Fish finally saw an end to his reign of terror in , at the age of It is at this point where Wertham and Fish meet. Wertham, in his job responsibilities, began to interview Fish. Fish believed he needed to complete the sacrifice of Abraham and Issac, in that sacrificing a child would absolve him of his sins.
He believed that, if it was truly a sinful act, angels would stop him from completing the act. Wertham looked into the void; he saw the evil nature of man, and how it could corrupt and destroy the innocent. Fish died by electric chair in , at the age of Wertham continued to work as a psychiatrist, his focus moving back to children after his time at Bellevue.
During this time, he started to focus and hone his thesis; the corruption of children. Wertham saw the worst the world could produce. Wertham set his sights on what he felt was corrupting the youth of the country; comics. Wertham really focused his attacks on horror comics, though. Comics like those of EC comics had made an industry out of terror and horror. The book was a huge hit and caused a massive backlash against the comic industry.
Using the clout he had gained through his years of being an expert witness at Bellevue, Wertham took his findings to the Senate, where he argued that the government must take action against the comic industry.
Further, in , all his research became public. Wertham manipulated, overstated, compromised, and fabricated evidence—especially that evidence he attributed to personal clinical research with young people—for rhetorical gain. While the Senate did not believe that comics caused crime, the comic industry was rightly spooked by the flex of bureaucratic muscle. Later that same year, the Comic Code Authority began. The Comic Code Authority came to life in September of Murphy, the Code became the new rulebook all comics found themselves abiding by.
With the Code, horror comics essentially died overnight. This is no small collapse; by , horror comics compromised a whole 25 percent of comics printed. DC and Marvel quickly curtailed their horror publications, refocusing all their efforts on the superhero genre. Some publications were able to persevere in their own way; Warren Publishing was able to skirt the rules by turning their publication into a magazine, able to publish what they pleased without the Code holding them back.
The code came after them hard, as they were the fat cats of horror. The battles began early and began hard. The banning of all horror creatures, like zombies and werewolves, made EC comics unpublishable. The majority of the publication saw cancellation within a year of the code. EC had the last laugh though. In one of the more famous examples of comic book censorship, EC went toe to toe with Code authority Murphy and won.
Murphy demanded that the race of the main character be changed, from black to white, and William Gaines, the owner of EC, threatened to go to court. Gaines response? Their flagship comics were all banned, and profits were plummeting.
Most of the comic companies either went out of business or switched their focus to funny books, like those featuring cute talking animals. Archie Comics and other humorous, non-action books took over the medium. The only three super hero books to survive the purge were Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, because they were too valuable in terms of merchandising to cancel. For all intents and purposes, the super-hero comic genre was dead. Fortunately, all things pass. Super heroes had been greatly missed in their absence.
Marvel and DC re-launched their super hero lines and reinvigorated the industry. After this, he stopped writing about comics permanently. He died in November And that is the story of how one man nearly caused the premature death of the comic book industry.
Was Dr. Oddly enough, sometimes Wertham objected to certain scenes while completely overlooking others.
Peter 's 'Wonder Woman' was that it seemingly "promoted lesbianism", since Wonder Woman lives together with many young females on an Amazone island.
He seemed blissfully unaware of the actual questionable content, namely the fact that the superheroine was frequently subject of bondage Most adults, completely unfamiliar with most of the comics Wertham discussed, simply took his opinions for granted In June a series of erotic comic books named 'Nights of Horror' were published by Macla, a publisher in Queens, New York. The comics were anonymously illustrated by Joe Shuster , the co-creator of 'Superman'. Some people saw connections between juvenile crimes and these books and demanded a ban.
It was the final straw for disconcerted educators. Already faced with questions from the U. Senate on juvenile delinquency, many frightened comic publishers got together, formed the Comics Magazine Association of America and laid out the infamous Comics Code , which stated exactly what comics could and could not depict.
Yet many of them still had to close down. In EC Comics was forced to drop all their titles, except for the humorous Mad magazine. In November , a group of juvenile delinquents named the Brooklyn Thrill Killers were arrested and sentenced for sadistic violence and murder. Wertham examined and interviewed the criminals and discovered that one of them, Jack Koslow, had read 'Nights of Horror', which had sexually aroused him and motivated him to copycat behaviour.
The interview confirmed Wertham's theories once again and convinced many people that there was indeed a correlation between comics and violent behaviour. The fact that only one of the four criminals had read 'Nights of Horror' was ignored, left alone the teenagers' upbringing or their social context. In his book 'Circle of Guilt' came out, again centering on a murder case.
After retiring, Wertham devoted himself to writing 'A Sign for Cain' , again attacking environmental impulses such as comics and movies for being major influences on criminal behavior. Satirical portrayals Already at the height of the witch hunts certain cartoonists defended their profession and satirized the moral panic.
Wolfgang Worry" organizes a comic book burning. Marvel Comics devoted an entire editorial to Wertham in a March issue. They tackled all his disproportional statements and reassured readers: "comics are good for you! Another critic of Wertham was Al Capp. The creator of 'Li'l' Abner' debated him directly during a radio broadcast on 10 October Nearly a decade later, between 21 July and 14 August , 'Li'l Abner' would feature a storyline in which a caricature of Wertham makes a cameo.
The movie's director - former Looney Tunes animator Frank Tashlin - even created a fake comic book for this picture. Wallace Wood lampooned Wertham in Mad Magazine issue 34, August as "Frederick Werthless" in 'Baseball Is Ruining Our Children', which depicted the batshit insane psychologist explaining an equally far-fetched theory about the dangers of baseball. Art Spiegelman addresses Dr. Wertham in his comics essay 'No Kidding, Kids…. Remember Childhood? However, Wertham was more than just an outspoken crusader against crime and horror comics.
He spent much of his life studying and writing about violence and how to prevent it. Wertham was interested in protecting children from harmful material in comic books, television, and anywhere else negative influences might be found. He wrote an article about the detrimental effects of segregation that was used in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education court case that eventually found segregation to be unconstitutional.
He also founded a clinic staffed with volunteers in Harlem, providing mental health services to the black community starting in The Early Days Dr. In his first book, The Brain as an Organ , was published.
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