WHAT ADULTS THINK OF COMICS AS READING FOR CHILDREN.

This article presents information related to the violent controversy over the suitability of comics as reading for children. While both newspaper comics and comic magazines draw criticism on both scores, apprehension over their possible danger to character and mental health outweighs that over their imputed cultural undesirability by three to one. Preponderance of concern with the possible dangers of comics reading, as opposed to concern with its cultural undesirability, is particularly characteristic of those who hold a qualified attitude toward the comics. Moreover concern over the moral threat, and over the danger of the comics was held by very different segments of the population. The possible moral influence of the comics was primarily the concern of the older segment, the older the deeper the concern; the possible dangers of the comics were primarily the concern of parents, the younger their children the deeper their concern. Comics thought of as drawn for children, such as Donald Duck, and Prince Valiant, and comics about families, such as Blondie and Gasoline Alley, are overwhelmingly approved for children. Education, age and parental status have, however, interesting and significant relationships to attitudes toward children's reading. Education and age influence the nature of criticism.