At End Of Family Race, Father Says Volunteers Handed Son Comic With Racial Slur, Profanity

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A local father says he was outraged a comic book with a racial slur and a symbol of hate was handed out during the Superheroes 5K race in Sacramento.

A few weeks back, the family race event near the state Capitol ended with volunteers handing Steven Moser's son, Landon, and his two other kids comic books with content he says no parent would ever want their young child to see.

The run was the perfect Father's Day, with Landon running his first 5K in Downtown Sacramento. Then Moser noticed the comic his 7-year-old received called Nighthawk. The book is filled with four-letter words, has the N-word on page 3 and a symbol of hate.

Moser says the comic his daughter got wasn't much better—Mars appears to depict disturbing sexual content.

"It's just ignorance," he said. "It shows how easily ignorance is shown to innocent kids."

After Moser complained, race organizer Capital Road Race Management sent out a letter to all participants saying in part, "These comic books were purchased in bulk last year from a local comic book store. Based on our conversation with the store personnel, we assumed they were books suitable for young children. However, clearly that assumption was wrong. We greatly apologize that this situation has occurred."

Moser's friend Wade Mehaffey also ran in the was and says he threw out the Mars comic and was glad his son is too young to read.

"I was expecting more like Superman, you know?" he said. "Mistakes happen, I understand, but it's a hard situation if other kids read the books."

Moser also feels a little at fault, saying he didn't notice the comic has a parental advisory warning on it. But he didn't think at a family event, he'd have to worry about comic books.