Comic books during the first half of the 20th Century were of the popularity of television, movies and music, and thus, faced the same criticism these other popular art forms would eventually encounter. A focal point in comic book history is the early to mid-50s. After 1955, comics ceased to be the popular art form it once was. It was forced into the closed, underground market it is today, due to a rigorous, self-imposed censorship. This came about through the works of mostly one man, Fedric Wertham.

Fedric Wertham was a New York psychologist, who had written several articles on juvenile delinquency. He began to focus on comic books, the popular art form of the time among children. This culminated with his book, Seduction of the Innocent, where he detailed the correlation between crime comics and the rising delinquency of children. In his definition of a crime comic, he included comics on love, horror and super-heroism. One wonders how a book as comical as Seduction of the Innocent could have steered Congress to preside over special hearings on comic books and their effects on juveniles, but it did.

The comics had always had their share of detractors [some were legitimately concerned educators, others were plain cranks], but this had proved no more than mere nuisances. Toward mid-century, however, the clouds above comics grew increasingly more dark and threatening, and horror comics bore most of the blame. The controversy reached its crescendo in 1954 with the Estes Kefauver senatorial hearings and the publication of Doctor Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent.

Kefauver was a Tennessee democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary committees, who tried to use the juvenile delinquency and comic book hearings to get elected as president. Kefauver failed to get elected, or have comic books banned for those no older than 15, but he did help to force the establishment of the one entity that would cripple the comic book industry, the Comic Code Authority.

Before that part of the story is presented, it must be shown what led up to this point. Super-heroes fell out of favor after World War II. People had grown tired of costumed supermen fighting a war that was long over. Without the Japanese and the Nazis to fight, Super-heroes were lost without any direction. This meant a decline in the nearly 90 percent super-hero comic book market.

Publishers needed to create a new angle to gain readership. Publishers skipped between genres, floating from one to another in as quickly as one month. Once a comic book looked to be successful, every one jumped on the idea, creating their own copycat. First comics modeled after Archie and other teen-age themes hit big, then the Westerns, and soon, cops and robbers.

But the big draw mixed T & A with murder, and the morality of the crime comic became an afterthought. These stories glorified the criminal life and the people who were part of it. The women were half-clad and beautiful. The life was rich. Even the downfall was glorious. Who could bring fault to any of that. So, by the end of the crime story, the crook inevitably became the hero.

Horror comics also crossed the line of common sense at times. These books repeatedly showed graphic depictions of beheadings, strangulations, eye gauging, and lynching. Women were presented half-naked with ripped-clothing and protruding breasts.

One of the principal sponsors of these images was from a company called E.C., or Entertaining Comics, owned by William Gaines. The company made it an art by putting out a boatload of Science Fiction, terror and horror tales. By 1950, the newsstands were overflowing with crime and horror comics. Parents became alarmed, rightfully so at times, by the vast amount of sex and violence on the newsstands. And because of this, the cry to ban comics grew increasingly louder.

Recently

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.