[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com, i'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. Once again, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and collectibles@gitalcomics and collectibles.com and fittingly enough, owner, proprietor, comic book retailer Paul Eaton of Galactic Comics joins us on this episode of the podcast for Banned Books Week, which is here now happening this week. Paul, owner of the Comic Book Store, joins us this week to discuss banned or challenge graphic novels and books and so much more right here on the podcast. Launched in 1982, Banned Books Week takes place this year, October 5th through the 11th, 2025, which is obviously during this week. And you can find out
[email protected] for all that information and so on and so forth. But we talked discussion of why books are banned, whether that should be banned, or so on and so forth right here on the podcast. But before you do, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky Threads, all those places, you can follow us over on YouTube as well, on our YouTube channel as well. You can rate, review, subscribe, all that stuff over on Spotify Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. Or you can always Visit
[email protected] for so much more. But this is Paul Eaton of Galactic Comics and Collectibles in Bangor, Maine, discussing Band Books Week right here on the Capes and Tights podcast. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah, you never know what's going on here, right?
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Exactly. It's always one of those fun things.
I'm quiet, there's no one bothering me. And if someone does bother me, I could just tell them to screw off. Like my ring door camera could go off right now. Some of you at the door, I'm like, I don't have to answer it.
The door that's actually in the studio is my back door. So no one's coming to this. Well, if someone does come to, this is a problem, Paul.
But you, it's like people can actually knock on your door right now. You're like, well, that guy could buy a $500 comic right now. So maybe I want to talk to him.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Well, here's the thing. We had a family come in on Friday from Canada. They're on vacation and their credit card wouldn't work, so they put books to side and said, well, I'll be back. Well, they're coming through this morning. They were going to get here right now.
Like, as we're recording, and I'm like, well, I don't know, like, how I'm going to make this work. And he goes, we'll tell you what, like, can you run my car to just put the books on the porch for me? So, like, we have our new security all set up here. So I kind of been watching the porch as I put this package out there, and I just see somebody run up and grab the package and run off. And I'm like, boy, I hope that's the gospel.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Well, I'm trying to feel like. So, like, here in. I live in Newport, Maine, home of Cooper, flag number one draft pick in the NBA. And we were talking about, like, stuff like, I have my better.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: I win.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: I mean, it's. I still. People are like, where you live? I'm like, Bangor. Like, come on. Like, it's. It is what it is. But you are actually closer. You're like. You're within, like, legit walking distances to Stephen King's house. But regularly, the.
But like, we have like, the stroller for our kids on the front porch right now, like, not put up, but, like, taken down. We got. We went apple picking yesterday, so we, like, took it out of the car and put it on the porch. We just haven't done anything with it. And I'm like, I hope someone doesn't steal that. I'm like, to be honest, you have to be pretty ballsy to steal something from someone's front porch anyway. And then there's also a case of beer on the front porch.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: You know, that's what's gonna get stolen.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: I was like, yeah, someone's gonna steal that. My wife's like, go back to the ring camera.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: It's just me running off.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: And you're like, I had a possum on my front porch last night from, from the ring camera. And it was like, sniffing around.
Yeah.
And then I have like a small, like, like the, the. The. The seal on the bottom of my door. There's a small hole, like, to the right side of the door. That's like the smallest thing possible. And I'm like, but how, how much could. A possum is big. It's not gonna get in.
But like, I heard. I know a rat can fit through.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: A whole size with dimes, like a full size rat.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: So it's like, yeah, yeah, so we have to fix that. But I was laughing. I'm like, oh, this possum's gonna come get us in the middle of the night. We've already had a Bat in the house. So maybe that's a bat. Get him.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: You're safe for me because I. I came in and helped with the moving and stuff. I could not find my way back to your house right now. I don't think.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: It's not that far.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Just come visit. I'm not giving you, like, any directions.
Let's see how you do. I don't know if I can find my way there. I bet I could. Yeah, there's a couple landmarks that I could probably landmark and then get my way from there.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: But especially after dark. You put me after dark. There's no way I'm getting back there.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: The plan is to have you come over some more to parties and things like that. But we're still like the studio. I was like, oh, I was thinking, I just saw someone post a picture of their studio. Hey, we moved to a new studio and they post pictures and stuff like that. And I was like, oh, I meant to do that. Like, I wanted to do like an update to all the podcast listeners. And hey, this is where this stuff is. And so check this out. But like, right now, over here is just a shit show because there's about four pieces of ceiling on a piece of drywall that are just leaned up against the bookshelf right now to fix my ceiling in the. In the kitchen still. There's just a stack of. Over there.
The heater's not working. He's not working right now. So I have the heater in here.
And so, like, there's just a thing. And then my wife. My wife's like, oh, look at that. Another thing on the list. Another thing on the list. I go, it's a home ownership hun. It's homeownership this morning.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Because it's chilly. It's like getting cooler. And I was like, I bet Justin's room's gonna be a lot warmer.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Well, it's a lot warmer than I last place. But it has its own heat too, Paul. Like, we have our own. Like, it's. It's thermostat in here.
The rest of the house is on a different thermostat and different registers, but mine has its own in here. It's actual insulation in here too. There's not a garage door, which is nice.
So that's what I'm looking forward to. And actually the space heater got it up to the temp. It was 60 in here earlier. But that's also because the AC was in the window. I took the AC out.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Okay. And so now is that Signed poster over there.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Right here. It's a curtain.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Oh, it's a Hulk Urden. All right. I thought it was, like, I was looking because there's, like, a little bit of blue in the.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: It's a light coming through.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks like it was, like, signed. I'm like, what is that? I don't remember that.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: It's Hulk. Oh, no.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: It's.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: It's Tales to Astonish. The Incredible Hulk and the submariner number 101. No, there's no real reason why it's on a curtain.
That's a rant. It's a good picture. I mean, it's got Hulk on it. It's got. You know, I don't even know who else is on it. Submariner's not even on it.
And stuff like that. All of your cool picture, but, like, yeah, I see all these things, and.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: You'Re like, why did you choose? Like, it's great. But then you go look, like, why'd you choose that? Like, it's not.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: My theory is. It's like, I've been looking to buy, like, pages of artists and stuff like that to put up on the wall on here and stuff like that. And, like, there's certain ones that are, like, $50, and there's certain ones that are $5,000. And my theory is that it licensing goes the same way.
Like, they go in there and they see all the covers, the different things, how we could put it on a piece of fabric. And this had a big piece. The Hulk was, you know, front and center. And so they were like. But this one was, like, really cheap to license. So they choose. Chose this one. But then if you have, like, Amazing Fantasy 15, it's probably, like, way more expensive, right?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: If you get. So if you want a first appearance.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Of Silver Surfer versus just a random artwork of the Silver Surfer or Silver Surfer number one. They're all different pricing because, I mean.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: If you just blanket it, it's just, like, random thing as a whole.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, seven looks good enough for me. And then you buy that one so you can make your. Well, I bought that one out of it. Your bed sheets.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: I think I have an amazing fantasy 15 curtain in there for my. From my old original studio. And then I have a Walking Dead comic book one. And I think I got them all at Martin's. Honestly, they're like. It's just like this. Like this. They're, like, not big enough for curtains. So we had to add, like. It's weird. It was like, a weird piece of cloth. And why they probably never sold. And people were like, what do we do with this thing? What are you guys supposed to do with this? Like a baby blanket or dog blanket or something? Yeah, exactly. So, but yeah, I need a curtain here by the back door and a curtain over there. So we're going to work on some stuff over here. But, yeah, that's our. And it was the first one I found, and I needed something to cover this window because a lot of light comes in from here. And so I was like. And then I'm like, that's the battle. Let's look it up. And I looked it up. Literally.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Is nothing staring the sun right now in the mornings in the shop? So hopefully, hopefully the next location, I won't have that challenge.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's a benefit. Now. I used to get some sunlight, whereas in my old studio was like, it's like, either open the garage door or you have no sunlight. Like, I would, like, get into my office in the morning on a Monday, and I would not know what the heck's going on outside until 4:00'. Clock.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah, you have no idea what there is. You have no idea. Yeah. But living in a hole.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Well, here. This is the first comic book podcast. I mean, outside of Our annual Top 10 Comics of the year. We haven't done a long time where we just talk comics or talk stuff like this, which we could sprinkle in one here and there. But this is banned books week, Band books week here. Not just on the podcast, but in the world.
It started in 1982, so we're now, what, like, 43, 43 years?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Because I was born in 82, so into this.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: And so it takes place. Usually takes place the last week of September, but not always. And this week, this time, it's taking the 5th through the 11th, 2025, and it's just bringing awareness to the band or challenge books that we deal with in this world. There's a lot of things that we're going through in this world right now, but, like, so it seems very like, I feel like I want to say, like, first world problems here, but in the same sense, these are things that we're. This is in our wheelhouse. So, like, why not talk about it? Like, there's a lot of things I'd like to just debate right now that are more impactful to everyday life, but this is like, to me, I'm like, it's not the end of the world if someone can't read a book or not, because there is enough out there. But it is important because these things are created, they're creative, with a lot of talent. A lot of work goes into these things as well as there is some meaning to a lot of these comic books in books and things like that. And so I wanted to start off quickly, Paul, just before we get into too much. There's a difference between banned and challenged. So now, when this was created in 1982, it was all about books that were banned. Like there were books that were just not allowed to be read and put in libraries, things like that. And then as it got along, as we progressed in the world and things got created, there were more things. The word challenge was added to it. And the distinction between the two is challenge means that someone has requested the removal of it. So a book that's going. A letter's been written to the library or the state house or whatever, to the governor, to the. To the mayor, to senators, all that stuff saying we need to take To Kill a Mockingbird out of libraries.
And it's a challenge. So they're challenging it. And then there's the word banned. Where there's books that are legitimately. Already a laws been put in place or some sort of ordinance has put them in place that says it cannot be put into public libraries, public schools, bookstores, things like that. So the word banned is used as a generic term for it. But not all the books that we might talk about are like legitimately banned. Like, you want to get in trouble to read these books.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I was reading about this. There's like different. Different places ban different books. Different. Like the south tends to have more banned books than the North.
You know, different states is more common or more requested. And it makes me wonder like how many. I wonder how many requests they get, like on average and how much and how much it varies from either major city to see or state to state or whatever.
It'd be sort of interesting to know those kind of statistics of like, what's.
What's more common. But I was reading up on this and. And it read. I read that the self was much more common to have the banned books.
And I've got a list here. And I have read actually on the list of banned books and on commonly banned books or commonly like founder or attempted to be banned. I have read almost every one of these.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: And you are a horrible person for it, Paul. Right. Your life is just. You just want to do bad things and you want to be a horrible person.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: I carry almost every one of these books in the store.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: So also I want to Say is if anybody doesn't know and anybody hasn't listened to this podcast, shame on you, first of all. Second of all, Paul, father of three. Three girls.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Me, I have a. I have a son and a daughter. So we are parents. And so we do have to live our lives as the idea that we're gonna have to. To control what our parents read or our kids read read and stuff like that.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Different parenting in the fact that you still have the littles. And like, my oldest is. She's gonna be 14 and she reads a lot. I mean, if she reads like adults read Steinbeck and she reads Mark Twain and she's like, we just went to the library a couple weeks ago and that's what she was straight to. To Twain, to Steinbeck. She was getting in like, might as well be heading right to band book list here.
One of the notes I had on here is that two of these books on this band list were ones that she has read, picked out and recommended.
And I had a conversation with her about one of them. So we can get into that later, too.
We have another perspective here.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: We are coming at this not as a sole.
Our sole directive is that these are great creations. People should read them no matter what. There still is a level of when and where and the right timing to read certain things.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Like, there's not an appropriate level and there's. There's a time and a place.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Exactly. And so that's where I think some of it comes into. And so I don't disagree fully in all of the band or challenge books that should be out there. Like, there's certain things that I'm like, okay, yes, my kid's 4 years old and my daughter's 18 months old and she's doing daycare right now. Should the Walking Dead graphic novel be on the shelf at their daycare? Of course not. Like, that's just common sense at that point.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Right?
[00:13:16] Speaker A: There's a point in time where if a kid's going to play Grand Theft Auto on his. On his Xbox, then you at the other side, you can't. You can't read the Walking Dead. I'm like, okay, come on. Like, there's a. There's a line here where I'm like, you know, you know, and so on and so forth. And there's the whole. The biggest takeaway from all of this to me is it's the whole chocolate milk versus regular milk thing in schools. And that regular milk in schools was pushed, push, push, pushed. And. And no kids were drinking it. And so finally they came out and said, well, if we put chocolate milk in schools, at least they'll get. Yes, they're getting more sugar, a little bit more sugar in there and they're getting the chocolate in there, but at least they'll get the vitamins and stuff that's good in milk, in their bodies. And so to me, I'm like, if a kid is reading, that's huge to me. And so yes, there's a huge thing in this. And so obviously we'll get into ins and outs of different books and so on and so forth. But yeah, I wanted to come at it as a.
We are parents so we have to think about the full grasp of parenting our kids as well.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: But I. One of my favorite things in here because I get asked a lot, we have a YA section and I always tell people the YA is all the way like teen, Teen plus still.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Like, and somebody, a parent will ask me, is this appropriate for my child? I said, I don't know your child.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: That's for you. Read it before you give it to them. Give it a flip through. We've got kids in here, I mean like 10 year olds reading. Something's killing the children.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Well, the 10 year old beside them like s. The hedgehog's like, oh, there's some stuff in this. I don't know how happy I am. I mean they're, they're. Every kid's different, you know, every parent's different. So.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's also funny. Read it first. But the parent, the parent has to read it though. Like, why would I want to read this?
[00:14:57] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Come on.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't, I don't know if it keeps him entertained. I'm happy and I'm like, well, you might not want to give them saga.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Well, the biggest thing to me is that like by. We talked, my wife and I talked about this.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: She's on the band list, by the way.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Yes, but, but the idea that people want. So I'm not going to get into a specific political things, but say there's a generic political things where people go, my religion, my, my beliefs, my this, that and the other thing. We should create laws that forbid people from doing things that don't agree with me because that will stop it from happening or that will make it less likely it will happen to me. It then takes the responsibility, humans to do what we want. So if my, if I don't want my kids reading something, I should parent them to the point where I tell them I don't want them to read them. And I have the discussion by making it so they can't access it at school takes the parenting away from me. Now I don't have to do anything because they can't get to it. And so to me, I'm like, well, why don't we take our own responsibility on these things? So if I'm going to use to Killing Mockingbird as an example for a book that's banned just because it's easy to remember, but, like, if the Killer Mockingbird's on the shelf in the library and I don't want my kid reading it, when that kid brings it home, I'm going to say, okay, can we please return that, Decide the other reason why I don't want you to read this.
But by saying they can't get it to me personally, who I was as a young person, I would find my way to get that book. And with the Internet nowadays, it is so much easier too. And so I'm going to find a way to defy my parents if I can't do this and so defy anything. But if I don't have this discussion with my parents, then, then they give me a reason why they would want me to read this. By just not having it available, that discussion goes away. You know, I mean, like, yep, you don't know what is.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: And it gets a lot into someone else's rights that just because it offends one person doesn't mean it offends another.
And I always try to have our store, like, our store. Big thing I have here is like, we don't. The store doesn't have political views. It's a store. It shouldn't have political views. You have opinions.
And that comes down to each individual person. And I think every person that comes in should be just as comfortable as the next. No matter what their reviews, their opinions are, or their lifestyle is or what have you, they should be comfortable and happy to come in here. And. And we should have products and can order products to their beliefs. I mean, rather, I'm ordering like animated and colored versions of the Bible or if we're ordering LGBTQ stuff, is every person's right and interest for what it is they want.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: And it's not. I don't know, it's not for the masses. Right.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: And that's. And that's my biggest thing. And so here's a lot of it. So banned books. This is Banned Books Week. Right. With any, first of all, going into it further banned books week.org if you want to read all the information about banned books. Check that out. It's a nonprofit organization doing all this stuff. We're going to talk mostly about graphic novels and mainly. And I say that the funny thing about this is I say graphic novels are picked apart a little bit more than books in the sense of one's not one one equals. Doesn't one equals one. Because there's a lot more To Kill a Mockingbird book sold in the history than mouse books sold, like for an example, or bone or saga. And that's mainly because To Kill a Mockingbird for a while there was like school reading like you were required.
But also it's been around a lot longer and books have been seen a little bit more highbrow and more accepted than comics. And that's why it's hard too, because.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Books don't have the imagery.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: So it goes to your imagination if you're going to read this thing. And if a kid that you don't want having it picks up a book, they have to try to read and find a spot. That may be the reason why this is inappropriate to you.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Versus if, if it's in the comic format, it has the imagery and a kid can flip through it and you know, can grab a horror novel off a shelf and go, oh Jesus, guy's getting decapitated.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: But it also goes to uneducated education to the people who are worried about this, like in the sense that they immediately think comics are geared towards kids. And so it seems like if someone creates a book like Genderqueer that you're gearing it towards younger people and trying to influence younger people with your opinions.
It's just an autobiography about someone's life and someone who's older created it for all people, not just young people.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: That's the way that that person does their storytelling.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: And I think you and I both appreciate for the fact that we read this.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Yes. And it's in. So. But the funny thing is like they're, they're targeted because of the imagery. And you're right about that. There's some imagery in it. But like, let's be honest. So like Wind for an example probably would be a modern day comic that was kind of like talked about and banned and challenged probably at some point, if it got to a point where.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Someone wanted to put it wind on any band list.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: No, it is. I don't think it's big enough. I don't think it's enough. No one's banned it because no schools are trying to bring it into their library. I don't think that there's.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: It may not be part of it.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: But it's not like there's two people having sex in the middle of the. I mean, like, so there is a level on these things, and so I think that's where it becomes in it. But we've dealt with this for a long time. We talked a little bit before we started recording was.
Comics code authority has existed in comics for. Since the 1950s. And it kind of. It's gone away now. There is no real comics code authority anymore. But, like, some of those values and some of those things have stayed. Like, you know, like these. The big two have gone away from some of the things, but they're still, like, they still tread some waters here to make sure that they're accepted.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: You know, DC has their black label where they put more of that mature audience stuff in. And Marvel started the red band thing where everything's poly bagged for your. More side. Yeah. So you're right. The two. The big two, do tend to still try to keep. And that's one of the things I always tell people, too, if they're looking for something for their kids to read. More often than not, if you're staying in mainstream, you're probably fairly safe.
There are some.
Killing Joke is definitely a mature reader.
And I saw that was a banned book list, and I can. I can see why.
And then it goes back to. I think you're.
Where. Where is this falling? Do you want this in grade schools? No. Do you want this in middle school? Probably not, depending on the reader.
In high school, that's. You start getting into where is it an appropriate level?
[00:21:24] Speaker A: For sure, it's. So we've dealt with it for a while, but most of it had to do with, like, killing and death and drugs and things that were very influential at the time in the 1950s were mainstream influential things that are on the thing. So, like, there was less lgbtq, you know, less trans stuff. Less of that. Because of. Yeah, it wasn't the forefront of what we were talking about at that moment.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: And so I brought this one along. So this is the. The homage to a horror novel. For anybody watching you kind of see this, that basically started the band list. So, you know, little Timmy's going to the comic rack down at the pharmacy and getting Superman.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: And then little Timmy goes. And they. They started making horror. That was not.
I. I don't know if it was really intended for kids, if they thought they were gonna get the. The adults with the, like, used to be getting their pulp books. And then maybe they grab one of these horror comics. But little Timmy got his hands on it.
There's the. The woman beheaded with the bloody act. And mom saw it. And then mom lost her mind and told the other moms. And then all the moms were burning comic books. And it didn't matter if it was horror, if it was Batman or it was going in the fire pit. Let's go.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Exactly. And so EC Comics basically went away when the Comics Code Authority was put into existence and more mainstream. So they were gone. And they're back now, you know, thanks to revitalization of it in horror comics and so on. But, like, so most of it was that. So the line gets kind of weird. So if you're really into anti something, obviously you're gonna try to push your agenda of whatever it is. And so if you're anti this or anti that. And so I can see the sides of things. I can see where someone's like, okay, I don't want this in schools because I don't believe in this. But that doesn't mean that you should ban it altogether. And that's my big part on this cough. Sorry, you got to dry throat.
But so the big one to me is the one that stands above all the rest. And so we could talk. We just talked about gender queer a little bit there. We talked about saga.
Those two are on the list.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: The only one on my list I haven't read. And I actually was going to try to get the library Saturday because I know the library has it.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yes, I was going to try to.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Grab that and give it a read, but I just. My weekend was not so.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: So the most frequently challenged and banned books according to the ALA list is Maus by Art Spiegelman, Fun Home by Alice Michael. I'm going to butcher some of these names, people.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I had the same problem.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Paris Paulus by Marjorie Satrapi and Drama by Rain Teglmere. There's more and more and more. Yeah. Saga.
Yeah.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: What was the Brian K. Vaughn one?
[00:24:16] Speaker A: A saga. And then also something the Baghdad one.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Pride of Baghdad.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Yes. But see, so if you look at this list, so. So genderqueer, fun, home, drama.
And those are the ones that are the top of the list of five lists I just found really quickly are sexuality, LGBTQ plus. You know, like, those are the themes. Nudity, Those are the ones that get a lot of pushback on it. But the one that stands out the most to me, that's like history, that people are just trying to Ignore almost is Mouse. And I think that there is in that book, there's profanity, there's nudity. Yes. Okay, that I understand. That's a little bit rough, probably, but I feel like that's a secondary picture. Pick why people don't want to do this because of the Holocaust themes that's in it. And I think that that's the big part about it. And I'm like, to me, I'm like, you can't.
That's not a choice.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: No.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: A choice to not believe in something. Like a choice to say that I don't agree with something. Like I don't agree with, you know, transitioning or I don't agree with LGBTQ plus, you know, like I don't agree with sexuality in that way. That's one thing. But to say, don't teach my kid about the Holocaust or don't teach anybody about the Holocaust.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: That happened, Paul. Like that's legit. Like that's part of history. It's like playing in the United States. We book about slavery. You're like, that didn't exist. No, no, it happened.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: We needed to. People should know.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: And again, there's a level. How long. I don't want Mouse at my kids preschool. He's four.
You know, I want him to read Sesame Street. I want him to read. He watched there the Big Blue House on tv right now. He's innocent right now. But in the next few years, as we grow, as he grows older, he starts asking questions about me. He asked me the other day how people die.
He's four. And so at some point these conversations are going to have to happen. So to me personally, the best way to teach someone a little bit about the Holocaust is to have them read a comic book ball.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I think so. I personally think Mouse should be a required reading probably in your, like your junior high level thing.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: So for those that don't know Mouse, Mouse is a biography. Ours film and wrote of his father's.
His life in World War II as a. As a Jew that was serving and then captured by the Nazis and put in a concentration camp.
And he chose to tell the story through animals and through the art of it. And no, I, I've read Mouse. It's a very, it's. It's not a easy read.
You know, let's say it's, it's deep, but that's the, the things that you should be having conversations about. And you're right. That's, that's, that's history. Not teaching it. You are destined to repeat it. This is, this is what happened. And I do agree. I think, as far as that conversation goes, this is a strong book to read for that subject.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: And that goes over the other side of things.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Probably my number one book that I disagree with in the ban list.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Here's Saga.
Fun book.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: I don't think I'm mature enough for Saga.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Great book.
It's. It's a. It's a. It's a fun story, but the thing is, it's a story with some inappropriate imagery, for certain.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: I read. I wrote on a file card at a local bookstore. It's the. The best family story you never want your children to read. Yes, yes, that's accurate.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: But Ryan K. Vaughan wrote that book for the purpose of writing a fantasy story. Like, this isn't. Like, he didn't write that to be like, R. Spiegelman's writing this book was a. Was a purpose to that. That wasn't just like, oh, I'm going to create a book around the Holocaust.
This, this is a story and this is legit. And so, like Saga, to me, I'm like, okay, I understand that there's like weird boob imagery in that and like animals that have boot. Like, there's. There's just things in it that you shouldn't. There is a level. It's like, at one point, it's just drawn pornography. I understand that. So, like, that. Where I can see that that's a level where. When you can have it. But that's the reason why we have Mature pg, all these things on it.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: And books do have that on them for our world. A lot of them do have like a T plus sign or a YA sign. You know, they have these things.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: But doesn't that leave it up to you as a store owner? A, if you don't want to carry it, you don't have.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: If I don't carry it, I just won't order it.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Or B, a customer coming in there, if you don't want to have it happen. So. And you have a thing. There is rules. Like if someone came in and wanted to buy a Merchant the Red Band Marvel book, and you knew this kid was 11 years old, you probably wouldn't sell it to him. You'd say, hey, sorry, yeah, if I.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Don'T know the parents or something, I'm gonna say, yeah, but you're gonna have to. To come back with your. With your parent and say, yeah, you can. You can buy parents.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: And at that point, you can't say no either. The Parents like, no, I let them read that. Okay, It's I can't marry you reading.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Something to kill the children. I said to her, I said, you know, like, that's a mature book. There's, it's a, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of death in it and murdering it. And she goes, oh, he saw Friday the 13th when he was 6 and he loves horror and this and that. I'm like, okay, well if you're good with it then.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: And it's the same thing.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: So I work with me, great. I'm all for like whatever, get some.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Reading, but OBC stuff on, right. I work at a brewery. I, I deal with alcohol and, and one of the rules you take when you're serving alcohol for the TIPS training course, the alcohol safety training course is that if a pregnant woman comes up to the bar and orders a beer, you cannot say no.
It's against the law to not serve them alcohol if they request it. Is it inappropriate? Is it wrong for that woman? All likelihood, yes. Like it's probably not the best choice for her. Here's the deal. One beer in the span of your nine months, 10 months of being pregnant is not going to hurt development of the kid. However, if that person has drinks a lot. So there's studies on that. But it's against the law to not serve that person alcohol. So in the same sense comes into this is like, if you feel like it's wrong for that person's kid to bring something that's killing the children, that's not up to you though, but up to the parent. So if the parents, they're like, I want to buy it, you're not going to risk your reputation as a store and all that stuff to not sell them that thing. But that's up to the parent, in my opinion. That's why this comes down to it. And also for comics, we've dealt with this for a while with the comics code authority, like I mentioned slightly, but I'm also like, don't like this black and white of like it's not allowed or allowed like this whole, like this fighting for it. Yes, exactly.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: And there's, there's, I mean there's, there's a. So one of the books on this list, this one summer by I'm gonna butcher this one Miracle Tamaki.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: I hope I got that close.
So Charlotte came to me with this book at a bookstore and was like, I want this. And then she says, I got off the band list and I gave it a flip through. I Said okay. And she read it and we were talking about the reasons this book's banned. She goes, dad, I don't, I don't really get why it's banned. Like they're, the girls are talking about sex and, and it's about two girls that are friends that only see each other during the summer and them catching up on their lives and them starting to become teenagers. And she's like, there's nothing in that book that like I wouldn't talk about with my friends.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: You know, maybe not sitting in my, in the living room with all of us parents around, but privately. And that's like part of life maturity and kids growing up and like I feel like in my opinion like some of these kids need this sort of stuff. Maybe a kid needs to read about it and read that it's okay that other people do discuss these things or, or what have you. And if a kid's uncomfortable or doesn't have that person they can speak with to know that these things exist, that they're not like the odd one out.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: So I was surprised in, in why this was on a band list.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Well, you know, so Taylor and I talked to the car the other way on the way back from camp on, on Sunday and we were talking about how I want my life to be easier. Right. Like I just want my life to be easy. So the easiness means in our life. And we believe in a pretty wholesome household. Meaning that one of us, we both cook, we both clean, we both do things. Like I do most of the mowing, but she'd be willing to do the mowing and so on and so forth. There's not like this.
I get, I do all the work, Taylor does all the cooking and cleaning. I like the old school mentality of how this relationship works. We're very, very, we're not. In some weeks there are more, one side or the other, so on and so forth. But the reason why that's like that is not because I want an equal household. It's because it's frickin easier. Paul. Like right. You know, I've always said this to people. I'm like, what? I liked my son to grow up not liking anything really weird. Like anything like really obscure. Yes. Because it's easier to maintain that child because like that's pretty straightforward.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: He's almost every store in town and ordering stuff in the Internet because his.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: Favorite thing is, think about it like.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Random one season cartoon that went out.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Yes. Years ago. Well, I'm thinking about, we talk all the time about your kids baton twirling. Like, I don't know any. I didn't know anybody growing up that did it. I don't know any parents other than you that do it. So there are a bunch, obviously, because obviously your kids have a bunch of people that go to these things. But, like, to your life would probably be easier if they didn't do patron twirling. But they do. But. So my whole thing is like, I would like life to be easier. So the easier way to explain to someone about maybe gender identity or other things. If I could just hand my kid a book and have him read it.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Go read this.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Yeah, like, to be like, that would.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Be easier in a book that. If you read it and you feel like this is a good explanation or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Because I, I can't explain what's in a book like genderqueer, like, because I don't have those feelings in that understanding. But if, if one of my children is asking me about it, you're right. That is. This is a person who lives this life.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: This is a person's experiences in this life.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Read it and I can see if it wasn't talked about, maybe we would.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: All be better people if we read more of these books, right?
[00:33:56] Speaker A: Well, think if it wasn't talked about at all, you know, I mean, like, so if, like there's a book about bloodletting or something like that, you're like, okay, that could probably be a banned book. Like, I understand about, like, that's pretty obscure and like, because it's not talked about, you know, outside the point. This kid, your 14 year old, is going to learn about this stuff at school, from friends, from other parents that.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Are, that lead, like, live this life. This is their, their everyday life.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: If they don't, they're someone's parents do. So this is part of our society nowadays. And so banning books does not put it away and put in the closet.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Well, and that was something I want to talk about in this too. That surprises me. In the world we live in, we have, we have Pride Month, we have. LGBTQ is so much more accepted and part of our regular day life than it was even growing up in the 80s.
So why we're banning these sorts of books, I don't understand why you would ban Wind just because the, the main character is gay and that the story is about magic, but the story is really about also a child coming into his own and understanding who he is. You know, also as a gay character that is in this book, the, you know It's a bigger picture. Genderqueer all of these books. Why. Why would it be banning this stuff?
[00:35:15] Speaker A: And again, to me, I think it's one of those things. And this is another discussion that might be. Some might disagree on a whole thing is like, the age.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: And I'm sure I have friends that if they listen to this, will disagree with me right now.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so, too. And I guess I like this conversation to be more of a conversation and not just say, this is wrong, this is right. But, like, yeah, there may be a. Like I said, an age group of things. There's middle grade, there's young adult. There's adult books. And so there may be a part where, like, there's like, more of a. Has to go through some sort of, you know, part, like a board saying something about whether or not what age group it is. And then the school could say, we don't carry young adult books.
And then they don't carry that because of that. But by picking it out because of the content in the book is a difficult thing because, again, then you're, like, picking apart people's stories, and people maybe be apprehensive to tell their stories because of it, and so on and so forth. And a lot of it's. A lot of people work very hard on these things, and I think that goes to a lot of these comics, Art, Spiegelman, all these have. It's like their own. They're the cartoonist on it, so they're writing it, they're illustrating it, and so on and so forth. This is not like I'm writing this book because it's an edgy book, and I want people to like, it's gonna get some news articles, and I'll get someone else to write it. This is like, their stories.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Like, I. I think reading about the creation of Gender queer.
This wasn't written by a creator who wanted to make a bunch of money off of creating a comic book. This was written and told because this person has these life experiences and wants to share their story in hopes that it could help someone else that is living that same experience.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: And so my line is genderqueer. There has to be not just a. That it exists in this LGBTQ+ community.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: And not. It has to be about the meaning behind it, in my opinion. Like, so, like, saga, even bone on one side. It's like, there's nudity for nudity's sake, in a sense. Yeah. You know, it's challenged some places because of violence and tobacco use. Like, that one, to me, is like, honestly, I'd rather ban a book nowadays off of tobacco boost than I would about, you know, gender identity.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Right. I.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: My son can. My son and daughter could. She can experiment and figure out where their lives go and gender identity. I don't want those that I'm gonna put my foot down.
But like, I can see that.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Like, I had to go back and order a first edition bone because that's what I read.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: And I started reading a copy in here, kind of flipping through and reading and I was like, wait a minute, where. What is going on right here? What is it? I don't remember this panel. And then where is this panel? And then like, oh, this has been like redone to remove stuff that people thought was inappropriate or what have you.
Because I read bone. I didn't. There's nothing a bone I thought was.
But you know, everybody's different.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: But there's. But there's nudity for nudity, sinking violence for violence sake and all that stuff. So there's this difference between the meaning behind telling a impactful story in comic book form or just having like spectators. From Brian K. Vaughan is a great new book that just came out. But for some reason most of his characters are naked.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Right.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Like there's not like a hundred. That story probably could have been told in a different way, could have nudity in it. But like to have your people just running around flying around naked.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: And there's a book that really probably shouldn't be on shelves in the school.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: No. And so that's. To me, that's pornography more than it is.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: And I think that is another. Another perfect thing of confusion in our world of trades and comics and graphic novels are that you should maybe have two sections. You should have your trade graphic novels that are designed for YA and all readers. And then you should have another section of that stuff.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: And I do that. So be a question, what goes in there and what doesn't? But things like.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Exactly. It's accessibility.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: Sitting on the shelf next to Sonic the Hedgehog.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah. But the biggest. I think it comes down to religion, a lot of this to it. And I don't want to get into religious beliefs or anything like that. But my point is, is that the same people who want genderqueer to not exist in that library are also the same people fighting to have the Bible in there. And so that to me is like, okay, you can't really have one or the other. And I just think that's one of those things. There's literature out there. It's great it's wonderful. I mean, the most. One of the. Literally, this. Banned books exist very strongly, like Fahrenheit 451 and the killer Mockingbird and all.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: But Genderqueer is always, since its release, has been in the top 1, 2, 3 of the number of banned books. And I say. And that is mainly because people don't want people to know about it, and I'm uncomfortable with it. So to me, it's just this. This weird aspect of it, I think that talking novels.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Have you read Killer Mockingbird?
[00:39:48] Speaker A: I have not. Right. So this is a. This is. It's on my list. So. So one of the. I read for Fahrenheit 451 recently.
And that is weird because it's. It's. It's a banned book about banned books, basically. So, like, it's. It's a weird.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: If you put banned book in the title, you're gonna get banned.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's about.
And a lot of it is to control the narrative, Paul. Like, the reason why they banned books and did book burnings and stuff like that in Nazi Germany and all that stuff is because the less knowledgeable your people are, here they are the control. And so, like, if you have. People don't. If younger generations don't learn about gender identity, then you can easily control the narrative as they get older and not have people have that choice anymore. And that's what this comes down to.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Kill a Mockingbird. Because I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and I feel like it's a picture, a window into time.
It shows a lot about his time. So talk about comics world. Will Eisner, the Eisner Award for Best in Comics. I read one of Will Eisner's famous works of Spirit and was blown away with the racism in it. Holy smokes. But the book itself is not about being racist. It's not about having slaves or anything like that.
It's. It is sort of a picture in time. This was the way people identified in and did things. And I don't agree with it. However, it is interesting to look back in history and see our evolution of people, which is important, too.
So to ban some of this stuff just because it took place in a time that's maybe not so great.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about it.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: And again, that goes down to controlling people. That goes down to. If we can control what people read, we can control the narrative. So there. There's the idea of the mouse being banned. So if you control the idea that the Holocaust isn't a big thing, then we don't have to worry about that.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: And maybe it could happen again because people don't know much about it and so like the steps and you know, so. So it'll be obviously a longer term goal in that sense. But you know what the crazy thing is? Paul Mouse as a graphic novel has been a longer term banned book or challenge book because it came out years ago and compared to gender. Genderqueer for example.
Is it won a Pulitzer Prize.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: This book is so widely awarded in love.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: And so. But that's some of it. Some of it goes down to it and you know, again, it's about control and I think that's what people want. People want less knowledgeable people out there.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: And I think that talking of that. Another very commonly banned book is V for Vendetta.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:42:27] Speaker B: That I love. It's one of my all time favorite books and is for those of certain political mindsets. It could be a how to. But that's something different.
Overthrow your government and such.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: Well, it's like that's one of those books too. That is. I mean it was written in the 80s.
What late 70s, early 80s. And for now. Now that was 80s or 90s. I don't anyways to have that book banned. There was. I didn't see anything in that specific. It was very much about a world that was under a ruling and a dictatorship and one person trying to do their part to free people as a whole. And that's in that the. An overwhelming amount of the populace didn't even know they were being controlled.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: Until this one person started showing them.
And the idea that that's getting banned because we don't want your big picture thinking or we don't want you considering and questioning the authority. I'm like really like V from a desk and band. Because that's one of those ones too that you like.
[00:43:27] Speaker A: Well, if you. In my opinion too. It's like if you're. If you're in a topic that is controversial even should be or not should be or shouldn't be and you get banned or challenged. It should almost be like a check mark. Like yes, I did it. I fought against the authorities of what people want and that's the right amount.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Of people to find it. It's like you see your post on Facebook. It's got to love a like and an angry face. All right.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Well what point is this impact the first Amendment to have freedom of speech and being honest. And so this comes down to the big thing I say about all these things is that all these books are talking about are accessible. So whether or not they're challenged or whatever, you can read all of these books. They're not, you know, they're. And you're never not going to be able to. So the only ones you'll see that like will be harder to find at time is maybe even self banned books like bands that the author themselves realize. Like To Rage by Stephen King is about a school shooting.
And so he as an author said to the publisher, could you please put this out of print, I do not want this out there anymore. At the time it was not as big of a deal as it is nowadays. And so he doesn't want that out there. He doesn't want.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: It was not so much an unfortunately common trend.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Right, Correct. And so at that point it was a horror novel about this and it was actually by Richard Bachmann is his pen name. But like that book is no longer available in print does not mean you can't get it. Like there is resales, there's all this stuff. It's just a lot harder to find and read because all those ones are such limited that they're also more expensive to get. So like it's not as easily accessible. So those are the ones that I can understand. Like obviously I don't want to book about school shootings in the school library. That that is like cut and dry. Like no.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: And I mean I don't think you and I are going into school libraries to check books out either. No, that's the other.
[00:45:11] Speaker A: I don't think we're allowed to be in school libraries unless it's your own kids school library. I guess that's different. But like I think they'll question us just walking to a school library, you know, around here, anywhere. Side note, I did see a shirt that I want to get that said always chasing the Scholastic book Fair high.
I'm like, yes, I want that because it's true. That was one of the greatest days in the history. And you know, and here's the deal. I don't think my parents wanted me to read freaking Goosebumps when I was that age. And so there is this line that parents again should be parenting. I think that's the big part I think I'll take out of this. If you, if you. As a. My dad is a conservative Christian pastor and as a young. If I was 14 years old right now, in all likelihood he would not want me to read genderqueer. But that's his Right. As a parent of me to tell me that I don't want this right in my house. You. What's going to happen though? You're just like my childhood. I'm going to go read it because they're going to go find it somewhere.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Friends got it. Something.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: I mean, let's be honest. I was like 12 years old when I saw my first porno mag. Do you mean so like. Or even probably younger than. Honestly. And that wasn't allowed for me to have, you know, I mean, so like it's one of those things that like, it's, it's. You get, you get access to it. How many times did you see R rated movies or sneak into an R rated movie so that you are gonna get this.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Oh my God. And by, to me, by removing five by accident. And it was like, well, he's broken.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: When I smoked cigarettes at like 16, 17 year olds old occasionally. And it was only because it was unaccessible for me because I couldn't just go to the store and buy them. And I thought it was cool. And so once I turned 18, I haven't smoked a cigarette since Paul. And that's because it wasn't like it's easily accessible to me. So my whole thing is if you make these things easily accessible and the regular literature that you have to read, it removes all the stigma to it. It makes it so that kids probably will or will not pick it up. They only pick it up if they're interested in it. And no one's required. I do required reading is weird in school. I feel like there should be like up to the teacher of the class. Which. Yeah, which.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: So a friend of mine's a teacher and I had a conversation. It's funny because I was over at his house, we had a nice like fire and get together and I said, all right, I got a podcast coming up Monday. Let's talk. And he's like, oh, what are we talking about? Banned books?
And he said he feels as an educator it is.
He doesn't do a lot of required this and required that. He does the same thing of I'm here to steer you in a path that you're choosing and I'm trying to help you find it. So he's like, I try to have, you know, he has Pride of Baghdad on his shelf. It's a band book. And he's like, and I will tell anybody who's picking up, be prepared for the violence. Be prepared for a different perspective on life and this and that. But I'm not going to tell you not to read this.
And he said, and that's his feeling of.
Of all of these things is like. And ultimately. Right. If you're encouraging a kid to read and someone to expand on their horizons, then why are we taking that away in the first place?
And I think I'm a much better person now and I read all of these things than I was 20 years ago when I thought I had one tunnel vision of this was what life was and that's where I lived.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: And that's a big thing because that's. There's so much more to life nowadays that people are. And so the bigger thing is, is that bands like when you ban a book or challenge a book or have it in the news and all that stuff, I think it speaks more to the anxieties of the parents.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Than the actual book itself or the kids or the laziness of the parents.
[00:48:32] Speaker B: I don't feel like actually parenting my child. So will you do it for me and tell me what's appropriate and what isn't and make sure they can't get things that aren't.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: The actual harm to kids is such a small amount compared to what we're making this out to be that. That it becomes more of an issue of that. And then also the paradox of like banning books office increases the intention and readership of these things. So like again, if you're calling more.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: Attention to this by every time banned somewhere, the sales go up.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Yep, exactly. And so. And then also Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone, his. His defense of this whole thing. And I wrote this quote down. It says that kids are smarter than we think and that they can handle these things. I think that's another thing. It's like you're just because a kid's a kid, you don't think they're as smart as they actually are and that they actually, like you said, your daughter seeing things and going, why? I don't understand. Like this is just part of life. Like this is also like, I don't understand this. My friend's parents are gay.
Yeah.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: To do this. And we are.
It's easier for them to accept and change and adapt and learn and. And form those new thoughts of high like highways. And then we've got like, we're stuck in our ways.
[00:49:34] Speaker A: I'm old.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: I can't remember where I left my keys exactly.
All of my brain power is trying to remember where I left my wallet today.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: And there's certain ones. So now we live in a world of adaptation. Paul too so like you have people who have taken books or comics or stories and adapted them into TV or movies and things like that. And so you have. There's certain ones. I'm still kind of confused on why we haven't got modern adaptations. And maybe that is the band. They're just afraid to make this thing or whatever. There was a Fahrenheit 451 that came out with Michael B. Jordan a couple of years ago that was very bad.
Don't recommend watching it. But the one prior TO that was 1966, I believe. And so like for that many years we haven't actually had a Fahrenheit 451 which seems so much relevant today to make a move for this. Like, it feels like it seems like a right picking. Like I feel like with what's going on.
But like the Walking Dead, for example has been on challenge book in certain places in the country.
It's obvious reasons to that one where there is another one. You don't want violence and all that stuff in there, but you don't want. But it's a zombie apocalypse, Paul.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: You know, this is a fake in.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: High school, but it's a fake fantasy world too.
Okay, you know what? I'll tell you right now that if the zombie apocalypse happens, my kid can kill someone.
A zombie, right? Like, so that teacher, how that's a. That's a fault. Like, it's not even possible to happen. So like to me, I'm like, okay, yes, there's a level of when I want my kid to experience so much violence again that goes into more of when they should read it, not if they should read it. But guess what?
You know, accessible it is to watch The Walking Dead TV show just got put it on. Just got put it on. And guess what, Glenn. Spoiler alert. Glenn gets his head smashed in. I would say almost worse than in the comic book.
[00:51:15] Speaker B: And so, yeah, that was pretty bad.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: It happens. People get their heads decapitated. People like there's just. People get the show. I don't think as many people out there are worrying about what books in the library as they are watching what their kids watching after school. I. I think that's a huge thing.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: Glenn on the show was definitely worse for me than reading it in the book.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: It's the black and white grainy imaging in a comic book versus the actual full high def picture on amc. And so like to me that there's like a. There's not a full. Like, we need to ban the Walking Dead as a whole.
It's like a focus on the comic book for some reason, or we don't need to ban, you know, all imagery on TV of the LGBTQ + community.
Only do gender queer. So this weird thing, and it's true, people, the same people are fighting for it all along, but they're like, able to. It's like when Jeff Bezos started Amazon. The reason why he did books, to start off with, he wanted from the get go, everything story. He wanted a store where you can just order online, anything. And he started with books because of the ISBN system. And so that there's a. There was a system in place that he can implement into his website that already had all of the books available. And so someone wanted a book, he could get the book kind of thing. Whereas there's not a place for carrying golf balls and condoms and, you know, and like laundry detergent. Yeah, there isn't that. So he had to build this structure around something and then add to it. And so people are doing that. It's easy. I say easy. It's easier to ban a book from being in a library and put the pressure on a state or town or community to say, we don't want this in our library or in a bookstore and then expand from them to then eventually saying that ABC can't carry anything that has gay characters in it or whatever. So there's a place to start. And it's been like one of those things that people are fighting for in local communities.
My love for this, Paul, is it's never going to take hold. And that's where I'm getting out of this. Like, what I'm thinking as I read some books, read some information about this, decided to talk to you, is that like, the benefit we get out of this is we're not. I don't feel like we're needing to fight for it as much because it's some. I don't think it's going anywhere genderqueer is going to be around. It's not. It's available. It's, you know, it may not be easily accessible for certain people, but it's accessible. And I think that to me is a positive takeaway from this.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: Yep, it's there. You'll get it.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: Mouse is available. Bone is available. Saga is available. Again, it's up to the parent or the guardian or the person who's in charge of this small child to whether or not you want them to read this book, at what time they want to read this book. There's a time that I'll say to My son read this book if you want to or it's accessible and if you don't want him to read it, don't put it in front of them.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: But like I, I would. I've encouraged Charlotte to read both Bone and Mouse.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: All right.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: Bone is one of those ones that your daughter can deal with the violence and the cigarette smoking. I think this cigarette smoking is gross. I don't think that's an issue with people wanting to smoke or not nowadays.
[00:54:01] Speaker B: I think we are gonna random.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: If it was vaping though.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: Paul cigarette. Yeah, it's gonna make.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Bone was vaping. If Bone was vaping, it might be different. Different, right.
[00:54:11] Speaker B: I don't mind.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: It's. I mean I, I went to a concert on Saturday night and there was people there and people smoking weed all over the place. It's like weed is still illegal in all these places. They're still experiencing my. You know, I heard 14 year old kids going, smells. That's the smell so bad. I'm like, see, they're, they're gonna self police themselves. Like, it's like. And I honestly think weed smoking for younger generation is gonna go further away because of how legal it is now.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: Now it's legal and everybody can do it. And they're like, yeah, I don't do this.
[00:54:36] Speaker A: My parents are doing it. Why would I want to do that? Like, my parents are smoking weed. Why do I want to smoke weed? That's so old school. And then they're gonna be like, I'm gonna snore. Cocaine.
[00:54:43] Speaker B: No, I was gonna say, yeah. Where the basalts at? I read about those back in the day. Those sounded cool. Yeah, that's just what we need.
[00:54:52] Speaker A: But I think again, banned books are a big thing and I think that, you know, in this day and age, something's killing the children.
You know, one of the reasons why I feel like it's not right.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: That's not on the band list. It's not. It's not widespread enough.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: So obviously the Killer Mockingbird has the word kill in it. Right? Obviously that's, that's good. But like a lot of these other ones, like, like Mouse or, or Bone or Saga or don't have anything in the title that's going to scream at you. So if you think about, I'm a librarian, I'm ordering books from my library. Something says something's killing the children.
[00:55:24] Speaker B: Killing the children.
[00:55:25] Speaker A: It's likely not something.
Yeah. It's not going to be something I'm going to carry, you know, Point. Yeah. And so I think that may have something to do with it. Like exquisite corpses is like, you know, and that's a. James Tinian is leading the. Leading the. The revolution here. But yeah, so I think that confused.
[00:55:43] Speaker B: With nice house by the lake. This wasn't at all what I thought this was going to be.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: And so family vacation and I'd like to see that what book and say this does go opposite direction that I think it's going that I think that we're going in a world where we're going to have more widely accepted liter and that these things won't be as challenged as they will be hoping that's where we go. Not to Fahrenheit 451 where it's. Where it goes the opposite direction is that what books would be the one say it goes the way of being more challenged and more banned and stuff like that. Like what books would do that. And I think there are. I mean, James Tinian might be leading that chart in that category of like writing books that are, you know, thing. But in a world we live in, in comic books nowadays, Paul, there's a wide representation of people, whether it be gay characters or trans characters or black characters or, you know, any other race characters like female, male, kids, old adults, aliens, you know, weird creatures. We have such a wide variety in comic books nowadays. It would be really. You'd have to ban comics basically at this point, like in general, because there's just everything has something in it that someone's not going to like, but more people are going to like hopefully than not like it. So it's cool. I love being in this world of comics because there's just something.
There's legitimately, in my opinion, something for everybody in comics nowadays. Like, I say that because I want people to read comics. I want people to go to your shop.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: But I think that any soul that walks off the street and goes into your store, there's something in that comic book store.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: I can find something. Yeah. Well, we have. We have a new reader now. He's been. It's funny, he's been in the store two, three times a week.
He just started and he started with Batman and he's already like, all right, I can't. I can't go too deep yet. So I'm sticking with Batman for now. But I come in, I'm so excited to start when I can come to you and go, all right, yeah, what's next?
And I'm like, oh, man. You know, the Marvel world, the world of indie, like, you get into the independent Comics. He's like, I can't, I can't wait. But I gotta, I gotta stay focused for now. I'm gonna be all over the place. But he's so excited to have discovered this new world of reading and these new stories and new characters and all the things. And I remember that. I remember like I, I had always been a Batman guy and reading all the Batman and then. All right, I, I just, I, I'm Batman Doubt. And I did all of the Marvel. And then needing something to keep me occupied and starting lock and key.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: And then realizing that the independent scene can be so amazing. And now, like now that's all. I just read indie books all the time.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: But there's something for everybody, buddy. There really is. And so you either have a couple of people.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: I haven't read everything in here, but boy, I've read a lot of it.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: You either have on the shelf or on order or can order depending on.
Because obviously you buy a couple things and you sell it. So like a lot of these books are available at Galactic Comics and Collectibles, if you're interested in. So like Mouse, for example, you can get.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: And Mouse goes out of print. And I always try to get. Even if we have used copies of it, I try to.
[00:58:34] Speaker A: It's not. If you go into Galactic and it's not on the shelf, it's not because Paul doesn't want to carry you. It's likely because he either can't carry or someone bought the copy that he had. This is not like a. Yes, exactly. And our friends. I wanted to give a shout out. If you're looking for like novels that are potentially banned or challenged, you know, your fairy night 451s, you're killing mockingbirds, those kind of books as well as graphic novels that if Paul doesn't have it and either it's out of print, check with Briar Patch Books in downtown Bangor. If you're in the Bangor area, they also have a website. You can check them out online. Gibran does carry a lot of these books on the shelves. His too. Because he's belief that literature should be for everybody and that there shouldn't be someone telling.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: Chances are your best bets. You go to Astro Braun, where the band book section. Go there.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:59:15] Speaker B: And you're going to find probably some of your best books.
[00:59:17] Speaker A: Yes, and yes, exactly. And so. And then if there's other stuff. So if you're looking for novels, check out Briar Patch. If you're looking for comics, graphic novels, check out the Galactic Comics and Collectibles. They're both in Bangor. If you're in those areas, they both either have a web presence or are close to having a web presence.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: But I think galactic comics and collectibles.com returns.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: If you don't have access to it, message them on Facebook and say, I'm looking to get mouse. Can you get me account Mouse? Can you ship it to me? Paul will make it happen. So don't. Don't worry about that. So these books are accessible. And I do think that if you read them, you realize that there's just about. It's like the name my neighbor. Like, it's about them. It's about, you know, outside of the Walking Dead, Walking Dead or Saga, where there's like alien boobs and shit like that. Or Trojan, where there's like snake boobs.
Oh, yeah, that's Daniel for you. Daniel Krause.
[01:00:06] Speaker B: That was weird.
[01:00:08] Speaker A: But yeah. So to me, I'm like, read books, read comics, Read graphic novels. Read books. Listen to audiobooks. Do all that stuff. It's such a wide, amazing imagination out there for people. Plus there's like historic great stories. Like historic stories.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Just don't read it. Yes, go read something else, but put.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: Something else in their hand. Don't tell. Don't get someone so down on it, like, oh, I can't read mouse, or I can't read gender. Where then put Daredevil in their hand. Or.
Or Deadpool. No, not Deadpool.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: Go read Calvin and Hobbes and enjoy it.
[01:00:42] Speaker A: Exactly. It's true. And so banned book week. BannedBooksWeek.org is a website for a bunch more information about what's banned and what's not. If you want to support it and support these creators who are marginalized and picked apart by their stories, and then go there and find what stories there are. If you're wondering whether or not a book you've read before is on that or not, there's that there too.
If you hate to say it. If you want to avoid them, go there and check out what books to avoid.
Read what you want to read, and that's fine. I think we're inappropriate in the world to tell people what they can and cannot read by law, unless it's harmful, physically harmful to someone. There shouldn't be a book about how to commit suicide. I'm sorry. That should not be existing because that's physically going to harm someone. But if it changes someone's mindset on what they believe or what they don't believe or what they opens their minds to other things. That's a different story. And I think that's great. Whether it be fantasy, a memoir or just a cool story.
There should be so many regulations on it, in my opinion, or people trying to fight this for it.
I don't want to read biblical stories just because I don't want to read biblical stories. So I'm not going to read biblical stories.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: That's how read a banned book today, folks.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. So Galactic Comics and collectibles is at 547 Hammond street in Bangor, Maine. Galactic comics and collectibles.com coming soon.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: Oh, oh, I can't wait.
[01:01:59] Speaker A: It's gonna be so facebook.com and Instagram, though, if you want them, contact them. Paul's very active on there and so on and so forth. Check them out. And then we'll do another movie review at some point in the future here and we'll see what happens there. But until then, Paul, thank you so much for joining us again and happy Band Books Week. Let's read some banned books this week. How about that? Sound good?
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Remember, remember the 5th of November.
It.
