Birth and Death of the Comics Code
April 1, 2006 | 3 Comments
Damn Interesting ran a great article titled “The Man Who Changed Comic Books Forever” which explains how Dr. Frederic Wertham eventually led the comics industry to create the Comics Code Authority. Apparently Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent called out comics as a bad form of popular literature and a major cause of juvenile delinquency.
By 1954 pressure from the US government led the comics industry to form the CCA as a self-regulatory body. Highlights from the 1954 code:
- Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
- If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
- Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
- In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
- Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
- No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.
- All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
- All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
- Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
- Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
- Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
- Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
- Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
- Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
- Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.
- Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.
- Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
- Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.
Nearly all major comics published between 1954 and the 1980s were reviewed and approved by the CCA. One notable exception dear to my heart was in 1971 when Stan Lee and Marvel wrote a three part series in Amazing Spider-Man portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. The CCA denied approval to these comics based on the presence of narcotics. They felt they were not relevant to the story. Thankfully Marvel went ahead anyway and produced a well received comic that addressed a serious issue tastefully.
Beginning in the 1980s, the CCA began to lose ground and by the mid 1990s the major comics publishers were happily publishing comics without the seal again. Only DC and Archie comics continue to submit any of their comics to CCA for a seal of approval today.
Tags: cca, comic, comic book, comics, comics code authority, damn interesting, frederic wertham, juvenile delinquency, seduction of the innocent