DFO87324/05/79

Ugly or Pretty? Damning or Uplifting! Blasting or Feeding?

(Dad had been very concerned that too many of our Kids Komix & True Komix contain a damning & dooming message, which is definitely not the message that we want to present to our children nor to most of the general public. The following are some of his comments about this which were sent in an Advisory to all Family Artists:)

1. KIDS KOMIX: WE NEED TO TRY TO EMPHASISE MORE THE THINGS THAT ARE ENCOURAGING & positive & uplifting & saving & not damning & dooming! That was for its day in the States, & it is still for the States & it is still for the rich & it's still probably for the West, but it certainly is not good fare for children!

2. I CALL CHILDREN THOSE UNDER 12. When they are 12 & over, we consider them adults, but the Kids Komix are for kids under 12. They should be aimed particularly at the age level of our present kids who're in the just-beginning-to-read bracket, 3 or 4, like Dito, to 7 or 8.

3. I DO NOT LIKE, NOR DO I APPROVE OF‚ THESE KIDS KOMIX OF DOOM, HORROR, & TERRIFYING TALES! That damn doom rut is not suitable for children!—Those horror stories are the judgements of God on wicked parents & are not for children!

4. THEY ARE GROWING UP & HAVING ENOUGH PROBLEMS of their own, with enough things to scare them half to death, enough problems, troubles & worries. They don't need to be worried about things that they are not guilty of & are not going to suffer. I don't think children ought to be worried about things that are just more than they should bear, & I think that's more than they can bear.

5. WE NEED SIMPLE CHILD LIKE STORIES, encouraging, uplifting, positive, saving, & not always dwelling on the horrible guts-&-gore & Gloomy Gus, damn doom of what their parents deserve or what their grandparents deserve back in the U.S. or the rich West.

6. FROM NOW ON‚ ALL OF THIS KOMIX MATERIAL IS NOT GOING TO BE CLASSIFIED ONE OR THE OTHER, only True Komix for GP adults or Kids—suitable even for GP kids, and that means kids 11 years of age or younger, & mostly younger. It's going to have to be wholesome‚ pretty pictures, encouraging pictures, bright stories, things suitable for children.

7. TRUE KOMIX: IN THE VERY BEGINNING I TOLD THE ARTISTS TO PLEASE REMEMBER the major purpose of the Komix was to reach the System, reach the general public. What I meant by that, & had in mind, was something appealing to them, appealing to the general public.—Things which were positive & encouraging & saving & instructive.

8. BUT IT SEEMS LIKE WITH SOME ARTISTS, YOU CAN'T MENTION THE SYSTEM but what as far as they're concerned that means the Enemy, & if it's designed for the System, that means blast the System, to Hell with the System!

9. SOME OF THESE OLD PROPHETS OF DOOM ARE STILL LIVING IN THE PAST, they can't think of anything but damn the United States & the same kind of ministry we used to have of dooming & damning the U.S. System. They don't realise that we've got our own system now, we've got our own separate culture.

10. I'M GETTING SO GOD DAMNED SICK OF THESE BLASTS AT THE SYSTEM, many Komics another blast at the System!—When we were there, it was necessary & it was important & that was our purpose in breaking with it. But now we're trying to change that image of the wild-&-wooley, wild-haired revolutionary to something a little bit more civilised & nice:

11. LITTLE FAMILIES WITH SWEET CHILDREN‚ singing precious little songs, & trying to woo & win the System, not trying to blast them away & curse them & cuss them & say to Hell with them! How the Hell are they ever going to sell that on the street?

12. WE OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO PRESENT SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE ATTRACTIVE & a little bit more civilised & a little bit sweeter & happier. Show them the kind of face that is going to make them feel like we've got something better than they've got. "Look! Here's the wonderful life we live. Wouldn't you like to live it too?—Look! Here's the beautiful things we believe! Here's the wonderful things you have to look forward to in this life!"

13. MY GOD! THE GENERAL PUBLIC MUST GET SICK OF ALL THIS GOD-DAMNED DOOM, horror, negative blast-at-the–System–type Komix! I know I get sick of it! We are a new church & we ought to have some kind of positive, saving, encouraging, uplifting message that's a little more feeding of the sheep, instead of only blasting at the wolves!

14. I'M SICK OF PREACHING AT THE WOLVES! There is no use in having only a negative, damning, dooming, blasting, blowing away GP message! For God's sake, let's tell them there's an answer, there's a remedy!

15. I'M JUST SO SICK OF SEEING THESE HORRIBLE UGLY PICTURES on the front covers of the Komix! I'm just sick of them & I don't want to see any more of them! I am not even going to look past the front page if they send me anymore of these ugly Komix with these ugly pictures on the front! Some of these Komix hardly even have a happy ending—it's a horror from beginning end!—Who wants it?

16. RIGHT NOW WHEN THE MEDIA IS SO CRITICAL OF THE SECTS & the public is so suspicious, is the time when we ought to be the most careful to put our best foot forward & wear a happy face & try to show something positive & not all this negative stuff that we are already accused of & they're sick of!—Show pictures of our pretty women or happy children or sweet men—the happy stories of happy people with happy endings!

17. I WANT TO SEE SOME PRETTY COVERS ON THESE KOMIX FROM NOW ON! We can certainly put something positive & beautiful & attractive & encouraging on the cover. I'm just not going to approve of these Komix with horror covers & nothing but horror stories & nothing positive to say, nothing encouraging, nothing uplifting & nothing saving‚ nothing feeding, nothing to offer, no happy ending!

18. I GUESS I'M PRETTY NEGATIVE MYSELF‚ A PROPHET OF DOOM & a fighter & revolutionary, & I don't like the System either! I especially don't like the way it treats us, & I must admit, I like to blast them sometimes. But for God's sake, that's not our whole message! If our message is nothing but "Go to Hell"—Blast the System, blow'm away, curse'm, damn'm, doom'm—if that's all we've got‚ it's a pretty discouraging negative message!

19. BUT SURELY I HAVE PRESENTED A MORE POSITIVE MESSAGE THAN THAT! There must be some hope in our message, some salvation, some remedy, some answer‚ something encouraging! Give an answer! Why just present the horror?—People know about the horror already.

20. SURELY MY MESSAGE HAS BEEN A MESSAGE OF LOVE. Are we the Family of Love or not? Do we have a message of love or not? People are looking around for some little ray of hope, some salvation, some kind of bright spot somewhere!—A little love, a little mercy, someplace where they can find some relief! And then, my Lord!—We come along & give them only horror & Hell! I am sick of it! People don't like to hear that kind of stuff! They want to shut their eyes & wish it would go away, including you!

21. JESUS SAID, "AND I, IF I BE LIFTED UP, I WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME" (Jn.12:32). Are we trying to draw them unto Jesus or drive them into Hell? What are we trying to do?—God help us! (So PTL! There we have it! That's pretty clear, isn't it? Lord forgive us & help us all to really make all of our work on the True Komix more representative of Him! & fit for Kids or the Public!) P.S. You artists have been doing much better lately with happier more positive Komix.

ON CAMBODIA

Dear Zs,

22. GOT UR GRUESOME, SHOCKING WN ON CAMBODIA! Don't usually like 2 dwell so much on the neg. but kids need 2 know how cruel this World is, & B tkful 4 the next!—Amen?—& 2 pray 4'm.

23. IT'S THE LIVING WHO SUFFER—not the dead! TG they've gone to a better world!—Maybe God allowed it 2 happen 2 put a lot of'm out of their miserable Earthly suffering?—They're btr off in God's hands!—Amen?

ON NEW MAG!

24. P.S. IT'S A GREAT NEW MAG!—Amen?—84 pgs!—WOW!—Like it?—We love it! PTL!—A dream come true!—It just sorta evoluted!—Ha!

Love‚ Dad.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family