Darker and Edgier/Quotes

"My own adventure turned out to be quite different." —Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings

"The success of books like Spawn lead publishers to believe that kids wanted dark anti-heroes. This lead to the creation of some of the worst comic book characters in the history of the world. Not only that but existing characters were retooled to be darker and more mysterious. For God's sake, they gave Superman a black suit and I think for a few years Captain America's shield drank human blood." —Penny Arcade on this phenomenon.

"I smolder with generic rage" —The comic for the above rant.

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. For there is no peace among the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods. —Warhammer 40000 tagline

"The fact that [Gunnerkrigg Court is] listed as Kid Friendly was a big selling point for them because, let's face it, comics aren't exactly for kids anymore." —Tom Siddell

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain." —Ursula K. Le Guin, "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas"

Sometimes I wish Roger Moore would come back With an underwater car or some kind of jetpack Or a hover-gondola and a Union Jack Forget it, mate, it's not The Eighties He'd rather kick you in the face We've got a new Bond for the noughties Because the world's a TERRIBLE place!

Needless to say, neither the streetwalkers nor the whippings, masturbation and transvestite bondage are anywhere suggested in Mozart's opera. —Heather MacDonald on Regietheater

"It all started in the Seventies with the appearance of "heroes" like The Punisher and Wolverine. Instead of being hurled into a swirling dimensional vortex to seeming oblivion, a super-villain was now more likely to take a bullet to the brain, or a claw through the heart! Committing crimes and fighting superheroes became dangerous!

No wonder the bad guys started behaving a little rowdier - can you blame 'em? Suddenly, villains like Doctor Doom - who'd up till now pranced around with an air of menace but never actually did anything to anybody - started bumping off people left and right... some of 'em just for snoring too loudly! —Marvel Year in Review 1993

The Incredible Squirrel that I created for my old TV show was a cute little guy who had fun stopping goofy bad-guys! This movie's too serious. It's not fun at all! —Clarence Heck protesting a Batman-like movie adaptation of his puppet character, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers issue #10

Certainly it seems like half my professional existence is spent on some level trying to persuade people that games are becoming more mature all the time. But there are various interpretations of the word "mature," and it's a paradox I've noticed before that a lot of games that receive "mature" certificates would only be of interest to twelve-year-olds. —Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

You look around these days...it's all different. It's all changed. The Joker's killing people, for Christ's sake! Did I miss something? Was I away when they changed the rules? —The Riddler, "When Is A Door"