Comic Books

The Comic Book Controversy

During the 1940s and 1950's there was serious debate over the moral influence of comic books. It was fueled by the publication of Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent (New York:Rinehart, 1954) in which Wertham blamed the rise of juvenile delinquency on the "bad influence" of comic books. The library will make every effort to borrow the title through interlibrary loan.

The resulting heated public debate can be covered by searching the standard periodical indexes under the subject Comics (Books, strips, etc.) for the many articles on the topic published during the 1950's. See also :

American Civil Liberties Union. Censorship of comic books: a statement. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 1955. *XMB 2063 fiche #CL-139. Contains a concise summary of opposing opinions drawn from a variety of sources.

"The Wertham Crusade", chapter 18 of Ron Goulart's Great history of comic books (New York: Contemporary Books, Inc, 1986) (JFF 87-136) A good synopsis of the controversy.

In addition, see the Dictionary Catalog (vol. 152, p. 414) under the subject heading Comic Books-Moral and Religious Aspects for titles dealing with this topic.

The major result of this controversy was the publication of the Code of the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. The text of this code may be found in the World encyclopedia of comics edited by Maurice Horn, pp. 749-751 *R-MDY 77-1898 (held at the desk in the South Hall of the Main Reading Room).