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Home , 1956 in comics, Atlas Comics (1950s), Bloodshed (comics), Bombshell (DC Comics), Comics Code Authority, Comic Book Resources

The Comic-Book Industry Versus the Government Jeffery Kahan

“It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed.” — Abigail Adams. “With great power comes great responsibility”— .i

If the paragone is dedicated to exploring the competitive factors that affect artistic creation, then there must always be winners and losers. On that score, we can be clear. Until recently, comic books were considered to be the lowest of the literary low, and their readers addicted to a “shameless love of trash.”ii Indeed, in the “Golden Age” and “Silver Age” of comic books, the industry was often defined (and not without reason) as a form of pornography.iii Particularly after World War II, political forces exerted their own forms of compliance on the industry. The influence radically shifted the sexual nature of story and image; at the same time, the very fear of a McCarthy-like blacklist forced artists to create new forms of collective creation wherein everyone and no one was the “author” or “creator” of a character or work.

Comic Books, Pin-ups and the Second World War

The earliest American were merely anthologies of strips printed in the newspapers. The modern comic book, as we know it today, was very much a product of war propagan- da. , , and were all introduced in World War II and all of the aforementioned fought the Nazis. While seen today as a child-friendly medium, war-era comics, as detailed in a Life magazine retrospective called Life with the Comics: In Praise of a Classic American Art Form, were extremely popular with soldiers (Fig. 1).iv

Of course, G.I.s were not just reading about muscled heroes defeating the Nazis. They were also looking at images of beautiful women, particularly pin-ups. Maria Elena Buszek (2006) has recently argued that ogling over the latest starlet or pinup initiated the viewer into 81

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access a complex of sexual soft core and fetish. At the same time, these images were “high-mind- ed:” the focal point was the “lone female figure.” Comic books, then, were far more sexualized because, in addition to displaying all of the features of the pin-up, their popular viragos interact- ed with men, and not just super-men. Within the pages of the comics, Wonder Woman and other female characters fought alongside regular G.I.s. The comics offered a fantasy world of male interaction with pin-ups, so much so that caped super-heroine pin-ups were often painted on the side of bombers as mascots or troop “protectresses:” a bombshell for a flying shell carrying bombs (Fig. 2).vi

Post-War Boom and Bust

By of the war, adults, once the purveyors of comic books, began to take a more puri- tanical view of their former favorite literary pastime. Martin Barker, for example, argues that post-war America tried to make women feel “guilty” about factory work.vii After the war, wom- en needed to be debilitated and re-domesticated. Not surprisingly, a favorite target was Wonder Woman, created by . During the war, a muscular woman who could do anything a man could do was fine — another Rosie the Riveter. After the war, society tried to put women “back in their place” — and Wonder Woman was clearly out of place. Big-breasted and barely clothed, Wonder Woman served as an outlet for Marston’s sexual obsessions, “fantasies and fetishes.”viii The fetishistic aspect of Wonder Woman is clear. She has the requisite bond- age gear: a lasso and “bracelets of submission.” In her initial incarnation, she was also fond of getting her own bottom paddled as seen in the July Sensation, no. 91 scene where the superhero is straddled across the lap of a child and winks at the viewer.ix Likewise, in the pages of , the Caped Crusader sometimes revealed a kinky predilection, especially when it came to the highly-nubile villainess . In his first encounter with her, Batman warns: “Quiet or papa spank!” The story ends with Batman releasing her because she “has lovely eyes.” He then adds, “Maybe I’ll bump into her again sometime.”x

In addition to super-hero comics, readers could also buy unregulated “girlie” digests, such as Humorama (founded in 1938, but which reached its zenith in the 1950s). The digest often fea- tured the soft core “one-shot” art of Dan DeCarlo, who also drew Comics, which featured a monthly pin-up, often of a scantily clad Betty or Veronica, and , aka, “The Blonde Bombshell.” Humorara’s distributor was Abe Goodman, who was a brother to Timely (later Marvel) comics owner, Martin Goodman. A further link between comic books and pornog- raphy: Dan DeCarlo’s Millie the Model was scripted by Martin Goodman’s son-in-law, Stan Lee, later the creator of Spider-Man, The , The X-Men, , and other heroes.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Given the crossovers between adult and kid-friendly comics and their writers and artists, some confusion among nonreaders was to be expected. The problem was exacerbated by nearly two decades of negative social commentary. The New Republic remarked: “Comic books in their present form are the absence of thought. They are, in fact, the greatest intellectual narcotic on the market […] Every hour spent in reading comics is an hour in which all inner growth is stopped.”xi Sterling North, the Literary Editor for the Daily News, wrote that comics were “poisonous mushroom[s].”xii Ethel C. Wright, writing in Library Journal, complained that comic books were “devoted to killing, cruelty, gangsterism, sadism, [and] holdups.”xiii Cultural critic and reporter Marya Mannes quipped that “there are enough mammary glands protruding through the pages [of your average comic book] […] to make a Freudian field day.”xiv Given the negative press, comic books were linked to all sorts of anti-social activities. In City, Judge David P. McKeen tried some young defendants and commented that “You look like you come from decent families, and all you have done is brought them pain and suffering.You boys have been reading too many comic books.”xv

Then the finalcoup de grace for the Golden Age of comics: psychologist ’s Seduction of the Innocent (1954). Wertham’s major concern with comic books was that they exposed children to casual sex, including such “ behavior” as sadomasochism and homo- sexuality. In his seventh chapter (titled “I Want to Be a Sex Maniac!”), Wertham, the Chief Psy- chiatrist for the New York Department of Hospitals, presents case after case in which “normal” children become perverts because of repeated exposure to the comic-book superhero Superman: “In one such drawing (from one of his patients), a girl is tied nude to a post. A handkerchief is stuffed in her mouth. On the floor are her discarded panties. In front of her is a boy heating some torture instruments over a fire. On his chest is the S of the superman.”xvi The more that Wertham studied the comics, the more he worried. Comic books famously represented the heroic actions of powerful men, but they also depicted heroes enjoying situations of intense sadomasochism: “A nineteen-year-old boy told me about his high-heel fantasies: ‘You are the first one I tell it to. I think of girls twisting their heels on my chest and .’ His first complete sexual stimulation had come from masochistic scenes in comic books at the age of about ten or eleven.”xvii And as follows: “A twelve-year-old sex delinquent told me, ‘In the comic books sometimes the men threaten the girls. They beat them with their hands. They tie them around to a chair and then they beat them. When I read such a book I get sexually excited. They don’t get me excited all the time, only when they tie them up.’”xviii

Wertham argued that we could not view these reactions as the isolated behavior of a few sick children. The notoriously repetitious nature of the comics themselves was pounding sick images 83

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access into impressionable minds. Seeing the same heroes undergo the same adventures month after month turned situations into set pieces, and so, by dint of familiarity, children learned the mecha- nisms of deviant sex. Thus, reading Superman led children to crave sadomasochism, while read- ing Batman and turned them gay. Wertham objected to Bruce Wayne’s handsome features, money, and all-male household, including his butler, Alfred, and young ward, (a.k.a. Robin).

Indeed, Wertham argued, that depictions of Batman and Robin were frequently homoerotic, as seen in a frame showing the two seemingly in the same bed (Batman #84 of June 1954).xix Wer- tham wrote that the world of Batman and Robin “is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together. Sometimes they are shown on a couch, Bruce reclining and Dick sitting next to him, jacket off, collar open, and his hand on his friend’s arm;” he added, “Robin is a handsome ephe- bic boy, usually shown in his uniform with bare legs. He is buoyant with energy and devoted to nothing on earth or in interplanetary space so much as to Bruce Wayne. He often stands with his legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident.”xx

Frightened by the findings in Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book, the US Senate began to investigate comic books. A committee, chaired by West Virginia Senator Harley . Kilgore, was formed. Other committee members included representatives from every region of the contiguous United States: Robert C. Hendrickson, New Jersey; John Marshall Butler, Maryland; James O. Eastland, Mississippi; , Tennessee; Olin D. Johnston, South Carolina; Thomas C. Hennings, Jr., Missouri; John L McClellan, Arkansas; Price Daniel, ; Everett KcKinley Dirksen, Illinois; Alexander Wiley, Wisconsin; William Langer, North Dakota; Herman Welker, Idaho; Jo- seph C. O’Mahoney, Wyoming; William E. Jenner, Indiana; Arthur V. Watkins, Utah. In prepara- tion for the hearings, senators were shown a selected set of comics, featuring the following tales: “The Lady Is a Man,” “All-Year Vacation Home,” “Sex Before Marriage,” “I Was Forced Into Russia’s Fifth Column,” “I Sold Myself in the Marriage Racket,” “Athletes Are Lousy Sports,” “What’s New in Transistors,” “Babes in Boyland,” “The Prodigal Son,” “Backstage at Burlesk,” “The Smart Drummer,” “Rica Rita — Pantie Model,” “ of the Battlefields,” “Sexie Tessie Up North,” “ and His Brothers,” “Tommy’s Bedroom ,” “Dead End Kids of Space,” “Are Bosomy Beauties a Fad?” “Are Vets Freeloading Medical Care?” “Sixty Lady-Killers on the Loose,” “Evelyn West vs. Kinsey,” “Are Our Churches Really Red?” “The Beauty Is a Witch,” “Slaves to Beauty,” “ in Morocco,” “Court of Immoral Women,” “Backlashes? Try Educating Your Thumb,” and “Where Bad Girls Make Good.” Furthermore, the members were told that “these were not the only, nor the worst, pictures and stories gathered by the sub- committee during the investigation. In fact, they constitute a small sampling of the total array of

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access crime and horror comic books available to the youth of this Nation.”xxi

Once the proceedings themselves were underway, the hearings were a “show trial” with an “almost predetermined outcome.”xxii Even the most sympathetic of the senators, Robert Clymer Hendrickson of New Jersey, who noted that most comics were as “harmless as soda pop,” sug- gested that there might be a link between comic books and the “reason why more and more of our youngsters steal automobiles, turn to vandalism, commit holdups, or become narcotic ad- dicts.”xxiii In defense, the comic-book industry hired counsel to represent them; Henry Schultz argued that psychiatry was still “too blunt” to understand fully any alleged ill effects that comics might have on formative minds.xxiv Comic-book publishers were also questioned directly. All were at pains to defend their own publications. Many took the opportunity to offer up their rival EC Comics as a sacrificial lamb for slaughter. Monroe Froelich, publisher of crime and war com- ics, for example, stated that the industry was being “sullied” by horrors comics.xxv EC specialized in horror comic books. Its bestselling titles included Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The of Fear. George Davis, representing Kable News and publisher of the racy Frolic Magazine, also suggested that were the real villains; the adult content Frolic Mag- azine found an ally in Helen Meyer of Dell Publications (who printed ); crime and horror comics were to blame.xxvi In defense of his own company, , publisher of Entertaining Comics (EC), held up a comic book, the cover of which depicted a decapitated woman, and proclaimed “entertainment never hurt anyone.”xxvii

This fractious and farcical defense was no for the subcommittee’s star : the afore- mentioned Fredric Wertham. Unlike other deponents, he was allowed to present his full vitae in print to all the members of the subcommittee. It was so extensive that he was then requested to provide a verbal summary:

I have practiced psychiatry and neurology since 1922. I taught psychiatry and pathology and worked in clinics at the Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1922 to 1929.// In 1929 I was the first psychiatrist to be awarded a fellowship by the National Research Council to do research on . Some part of my research at that time was on paresis and brain syphilis. It came in good stead when I came to study comic books.// From 1932 to 1952 I was senior psychiatrist at the Department of Hospitals.// I was first in charge of the Psychiatric Clinic of the Court of General Sessions examining convicted felons, making re- ports to the court.// In 1936 I was appointed director of the Mental Hygiene Clinic in Bellevue.// In 1939 I was appointed director of psychiatric services at the Men- tal Hygiene Clinic at General Hospital.// In 1946 I organized and started 85

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access the first psychiatric clinic in Harlem, a volunteer staff. A few years later I orga- nized the Quaker Emergency Mental Hygiene Clinic, which functioned as a clinic for the treatment of sex offenders under the magistrates court of NewYork.// These are my main qualifications. I have taught psychiatry in Hopkins and .// I have written both books and papers and monographs. I have reviewed psychiatric books for legal journals, like the Buffalo School Journal.// I have lectured at the Yale Law School, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy, and in other places.// I am a fellow of the New York Academy and a mem- ber of the three national neuropsychiatric associations, the American Psychiatric Association and American Neurological Association and American Association of Neuropathologists.// I am testifying at your request on the influence of crime and horror books on juvenile delinquency.

Wertham then stated that he had been threatened personally by comic-book industry “hoodlums:”

This enormous industry at present exercises a censorship through power. Ever since I have expressed any objection about comic books based on simple research done in basements on poor children whose mothers cried their eyes out, ever since then I have, been told by threats by libel suits, of damages; it is a miracle that my book was published considering how many threatening letters these lawyers and people have, written to my prospective publishers.xxviii

He then stated that “Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic-book industry” — a particu- larly offensive statement considering that Goodman, Lee, and Gaines were all Jewish. (Wertham was also Jewish, which makes the statement even more odd). The chairman then asked his col- leagues if they had any questions. They had none, and Wertham was excused.xxix

Given the tenor of the hearings, the Senators might have recommended outlawing comic books altogether. Instead, they recommended the creation of a regulatory body, funded by the com- ic-book industry itself:

It is the subcommittee’s opinion that, if self-regulation by an industry to succeed, there are certain attributes and certain mechanisms which it must have. This ear- lier attempt of the comic-book industry at self-regulation lacked many of these.// In the first place, the code itself must be clear and explicit.// In the second place, there must be a wide publication education of the code and the meaning it has for

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access the public when making purchases.// In the third place, the public must be sold this idea of restricting purchases of comics to those carrying the seal of approval. This, of course, becomes difficult if numerous publishers do not subscribe to the code and particularly, if some of the nonsubscribers are major publishers of good, clean comic books. Such a course of action permits the unscrupulous publish- er, who is unwilling to meet the standards of the code, to hide behind the skirts, so the speak, of the reputable publisher who does not display the seal for other reasons. If those who are not adherents to the code are numerous enough, then adherence or nonadherence is meaningless in the public eye and enforcement ma- chinery breaks down.// Finally, there must be established enforcement machinery to make certain that the code’s standards are adhered to. This machinery should have sufficient, well-trained staff imbued with the spirit that theirs is a task which, if well performed, can help the children of our Nation. If it is not well performed, it can affect them adversely. In addition, this enforcement machinery should be so established and operated that it is independence of thought and action should be maintained at all times lest the entire endeavor become beclouded with suspicion.xxx

The industry agreed to a stringent code: no nudity, titillation, copulation, depravity, perversity, excessive violence or bloodshed would be depicted. There were provisions to maintain the “value of the home,” and “the sanctity of marriage.” Slang and vernaculars were also subject to censor- ship: “wherever possible good grammar shall be employed.” Certain advertisers were also barred from comic books. This included the medical and sanitary industries, or more specifically, prod- ucts that came into contact with erogenous zones: “Advertisement of medical, health, or toiletry products of questionable nature are to be rejected. Advertisements for medical, health or toiletry products endorsed by the American Medical Association, or the American Dental Association, shall be deemed acceptable if they conform with all other conditions of the advertising code.” To enforce these standards, the comics would be read by the newly formed and industry-funded (CCA) and the approved work would carry a stamp of endorsement, akin to then common “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” (See Appendix A for full Comics Code). Industry insiders of the era refer to the formation of the CCA as “the day comics died.”xxxi

The inveterately-hostile Wertham complained that the comic book censor, a New York City magistrate, Charles Murphy, lacked autonomy and authority. Murphy, was not a “‘censor;’ he is an employee of the industry.”xxxii Facts, however, suggest otherwise. Stan Lee recalls that Murphy carefully scrutinized and commented upon Marvel’s stories and commonly sent him notes, most 87

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access of which “seemed foolish and unnecessary to us.” Murphy’s notes often affected both the story and visuals. Lee recalls that a fairly common note might read: “Suggest you change the ending. Let the reader know the villain is going to jail,” or, if the comic seemed too violent, he might write: “Change the fight scene on page two. Let the hero slap the villain instead of punching him.”xxxiii Sexuality, however, was the overriding concern. Lee recalls that even without Mur- phy’s notation, Marvel made sure that the woman in its comics “had great figures,” but that the stories in which they appeared were completely sanitized: “I don’t think our stories would have offended a nun.”xxxiv The commonly understood subject matter of comic books (violence, sex, and horror) were effectively barred from the medium.

Just two years after the introduction of CCA regulation (commonly referred to as the “Comics Code” or just the “Code”), sales of comic books were off by about 50% and 24 of the original 29 comic book companies questioned by the Senate Subcommittee went out of business, including William Gaines’s EC Comics.xxxv The nadir was probably 1955, when Los Angeles made it a crime for adults to sell new comic books to minors. The fines were $500 or six months in jail for every offense.xxxvi The ordinance remained in place until 1959.xxxvii

Creative Problem Solving

Given the negative press of senate hearings, new censorship rules, and the resulting catastrophic collapse in sales, it seems safe enough to state that the industry was in a creative and financial death . The two largest surviving companies coped with the new restraints in radically different ways: DC Comics, the publishers ofBatman , tacitly agreed that something was wrong with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. As Kahan and Stewart (2010) observe, heterosexual mark- ers were soon provided: Betty Kane/ became Batman’s girlfriend ( #233; 1956), who was eventually dropped in favor of other Batman love interests, including Seli- na Kyle, aka Catwoman (first appearanceBatman #1, Spring 1940, but fully developed as a love interest post-Comics Code and, particularly the Adam West Batman TV show). Batman started dating women, but until the new millennium, Bruce never slept with his girlfriends. As for Dick Grayson, he too was given a love interest: Batwoman’s niece Bat-Girl (Batman #139; 1961).xxxviii

Meanwhile at , the solution was at least initially more perfunctory. The company simply changed its name to and then to . Then, in 1961, Goodman turned over the company to Stan Lee, who, with boundless energy and creativity, immediately introduced a new set of heroes, each designed to pass the rigors of the Comics Code. Unable to create perverse and interesting villains, Lee created physically and emotionally-handicapped he-

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access roes: a rock-covered monster with low self esteem (The Thing); a blind or chair-wheel bound su- perhero (Daredevil and ); a wisecracking teenager (Spider Man). Not only were Lee’s heroes emotionally or physically deficient or handicapped, they commonly suffered from sexual neuroses. Thus, Lee’s monstrous was in love with Betty but, due to his mental immaturity, was unable to express himself sexually. All he wanted was a maternal hug. Likewise, Daredevil’s girlfriends (including Electra and ) ended up dead before either relationship could gather much physical intimacy; until the new millennium, Spider-Man’s girlfriends were either exercises in abstinence () or ended up dead (). The list goes on, but the point is clear. These awkward, emotionally unavailable or physically unappealing heroes had frustrated sex lives. Lee seems to have taken the Comics Code as a sort of artistic challenge: You want heroes who aren’t attractive and don’t have sex? Fine! How do you like these stressed-out, unhappy, and repressed characters?

The New Comic Culture and Plausible Deniability

Lee also allowed greater artistic freedom than was generally allowed at DC. The later company continued to make comics the old-fashioned way in the following steps: 1) writer scripts story; 2) story fits into mini-boxes, usually twelve boxes to a page; 3) artist draws within boxes; 4) art work is inked and; 5) artwork is colorized. Each artist was responsible for one aspect of the prod- uct. In an era of senate hearings and regulation, putting one’s name to a particular aspect of one’s work carried some danger. If the story element was too heinous, the writer was to blame; but, if too graphic, the artist was the blame; meanwhile, if there was too much (the color of com- munism), the was too blame. If blame could be assigned, so too could liability. The issue here was not just legal responsibility but also an ill-defined sense of patriotism and moral sound- ness. McCarthyism had already singled-out many novelists, actors, playwrights, and scriptwriters for their allegedly “Un-American activities:” as a consequence, their careers had been damaged or destroyed. What was to stop the same thing from happening to comic-book artists, writers, and ?

As Lee grappled with the CCA, he revamped the process of making comic books. In the new “The Marvel Method,” creativity was confusingly apportioned. The , for example, was sometimes instructed on what and how to some panels, but sometimes he was left to his own direction.xxxix Dialogue balloons and narrative boxes were added without consulting the artist.xl Coloring choices were often a surprise. Captain America’s gloves, for example, might be yellow in one panel, but red in another.xli 89

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access The oddest form of collaboration, however, was between the featured writer and artist. John Romita recalls getting a note from Lee stating that the next issue of Daredevil would introduce a new character, The . No other description was given, but it was Romita’s job to create his look, costume and, by inference, backstory — Lee did not even alert Romita as to whether this new character was a hero or a villain.xlii On some other stories, Lee gave no more than an outline and assumed that the artist would complete the assignment:

I would merely give him [the artist] the broadest outline of the story I had in mind and let him add the rest, I’d say something like, ‘In this issue I want the Sub-Mar- iner to kidnap Sue . Her husband, Reed, has to lead the Fantastic Four under the sea in a rescue attempt. The gimmick of the story will be, didn’t kid- nap Sue to use her as bait to capture the FF [Fantastic Four], but rather because he loves her. When Reed recues her I’d like to show Namor’s heartbreak, so that the reader actually feels sorry for an ostensible villain.’ And that was about as much as I’d have to tell [the artist] […] .xliii

This system, in time, created some professional wrangling over credits. Lee, for example, later took full credit for the creation of Spider-Man, though, according to artist , he had no input concerning the character’s costume and :

The Spider-Man pages Stan showed me were nothing like what he envisioned. Kirby had a guy with a web gun leaping at you. He made the character get his powers from a magic ring. In fact the only drawings of the character were on the splash page and the end of the story. One of the first things I did was to work up a costume for the character. I developed the idea that he could cling to walls natu- rally — without any boots or suction cups. I came up with the web shooters, etc. [...] I wasn’t sure Stan would like it.xliv

Lee’s role, so far as Ditko recalls, was basically that of production coordinator. According to Ditko’s biographer Steve Bell, Lee “increasingly turned over more story control to Ditko. By about issue No. 10, the artist was also plotting the stories, with Lee just filling in dialogue after the pages were drawn.”xlv To Lee’s credit, he later admitted that Ditko was a co-creator of the character, but he continues to maintain that there is a great deal of difference between “creation” and “execution.” As Lee sees it, he was the person “who dreamed up the title, the concept, and the characters. […] Personally, I still think the idea is the thing, because an idea can be given to any artist to be brought to life.”xlvi

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Reflective of that divide, only Lee receives movie royalties on the character; Ditko does not. Still odder, Marvel has acknowledged Ditko’s creative role. In the 2002 Spider-Man movie, the film credit reads, “Based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.” As Jordan Ra- phael of the explains, “That may not seem very significant, but to Ditko fans it represents a long-awaited validation. In one of those injustices for which the comics industry is famous, Ditko has not received any royalties from the billion-dollar franchise based on Spi- der-Man because he co-created the character on a work-for-hire basis.”xlvii

Lee also had differences of opinion as to who created the Fantastic Four and other staples of the Marvel pantheon with long-time collaborator , whose estate has sued sung Marvel over the ownership of “his” characters and the return of “his” artwork. Marvel maintains that Kirby signed a work-for-hire contract and that, consequently, all of the work produced belongs exclusively to Marvel. The case is being considered by the Court.xlviii

Had the artists and writers anticipated today’s multi-billion-dollar industry, they might have taken more care to document their creations or to secure stronger agreements with artists; as it happened, however, fear of violating the Comics Code or being swept into a series of Mc- Carthy-esque hearings was the immediate concern. What I am suggesting here is that this new system worked not only because it was creatively satisfying and efficient, but also because Lee’s “Marvel Method” created plausible deniability, defined as follows:

[A] denial of responsibility or knowledge of wrongdoing [which] can not [sic] be proved as true or untrue due to a lack of evidence proving the allegation. This term is often used in reference to situations where high ranking officials deny responsibility for or knowledge of wrongdoing by lower ranking officials. In those situations officials can ‘plausibly deny’ an allegation even though it may be true.xlix

In a very real sense, everyone and no one at Marvel created Spider-Man, and if some aspect of the character or some aspect of a story landed the team in legal peril, the artist, and writ- er, could quite openly and honestly state that it was virtually impossible to say who had creative oversight. Lee’s nebulous plot lines protected him from charges that he had written something off-color; the same artist might then say that he was interpreting admittedly enigmatic instruc- tions, and, if all else failed, the CCA, in allowing the finished product to be published, might be cited as yet another sign that the artists and writers in were innocent of deliberately attempting to harm America’s youth. In a very real sense, the process was designed with a lack of communication and clarity in mind. Lee compared it to deciphering a crossword puzzle.l 91

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Challenging the Comic Code Authority

There comes a point in every organization, Stephen Covey writes, when successful companies begin to do things by rote. They become complacent. But, warns Covey, “Nothing fails like suc- cess.”li Marvel and DC had solved their public reception issue by revamping their comics along socially appropriate norms. Marvel had gone still further by transforming its production process. But, some artists longed for the old days when sexuality and nudity could be depicted openly and less puritanically.

In 1983, a new company, , began making its own brand of superhero titles. The books were sold exclusively in comic-book shops, which marketed to an adult clientele. As James Cowen observes, “Unapproved books faced limited commercial distribution, much in the same way retailers such as Walmart will not stock music bearing a Parental Advisory warning. But as comic sales moved increasingly to specialty shops, and advertisers stopped worrying about being associated with unsavoury material, the code’s importance faded.”lii Not only did First Comics not submit its titles to the CCA, it did not contribute to its maintenance. First’s most successful comic was American Flagg, written and drawn by former DC artist and writer How- ie Chaykin. Discussing his time at First Comics, Chaykin stated that he wanted the comic book industry to embrace its frankly vulgar past: “I want to do a story that is both very funny ... and at the same time very, very ugly. Really nasty and unpleasant. Because frankly, it’s the place to do that sort of thing.”liii

The title of Chaykin’s comic book presumed that his readers had a solid grounding in com- ic-book lore. The history of American comic books is replete with flag-draped characters such as Captain America. Yet, the hero of American Flagg wears no part of on his person. In fact, he looks very little like the “average” superhero. He has no actual costume, and no cosmic or mechanical powers; he is just an average [...] American? No, he is not even that. and bred on Mars, Reuben Flagg immigrates to America when his film career falters.

The idea of an immigrant becoming an American hero is not, in and of itself, unusual. Superman was an immigrant, having come from another planet, . The son of Jor-El lands in rural Kansas and is raised by John and Martha Kent, who teach the boy how to speak English, milk cows, and love his country. The country that Clark Kent loves, with its rural idyllic pastures and clean cities, its dashing, generous millionaires, well-meaning citizens, and always-hon- est politicians, captures the idealism of the post-World War II era in America, when anything was possible except failure. The Superman stood, after all, for “Truth Justice and the

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access American Way.”liv

The America in which Reuben lives captures its mirror opposite. After a nuclear war, which Russia wins, American commercial interests relocate to Mars. America itself is left to a variety of multicultural desperadoes who are continually attempting to take back the planet from the Rus- sians and their allies (and sometime rivals) the Brazilians. The problem is that the reactionaries are often too busy killing each other to band together effectively against the Russians. The Jewish Offense Brigadiers are often at odds with the American Survivalist Labor Committee, who hate the black-only Committee for a New Brazilia. American interests eventually regain control of parts of the former United States. However, they do not revive lost freedoms; their main concern is to reawaken consumerism. In place of Congress, the Mars Corporation sets up an administra- tive center called the “Mall,” where its citizens shop, shop, and shop. To keep consumerism high, the “Plex” — as the government calls itself — pumps its citizens full of drugs and pornography. The biggest star on Earth makes his films on Mars. What is his name? Reuben Flagg. When Reu- ben tires of making pornography, he decides that law enforcement might be more his thing. So he applies to the Plex, which sends him to what used to be Chicago. He spends much of his time having sex with nubile admirers, such as in the series American Flagg by .lv The comic, in short, violated the Comics Code in numerous ways: it depicted author- ity in a negative light; it depicted criminality in a positive light; criminals were rendered glam- orously; good did not triumph over evil, because both sides were morally bankrupt; there were scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gun play, physical agony, or gory and gruesome crimes; the panels were filled with obscenity, smut, and swastikas; and most of all, Chaykin proved himself to be a master of salacious illustration and suggestive posture.

Rueben Flagg-style comics, however, remained rare; American Flagg itself was cancelled af- ter only 50 or so issues — no surprise given that two generations of comic-book buyers had been weaned on Lee’s Code-friendly heroes. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Marvel and DC remained on the safe side of the CCA. In the 1987 , Son of the Demon, Batman married , who is soon pregnant, but she later leaves him and pretends to have a miscarriage. The story was later revamped to cover-up any intercourse at all: Talia has a son, Da- mion, but the boy is more of a genetic experiment. He was formed without Batman’s knowledge or consent in an artificial womb, rather than by traditional intercourse Batman( # 655-59; 2006). The closest that Dick Grayson gets to heterosexual sex is his marriage to Emily Washburn. The marriage is a sham. Even on their honeymoon, Dick sleeps alone. The marriage is soon annulled; Grayson’s virginity is intact, and his sexuality still in question ( Annual #1; 1997). In 2001, Grayson developed feelings for , the 1960s . Still, Dick finds that 93

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access revealing the truth to Batman would be awkward. His speech reads like a permission slip to a former lover: “Me and Babs — I mean, uh, Barbara — Oracle — and I, well ... things have ... progressed in our relationship to the point where — that is, I think it’s fair to say that we’re ... involved. Dating. A couple.” then in a lower, meeker voice: “... okay?” (Gotham Knights #17; 2001).

Comics and Censorship Today

Today the CCA is no more; Marvel discontinued its funding in 2001; DC Comics followed suit in 2010. On Sept. 29, 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), ironically, an orga- nization dedicated to the freedom of artistic creation, announced it had acquired from the intel- lectual property rights to the Comics Code seal. According to spokesman Chris Brownstein:

As we reflect upon the challenges facing intellectual freedom during Banned Books Week, the Comics Code Seal is a reminder that it’s possible for an entire creative field to have those rights curtailed because of government, public, and market pressures. Fortunately, today comics are no longer constrained as they were in the days of the Code, but that’s not something we can take for granted. Banned Books Week reminds us that challenges to free speech still occur, and we must always be vigilant in fighting them […]. [The] Comics Code seal, which is yesterday’s symbol of comics censorship, will now be used to raise money to protect the First Amendment challenges comics face in the future.

Additionally, that goal would probably have been unimaginable to the Comic Code’s founder, who, writes Brownstien, explaining that they “were part of a generation of comics professionals that were fleeing a witch-hunt that nearly trampled comics and any notion that they deserved any First Amendment protection.”lvi I would add, however, that censorship was an integral part of Silver Age comics, and that much of the art of the medium came out of the artful ways of avoid- ing censorship.

Given that the code has only been officially dead since 2010, it is always possible that censorship could be revived. We might note in closing that while the Comics Code is no more, and given that most mainstream comic books remains relatively tame, the threat of censorship hovers like the sword of Damocles (or Conan) over the industry. In 1999, the owners of a comic book shop in were charged with selling a sexually explicit comic to adults. The retailor was fined $1,500 and sentenced to probation; in 2003, a Texas Retailer, Jesus Carillo, was convicted for

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access obscenity after selling the Japanese comic book Demon Invasion. The item was “kept in adults-only section of the store and was purchased by an adult.”lvii Likely these events are iso- lated and are of little consequences to DC and Marvel, now owned by , multinational corporations, Warner Brothers and Disney, respectively. However, if the history of comic book censorship in the United States is a guide, any renewed legislation designed to stifle the industry would likely have the opposite effect. It would seem, at least so far as the comic book industry is concerned, the limits imposed by the Comics Code created the conditions for its present-day renaissance.

iAbigail Adams and John Adams, The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams family, 1762–1784, eds. L H Butterfield; Marc Friedlaender; Mary-Jo Kline (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975), 253; Stan Lee’s famous maxim is from the 2002 Spider-Man movie; in Spider-Man’s story, #15 (1962), the line reads: “With great power there must also come — GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!” iiJules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes (New York, Dial Press, 1965), 80. iiiComic books are generally listed historically as follows: Golden Age (130–1960); Silver Age (1961–85); Bronze Age (1985–present). The ranking has little to do with popularity or even appeal to collectors. Aside from the origin issues of Captain America, Batman, and Superman, the most valuable books are generally Silver Age. One might argue that we are now in a hybrid digital age, but downloaded comics have yet to replace printed copies. Judging by traditional comic-books sales of roughly 25 million copies a month, they are unlikely to do so; the top digital down- loads account for just 6% of the market. See Kiel Phegley, “DC Reveals January Digital Rankings,” (February 6, 2012). /www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=36826. No figures are available for 2013–14; but we can say that the numbers are likely to be flat. Despite the ubiquity of e-readers, comicbook reader generally consider e-comics to be “gimmicky.” See “AXEL-IN-CHARGE: SXSW Wrap Up, Digital Initia- tives and Marvel's New #1s.” Comic Book Resources (March 14, 2014), www.comicbookresources.com/?page=arti- cle&id=51489. ivSee Life with the Comics: In Praise of a Classic American Art Form. http://life.time.com/culture/in-praise-of-clas- sic-comics-and-comic-strips/#1. vMaria Elena Buszek, Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 11. viBuszek, Pin-Up Grrrls, 213. viiMartin Barker, “Frederic Wertham — The Sad Case of the Unhappy Humanist.” Pulp Demons International Dimensions of the Post-War Anti-Comics Campaign, ed. John A . Lent (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 199), 84, 215–33. viiiBradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 21. ixSee the illustration for text by Charles Moulton. Published in July’s Sensation, no. 91 (1944) by J.R. Publishing Co. 95

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access See: https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot. com%2F-gHqpObF9tVA%2FVUsLA30_cpI%2FAAAAAAAALyE%2F5GYmQgfQWeA%2Fs1600%2FWon- der%252BWoman%252BEtta%252Bspanking.jpg&sp=c1272ffa3213fbce02b3c40dd9100a46. xMike Madrid, The : Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines (Unknown location: Exterminating Angel Press, 2009), 247. Madrid’s examples are sometimes anachronistic. Nonetheless, the book provides a useful overview of the superheroine phenomena. xiDavid Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (New York: Far- rar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 93. The book remains a landmark study of early comic-book culture. xiiDavid Park, “The Kefauver Comic Book Hearings as Show Trial: Decency, Authority and the Dominated Expert.” Cultural Studies 16.2 (2002): pp. 259–88. xiiiEthel C. Wright, “A Public Library Experiments with the Comics,” Library Journal 15 (Oct. 1943): 832–5. xivMarya Mannes, “Junior Has a Craving,” New Republic 17 February (1947): 22. xvHajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague, 93. xviFrederic Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company, Ltd., 1954), 181. A recent investigation of Wertham’s case files reveals that he made up this and other examples. For Carol L. Tilley, “Seduc- ing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications that Helped Condemn Comics,”Information & Culture: A Journal of History 47. 4 (Nov.-Dec.2012): 383–413. xviiWertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 182. xviiiWertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 83. xixSee Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson Panel # 84 (June, 1954), at “Batman,” Wikipedia.com, http://taggedwiki. zubiaga.org/new_content/6d258faf1edff5f72b34c301a259c7c5. xxWertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 190-1. xxi“Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency. Interim Report of the Committee on the judiciary (1955). http://www. thecomicbooks.com/1955senateinterim.html. xxiiPark, “The Kefauver Comic Book Hearings as Show Trial,” 259. xxiii“Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency. Interim Report of the Committee on the judiciary (1955). http://www. thecomicbooks.com/1955senateinterim.html. xxivTestimony of Henry Edward Schultz to Senate Subcommittee. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/schultz.html. xxvTestimony of Monroe Froelich to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/froehlich.html. xxviTestimony of George Davis to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/davis.html; Testimo- ny of Helen Meyer to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/meyermurphy.html. xxviiTestimony of William Gaines to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http http://www.thecomicbooks.com/gaines.html. xxviiiTestimony of Fredric Wertham to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/wertham.html. xxixTestimony of Fredric Wertham to Senate Subcommittee, 1954. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/wertham.html. xxx“Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency.”

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access xxxiTrysh Travis, “Romanticizing the Comics: What Wertham Got Right,” Raritan 32.1 (Summer 2012): 188. xxxiiFredric Wertham, "The of the Comics Books: The Value Patterns and Effects of Comic Books,"Religious Education 49 (1954), 405 xxxiiiStan Lee and George Mair, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee (New York: A Fireside Book/Simon & Schuster, 2002), 95. xxxivLee and Mair, Excelsior! 96. Madrid disagrees, arguing that the Comic Code created a “sexual double standard:” “A female superhero may dress like a whore, but between those perfect breasts must beat the heart of a virgin (The Supergirls, 246). xxxvTravis, “Romanticizing the Comics,” 187. One EC publication, Mad Magazine, survived the financial bloodbath and continued to operate independently. xxxviHajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague, 107–8. xxxviiHajdu dates the ordinance to September 23, 1948 (The Ten-Cent Plague, 107), corrected by Leonard Rifas, in “‘Especially Dr, Hilde L. Mosse:’ Wertham’s Research Collaborator,” 8.1. IJOCA (Spring 2006), p. 29. xxxviiiJeffrey Kahan and Stanley Stewart,Caped Crusaders 101: Composition Through Comic Books (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2010), 93–4. xxxixStan Lee and , How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (New York: A Fireside Book/Simon & Schuster, 11978), 151. xl“The Men Without Fear: Creating Daredevil Part 1,” Extra Feature in DVD of Mark Steven Johnson (Director), Daredevil (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) (20th Century , 2003). xliMark Gruenwald, “ Assemble: Mark's Remarks,” Avengers #269 (Jul. 1986). http://www.webcitation.org/ query?url=http://www.geocities.com/mh_prime/8607.html&date=2009-10-26+02:33:05. The most obvious errors were collected and published by Marvel under the title Official Marvel No-Prize Book (Marvel Comics, Jan. 1982). xliiThe Men Without Fear: Creating Daredevil Part 2 — John Romita,” Extra Feature in DVD of Mark Steven John- son (Director), Daredevil (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) (20th Century Fox, 2003). xliiiLee and Mair, Excelsior! 145. xlivAnthony DiChiara, “Steve Ditko — Spider-Man’s Forgotten Father,” Examinier.com, Oct. 1, 2009; http://www. examiner.com/article/steve-ditko-spider-man-s-forgotten-father. xlvReed Tucker, “The Secret Hero of Spider-Man,” New York Post (Jul. 3, 2012). xlviLee and Mair, Excelsior! 172. xlviiJordan Raphael, “Spider-Man’s Long-Lost Parent,” Los Angeles Times (Apr. 29, 2002). xlviiiDominic Patton, “Supreme Court Decision To Hear Jack Kirby Rights Case Against Marvel & Disney Expected This Month,” Deadline.com (Mon. May 5, 2014), http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/marvel-jack-kirby-rights-law- suit-supreme-court-decision-near. xlixThe definition of “plausible deniability” is found in USLEGAL.COM, http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/plaus- able-deniability. lLee and Mair, Excelsior! 146. 97

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access liStephen R. Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership (New York: Rosetta Books, 1991), 319. liiJames Cowen, “Comics Code (1954–2011),” Canadian Business 84, no. 2 (Feb. 28, 2011) ESCHOST Database. liiiDirk Deppey, “TCJ Audio Archive: Howard Chaykin,”. ( Books, Mar. 29, 2010), http://classic.tcj.com/blog/tcj-audio-archive-howard-chaykin/. livThis is from the famous voice over for the long-syndicated Adventures of Superman TV show (1952–8). lvSee image by Howard Chaykin, American-Flagg of 1983 at https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=en- glish&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.list.co.uk%2Fimages%2F2009%2F05%2F28%2Faf2-lst062199.jp- g&sp=edab6c25c99a9272f84eb7bd0c259e63. lviChris Brownstein, “CBLDF Receives Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval,” Comic-Book Legal Defense Fund, press release (Sept. 29, 2011). lviiJames Cowen, “Comics Code (1954–2011).”

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Fig. 1 Thomas McAvoy, The sailor reads a comic book aboard the USS Doran in 1942 Photographic credit: Time of Life Pictures Courtesy of Getty Im- ages http://time.com/22575/ classic-comics-in- praise-of-an-american- art-form/

Fig. 2 Anonymous, Nose art on B-25J Mitchell, N8195H Heavenly Body, Photographic credit: Mary Harrsch at the Erickson Museum License information: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, no changes were made to this image Courtesy of Flickr Commons, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/15044007571/in/pho-

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Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Appendix Code of the Comics Magazines Association of America, Inc.

Adopted October 26, 1954 PREAMBLE

The comic-book medium, having come of age on the American cultural scene, must measure up to its responsibilities. Constantly improving techniques and higher standards go hand in hand with these responsibilities. To make a positive contribution to contemporary life, the industry must seek new areas for de- veloping sound, wholesome entertainment. The people responsible for writing, drawing, printing, publishing, and selling comic books have done a commendable job in the past, and have been striving toward this goal. Their record of progress and continuing improvement compares favorably with other media in the communications industry. An outstanding example is the development of comic books as a unique and effective tool for instruction and education. Comic books have also made their contri- bution in the field of letters and criticism of contemporary life. In keeping with the American tradition, the members of this industry will and must continue to work together in the future. In the same tradition, members of the industry must see to it that gains made in this medium are not lost and that violations of standards of good taste, which might tend toward corruption of the comic book as an instructive and wholesome form of entertainment, will be eliminated. Therefore, the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. has adopted this code, and placed strong powers of enforcement in the hands of an independent code authority. Further, members of the association have endorsed the purpose and spirit of this code as a vital instrument to the growth of the industry. To this end, they have pledged themselves to conscientiously adhere to its principles and to abide by all decisions based on the code made by the administrator. They are confident that this positive and forthright statement will provide an effective bulwark for the protection and enhancement of the American reading public, and that it will become a landmark in the history of self-regulation for the entire communications industry.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access CODE FOR EDITORIAL MATTER

General Standards: Part A

1. Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the , to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals. 2. No comics shall explicitly present the unique details and methods of a crime. 3. Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority. 4. If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity. 5. Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates the desire for emulation. 6. In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds. 7. Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, ex- cessive and unnecessary knife and gun play, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated. 8. No unique or unusual methods of concealing weapons shall be shown. 9. Instances of law enforcement officers dying as a result of a criminal’s activities should be discouraged. 10. The crime of kidnapping shall never be portrayed in any detail, nor shall any profit accrue to the abductor or kidnapper. The criminal or the kidnapper must be punished in every case. 11. The letter of the word “crime” on a comics magazine shall never be appre- ciably greater than the other words contained in the title. The word “crime” shall never appear alone on a cover. 12. Restraint in the use of the word “crime” in titles or subtitles shall be exercised.

General Standards - Part B 1. No comic magazine shall use the word “horror” or “terror” in its title. 2. All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted. 3. All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated. 4. 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 101

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access alluringly nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader. 5. Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture vam- pires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited. General Standards - Part C All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency, shall be prohibited. Dialogue 1. Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden. 2. Special precautions to avoid references to physical afflictions or deformities shall be taken. 3. Although slang and colloquialisms are acceptable, excessive use should be dis- couraged and wherever possible good grammar shall be employed. Religion 1. Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible. Costume 1. Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure. 2. Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable. 3. All characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably acceptable to society. 4. Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities. NOTE. - It should be recognized that all prohibitions dealing with costume, dialogue, or artwork applies as specifically to the cover of a comic magazine as they do to the contents. Marriage and Sex 1. Divorce shall not be treated humorously nor shall be represented as desirable. 2. Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at [n]or portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable. 3. Respect for parents, the moral code, and for honorable behavior shall be fos- tered. A sympathetic understanding of the problems of love is not a license for moral distortion. 4. The treatment of love-romance stories shall emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage. 5. Passion or romantic interest shall never be treated in such a way as to stimulate the lower and baser emotions. 6. Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested. 7. Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 01:22:45AM via free access Code for Advertising Matter

1. Liquor and tobacco advertising is not acceptable. 2. Advertisement of sex or sex instructions books are unacceptable. 3. The sale of picture postcards, “pin-ups,” “art studies,” or any other reproduc- tion of nude or semi-nude figures is prohibited. 4. Advertising for the sale of knives, concealable weapons, or realistic gun fac- similes is prohibited. 5. Advertising for the sale of fireworks is prohibited. 6. Advertising dealing with the sale of gambling equipment or printed matter deal- ing with gambling shall not be accepted. 7. 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. 8. To the best of his ability, each publisher shall ascertain that all statements made in advertisements conform to the fact and avoid misinterpretation. 9. Advertisement of medical, health, or toiletry products of questionable nature are to be rejected. Advertisements for medical, health or toiletry products en- dorsed by the American Medical Association, or the American Dental Association, shall be deemed acceptable if they conform with all other conditions of the adver- tising code.

Courtesy of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Accessed Nov. 1, 2017 at http://cbldf.org/the-comics-code-of-1954/

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