call not for the elimination of porn from comic book conventions, but rather a clear separation of their booths from comic book-related booths, not unlike the adult section of a video store or the Mature-labeled comics at your LCBS.

The petition is hosted at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service, and can be found here.

About Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez works in publishing by day, world domination by night. Over the years he’s lived in Staten Island and South Beach Miami; served in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, US Army, and Dennis Kucinich’s ‘04 Presidential Campaign; won poetry slams, founded a reading series, co-authored a book of poetry, and self-published another; prefers Pumpkin and India Pale Ales, Buffalo Trace and Four Roses Bourbons, and Dona Paula Shiraz Malbec. He’s a devout Mets fan from the Bronx now living in New Jersey, and has a beautiful wife and two amazing kids.

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