Sunday, June 27, 2010

Comics Code Oops

Told people about this last night, decided to post it today. The scan is from Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide, No. 9, 1979. The following illustration is from an article titled, "For Those Who Know How to Look," by Carl Macek. The title is a quote from Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, in which Wertham explained that there was sexual imagery hidden in all kinds of comics panels for kids who "knew how to look."

But with the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, mighty efforts were made to clean up comics' image, though those efforts didn't always work out as intended. For example:

Panel on left is from Harvey Comics' Teen-Age Bride #5 (published before the code), while the panel on the right is from the exact same story reprinted in Teen Bride-to-Be Romances #20 (published post-code). Is this really less dirty?


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