For every grade school book report, I tried to argue with my teachers that comic books had legitimate literary value.  My mom said I would grow out of comics, and teachers kept trying to make me read books.  I read Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and Squadron Supreme very young and felt comics were persecuted for stereotypes.  Whenever someone said comic books are juvenile, I asked when was the last time they read a comic.  Most said not since they were kids.  A few said never.

But times have changed.  Comics, it seems, have earned some legitimacy.  Video games are the new medium to legitimize.

I graduated college and continue to read my comics, but people, even my mother, don’t criticize me anymore.  I wrote several papers in college about comics.  I even got honors in a Renaissance Literature class for adapting part of Squadron Supreme into an epic poem.  Instead of attacking my comic book collection, my mother and friends raise their noses at my obsessive video game collection.  It seems Watchmen is now high literature while Bioshock is common drivel.

Ignoring, for a moment, the debate about what makes art, let’s simply look at what has changed in the comic book and video game media spaces to cause a shift.  Comic books have remained a niche medium even though movies and TV shows based on its characters have flooded the mainstream.  Critically acclaimed shows like Lost and 4400 convey comic book-like stories to large audiences and are lauded with awards.  Movies like Ghost World, Sin City, and 300 show comics are more than spandex and beat ‘em ups.  There’s depth in those penciled pages from the distinctive art styles to the sometimes poetic words used.  Time Magazine ranks the 10 best comics each year, highlighting non-super hero fair coupled with high-profile mainstream sales of Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers and Sin City trade paperbacks proving comics aren’t just for kids anymore.

Even spandex gains credibility with indie-credibility in Bryan Singer’s X-Men to Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins.  Comic books have started looking like a viable form of creation because of these legitimate mainstream expansions.

Video games have not benefited from the same mainstream attention.  Even though video games generation Hollywood level revenue, the attention is focused on a few high-profile, often violent franchises.  The violence specifically generates such controversy that the argument over video game’s redeemable qualities is limited to a defensive "video games don’t cause violent crimes."  Studies routinely breathe fire linking video games with violent or aggressive feelings (which does not make one more likely to cause a violent crime, but that doesn’t stop reporters from claiming it).  Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Manhunt remain the public faces of the video game world which are not fair representations.  Still, the range of video game properties is limited more than comic books or movies partly because of the smaller market demographic and the youth of the industry.  The genre limitations of video games not only limit widespread appeal, but prevent mainstream acceptance of the medium as art.

Video games share similar programs felt by comics in the early years.  Censorship can cloud a medium from achieving its full potential.  During the middle of the 20th century, comic books were blamed for juvenile violence (sound familiar) and place sever censorship on itself known as the Comic Code Authority.

In 1971, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked Marvel Comic writer and editor Stan Lee to write a story against drug use.  Lee wrote a Spider-Man story where one of Spider-Man friends used drugs.  The anti-drug comic was vetoed by the Comic Code for its subject matter.  Marvel decided to publish the story with the seal of approval leading to major reforms in the organizations.  Today, very few comics are submitted for code approval and the medium is more diverse, mature, and artistic because of it.

But video games still operate under self-imposed and arguably oppressive rules under the ESRB rating system.  Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht criticized the ESRB at the 2007 GCDC saying "The whole rating process was a charade."  His dragon flying game Lair had to tone down the dragon blood to earn a Teen rating, but screaming, burning human bodies were a-okay.  He also referred to limits on sexual content, like homosexuality, which was banned by the Comic Code until 1989.  The ESRB does not outright limit homosexual issues, but any game with it is sure to receive a mature rating.  Understand - violence good, sex bad.  That applies to all media censoring in fact (yes, you MPAA).  While video games do have an Adult Only rating, the major consoles will not allow AO rated games on their systems destroying any chance at an adults only market for games.

Ironically, mature rated video games sell better and earn better reviews. The Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) found games with a Metacritic score above 90 sold 531 percent more than the industry average, but only accounted for two percent of the market.  It seems gamers seek out quality games.  The unfortunately thing is these quality games are often violent games.  The Grand Theft Auto series portrays gross moral choices, but also includes rich stories with diverse and multi-layered characters along with complex and rewarding gameplay.  The result is similar to Goodfellas or Fight Club with audience participation. Somehow that audience participation makes GTA bad but movies good.

I see it as movies have earned legitimacy as an art form while video games have not.  Movies might have been blamed for juvenile violence but they also have diversity in their genres and subject matter, from classic children’s stories like the Wizard of Oz to slices-of-life like American Beauty to feel-good film It’s a Wonderful Life.  With diversity, it’s harder to demonize the entire medium.  Even the cartoony Mario and Zelda games are about fighting.

Video games, like comic books, will break through the censorship walls and achieve artistic legitimacy.  That always happens.  New mediums and genres are scoffed at by the establishment, from Rock and Roll to television to even the internet.  But these media learn to thrive.  They achieve diversity in their programing, reaching broad audiences, and earning legitimacy as entertainment, education, and art.  What’s sad is the path to legitimacy is laid out.  Liberalizing the ratings system and investing in new genres, even art games, would expand the medium for the long term.  Movie companies are producing movies simply for the awards now.  Actors take huge pay cuts to work with big name directors on low-budget pictures all for the glory of award season.  Video games might benefit from the same investment in quality.  It’s a risk.  But isn’t risk part of the creative process?  And isn’t that art?