Seduction of the Innocent Read Free Page B

got back on track: “We have laws that forbid the sale of tobacco to minors. Why then can’t newsstand or candy store proprietors be held to a similar standard with these foul comic books? They should be stamped ‘adult.’”
    Maggie said, “Is that where you’d keep Mother Goose— under the counter? In the nursery rhyme, the farmer’s wife cuts off the rat’s tail with a butcher knife. That’s fairly grisly. So is an old woman putting children in an oven.”
    “She’s right!” a voice from the audience cried out.
    Startled, Barray looked past the lights into the relative darkness of the restaurant as a figure in a black-leather jacket, t-shirt and jeans moved through like a shark in choppy waters.
    I could see Barray thinking quickly— do I have this guy tossed out? Or make him part of the circus?
    “We seem to have an opposing opinion,” Barray said. “Speak up, sir, so our audience at home can hear you!”
    Just beyond the cameras, the young guy—he was maybe twenty—stopped, breathing heavily. He clearly hadn’t expected an invitation to speak. He had a hair-creamed black pompadour with sideburns, and was slender, almost skinny, the leather jacket giving him what little heft he had. But he was almost six foot and damn near as handsome as Brando in The Wild One, whose kid brother he might have been.
    “I’m in the business! I’m an artist! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
    “Why don’t you come on over and join us,” the disc jockey said, his voice genial but with an edge. “I’m sure we’d like to be corrected if we’re wrong.”
    Barray looked at Lehman, and said, “If you’d step out of the booth for a moment, Garson, we’ll make room for this representative of the comic book trade.”
    Soon the artist who looked like a young hoodlum had taken Lehman’s place, the little intellectual standing just off-camera, looking annoyed and almost hurt to have been trumped by an interloper.
    “First, your name, sir?” Barray asked his sudden guest. “And what comic book company do you work for?”
    “Will Allison,” he said, suddenly shy on camera. If he’d spoken any softer, the microphones would’ve been out of luck. “I draw science-fiction stories for EF.”
    “Entertaining Funnies!” the host erupted, eyes glittering with the gold he’d struck.
    “That’s right,” Allison said, sullen, defensive.
    “Such a charming, wholesome name for a comic book line that includes...” And he reached for a fresh example from the stack nearby. “... Tales from the Vault , with a young woman being strangled by a walking, rotting corpse, and Suspense Crime Stories, which depicts a hanged man with his neck broken and...ladies and gentleman...”
    He addressed the camera.
    “...I can’t show these to you in close-up. They are simply too disgusting.”
    Nervous, the young artist said, “I didn’t draw those!”
    “Oh, but the company you work for did publish them.”
    “Yes. But those are not intended for little kids.”
    “Big kids, then?”
    “We have tons of older readers like that, working stiffs, and college kids, too.”
    “Really?” Barray shook the comic book as if trying to dispel dirt. “How heartening to know the leaders of tomorrow enjoy ...literature. What do you draw, young man?”
    “I adapted a series of Ray Bradbury stories for Weird Fantastic Science. He’s a respected writer of science fiction!”
    Maggie said, “Mr. Bradbury is indeed a very respected author. And I’m familiar with this young man’s work, as well. He’s a gifted illustrator.”
    “If so,” Barray said, “then Mr. Allison is prostituting his talents working for Entertaining Funnies—perhaps the most reviled of all these comic book vultures. I risk no slander or libel in making that statement—I base it on the words of a scientist...Dr. Werner Frederick, in his new book, Ravage the Lambs.”
    Then the show was over, and Barray was all smiles where Maggie was concerned,