Fredric Wertham

storylines such as dating and monogamy within the LGBTQ community. O’Malley is lauded for his unassuming stories that have accurate representations of the gay community, especially regarding men who experience the majority of the homophobic stereotypes readers are acclimatized to view as “gay behaviors." Background The controversy involving comic books impacting children is not a new perspective. In 1948, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham wrote and spoke publicly about his beliefs that comics corrupt children with their secret messages advocating social evils such as crime, loose sexual morals, and antisocial behavior. In 1954, Wertham asserted in his book Seduction of the Innocent that well-known comic book characters such as Batman and Robin were trying to indoctrinate children into a homosexual lifestyle. Likewise, Wertham deemed the unmarried Wonder Woman’s Amazonian stature and physical prowess over her love interests as a dangerous lesbian who blurred traditional gender roles. Following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham spoke before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and testified that comic books were one of the leading causes of juvenile crimes. The subcommittee report stated that the comic book industry must tone down its levels of questionable morals. In response to the possible threat of further governmental action, the Comics Magazine Association of America created the Comics Code Authority. These rules, referred to as…

Entertaining Comics (E.C). The blacklisting of most of the companies popular titles lead E.C to shift focus and caused the formation of the publication Mad Magazine. Created by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines. Mad was launched in October 1952 , a publication satirical in nature and aimed at teenagers exerted a major influence on Crumb. Crumb admired the often surreal satire of Mad magazine and the children’s animal comics of Carl Barks and Walt Kelly as opposed to the highly…

They believed these comic books were at least partially to blame for crime and delinquency in youth. This idea was fueled by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent in 1954. Fredric Wertham was a big wheel when it comes to the campaign against comics. Seduction of the Innocent caused the most devastating effects. Here he stated that comic books were from nowhere, leading to juvenile delinquency and also stultified kids’ imaginations. Countless religious and patriotic…

Including, there being a paranoia to see that kids may imitate what they see on when reading comic books. Marvel broke the chain and soon DC followed Marvel’s approach . Comics skyrocketed in popularity at the same time there was World War 1 and World War 2. Frederic Wertham is the reason Comics Code Authority formed in first place. Even when the problem with Fredric Wertham was going on, comic book writers and publishers still continued amidst the chaos. Another artist Jack “King” Kirby worked…

Wertham concluded Batman was gay because he wore a gown, had flowers in his house and had a butler. After the moral panic of comic books many states restricted the sale of comic books and many people had bonfires to burn comic books. Many changes had happened to the comic book industry such as characters were not allowed to question authority because it then gave the children the thought that they can question their parents. Also, the characters in the comic books were not allowed to wear…

gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Comic books have engaged young people since the Golden Age of the 1930s to 40s and continue to engage young readers of the 21st century. Little did we know that according to Dr Fredric Wertham, M.D., comic books seduce the innocent. He was so concern about how the child’s mind reacts to the ‘badly drawn, badly written and badly printed…’ comics, that he set up a clinic and his findings indicated that comic books were a…

fairly popular, one being called Famous Funnies from 1933 and the other being called More Fun Comics from 1936. He also mentions how those comics where looked at by plenty of people. Chabon does a fairly good job of proving his claim by giving us some comics from when comic books were first made, and telling us how they were liked by many types of children. In another paragraph, Chabon tells us how in some past comic books made some people upset by what was included in the comics. He says that…

popularity. Nowadays being on a superhero team is a very common occurrence in both Marvel and DC. (“The History of Comic Books.” TheComicBooks.com.) After World War II ended, superhero comic books began to lose their popularity to other genres like science fiction and slice-of-life. Eventually the whole industry began to decline with part of the reason being by a psychologist named Dr. Fredric Werthham. (“The History of Comic Books.” TheComicBooks.com.) Wertham 's appearance…

intent of the creators of Luke Cage, it seems that the writers were trying to make Cage seem like a stereotypical “Angry Black Man”. Comics book rely solely on the visual representations so characters are judged based off of their appearances and that is it. This focus on only visual representation is especially prevalent in superhero comics. Since appearance is the main thing in comic book characters, portraying Luke Cage as a stereotypical black man during that era is not a good look. The…

Kryptonite, his only catastrophic weakness, does not offer a broad range of solutions. It must be used sparingly or the narrative becomes redundant as does the storyline of Superman using is abilities to save the world. Throughout both the 1948 and 1952 series, Superman easily concours any problems without breaking a sweat. He flies to save someone hanging out of a airplane, is able to stop a car dead in its tracks all while making it back to the Daily Planet to write the headline. According to…