On today’s show we discuss Substance Abusers in Comics! You may think that the Hero always gets the bad guy, But did you know sometimes they go down a dark path like Heroin or Alcohol to cope with their own demons? Our own, sketch comedian Imran and special guest star J Hammond C are live and on the drawing boards.

Drug addiction is a tricky subject to deal with taste and accuracy in any kind of fictional narrative, much less mainstream comic books, which are meant to entertain with stories about people with powers mostly hitting things more than anything else. Having said that, addiction to substances is a real world problem, and if modern comics are going to reflect the human condition in any way, then addiction to substances is something that has to come up occasionally. Whether or not they do it well is a matter of taste, I suppose, but nevertheless, there are characters who have taken have battled substance addictions and won, and some who lost. 

Marvel almost released the “Child’s Play” story without Comics Code approval, but editor Denny O’Neil objected.

What was going to be in Daredevil #167-168 originally was a special two-parter involving Daredevil and the Punisher called “Child’s Play,” that dealt with young people getting addicted to drugs. The Comics Code would not approve of the issue. However, after some changes to the Comics Code, the issues eventually saw publication (with some slight edits) in Daredevil #183-184…

However, what’s fascinating is that the comic book actually had TWO chances to still see publication before Daredevil #183-184!

Denny O’Neil, editor of the series, said no. The whole point of the arc was to have it reach as wide an audience as possible, so he did not want the book to be just a specialty item. That turned out to be the right call, as the Code relaxed its drug standards and the issues ended up reaching a wide audience a couple of years later.