“The first phase of the postwar campaign against comic books peaked in 1948.” (Gabilliet, 216). “In the autumn of 1948, under the pounding media stigmatization of isolated cases, the public became convinced that comics were the poison that turned children and adolescents into criminals.” (Gabilliet, 217). “The hysteria reached its zenith with the wave of comic book burnings between December 1948 and January 1949. Initiated “spontaneously” by children or organized by parochial schools, the pamphlets were heaped in piles on the ground before being publicly torched.” (Gabilliet, 218)

The period leading up to the Second World War and during the war itself brought about several changes to the comic book industry with regards to content and within the industry itself. “Comics gained in popularity during the war as inexpensive, portable, easy-to-read stories about good triumphing over evil. At the time people needed that kind of inspirational archetype.” (Rhoades, 39) “Although the creation of the superhero was undisputedly the Golden Age’s most significant contribution to comics, many other genres appeared following the war. Newsstands abounded with funny animals, teen humor, westerns, science fiction, jungle, romance, crime, horror, and satire.” (Rhoades, 47) It was the comics representing romance, crime and horror which gained in popularity and displayed content whose appropriateness for a child audience was somewhat questionable.

One psychiatrist, Doctor Fredrick Wertham spoke up against these comic books and argued that they were a leading factor in the rise of child delinquency. He argues in his book Seduction of the Innocent that comic books encouraged criminal and deviant acts such as murder, rape, theft, and drug addiction. Dr. Fredrick Wertham examined quite a few juvenile delinquents and published the results of his tests in his book. He discussed the specific case of a boy who shot a rifle from a building and killed a spectator in a nearby ballpark. “How does one help such a boy? How does one help him to emotional balance while emotional excitement is instilled in him in an unceasing stream by these comic books? Can one be satisfies with the explanation that he comes from a broken family and lives in an underprivileged neighborhood? Can one scientifically disregard what occupied this boy’s mind for hours every day?” (Werthram, 9).  He found that every child he examined had a penchant for comics. What Dr. Werthram failed to mention is that most children of the post-war generation read comic books and that such cases of juvenile delinquency were relatively few and far between and that he was examining juvenile delinquents from underprivileged neighborhoods but stretched his generalizations to include white, middle class children who were not part of the group he was investigating.

The comic book industry did make efforts to quell rising fear and mistrust. In 1948, out of fear of forced censorship by authorities the industry created its own comic code which was revised in 1954, 1971 and 1989. The 1948 code was very basic and included only six rules concerning the representations of sexuality, crime and authority, sadism, the use of proper language, divorce, and discrimination against any religious or minority groups. Subsequent codes categorized these rules into groups and expanded on them and also added restrictions on the sort of advertising that could be placed in comics and on the sort of material that could be portrayed on the cover (Nyberg, 165-170).

“Comics were getting worse at the worst possible time. In the same week that legislators… were making speeches on the statehouse floor, urging action to protect young people against the insidious effects of comics- and in turn to safeguard parents from their own children… Joseph McCarthy was railing in congress against the Communist subversion he imagined in the heart of the united states government when McCarthy called the first witnesses in the hearings of his committee on government operations in January 1953 some people working in comic books began to feel that the Gathings hearings a few weeks earlier, the rising pitch of public commentary on comics, and McCarthy’s paranoia were of a piece.” (Hadju, 209)

“McCarthy gave America enemies upon whom to focus their anxieties… As the anxious public trusted “experts” and government officials to root out the subversive elements ‘brainwashing” their children into delinquency, the paranoid style of Cold War politics intruded into the debate over the mass media and youth culture.” (Wright,154)

Pustz sums up the difficulties of being a comic book enthusiast in a culture that is still rattled by the negative portrayals of the 40s and 50s. “Scholars such as Amy Kiste Nyberg are now beginning to reavaluate [Werthram’s] work and its impact on the industry, but the fan scholar must first overcome a lifetime of negative portrayals of the psychiatrist. Werthram is truly more complex than fans believe, with his often progressive politics and frequent criticism of mass culture.” (Pustz, 201)

Pustz, Matthew. Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Print.

Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America. New York: Picador, 2008. Print.

Gabilliet, Jean-Paul. Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books. Trans. Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Print.

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

Wertham, Fredrick. Seduction of the Innocent. Reinhart & Company, 1954. Print.

Rhoades, Shirrel. A Complete History of American Comic Books. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008. Print.

Nyberg, Amy. Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1998. Print.