It the last stop of Chris and Reggie's five-part comic book history tour, as seen through the lens of the Comics Code Authority! First, we learn about the fates of our Comics Code triumvirate: Senator Estes Kefauver, Dr. Frederic Wertham, and publisher Bill Gaines. Then we take a quick trip around the world and see how the comics industry has developed in those countries that never imposed the same restrictions on content as America. Now we have come to the conclusion of the CCA, and Chris and Reggie offer their thoughts and opinions on the ramifications of a post-Code world. They look at new public pressures that affect publisher decisions today, and examine some of the sources that drive self-censorship in other entertainment industries today! There's something to piss of everyone in this second half of episode five, you won't want to miss it!
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tags: Comics Code Authority, Bill Gaines, Estes Kefauver, Frederic Wertham, Milo Manara, Rafael Albuquerque, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Bongo Comics, Manga, fumetti, Judge Dredd, SJW
Great podcast of comics code history. Back in 1995 I did my law school thesis on Canada's experience with crime comics and the litigated cases that were brought to court to test the Canadian Crinial code crime comic provisions. I also became quite familiar with Canadian politician Fulton. There is a particularly interesting picture in the Vancouver Gazette (times???) from around 1948 that had him pictured with kids reading comics. It was obviously a posed and contrived picture.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, there were only ever 2 or 3 charges ever brought under the criminal code crime comic provisions and I believe only two minor convictions. Such a joke.
Most of the plates that comics were printed from were sent from New York to Montreal and the advent of the comics code also decimated the Canadian comic industry. So sad. But the entire debacle has created historical collector interest in "Canadian Whites".
Anyways, thanks for such a thoroughly entertaining series of podcasts. It brought back traumatic memories of university research studies. But it also reminded me that I have a first edition "Seduction of the Innocent" albeit in pretty good shape. There is something inherently unfair in that Wertham facilitated what became the wholesale destruction of millions of comics..... Yet I have a mint like first edition of his book that lay at the foundation of it all. I would burn it if it wasn't so valuable. Lol.