Comics Code Administrators?

[John C]

This might be an off-the-wall question, and it's not high-priority, but does anybody have a list of the decision makers and actual censors behind the Comics Code Authority?

It's mostly a self-gratification thing.  I've been reading through the THUNDER Agents books (about which more, I'm sure, when I'm finished with the series), and a semi-minor character is named "Savanarola Smith," an ultrapatriot warhawk who, even if you agree with him, you kind of don't want to admit it because he seems like a jerk and only has serious credibility among weirdos (and a kind of personality I didn't think existed on '60s television, but fits the modern Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck models well).  The name sounded just a little TOO familiar, so I went hunting for the source.

Initially, I discarded the historical Savonarola as irrelevant, since the character isn't a priest.  I did, however, find Max Beerbohm's "'Savonarola' Brown" from "Seven Men" (1920, apparently printed with the name Smith a year prior), which...well, it's nothing special, but there are moments that distinctly remmind me of writiers like Douglas Adams and William Goldman.  It's on Google Books, if anybody's interested, but not useful to this discussion.

Looking back at our priest, I saw that Girolamo was a book-burner.  And in a comic with heavy involvement by someone with Wally Wood's career, that sounds a lot like a sly jab at a censor, somewhere, which implies the Comics Code.  Might there have been a Jerome on staff, perhaps, giving Wood a hard time?

As I said, minor thing.  It just happened to stick in my mind for a few days, and I got the bug to follow the trail for a bit.

[JVJ (RIP)]

I have no data for you, John,
but I love how your mind works. Good luck with your quest.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[John C]

I probably would have ignored it entirely as just a peculiar name the writer decided to use.  But later on in the run, the light dawned when an incident is reported at the corner (in Manhattan, mind you) of Keltner and Benson Streets.

I mean, if they're not above what we'd today call "shout-outs" to fans--and, of course, Wood also named the lead character after his creator--then many conspicuous names (and a Keltner Street would be extremely conspicuous in lower Manhattan), then presumably a lot of other names are there waiting to be found.

(There are also some rather interesting names in the letter columns, but again, I'll save that discussion for when I've finished the run so that I don't miss anybody.)

All right.  I'll see if I can find a contact for whatever's left of the Authority and cross fingers that they're willing to share the records.

[Bob Hughes]

Sounds like you need a copy of Amy Kiste Nyberg's Seal of Approval- The History of the Comics Code. 1998 University Press of Mississippi. 

I got mine from Amazon, so I suspect it's still available.  Way better than I was expecting it to be.

[John C]

Ooh.  Thanks, Bob.  I'll look into that ASAP, but it looks like a good find.

I did turn up (though possibly not current, since it's not in the Yellow Pages) is an address for the comic Magazine Association of America.  I may drop them a line, as well.

[DennyWilson]

Comics Code Authority - arn't DC,Archie and Bongo the only companies that still submit books?

[kusunoki]

Another book that might be interesting to look at is Americana in four colors : twenty years of self-regulation by the comics magazine industry by John L. Goldwater. It was actually published by the Comic Magazine Association of America in the mid-70s and may be candidly self-celebratory.

[moondood]

Back in the 70's, Charlton published a mini-comic of sorts--like an illustrated pamphlet that outlined the whole CCA code.

I'm not sure what the purpose was---probably something for newsstand owners?  Probably not for general public consumption.

I remember reading it circa 1977 or thereabouts and marvelling at the dumb rules they had.  No big breasts?!  But--but....

I wonder, though, if there's any names in there of CCA heads.

I'm pretty sure I have a CBR of it somewhere...was surprised as hell to find it online somewhere.

anyone can email me if you want it--just bug me until I find it and send.

khathaway1@socal.rr.com

[GeneYas]

Back in the 70's, Charlton published a mini-comic of sorts--like an illustrated pamphlet that outlined the whole CCA code.

I'm not sure what the purpose was---probably something for newsstand owners?  Probably not for general public consumption.

I remember reading it circa 1977 or thereabouts and marvelling at the dumb rules they had.  No big breasts?!  But--but....

I wonder, though, if there's any names in there of CCA heads.

I'm pretty sure I have a CBR of it somewhere...was surprised as hell to find it online somewhere.

anyone can email me if you want it--just bug me until I find it and send.

khathaway1@socal.rr.com

I don't think so. I swiped these images from another messageboard and they don't have what is wanted.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c379/Quato2/Charlton/nn_Comic_Book_Guide_interior30_31.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c379/Quato2/Charlton/nn_Comic_Book_Guide_interior32_33.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c379/Quato2/Charlton/nn_Comic_Book_Guide_revised_mb.jpg

Gene

[Yoc]

Thanks for the scans Gene!

[moondood]

Yeah---that's the one.  A member asked that I send it--so I dug it up--and it wasn't what I remembered--I thought it was all about the code---but it's more of a "how-to-work in comics" guide....with 2 or 3 pages dedicated to to the code.

It must've had some impact on me, since a few yrs after it was published I became a pro comics letterer and have been one ever since.

I can still remember where I was when I discovered that publication in a pal's pile of stuff--comics and whatnot.  I probably read it from cover to cover at the time---way back in '77 or thereabouts.  I recall it was undersized--smaller than a regular comic....but since my memory failed me in its content---that may not be correct, either.

Moondood

[John C]

It must've had some impact on me, since a few yrs after it was published I became a pro comics letterer and have been one ever since.

Heh--Wow.  A professional letterer inspired by a Charlton publication.  That's a sequence of events that I never quite envisioned happening.

I now have images in my head of some poor kid running around a convention trying to meet the elusive A. Machine...and yes, I know they had mostly ditched that approach by then.

(And it's doubly funny, because just recently, I was reading a bit into someone's speculation on the devices used to letter the old Wonder Woman and EC books.  Untyped mechanical lettering must've been a weird business judging by the forms of the tools.)

[JVJ (RIP)]

I actually used Leroy Lettering in the 1970s when I was working for Hewlett Packard, John. It was not all that hard to do - trace a grooved letter in a plastic strip with a tool that was both stylus (for tracing) and pen (really, a clamp to hold a kohinoor or rapidograph pen). You rested the plastic strip on a horizontal ruler and spaced the letters by eye. You could do a lot with them (as long as you owned an electric eraser to cope with mistakes and drips).

(|:{>

[Bob Hughes]

The first Code Czar was Charles F Murphy. The actual code was drafted by Elliot Caplin. The original reviewers were Sue Flynn, Esther Moscow, Joan Nourse, Marj McGill and Dene Reed. Murphy quit in 1956. Mrs. Guy Trulock took over until 1965.  After that it was Leonard Darvin. Holly Munter was in charge in the mid-nineties.

[Yoc]

Wow, just the info John was looking for.
Thanks Bob!