You Know I Had To Do It To Them

They asked for this, adult comics, I mean. I tried thinking of an interesting and unique perspective on these bad boys for a solid several seconds, but they’re so direct about their goals and intentions that I’d be remissed not to give them what they want and discuss the only thing these comics want to discuss. Adult comics didn’t have substance in mind when being created. They weren’t written to spread a deep, intricate, message that audiences can take something away from. Then again many comics, regardless of audience, serve a similar purpose as adult comics in that most are made to entertain. It just so happens that they are a lot more blatant with with their intent.
Adult comics serve one purpose. To entertain through obscene and offensive content. That’s their message, that’s their goal, that’s their subject, that’s there everything. Let me clarify that it is okay for a story to cover mature themes, it’s good for stories to cover new grounds and look into topics not often explored. I should also add that a story doesn’t need to have some grand purpose for being in order for to be enjoyable and entertaining. I think The Peanuts is great and The Peanuts just tells funny jokes. In a sense these comics did more from the medium, since they created content that broke the boundaries of how the medium was seen. By that some token however, they did not age as gracefully as a comic like The Peanuts
Perhaps what it comes down to is simply a personal bias. I don’t find these comics to be very entertaining. It may be their forwardness which pushes me away, or that I want more from a comic then just obscene jokes, but no matter how much of it I read I feel I put more into it than what I get out of it. I don’t think the humor is too offensive for me to handle, I’ve long been desensitized to this kind of content. I’m not like the generation first reading these comics, bewildered that such content can be published and bought. I grew up using the internet and nothing I'm shown surprises me anymore, so with that surprise gone I’m left with one question to ask. What else of substance is in the stories to keep me reading beyond the surface surprise? For me - nothing. I bet my thirteen year old self would’ve loved these comics too, laughing at all the obscene jokes, curious in its depictions of sexual content, and eager to see what racist stereotype it can depict next. But i’m not a teenager anymore, I need more than the adult equivalent of a fart joke to keep me stimulated, and adult comics do little to satiate my need for interesting content beyond a surface “SURPRISE!”. Adult content has always been a part of the comic medium from my perspective, so the appeal of these comics is lost to me. I can respect how influential adult comics were on the medium going forward at the time of their release, but that does not mean they still translate into entertaining content today.