Book: The Ten Cent Plague: How Comics were Stupidly Censored in the 1950s-1970s

 As we as a country have learned over and over again, it takes one nut job to ruin things for the masses.  Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy created the hysteria of McCarthyism with his controversial practices and policies and false accusations of communism from the late 1940s through the 1950s.  Back in the 1950s, wackos even attacked COMIC BOOKS. Yes, Comic books. Today's blog is about the book "The Ten Cent Plague" by David Hajdu, which covers the history of those idiots.  I'll explain who and how and why Comics were severely censored and what the ridiculous Comics Code Authority was. Glad all that crap is over! 

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIP HATERS- IDIOTS #1 - In the early 1900s, Ladies Home Journal and this idiot, Ralph Bergengren started it with an article in the Atlantic Monthly calling newspaper comic strips a "national shame and degradation."

IDIOT #2 -  In 1941, Sterling North, an American Author   "warned "  that the “Superman heroics” and “cheap political propaganda” found in comic books were “furnishing a pre-fascist pattern for the youth of America through the principle of emulation.” 

BIGGEST IDIOT  WHO LED CENSORING COMIC BOOKS -  A total Conservative NUTJOB Fredric Wertham. now known as the "comic industry’s real-life supervillain," wrote in 1954 a book called SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT.  He called comic books "evil, twisted, vile, disgusting," and said that parents who let their kids read comic books were a "disgrace." That's all it took for churches and schools and other conservatives to join in.

WHAT HE CAUSED - Comic book sales capsized, and over 400 titles went under. Wertham’s book sparked a Senate Subcommittee Hearing into Juvenile Delinquency that forced publishers to adopt the Comics Code or face government censorship. No single author has had a larger or more negative impact on comics, and his arguments “made no sense.”   

Nothing like a good "Book Ban" or "Book Burnings" by conservatives.   That's all it took. 

WHAT IT CAUSED - Comics were the one thing that young people could read for entertainment that allowed them to be creative, and inspired them to write stories, draw, and try to be a hero. 

• Churches and Parents went BONKERS.  
• They had massive comic book burnings in public bonfires. Seriously.  
• Cities actually passed laws to outlaw comics. Conservatives in Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers.

THE RIDICULOUS "COMICS CODE AUTHORITY" - The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. The code was voluntary; there was no law requiring its use, although some advertisers and retailers looked to it for reassurance. Some publishers including Dell, Western, and Classics Illustrated never used it. Its code, commonly called "the Comics Code", lasted until the early 21st century. The CC formation followed a moral panic centered around a series of Senate hearings and the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent.

 WHAT IT DID -   It restricted the publishers’ ability to depict crime and violence, making stories starring police officers and Western lawmen less appealing to kids. 

It also banned using the words "Weird" and "Horror." It prevented artists from drawing people anatomically correct (they had to look like benign, unattractive or plain people).   By  2011  the code completely defunct.