Fighting To Be Published

Although comic books were booming in the late 1930's and 40's, the time period after WWII was the hardest for the industry considering comics had to now compete with not only comics about new topics, but with the television industry. Comics were fighting for attention when television came into view and there was one man who was trying to shut them down for good - Dr. Fredric Wertham; also known as "The Comic Book Vilan." This man was under the impression that comic books corrupted our youth and wished to have them censored - his efforts would show a lasting effect on comic book publishing to this day. In an attempt to slow the backlashes that were coming from critical reviews of the comic books, DC began to publish the names of board members inside the cover of all DC books - these board members were well known people throughout the public and with their names on the books they promised that the comics were "held up to the standards of wholesome entertainment."

Dr. Fredric Wertham went on a seven year research fest in order to investigate the effect that comics had on children.  Once he went public with his ideas about comic books, people all over the country began to question them, and soon an article appeared in Time magazine, which featured Detroit Police Commissioner Harry S. Toy who stated that the comics were "Loaded with communist teachings, sex, and racial discrimination." Some people even said that the comic books were training kids to act like animals and that they distorted real life. Things got so intense all over the country that comic books were banned in cities and counties, and some places even held public burnings for the books; needless to say the comic book publishers were very worried that they may never recover from this.

In 1948 the Association of Comic Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was formed in order to set guidelines for comic books which would have to be approved of the ACMP board before they were published. Some big comic book publishers like DC already had their own boards though, so they did not join and some publishers even dropped out because they didn't agree with the approval guidelines.

By 1955, everything was settled. Comic book companies came together and created the Comic Magazine Association of America (CMAA), and together they came up with the Comics Code Authority (CCA) which was approved by the Senate and they were told that they were taking "steps in the right direction." The Senate also decided that Dr. Fredric Wertham's research could not be fully backed up since his research was only done on juvenile delinquents and not on all children entirely.

Today the CCA is hardly relevant because their stamps are not as large and noticeable on the covers as they once were, so instead publishing companies often put "Suggested For Mature Readers" since they still publish comics even though they don't meet the CCA requirements - Dr. Fredric Wertham is probably rolling in his grave because of this.

Coville, Jamie. "Seduction of the Innocent and the Attack on Comic Books." Seduction of the Innocent and the Attack on Comic Books. Penn State University, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. <http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/cmbk4cca.html>.