Comics Code

Definition

The Comics Code was a self-imposed censorship system on comics in the United States, created in 1954 and revised in 1971 and 1989. The code prevented the depiction of sexuality, brutal crimes, and drug use and generally ensured that comics would be suitable for young readers. The code is frequently blamed for reinforcing the notion that comics are strictly for children.

Introduction

The Comics Code was created in response to criticism that comics were harmful to young readers. As comics emerged as a mass medium during the 1940s, cultural critics, religious and civic authorities, and intellectuals began condemning them in editorials reprinted in newspapers across the United States. In 1948, a number of publishers formed the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) to regulate the content of their publications, but this organization rapidly imploded.

Criticism of comics did not receive significant public attention until after World War II, when the superhero genre began to wane in popularity, replaced by crime and horror comics, and comics were linked with the rising problem of juvenile delinquency. The most vocal opponent of comics, Fredric Wertham, accused them of inspiring or even teaching children to commit crimes. The attacks on the industry culminated in a 1954 Senate subcommittee hearing on comics.

In response to the mounting public criticism of comics, publishers created the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) in September 1954. The enforcement arm of the CMAA, the Comics Code Authority (CCA), modeled its Comics Code on the ACMP code of 1948, the codes of individual publishers, and the Motion Picture Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) that regulated the film industry. The Comics Code forbade depicting “indecent . . . exposure,” presenting crime “in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal,” using “profanity, obscenity, smut, [or] vulgarity,” treating divorce “humorously,” or ridiculing any religious or racial group. Subsections of the code detailed exactly what could and could not be shown, particularly regarding depictions of crime and horror. Those comics that passed were given the CCA stamp on the cover; those that did not could still be printed, but many distributors would refuse to carry unapproved comics. Thus, although the CCA could not legally compel publishers to change their comics, those that did not make changes would not have their comics distributed to retailers.

The code’s effect on comics was immediate. Several publishers went out of business between 1954 and 1956, including EC Comics, known for its high-quality horror comics. Comics sales, in general, fell, and horror and crime comics virtually disappeared from the stands as superheroes made a resurgence. As the direct market system, in which publishers sold comics directly to independent comic bookshops, took over during the 1980s, the importance of the code waned. The rise of independent publishers and comics lines aimed specifically at adults during the 1990s further hastened the code's demise. By the twenty-first century, the CMAA and the CCA had lost virtually all of their power, and the code had no discernible effect on the industry.

Senate Hearings on Comics

The most immediate cause of the creation of the Comics Code was the series of public hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. During the hearings, the committee, a unit of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was led by Senator Estes Kefauver, a Democrat from Tennessee. The subcommittee met April 21-22 and June 4 in New York, where it heard twenty-two witnesses. The list included psychiatrists, publishers, retailers, and strip cartoonists (including Walt Kelly and Milton Caniff). However, the two most important witnesses were Wertham and William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics.

Wertham rephrased his arguments in his articles and book, linking depictions of crime and horror in comics to juvenile delinquency. The committee was receptive to Wertham, giving him time to make a statement before questioning him, and members agreed with the broad strokes of his argument. On the other hand, Gaines was forced to defend the content of the comics he published to the committee members. Famously, he was shown the cover of one of his comics, which featured a man with a bloody ax holding up a woman’s severed head, and asked whether he felt it was in good taste. He replied, “Yes, sir, I do, for the cover of a horror comic.” The media widely reported Gaines’s testimony.

The committee’s investigation and findings clarified the extent of the criticism facing the comics industry. It led almost directly to the founding of the CMAA, later in 1954.

Fredric Wertham

Wertham played a major role in the creation of the code. While Wertham was not the first person to attack comics as potentially harmful to young readers, he was the most vocal and well-known critic of comics. Born in 1895 in Munich, Germany (he became an American citizen in 1927), Wertham was a practicing psychiatrist who primarily treated poor or disadvantaged patients. Through his work with criminals and juvenile delinquents, Wertham became certain that comic books presented a great danger to children. Beginning in the late 1940s, Wertham wrote several articles for popular magazines on the dangers of comics, and in 1954, he published his most famous book, Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham accused comics of not only encouraging criminal behavior in children but also containing sexual subtexts—for example, Wertham perceived the relationship between Batman and Robin as a homoerotic one. Wertham became a recognized expert on the comics industry and was a major witness in the 1954 Senate hearing.

Wertham’s arguments about comics had their flaws. Given the medium's popularity, it is no surprise that many criminals read comics; many law-abiding, psychologically healthy people also did. However, Wertham looked at violence on a social level, not individual. He was concerned about media depictions of violence as symptomatic of more significant problems in society, and he was not trying to censor comics because of prurience. Though his attacks on comics may have led to the oppressive restrictions of the Comics Code, Wertham was not quite the villain many comics fans have painted him to be.

Impact

The code’s effect on comics was immediate and severe, forcing several publishers out of business and significantly decreasing sales. Superhero comics returned to the forefront, and comics with supposedly questionable subject matter were essentially blacklisted. However, the direct market system of the 1980s circumvented the code, and in the 1990s, independent comics aimed at adults ignored the code altogether. Marvel Comics stopped using the code’s seal of approval in 2001, and other publishers followed its lead. By the mid-2020s, the code was no longer used by any major comics publisher. Although the code is no longer in use, the censorship issues brought about by the code are an example of moral panics that have affected American society at various times. One comparable example is the hearings held in the 1990s over rock and heavy metal music and its assumed negative influence on youth. Both cases are cautionary tales against limiting creative freedom and consider the role of the government in influencing and regulating creative industries. 

Bibliography

Beaty, Bart. Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

Nyberg, Amy Kiste. “Comics Code History: The Seal of Approval – Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, cbldf.org/comics-code-history-the-seal-of-approval. Accessed 11 July 2024.

Rittenberg, Julia. “A Look Into the History of the Comics Code Authority.” Book Riot, 2 Aug. 2021, bookriot.com/comics-code-authority-history. Accessed 11 July 2024.

Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.