In 1954, America was beset with various problems, real and imaginary. Juvenile delinquency. Homosexuality. Teen-age gangs. Teen pregnancy (highest in the 20th century was in the '50s). Violent crime. The great Communist Conspiracy. UFO invasions. And worst of all -- comic books!
Dr. Frederick Wertham, a psychologist, wrote a ground breaking book explaining how virtually all of these problems could be traced to the last one. Comic-books were destroying America! He laid out his evidence in this book:
Without comics, Wertham explained, we wouldn't have juvenile delinquents. Or homosexuals. Or crime in general.
And he had proof, too! Every teenage delinquent he'd interviewed in his work had read comic books. Every homosexual teen he'd treated, too.
Of course, this was 1954. Comic book sales that year were over 1 billion units. In a country with approximately one sixth as many people (162 million). Yes, those kids read comics. ALL kids read comics in 1954.
But still -- Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson? Obviously homosexual (not to mentioin an example of child abuse). Wonder Woman? Had to be a lesbian because she was so strong. (I swear to God, I am not making any of this up.)
Silly as this sounds already, Congress got involved. There were hearings in the U.S. Senate. Particularly evil, licentious and vile were the dreaded comics from "EC," called "Educational Comics" when they published Picture Stories from the Bible, but "Entertaining Comics" when they published stuff like this:
This being America, the result was paranoia and the threat of censorship. The comics industry banded together, not in self-defense but in abject surrender. They established a self-censorship agency called The Comics Code Authority. Gone were most horror titles. Gone were gangsters and buxom babes. The ideal comic, in the eyes of these people, were the Archie titles. Because we all knew Betty and Veronica may be smitten, but they're never, never, never naughty.Your company wanted to publish stuff without Code approval? Fine! Fine! Of course, none of the magazine distributors would carry your comics, and you'd be bankrupt in a matter of months, but, hey! America!
And millions of parents banned comics from their homes.
And those kids who were still permitted the vice grew very familiar with this label of good old American censorship:
EC, of course, was driven out of business, save for one title, which became a magazine and one of the 20th centuury's great publishing triumphs. It was called
But panics fade By the 1980s, not only was the Comics Code Authority becoming moribund, but comics sales had dropped precipitously. Never again did comics sell millions of copies of an average issue. No one cared anymore, since by then we all knew that rock and roll music, or maybe television, or maybe drug use was the source of homosexuality, gang violence, juvenile delinquency, whatever.
But the comics of the 1950s, particularly EC's, became iconic And one guy even published the entire line in oversized hardcovers. A complete collection looks like this one:
(AlextheKay's home photos, foax!)
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