Seduction Of The Innocent & The Comics Code Authority
In this topic, I give you my highlights and my point of view regarding Dr. Fredric Wertham's book, Seduction Of The Innocent and how it paved the way for The Comics Code Authority and changed comics.
You often hear many people talk about the “Comics Code Authority”, but not many people realized that something else took place before that code was established. Now many people asked me about my thoughts about Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction Of The Innocent” and how it paved the way for the “Comics Code Authority”; now Fredric Wertham was born in March 20, 1895 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, German Empire and in his book, “Seduction Of The Innocent” he made the claim that that comic books were a major problem and a negative form of literature and a serious cause of “Juvenile Delinquency”. And all throughout the thesis of “Seduction Of The Innocent”, he said that “These Comics Present Violence To Children And Negatively Influence Them” and he uses the core of this thesis with crime comics, superhero comics and horror comics, especially with Batman and Wonder Woman and the series “Tales From The Crypt”. And in his argument he further makes a claim that these comics present an “Anti-Social” behavior in children. Now, in order to reinforce his thesis, Dr. Fredric Wertham took a lot of examples from the popular genre of crime comics that were out and horror comics that were produced by E.C. Comics at that time, which was the original publisher of “MAD Magazine” and also said there were “Covert Sexual Themes” inside of books like Wonder Woman and “Alphabet Undertones” like Batman; and because he believed that these books had negative influence on young children and he believed that these books were published to seduce children into participating in “Anti-Social” behavior at an early age and would have a negative influence on children as related to their behavior. And once he published “Seduction Of The Innocent”, it became somewhat popular among the parents at that time, specifically the parents of the “Baby Boomers”. This is where Sen. Estes Kefauver decided to put on hearings as related to comic books, because he was known for having a whole plan as a “Mob Hunter” and he was going after organized crime and he also believed that a lot of times with these comics, were being distributed by organize crime and he thought that this was being done to influence the minds of young children.
Now, this led to a series of court hearings in Congress as related to dealing with the content comics; and whether or not it was “Anti-Social” behavior that was influencing children and as a result of those hearings, this led to the entire comic book industry decided to self-regulate by creating the “Comics Code Authority” in order to try to avoid having the government put regulations. Now when I look at Dr. Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction Of The Innocent”, it does present some points as related to the content in comics, however, the medium of comics is an art form, not an “Anti-Social” behavior, nor are comic books a negative influence on young children. No, comic books as a medium are actually positive influence on young children, mainly boys; because boys are visual individuals and because boys learn through seeing pictures and observations, boys learn through comic books by learning how to read. And as someone who started reading comics back when I was 5 years old, I can you that it really helped me a lot in learning how to speak properly and I know that comic book in of itself is a form of a medium with positive influences and it is not a negative form of literature; comic books are a good form of literature if they are written and designed by people who have an interest in helping children. As I stated in one of my previous articles, comic books are a gateway for children, especially young boys to have easy access to learn how to read and when you have a good creator out here, putting together great content, comic books can become a form of literature that can transform a child’s life and introduce them to a world of books and help them open up their imaginations. This is where Fredric Wertham got it all twisted about comic books, he was way in over his head and because he got it all twisted, what happened was, he got caught up in the content that was that was being published by a small group of publishers and creators and not understanding the impact it influence the medium on children. Now there were creators like William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman who was looking to use his comics to influence children to participate in promoting his deviant sexual ideas and there were other creators out there like the creators at E.C. Comics who were publishing horror comics like “Tales From The Crypt” or “The Vault Of Horror”, they did put out a lot of graphic and gory picture in their titles, but that was not all about the medium, that was about creators showing their “Free Speech” and this was something that Fredric Wertham didn’t understand that in America, everyone has the right to express their “Freedom Of Speech” and their “Amendment Rights” but sometimes going a little overboard is something that needed to be regulated by the editor and publisher in the world of comics, if the publisher was the creating the content.
And this is where Dr. Fredric Werthem gets it all wrong with comic books and his twisted complaints, because comic books are not the cause of “Juvenile Delinquency”, the real cause of “Juvenile Delinquency” in a lot cases are “Neglectful Parents” who do not look out for their children and these children being influenced by individuals who promote “Anti-Social” behavior ideas. And just like William Moulton Marston, there are individuals who promote “Anti-Social” behavior in between the pages of Wonder Woman during the “Golden Age” where he willfully and intentionally got inspired by the Wonder Woman character from watching pornography and he wanted to promote “Bondage”, “BDSM” and “Masochism” and “Sexual Deviancy” in his Wonder Woman comic as “Socially Acceptable”; this was the method that William Moulton Marston was trying to promote in his Wonder Woman comic and in his own words as related to Wonder Woman; and there are other individuals who want to promote “Anti-Social” and ideas in comics that are disturbing, but that’s not what comics is all about, it’s about the medium being an art form and it was all about using art to tell a story and using art as a visual medium to tell a story about people and anybody can tell a story and with comics and tell a story that resonates with people from different walks of life. This is another point where Dr. Fredric Wertham gets it all wrong and twisted and he didn’t understand and at the same time, Sen. Estes Kefauver got caught up in as well. They both got caught up in trying to create an agenda as related to saying “Oh, Comics Are Anti-Social” and they wanted to go out here and try to censor comics in order to fit their narrative. And sadly as a result of Sen. Estes Kefauver’s campaign to censor comic books along with the Congress Hearings, a lot of comic book creators wound up losing their jobs like the people at E.C. Comics where they were making horror comics, the entire business lost all of its publications and that led to many people out of a job as a result and that was a sad thing to happen, because horror comics while they were promoting graphic content, they ended getting put out of business; because the publishers at E.C. Comics could not afford to produce the work without having to deal with public backlash.
And this where the “Comics Code Authority” comes into play, because many of the comic publishers didn’t want to see their business regulated or have their “First Amendment” rights taken, so a lot of these comic book publishers as a result, tried to save their business and they wanted to save their business, because launching the “Comics Code Authority” was the only way for them to stay in business and stay competitive. Now, the reason why the “Comics Code Authority” was created back in the 1950’s, is because the comic book publishers decided to create a standard so that people could trust comic books that were coming on store shelves from a drugstore, groceries and newspaper stands; it was meant to make people safe and sharing with their family members and friends and sometimes classmates. Now the whole concept of the “Comics Code Authority” was a good standard for most people and it was a good standard, because what it did, it did ensure that when you pick up a comic book like a DC Comic, Marvel Comic or an Archie Comic; you knew that you could go out here and share it with your children and it’s your children who will not be exposed to nudity, graphic violence, sexual content and explicit language or even as far as criminal behavior. This was a standard that ensured that the readers of those comics would not be presented with “Anti-Social” imagery; now as a kid who grew up in the 90’s who has read older runs from DC Comics and Marvel Comics, I knew already that I could trust, because professional publishers at that time were part of the code and it ensured that these books would meet a standard for quality, that I could with my cousins, classmates and even co-workers. And feel safe about sharing them and not feeling uncomfortable about what’s in the pages between the page in that comic; now in the 1980’s when the indie market started to rise, we started to see people walking away from the “Comics Code Authority”. And as they walked away from the “Comics Code Authority”, we saw people creating comics with more graphic and sexual violence during the “Black And White” comic craze, I did read a lot of those 80’s comic titles that did feature graphic violence, nudity and sexual situations; and other comics that were filled with blood and guts.
And while people did buy these comics, they started to have an influence in the industry; and as we went from the 80’s to the early 90’s, we started to see comic publishers walking further away from the “Comics Code Authority”. And we did see them, thinking highly of walking away from the “Comics Code Authority” as “Image Comics” came into the picture and the overall marketplace. Now, when Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and Whilce Portacio formed Image Comics in Feb of 1991, they decided to form that company, because they didn’t want to follow the rules of the “Comics Code Authority” by creating stories that has too many restrictions and Marvel Comics did put too much restrictions and kept tying their hands as related to creativity, so they decided to create comics with a lot of violence, blood, guts, gore, sexual nudity and more explicit language and some creators outside of Image Comics, started to create comics with more nudity and sexual content. And as these books started to generate far more sales than DC and Marvel Comics, we started to see more publishers slowly walking away from the “Comics Code Authority” especially from DC and Marvel Comics as related to content, Marvel officially walked away from the “Comics Code Authority” in 2001 when Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief, but long before they did try to talk away from it earlier, because they wanted to compete with Image Comics. Now with DC Comics, because it was a part of Warner Bros. decided to stay with the “Comics Code Authority” until 2001 when Jenette Kahn left and Paul Levitz moving to President of DC Comics; which paved the way for what many people call the “Dan DiDio Era”. Now when Dan DiDio came into DC Comics in 2002, he started to escalate the content in comics as related to blood and gore and even sexual violence with the story “Identity Crisis” and as a result, the content in comics these days as I see it, is even worse than the comics that Dr. Fredric Wertham came up and complained about, because these days, there is no standard; and because there is no standard and content for these comic companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics and sometimes Valiant Comics.
What we’ve seen over the last couple of years or should I say 30 years, is a complete decline in sales. Now in the short term, when Image Comics came out, we started to see sales rise as related to the content that became more graphic; however over the last couple of years in the last 2 or 3 decades, as the content has become more and more graphic inside the comics and the violence has been filled with more and more blood and guts, comic sales continue to precipitously drop over each decade, from the mid-90’s to the 2000’s to the 2010’s and even here in the 2020’s and with comic sales being at an all time low, and I truly believe one of the reasons why we are seeing comic books at an all time low as of today, is because most people can’t trust what’s in between the pages of most modern comics and that it will be safe to share with their children, because they don’t know if they’re going to see some blood and guts as related to mutilation, or they don’t know if they’re going to see graphic sexual content, they don’t know if they’re going to see graphic nudity and that makes a lot of parents, family members and other people such as students and daily workers uncomfortable about sharing comics with their relatives and loved ones, so it’s like everything that Dr. Fredric Wertham was saying about comics being a negative influence on children, is one of the things that’s really turning off a lot of people and audiences and it’s turning them off, because the content goes way too far these days and another example of this, we are starting to see current comics promoting “Anti-Russia”, “Anti-China” or “Anti-Middle East” stories and sometimes most of today’s writers promote “Pedophilia” stores and they made attempts to aim them at children. That right there was something myself and many other people were warning about, but we got shrugged off, ignored and the people continued to buy comics as long as it was promoting “Left Wing” stories and because many of these comic titles are going way too far these days, what’s happening now is people are no longer interested in buying a comic book, because they believe that these comics are basically filled with “Anti-Social” stories, “Anti-Social Imagery” and they are not a good influence these days, because people don’t feel safe about sharing comics with people and that’s the sole saddest part about the modern comic book industry is that, they didn’t listen to the warnings of Dr. Fredric Wertham as related to policing content and once more, when it come to the medium of comics, it is not a negative form of literature, because if you look at a publishing company like Scholastic, they made a lot of good money by publishing great comics that are all ages and people read them; and there are a lot of great indie comics out there, creating all ages content comics with titles like “John Haynes”, “E’Steem” or even as far as titles like “Darkstorm: The Conqueror” or even as far back as titles from Milestone Comics like Icon, Hardware, Static, Blood Syndicate; those titles did follow code from the “Comics Code Authority” and those were standards where creators kept their content going, because keeping the content on code is what keeps people coming back and wanting to pick up a comic book title and that was something we last saw during the 1990’s and sadly, after the events of “9/11” everything that came out of comics like Marvel Comics where all about “Post-9/11” stories and other stories like Cyclops cheating on Jean Grey with Emma Frost and other nonsense like having heroes murdered in events like “Civil War” where a clone of Thor blasts through the chest of Goliath (Bill Foster).
Sadly, we don’t see comics anymore promoting positive images and making sure it is safe for someone to share a comic with their family, friends and co-workers, because these days, it’s all about promoting disgusting themes like “BDSM”, “Far-Left Ideologies”, “Right Wing Ideologies”, “Graphic Violence”, “Nudity”, “Pedophilia” and many other stories that don’t really fit into certain comics and this is another major problem, because many of today’s writers and artists really don’t know how to craft a comic book and because they don’t know how to craft a comic book, is because there is no guidance and standard to be set by many of these current editors and this is the thing as to why so many people of today are no longer buying American Comic Books, because the trust is no longer there and without trust, there is only attempts to influence people to become rebellious and without standards, there is only negativity. Because it’s that trust that builds “Word Of Mouth” whenever you are writing and producing a comic book, because the “Word Of Mouth” is how you’re going to sell your works such as a novel or a comic book; that’s the thing that people like Dr. Fredric Wertham and many in the publishing industry really don’t understand, they don’t understand that there’s a middle ground and because many of today’s comic book publishers really don’t understand today’s market value, because of the influence that many of today’s creators put out in a page like a DC Comic, Marvel Comic and even Valiant Comics.
And they were further influenced by the success of Image Comics and some of the successful indie comics that came out in the 90’s with the “Bad Girl” books like Razor, Lady Death, Warrior Nun Areala and Shi. These models were the thing that people still follow and even in shows like TNA but not without substance and because they were still influenced by Image Comics, they were too focused on the money and not thinking about the quality of the content and that’s another thing that influences people anti-socially, because there’s a difference between a little bit of cheesecake and something that’s just absolutely twisted. You have to be very careful about where you’re going as a publisher and this is something that I learned over the years, you got to be very careful of the content that you produce must have a positive influence and images on a child and back when I read some of the comic book runs in the 80’s when had the “Approved By The Comics Code Authority”, it was safe to read a comic book and I already knew who members of the X Men were, The Avengers, Spider Man, Daredevil and The Hulk; it was all thank to my father who had a huge collection of comic books and when he made me read those comic books, I was taken in and into the world of superheroes taking down the bad guys, solving crimes and for the longest time, I always wanted to break into the comic book industry, because I wanted to give back by learning how to make my own comic, as far back when I was 5 years old.
But since I couldn’t draw very well, but I learned how to tell stories with words and that made me want to become a comic book writer when I was a teenager; however things didn’t work out, but then I started my own comic book company as far back in 2017. And as I started that business with a friend, I’ve always wanted to give back to the business comics and I wanted to give back to the business of comics, this is why I go out here and hire comic artists to do promotional images and posters, along with doing a teaser art, featuring upcoming characters. And the reason why I do this, is because it means a lot to me to share m work with people my love for comics; and I want to go out here and share to everyone that the comic book medium is not a negative form of literature, because when you look at the images of classic comics from the 70’s and 80’s, those images are positive. And so, the medium of those images are not bad, the artists are not bad, because when you look at real talented artists like Bill Walko, Ibai Canales, Kenneth Rocafort or David Finch and the late Mark D. Bright, they tell beautiful stories with their art and they have mastered their craft in doing the art when telling a story and this is something that people like Dr. Fredric Wertham didn’t understand, art in comic books can be done positively when put in the right hands and these same people can create great storytelling and I have met some comic creators who have love and passion for comic books and the overall medium; and they want to have a positive impact on the lives of people, but everybody has to understand that in this business, we have to look out for kids as related to having a standard, if you want to create adult content, yes you can go ahead and create an adult content comic book series; but you also have put a label on it like “Rated R”.
That’s how it was back in the 80’s when they put a label on the adult comics like “Rated M For Mature” even on books like Green Arrow by Mike Grell and other books like The Question by Dennis O’Neil and art by Denys Cowan; if there’s more graphic content in a certain comic title, yes comic publishers back then will always put a label on it and let people know what the comic is all about and not just put out on the store shelves and kids reading it, people need to know what’s in those books; because if they know what’s in those books, they can know that they can trust the people behind those books and comics and the ultimate goal is to form that relationship with the customer where they feel safe about buying those comic books and that’s one of the things that independent creators are doing these days through their crowdfunded comics and while I do understand, people like Dr. Fredric Wertham can take your material and twist it and this is why you as a creator really need to start controlling your own narrative and the way you control your narrative is by controlling your content and having a standard for content, where you try to keep things in a “PG-13” environment or if you want to make a comic book aimed for kids you have to put the label “All Ages” and I know not all books can do this, because some books do struggle to sell and because of the content in it. But the whole thing is, you need to be transparent and upfront, because with certain genres like superhero comics that used to be “PG-13” or “All Ages” place and with other genres you want to explore, you can explore them like horror or crime comics, but you still have to let people know about the content you are creating; so that they won’t go out here and take the medium of comics and make a twisted generalization, the way Dr. Fredric Wertham did with “Seduction Of The Innocent”.