Comic Books That Horrified America
America was not so sure about the crop of new comic books that appeared in the 1940's and 1950's, such as:
- "Tales from the Crypt"
- "Shock [SuspenStories]Create?"
- "Justice Traps the Guilty,"
Authorities, and social scientists, political leaders, and newspaper columnists, were concerned that they were aimed at children and teens. The comic books were said to be causing crime and degeneracy. A psychiatrist claimed that comics were linked to juvenile delinquency.
Congress got involved, and Tennessee's Estes Kefauver, led hearings against organized crime.
Facts:
- People who protested the comics:
- Watchdog created over comic book content: Comics Code Authority
- Words banned from comic books: Horror and terror
Quotations:
- "The country was fixated on this," said David Hajdu, author of the recently released the book "The Ten-Cent Plague" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a history of the era, covering comics, and teen rebellion
- "Everybody read comic books. They were the most popular form of entertainment in America"
- "EC Comics out-bloodied them all but also used social commentary and had a lighter quality of gruesome art," said Bill Svitavsky, professor of history at Florida's Rollins College
- "Everybody was cautious in the '60s," noted Ron Goulart, author of "Good Girl Art," a history of female images in comic books.
Sources:
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