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The Comic Books that Horrified America

cnn.com — World War II was over, but as the 1940s gave way to the 1950s, a new evil lurked in the land. It attracted a youthful audience who fell victim to its colorful images, dripping in red, and gave money to its purveyors. Authorities took notice. The United States had a new menace: Comic books.

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  • MikeFromAmerica, on 05/10/2008, -0/+43Interesting read. History is repeating itself right now with video games.
    • blackjack75, on 05/10/2008, -0/+5... and it happened before with plain old text books.
    • noumuon, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3actually, history is repeating itself with video games for a second time. remember mortal kombat?
      • mman426, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Actually, life is just continuing, the fear of comics corrupting minds never ended the fear of video games just took over. If you read stuff about children and violence they will talk about video games, television, movies, and comic books.
    • PopcornDave, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1And the sad thing is that it will repeat itself ad nausem with whatever kids find enjoyable and parents don't understand whether it be comic books, video games, or rock music.
    • Aharoni, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2Just cross out the word "comic" and exchange it with "video game" and also "Frederic Wertham" with "Jack Thompson" (then continue to cross out anything nice the article had to say about Frederic).
  • allaboutdatiki, on 05/10/2008, -0/+10All hail EC!
    • Elranzer, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1Not to sound like an ad, but the insanely popular Tales from the Crypt, and its sister comics (Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, etc) are all being re-issued in hardcover now. The originals on eBay were never that expensive, but it's more convenient to read them in the binded, hard-back versions.
  • makeminemanda, on 05/10/2008, -2/+15I've researched the history of comic book censorship and find it to be one of the most fascinating topics of post WWII America. While it's true that some of the material may have been exceedingly distasteful, it still AMAZES me the lengths that parents will go to in order to prevent themselves from having to take the blame or the responsibility for their choices and actions of their children. It's like people who sue McDonald's for making them fat when all along they should have known not to feed it to themselves (or their kids). If you don't want your kids reading a certain comic book or playing a certain video game, then don't let them and explain to them why. Is that so hard? Why do we need to get the government involved?
  • swicklund, on 05/10/2008, -2/+9This scare was totally justified. Look at the sorts of leaders these comic book readers became. I bet Dick Cheney was reading horror and war comics as a kid, enjoying the torture and bloodshed and saying "I want to do THAT when I grow up!"
    Blood on their hands. BLOOD!
    • Ratteler, on 05/10/2008, -1/+2Please. Everyone knows that Cheney was a subscriber to Christian Comics.
  • usgovterrorists, on 05/10/2008, -4/+1I wonder if another phony war on Iran based on lies again will horrify America?
    What if Russia defends Iran?
    The terrorists United States Government are the world's greatest terrorists!
  • doubleoh7, on 05/10/2008, -4/+3What a horribly written article.
  • partrow, on 05/10/2008, -6/+1Do some adults still read comic books? Why is this?
    • Vzylexy, on 05/10/2008, -0/+4Mainstream DC and Marvel comics are not for kids, they're written for adults.
  • Marvelboy, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3This was actually the topic of my senior thesis I turned in on Thursday.

    It was interesting to me, once.
  • ichunxo, on 05/10/2008, -1/+2Authorities took notice. The United States had a new menace, they said, one whose name started with "c" and whose first syllable rhymed with "bomb."

    I hope they really said that.
    • scojerroc, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1i came to the comments to post that this sentence is where i stopped reading.
  • mistergoomba, on 05/10/2008, -2/+3pics or it didn't happen
  • Linds, on 05/10/2008, -0/+5"one whose name started with "c" and whose first syllable rhymed with "bomb."

    Comic books."

    WTF?
  • ghostas, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1mistergoomba and others looking for "pics or it didn't happen" check out some of these covers:
    http://www.pulptoon.com/
    and
    http://www.mad-monsters.com/Magazines/index.html
    Frankly they're pretty awesome.
  • life38, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1So is this a theory on why murber and suicide is way up among youth and young adults?
    MAD is completely opposite so is it good for parents to support giving to their kids instead of comics? There are some comics like Richie Rich, Archie, Casper that are not violent.

    The youth and young adults of today are shouting for help, what can we all do?

    EMO of Gnereration Next depicts his point in this cartoon.
    http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2008/02/15/emoo ...
  • Cornrider, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1They forgot this one: http://frankthetank.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/ge ...
  • ctellis, on 05/10/2008, -1/+0Perhaps this is the origin of porn magazines? Anyway, first comic books now video games.... Come on America -::::: eye roll ::::- get a grip.
  • Wakkyweed, on 05/10/2008, -0/+4Actually, Americans are always looking for something to blame the so-called "decline in morals" on. In the 1920's, it was jazz music and "marijuana-crazed negros". In the 40's it was comic books. In the 50's it was television and rock and roll. In the 60's it was hippies and LSD. In the 70's it was punk rock coming to destroy us. In the 80's there were scares about Dungeons and Dragons as well as Satanism. In the 90's it was the video game industry. Now we have rap music, more video games, internet porn, violent movies and illegal immigration scaring the willies out of the so-called upright, moral citizens of America.

    America - The land of the free and the home of the paranoid.
  • gkiltz, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0Not surprising!
    At one time or another Television was also blamed for everything from sexual deviance,to animal cruelty to spouse abuse to obesity to dirty socks!
    All of those things existed well before television, and will exist well after!
    Why would comic books be any different?
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