Comic writer Gerard Jones will debate Jack Thompson, the notorious Florida attorney who attempted to ban the sale of 2 Live Crew albums in Florida and worked to have Howard Stern’s show removed from an Orlando radio station. The debate is tonight at the California University of Pennsylvania (which is located in the city of California, Pennsylvania … how confusing is that?)

Thompson’s current crusade is against violent video games:

For his efforts, Mr. Thompson is regularly drawn and quartered on video gaming blogs and forums (”I don’t hate Jack Thompson,” says one writer on Mobygames.com. “I just believe that … if his mother had drowned him in a toilet when he was a baby the world would be a better place.”)

“I’d be disappointed if video gamers as a group of people didn’t despise me,” Mr. Thompson said in a phone interview from his Miami home. “You can’t do this work and hope people like you.”

Jones, his opponent, wrote the book Killing Monsters Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence. Per Publisher’s Weekly, Jones argues that “violent video games, movies, music and comics provide a safe fantasy world within which children learn to become familiar with and control the frightening emotions of anger, violence and sexuality.”

Comic fans are probably familiar with Jones from his comic work, which includes Green Lantern, El Diablo, Justice League, Wonder Man and The Trouble With Girls.

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