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Philadelphia Inquirer Suffers 'Vocabulary Malfunction' Over Wildstorm Comic

Published Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:49:40 -0500

On Sunday, John Arcudi talked to the Philadephia Inquirer on why he hates superheroes. Just as his new superhero comic, a god somewhere, is published from Wildstorm. And so proud of it were Wildstorm that they linked to the article on their Wildstorm blog, The Bleed (which I still think they nicked from this site).

But another controversy was brewing. Because the print version of the article had included examples of artwork from the series. And sub editors, clearly still thinking that "comics were for kids" hadn't looked at all the artwork. Or maybe the papers couldn't afford subs this week.

And as a result, they printed the word "motherfucker".

Just as I have. Have a look from this scan (with inset magnified panel) by the Philidelphia Citypaper's blog.

And while this wouldn't be a source of major controversy in a British broadsheet newspaper, or indeed in a Mature Readers comic from DC, post-Levitz, in a local American newspaper it's tantamount to treason.

I am reminded of the BBC's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, when they decided to show a teaser for Snakes On A Plane. While the word "fucker" was fine, "motherfucker" was not, so Ross chose to edit that famous line from the plane thus;