Interview with Barry Windsor-Smith

The artist who worked on Conan, and the X-Men, is interviewed in the Poughkeepsie Journal, in preparation for an exhibition in Kingston, where he's been living for many years (he's a native of Britain and moved to the US later in life). He says:

...I quit reading comics in the mid-1980s. That was the founding time of the still prevalent reign of idiotic and disturbing violence over memorable stories with interesting characters.

I'm not entirely sure, but he may be right there. Violence was on the rise even then, and by now, it certainly can't be disputed that comics have become way too violent.