Controversy Has its Uses

art by yours truly

So I was thinking… in this day and age if you get on any type of social media, you are going to be punched repeatedly with CONTROVERSY! HERESY! HEATHENS! LIBERTARDS! CONSERVOTARDS-OR-HOW-EVER-THEY-ARE-CALLED-TARDS! …and so on. On blogs and tweets and even more so on youtube, making a controversial statement (however you may construe that) is all the rage. People accuse each other for doing it for ‘drama’ or for ‘clicks & ad revenue’ or for ‘notoriety’ or all of the above, or for being too sensitive or too trigger happy with issues, thus ending up with crescendos of controversial statements and endless arguments.

My focus for this newspost isn’t what constitutes a controversial topic, but controversy itself, wherever or however one may create it or aggravate/enhance it- and what it has done to comics.

Nowdays, it feels to me it’s often commercially done to gain publicity. From gender and race swapping in mainstream comics to warranted or idiotic bans and censorship, it all can be a great gimmick to get attention and people talking, thus a higher probability of selling comics in this day and age.

But controversy can also be used to heighten awareness on an issue, offer a less-popular or less-discussed viewpoint on an issue. It can create shock value for the comic’s subject matter, pathos or general mood.

And sometimes it emerges when the creator (at least) least expects it, and then that possibly presents different challenges to both the creator and his/her audience.

How do you feel about it, as a comic creator? Have you used controversy and if so, in what way? Has it ever cropped up anyway, whether you wanted it or not? Have you tried to avoid controversy, or feel indifferent of whether it emerges in your comic?

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