An interesting report from Houstonvoice.com says that a Marvel spokesperson is denying that the company ever had a policy about labeling books featuring homosexual characters in the lead role as being for mature readers:

“The best way to find this out is to go to the comic book store, and you will not see a warning label on any title with gay characters,” said Jeff Klein, executive vice president of Dan Klores Communication and spokesperson for Marvel.

Earlier this year, Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, angered gay fans and activists when he stated that no ongoing solo series starring gay characters would go out without a warning label, according to the national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a media watchdog group.

But Klein said those accounts were based on inaccurate reports.

“On the record, Marvel never had warning labels on comic books with gay characters, and we never will,” he said.

The article goes on to quote Joe Quesada from the Joe Fridays column where he said the policy had “faded away,” then picks up again with more from Klein on the Rawhide Kid controversy:

BUT ACCORDING TO Klein, Marvel had placed the Rawhide Kid series, which is no longer published, under its “MAX: Explicit Content” category. He said the category, which has distinctive packaging from other titles, is used for stories with adult subject matter.

Klein didn’t provide a reason why Rawhide Kid was considered a Max title during its publishing run, but said it was not due to pressure from conservative groups.

“Looking at certain aspects of the title, that specific story fell under that banner,” he said. “It’s just an overall adult labeling.”

It’s odd at this point that a Marvel spokesperson would make a statement denying that they ever had such a policy, especially since they’ve already received some press and even accolades from fans about it going away. And if the whole thing was blown out of proportion by “inaccurate reports” — reports that started shortly after the Rawhide Kid/CNN bruhaha — why are they only now denying it? And why would their editor-in-chief say it went away if it never existed in the first place?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Marvel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.