The Comic
Book Code
Seduction of the Innocent or Innocent
Fun?
By: Angie Laginess
Assumptions
Take a minute and write down
one complaint either you or
someone else may have
about comic books
What do you think one of the
biggest complaints could be?
According to some People,
Comic
Books
Are:
Too violent
Not for a child audience
Creates juvenile delinquents
Give readers “bad ideas”
Too sexual
Mindless”junk”
Fantasy
•
These are just a few of the reasons why
the Comic Book Code came into effect
Frederic Wertham
•
Was the chief crusader against comic books starting in the
1940’s and is often cited as the reason for the “downfall” of
comics
•
Thought that comic books made juvenile delinquents out of
its readers
•
He wrote the book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) which
explored the effects of mass media violence on children
(Nyberg 50)
•
It became such a hit with parents everywhere that articles
started popping up in magazines like Ladies Home Journal
•
Articles entitled “What Parents Don’t know about Comic
Books” and “The Effects of Comic Books on Children”
frightened adults to take action- which was exactly what
Wertham wanted
Other thoughtsWertham wasn’t alone
•
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Sterling North was cited as saying, “Badly drawn, badly written, and badly
printed-a strain on the young eyes and young nervous systems-the
effects of these pulp-paper nightmares is that of a violent stimulant. Their
crude blacks and reds spoils a child’s natural sense of colour; their
hypodermic injection of sex and murder make the child impatient with
better, though quieter, stories. Unless we want a coming generation even
more ferocious than the present one, parents and teachers throughout
America must band together to break the ‘comic’ magazine” (Coville 1)
Here we see North’s personal biases projected as fact onto the genre
(badly writeen, etc.), we see his objection to things as simple as the
surface features (in my opinion this serves to make sure adults can have
the “ah-hah” moment and witness the same“problems” Wertham
discusses with their own eyes), his instilling of paranoia , and a call to
arms for all adults who “care about the future” to take action and stop the
comic book industry from continuing their corruption of the innocent
Censorship
•
Wertham’s book sparked such a nation-wide fear of the
hidden dangers of comic books that terrible things for the
industry started happening
•
Schools, stores, libraries, and many other social
institutions began banning the books
•
City-wide book burnings started happening
•
Rules and regulations were put into place to ensure
that unsuitable material for children would no longer
be put into these magazines
Book burnings sprung up all over
the country as angry mobs went
house to house searching for
more fuel for their fire
Paranoia
•
The fear of comics was a “fear from within”- we
weren’t getting these books from foreign countries,
we were giving them to our own children (Hajdu 112)
•
During this time there was already a terrible frenzy
over UFO sightings and the communist scare
(Joseph McCarthy was currently at congress railing
against what he thought was secret communists in
the government) (Hajdu 209)
•
Put them all together and you have the perfect
recipe for a nation-wide witch-hunt
•
In 1948 some of the popular comic book publishers
formed the Association of Comic Magazine
Publishers (ACMP) to create guidelines that future
comic books had to meet in order to gain the “seal of
approval”
•
They formed the committee in order to reduce the
amount of scrutiny they found themselves under
•
In 1950 even the US federal government became
involved in the publishing of comics and a special
committee of the US senate was formed
•
Comics became a serious topic of discussion
everywhere
The Comics Code
of 1948
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The Association of Comics Magazine Publishers, realizing its responsibility to
the millions of readers of comics magazines and to the public generally,
urges its members and others to publish comics magazines containing only
good, wholesome entertainment or education, and in no event include in any
magazine comics that may in any way lower the moral standards of those
who read them. In particular:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.
Sexy, wanton comics should not be published. No drawing should show
a female indecently or unduly exposed, and in no event more nude than in a
bathing suit commonly worn in the United States of America.
2.
Crime should not be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy
against the law and justice or to inspire others with the desire for imitation. No
comics shall show the details and methods of a crime committed by a youth.
Policemen, judges, Government officials, and respected institutions should not be
portrayed as stupid, ineffective, or represented in such a way to weaken respect
for established authority.
3.
No scenes of sadistic torture should be shown.
4.
Vulgar and obscene language should never be used. Slang should be
kept to a minimum and used only when essential to the story.
5.
Divorce should not be treated humorously or represented as glamorous
or alluring.
6.
Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible.
1954 Comic Book
Code
•
See handout…
Some of Wertham’s and others’
Complaints
•
Too many men were drawn in
“homosexual” ways, for example he
thought that Batman and Robin were
“gay”- they stood with their legs open far
too much
•
The depictions in comics were low-brow
and had no sophistication or virtues to
them (Hadju 210)
•
Take a minute to look at your
comic handout. What are
some of the codes that it
breaks?
•
Insert Picture
•
Insert Picture
Comic books have come far over
the past years
•
No longer depicting only crime and horror (as the naysayers
have argued) comics have expanded to text books and
historical nonfiction
•
According to Scott McCloud, comics have unlimited
potential. They “command viewer involvement and
identification” and have the ability to “capture the beauty and
complexity of the visible world” (McCloud 204)
•
Censorship has historically been a means for people in
authority to disempower those “below” themselves. Afraid of
the tremendous power comics held within their pages, adults
took action. Unfortunately, that action created the Comic
Book Code, and some say the industry has never recovered
from that fatal blow
•
But as time goes on and visual media continues to grow, I
think people will begin to see just how amazing comics can
be
So What?
•
The Comic Book Code has never truly been
abolished and as long as people continue to see
comics as “base, immoral trash” the negative stigma
carried with the name will never end
•
As Scott McCloud has pointed out, pictures have
pre-dated nearly every form of communication out
there. As children we are given pictures as our first
means of learning and participation in life, and
comics give readers one more way of viewing the
world in which they live
•
If comic books have the power to get children and
young adults interested in reading, we should allow
them to look at both pictures and words together
without considering the readers to be unintelligent or
lacking in sophistication
•
Works Cited and Consulted for The Comics Code
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Coville, Jamie. "Seduction of the Innocents and the Attack on Comic Books: The Comic Book Villain, Dr. Fredric
Wertham, M.D." Integrative arts 110. 1 Mar. 2007. Pennsylvania State University.
<http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/>.
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Goldwater, John. Americana in Four Colors: A Decade of Self Regulation by the Comics Magazine Industry.
Jackson:: Comics Magazine Association of America, 1964.
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Bender, Pennee. "Good Shall Triumph over Evil: The Comic Book Code of 1954." History Matters: The U.S. Survey
Course of the Web. 31 Mar. 2006. The American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning. 5 May
2009 <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/>.
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Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and how it Changed America. New York:
Picador, 2008.
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Mccloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1994.
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Nyberg, Amy Kiste. Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
1998.
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Weiner, Stephen. Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel. New York: Nantier, Beall, and
Minoustchine Publishing Inc., 2003.