The Seduction of The Innocent
Early on as I was speaking about Showcase #4 I made a little remark on the name of this book, It was to remember myself about doing a post talking about one of comic's darkest periods, whatever it were because of ignorance or politics the fact is that for some time, comic books were driven down as a medium by some of the most stupidest people on earth: Religious Fanatics and Politicians.
It all started with a man called Dr. Frederic Wertham and his little book:
In the book it was described how Comic Books were a medium were it was cited overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within "crime comics"; a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time, but superhero and horror comics as well. The book asserted, largely based on undocumented anecdotes, that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children. Comics, especially the crime/horror titles pioneered by EC, were not lacking in gruesome images; Wertham reproduced these extensively, pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid themes such as "injury to the eye". Many of his other conjectures, particularly about hidden sexual themes (being there images of female nudity concealed in drawings of muscles and tree bark, or Batman and Robin as gay partners), met with derision within the comics industry. Wertham's claim that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as her creator William Moulton Marston had admitted as much; however, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a lesbian. However, she is traditionally portrayed as a heterosexual and a virgin.Wertham also claimed that Superman was un-American and was a fascist.
The times being what they were, the words of Dr. Wertham didn't fall on deaf hears, comic creators had to hide their occupations to avoid being embarrased, comunity leaders and priest of various kinds led the masses to massive comic burnings, but the final stroke to the industry came from their own ranks.
EC comics was a powerhouse in the comic book industry by 1954, outselling both Marvel and Dc comics with their line of crime, horror and suspense comics, who were pretty shocking and way ahead of their time in mature tone from their Superhero publisher counterparts, a fleet of powerhouses artist contributed to the publishing house, names like Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Will Elder, George Evans, Frank Frazetta, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, Joe Orlando, John Severin, Al Williamson, Basil Wolverton, and Wally Wood all made their mark with EC comics.
When the government demanded a regulation of contents in the medium, Marvel and DC teamed up to create "The Comics Code Authority" wich procedded to set up a line of rules that no matter how you see them, they were created with the sole porpuse of crippling the best selling publisher of the time: EC comics.
The guidelines prohibited comic books from portraying anything that would cause shock and awe on kids, the words "horror" or "terror" could not be displayed on covers, death was not to be portrayed in a disrespectful manner, crime was supposed to be portrayed as distasteful; as expected EC comics went under, and was later bought by DC comics and Time warner, the code was revised over time in various occasions to go with the times and it served his porpuse until the early XXI century when Marvel Comics dropped the code and later DC followed suit.
Want to see the parallels with our times? look for any moron saying that Videogames are bad for kids...
