Devin O'Bryan's presentation on censorship in 1950's comic books...

1. Text Box

2. By Devin O’Bryan
THE GREAT COMIC BOOK
CONTROVERSY

3. Comic books are
a distinctively
American
invention along
with jazz, rock
and roll, and
the western.

6. Those who do not remember the past
are condemned to repeat it.

8. Today there is much debate about the effects of
violence in the media on children. Going back sixty
years to the stir created by objectionable content in
comic books might help us see all of this in a new light.

10. The attack on the comic industry in the 1950s …

11. …stunted the artistic development of a new medium…

12. …was based on shoddy research…

13. …and took away the inspiration for many
great minds of the “boomer” generation.

16. The comic book industry,
accused of contributing
to juvenile delinquency
was among the many
organizations that
received intensive
scrutiny during the
1950’s, and some radical
changes resulted,
hampering the industry’s
artistic growth.

17. Because of this
controversy,
the styles and
subject matter
of comics
changed
drastically,
titles were
dropped, and
major comic
companies
vanished
overnight.

19. First of all, we must picture the world of the early fifties…the
beginning of the BABY BOOM…we remember it as a more
INNOCENT time…and in many ways it was…

20. …but what is
forgotten is
that there was
a tremendous
rise in juvenile
crime during
this era.

21. Today we can look
back on it and realize
perhaps that WWII
may have had much
to do with it…fathers
gone for years
fighting the
war…fathers that
never
RETURNED…leading
to some children
growing like weeds.

22. This was an era when the comic book industry was HUGE…titles sold
MILLIONS of copies monthly…not like today…

23. A Pennsylvania drug store…

24. In the fifties, almost EVERY child read comics (adults
TOO)…and they were EVERYWHERE…in every
store…not just specialty comic stores.

26. In the quest to
find a
scapegoat for
the rise in
juvenile
delinquency,
COMICS
became a
target.

27. After much hand-wringing…comics were burned in bonfires and
Congress began to investigate them.

28. Slightly reminiscent of similar scenes in Europe just ten years
before?

29. “A teenaged girl
poses with comic
books and
paperbacks
seized from a
Kitchener,
Ontario
newsstand in the
early 1950’s.”

32. Part One…
The Growth of
the Comics
Industry is
Stunted

33. The industry finally had to react in order to avoid legislation
against comic books and to clear their bad name. Most of the
major publishers banded together in October, 1954 to create
the Comics Code Authority.

34. However, the code did irreparable damage to the
industry as a whole. Many companies folded, unable to
adapt to what many viewed as the ridiculously strict
standards of the code.

35. This was an organization which set up an elaborate list of
restrictions with which all subscribing publications were
expected to comply. Comics without the seal of approval could
easily be boycotted (or even refused distribution). The code
was designed to protect the comic book business and was
successful in placating members of the public.

36. The code, as originally written, was so strict
that it was impossible to publish a comic that
dealt with horror or crime in any way.

37. Some companies tried to
survive in particularly
creative ways. E.C. reworked
their line of comics and
started publishing tamer
material about knights,
pirates, and doctors. Sales
plummeted. Kids were used
to reading some of the
brightest, well written and
illustrated stories in the
history of comics from that
company. Publishers like
E.C. Comics, Fiction House,
and Gleason folded due to
lack of sales.

38. What many
consider a tragic
thing was that
these moves
occurred just as
comics were
beginning to
achieve new
heights of
sophistication in
execution and
concept.

39. This was a great setback for the art of comics, and the industry has
never been able to equal the fine storytelling and exquisite artwork
which was commonplace in comic books in the late 1940s’s and
early 1950’s.

40. Great artists like
Frank Frazetta began
their careers at this
time working for EC,
but quickly left the
industry.

41. Artwork by Frank
Frazetta

43. Jack Cole,
brilliant
creator of
PLASTIC
MAN, also left
the industry.
Countless
others
followed…

45. Author Ray Bradbury’s stories were adapted masterfully in E.C.
Comics.

46. These Bradbury adaptations were truly a high
water mark in the history of comics.

48. Comics were
crushed by the
pressure and forced
into safe, sanitized,
and infantile
patterns, just when
the great potential
for maturity in
comics had only
begun to be
explored

49. Clint Eastwood once said that "don't have any original art except
western movies and jazz.” Others Americans have pointed out that
distinctly American inventions include the banjo, musical
comedy/vaudeville, the mystery story, jazz (including rock and roll),
and comics.

50. It is interesting to note that in
France, Italy, and Japan, comics
are not viewed as solely a child’s
medium, but a format just as
suited to adult storytelling as
novels, movies, TV, or any other
medium.

51. Part Two:
The Initial
Research that
Prompted the
Censorship was
Problematic

52. The initial research that
prompted the censorship was
remarkably shaky. The public
controversy over comic books
all began with the release in
1953 of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s
Seduction of the Innocent.

53. Wertham claimed
that “crime comics”
(in which group he
included Superman)
were corrupting
America’s youth.
Comic book artists
were described as
“diabolic,” and comics
were referred to as a
“social virus.”

55. Dr. Wertham had first hit on the idea that comic books were harmful when
he noticed that his juvenile patients were reading comics in his waiting
room. He immediately deduced a cause and effect relationship but
overlooked the fact that virtually every child of that era read comics.

56. He mentions the case of a
boy who had threatened
to break his sister’s arm,
and concludes, “This is not
the kind of thing that boys
used to tell their sisters.
To break people’s arms, or
to threaten to do so, is one
of the comic book’s
devices.” This
unsubstantiated assertion
is a good example of
Wertham’s technique,
which rarely offered any
concrete proof concerning
the allegedly harmful
effects of comic books.

60. Many examples are given of objectionable material in comic book
stories, but Wertham rarely gives the source (title or issue number)
that they come from. Therefore, the reader has no way of verifying
that the original comic stories are actually the way that he presents
them. They often aren’t.

61. For example, Wertham blows up a panel from one comic showing the
shading on a jungle hero’s biceps that supposedly resembles a woman’s
private area and claims this to be the artist’s original intention.

64. In only ONE instance,
did Dr. Wertham
show an entire comic
cover including the
title. This issue was
shown because
Wertham was upset
that the publisher
had meant the
psychiatrist depicted
on the cover to be a
caricature of himself.
Showing the title of
the comic would
bring more harm to
that company.

65. He asserted that children
learned more than
techniques of burglary
and violence from
comics citing stories
(possibly “urban
legends”) about the kids
who wrapped towels
around their necks and
jumped out of windows
pretending to be
Superman.

66. A map used by juveniles planning a crime was supposed to have been influenced
by one seen in a comic book.

67. Wertham
asserted that
SUPERMAN
was a fascist
ideal.

68. Dr.Wertham also stated
that Wonder Woman
and Batman were
deviant homosexual role
models.

69. Dr. Wertham wrote in the
Saturday Review of Literature
(April 9, 1955) that the code had
really done nothing to remove
the crime from comic books.
Wertham said, “At present it is far
safer for a mother to let her child
have a comic book without a seal
of approval than one with such a
seal.” He went on to say that the
new comics, with their self-
awarded seal of approval, made
murder seem even more like a
game, disguising action with “an
aura of good taste where the
ghastly effects of heartless
cruelty were never realistically
depicted.”

70. Wertham had originally advocated, at the
end of his book, a rating system, which
would have left the serious comics on the
stands, but only for sale to those over
sixteen. This would have been similar to
the system recommended for rock music
in the 1980’s by Tipper Gore or the rating
system for movies rolled out in the late
1960’s, and today’s ratings for violent
video games.

71. Part three:
The Comics Have a
Lasting Creative
Impact on a
Generation

72. The comics published in the pre-code era are now considered to be a “golden
age” of comics and are acknowledged as having a long lasting positive
creative impact on a generation. Many of today’s great writers and artists
cite these comics as influential in their early development.

73. Ironically, the comic books which
Wertham attacked became much
sought after collector’s items and
have been reprinted in hardcover
book form on archival paper by
publishers considering them to be
“art.”

74. Stephen King cites E.C.
Comics as being a
major influence on his
youth and ultimate
writing style.

75. Many people involved in the creative
media today, from artists to noted writers
to famous film directors, mention these
comics as early influences that stimulated
their young imaginations.

76. Ray Bradbury
absolutely loved
the adaptations
of his short
stories that
appeared in the
comics of the
time.

77. Artist Robert
Crumb cherished
these comics as a
child, especially
MAD.

78. This E.C. comic
turned
magazine, MAD,
had been
credited as a
major force in
causing the
“Baby Boom”
generation to
think critically
and to question
what society and
Madison Avenue
told them.

79. Perhaps comics
weren’t as bad
an influence as
Wertham
believed.
Readers learned
not to blindly
follow authority
without
thinking.

80. Prejudice was also
shown to be
shameful in these
early comics.

81. Many of the creative minds left the
industry, unable to cope with the
censorship, leaving it in the hands of the
“mindless, uncreative non-talents” whom
Wertham had found most despicable. The
industry was worse than it had ever been,
and ironically, the public (both friends and
enemies of comics) held Wertham
responsible for the Authority.

82. In 1972, stories
from E.C.
Comics were
turned into
two major
motion
pictures from
Britain’s
Amicus
Pictures.

84. The art
design of
E.C. Comics
is still
influential
today…

85. The distinctive look and logos of
the E.C. Comics line have become
iconic.

86. In the 1990’s, E.C.
Comics stories were
adapted into an HBO
television series…and
EVEN a Saturday
morning cartoon!
Disney ‘s comic book
arm began reprinting
the original comics as
well!

87. A generation that was
provided an early exposure
to critical thinking
demanded more maturity
and realism in comic
stories. War comics did not
glamorize war and show it
to be great fun.

88. The grim reality of war was
shown by artists and writers,
many of whom had served in
World War II. The horror of
racial prejudice and violence
was also depicted

91. Writer Stan Lee, in 1971, wrote a
Spider-Man story in which the
hero tries to save a teenager on
LSD from a rooftop, but fails, and
she falls to her death. The Comics
Code Authority refused to approve
this comic, and Stan Lee fought
them. He thought he was making
an important, anti-drug statement
with the story and doing some
good. Lee went ahead and
distributed that issue of Spider-
Man without the seal. Virtually no
one noticed, and the code’s power
had been weakened.

92. By the late 1990s, comics companies
began to just ignore the code. The
Comics Code died in January of 2011
when the last participating publisher
(ARCHIE) stopped submitting its books
to it. Marvel had stopped using it ten
years before.

93. Did the code help our nation’s youth during its
55 year existence? Would similar self-censoring
boards help in other media? There are many
critics who believe that the comic controversy of
the fifties stunted the growth and creativity of the
medium for almost sixty years. A generation was
robbed of what could have developed into a grand
medium fusing art and writing, and it was all
based on haphazard research. We must be wary of
censorship, the enemy of art.