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Topic: Is This Cool Or Just Bad Taste (Or Smell)? (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Stephen Churay
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Joined: 25 March 2009
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Posted: 14 October 2014 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | 1  

Well, we've discussed the Harley Quinn Annual with the marijuana
scratch and sniff. It appears they are using MAD MAGAZINE to poke
fun at themselves. Personally, I don't find this whole thing amusing.
But, maybe I'm just a stick in the mud. In either case, I don't want a
comic in my house that smells like pot!

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Brian J Nelson
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Joined: 26 August 2014
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Posted: 14 October 2014 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | 2  

As a parent, I have too many other things to worry about than the tackiness level of a book, movie, or TV show. ABC Family reruns That 70s Show in their after school time slot. So I guess I don't care that DC is doing a scratch and sniff gag with pot when I compare it to all the times that show ran their gag. All I can do is be sure I am providing my kids with an honest drug education and hope they make safe choices. The day I am expecting TV and comic books to raise my kids, I have failed as a parent. 
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Brian Peck
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Posted: 14 October 2014 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | 3  

MAD Magazine? More like Hustler.

I hear one of the comic variants is pot.
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Thom Price
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Posted: 14 October 2014 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | 4  

There's not even the slightest pretense any longer that these comics are appropriate for, let alone aimed at, kids; I can't bring myself to care too much if a comic book aimed at adults is of poor taste.

DC and Marvel are really just racing to the bottom with these desperate stunts though.  How sad to be in an era when superheroes can draw millions of fans to TV shows or movies, but the original source is reduced to pathetic stunts to eek out a tiny degree of attention.
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Brad Krawchuk
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Posted: 14 October 2014 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | 5  

What the flying Hell does Harley have to do with marijuana?

I mean, completely leaving aside that it's an illegal substance, that it's a Batman-related character, that it's a disgusting odour, and every other thing on the very long list of bloody things wrong with the idea, but really - why Harley?

Ben Grimm, Nick Fury, Logan, J. Jonah Jameson, et al. smoke (or used to smoke) cigars. John Constantine is (was) famously a smoker of cigarettes. Those things are no longer acceptable for comics. 

But Harley? What does Harley have to do with drugs, outside of the ones she used to prescribe in Arkham before falling in love with Mr. J?

I'm just about prepared - just about - to declare that I'll never buy a DC product again. No reprints of classic material, no action-figures, no statues... What an unbelievably irresponsible thing to do with a cartoon character that first appeared in a children's show!
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 12:23am | IP Logged | 6  

Yeah, this shows a complete lack of understanding where the line should be drawn.

I know I sound like an old fart, but this is beyond the pale as far as I'm concerned.


Edited by James Woodcock on 15 October 2014 at 12:23am
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Kevin Hagerman
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 2:25am | IP Logged | 7  

All I know about this is what I've read here, but gathering from that, this might have, in the right hands, been edgy and subversive thirty years ago during the heyday of "Just Say 'No'".
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Carmen Bernardo
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 4:46am | IP Logged | 8  

Per Brad:

   They've been trying to decriminalize marijuana for a few years now. Apparently, they're not considering it as bad as tobacco (notwithstanding the fact that you also smoke marijuana joints like you do cigars and cigarettes).

   I'd write this one up as being in poor taste, given that there may be a majority of parents who still hold a stigma against smoking a joint of Loco Weed. But then, most parents these days don't let their kids buy the comics that we're talking about here any more. The only people buying this might be the aging fanboys who're looking at the KEWL little novelty item for their collections.
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Brad Krawchuk
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 4:59am | IP Logged | 9  

Carmen - I actually support the decriminalization of marijuana! I don't smoke the stuff - just like I don't smoke anything else, tobacco related or otherwise - and I still wouldn't smoke it if it were legal. But yeesh! It's a comicbook for HARLEY QUINN. 

Put aside the legality of it if you want - it's a character that first appeared in BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, smelling like pot, which isn't a nice smell at any time, and which also has nothing to do with her character. 

Does DC even know how pathetic that is? Well, they might say, it got us talking about it, no such thing as bad publicity! Except there is, there's the very seriously bad realization I'm coming to that I no longer want them making my money, because they're idiots. 
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Brian J Nelson
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 7:12am | IP Logged | 10  

"Apparently, they're not considering it as bad as tobacco (notwithstanding the fact that you also smoke marijuana joints like you do cigars and cigarettes)."

I am certified as a smoking cessation instructor for the ALA.  The stance there is nobody should ever smoke anything, period.  But, because of the legality, there really is no research linking it to lung cancer. The results are too mixed. Additionally, many people think of marijuana as a "natural" product as the current methodology for growing and drying does not contain the additives found to be included by big tobacco. At this point, it might be better to compare it to alcohol. It certainly impairs judgement and cognitive skills as well as motor skills.

Anyway, if my kids (13 & 8) read Harley Quinn, I probably wouldn't care. I would just make sure I had an extra conversation with them regarding marijuana and its portrayal in the book.

Has anyone said how it is being portrayed yet, or do we just have Mad Magazine to go off of?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | 11  

Ooooo....! DC is so edgy!
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Marcel Chenier
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Posted: 15 October 2014 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | 12  

I've stashed away a few old comics, mainly JB stuff, and that's about all there is I'll share with my daughter when she's old enough to appreciate them; should she take an interest, I'll explain that comics today ad nothing like their brethren of yesteryear and duly direct her to the true classics of the form.

I'm on this forum, the only "comic" forum I've ever been on, because of my appreciation for JB's contribution to the form.  There are other greats that I appreciate--but today the form itself is a walking corpse.  I'll hang out here for the art, updates for new work, and the banter.  In the instance discussion should enter into modern comics:  it's over, and threads like this ar representative of that sad fact.
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