Intolerant Alliance

Reason, March, 2001 by Jesse Walker

The chief crusader against comics, though, was Dr. Fredric Wertham, author of the infamous Seduction of the Innocent (1954). To the extent that he is remembered today, Wertham has an image as a pathetic prude, obsessively searching superhero stories for sexual influences ("Robin is a handsome ephebic boy, usually shown in his uniform with bare legs.... He often stands with his legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident") and recycling Comstockian arguments linking juvenile literature to juvenile delinquency. Yet Wertham was a leftist psychologist, not a conservative fundamentalist: He was strongly influenced by Frankfurt School Marxism and by left-liberal critiques of mass society, and he couched his arguments in secular and scientific terms. And if most of his professional colleagues rejected his perspective, he did find several takers among liberal laypeople, some of whom belonged to the U.S. Senate.

In 1954, the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held a three-day hearing on comic books, with Wertham as one of its star witnesses. When the subcommittee released its report a year later, it failed (to Wertham's disappointment) to call for federal censorship, suggesting instead that the industry be given a chance to regulate itself. By that time, concerned by the Senate's interest--as well as more direct threats of censorship on the state and local levels--the industry had already formed the Comics Magazine Association of America and adopted a code even more restrictive than the rules faced by filmmakers. Among its provisions:

* "Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed."

* "In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal [be] punished for his misdeeds."

* "Although slang and colloquialisms are acceptable, excessive use should be discouraged and wherever possible good grammar shall be employed."

* "Special precautions to avoid references to physical afflictions or deformities shall be taken."

* "All characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably acceptable to society."

* "A sympathetic understanding of the problems of love is not a license for morbid distortion."

There was a little room to maneuver here--the call for "dress reasonably acceptable to society" meant that women had to keep their clothes on, not that superheroes couldn't caper in silly outfits--but there wasn't much. Horror comics almost immediately disappeared, as did the more gruesome crime titles; the satiric Mad survived only by transforming itself into a magazine.

Comics are cheaper to produce and distribute than movies, making it easier for outsiders to evade the Code's restrictions. In scarcely more than a decade, a new wave of hippie-oriented underground comics ignored the rules and embraced sex, dope, and, occasionally, genuinely sophisticated themes. With the Supreme Court expanding First Amendment protections, the government did not attempt to impose new regulations (though some undergrounds faced censorship at the local level). In stages, the Code itself was loosened.