Bang, you're dead.

• Author: Rimensnyder, Sara
• Position: Soundbite - Media violence - Interview

Would-be censors have long posited a monkey-see, monkey-do relationship between media and audiences. Violent images create violent kids, they warn.

Comic book writer, screenwriter, historian, and parent Gerard Jones upends that thinking in his new book Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence (Basic). In his view, the violence depicted in comic books, cartoons, and video games helps far more kids than it hurts. As a lonely, angry 13-year-old, writes Jones, "the character who caught me, and freed me, was the [Incredible] Hulk: overgendered and undersocialized, half-naked and half-witted, raging against a frightened world that misunderstood and persecuted him."

Jones has authored two previous books and countless comics, including Green Lantern: Mosaic, The Trouble with Girls, Batman: Jazz, and The Shadow Strikes. His latest project is the nonprofit Media Power for Children. "Our mission statement isn't written yet," he says, "but we'll be talking about the ways kids can use media to empower themselves, to use a cornball word." Assistant Editor Sara Rimensnyder spoke to Jones in September.

Q: How can fantasy violence help children?

A: Fantasy gives kids a world in which they can be everything that real life doesn't let them be. That can be a tremendous relief, a great way to leave behind the tensions of having to behave and compromise and negotiate your way through life all the time. It also helps satisfy curiosity about what life might be like without all these...