Wertham Documentary

[John C]

This...may or may not be good.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sequart/diagram-for-delinquents

On the plus side, it sounds thoroughly researched with material we've never seen.  On the other hand, the pitch video is unbelievably boring and "interviews from comics scholars and professionals" (yawn--no offense, but there's already a LOT of that) gets better billing than Wertham's own notes.  So it could very well be an hour-plus of modern writers whining about how much more they'd have enjoyed comics if Superman cursed like a truck driver.

They've already gotten the requested funding and then some, so I'd imagine it's a lock.

(I like Kickstarter.  Eclectic projects ask for donation pledges, and when the campaign's up, you're only charged if they've hit their goal, with payment processing handled by Amazon.  And most campaigns offer rewards for pledging at different levels, too.  In this case, thirty bucks'll get you a copy of the DVD.)

[Yoc]

If not lied, he certainly bent the truth into an knot!

His personal papers donated to the L.O.C. have finally gone public.  A very interesting read IMO just Ignore the super lame headline.

Read all about it here.

[CharlieRock]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/11/dr-frederick-wertham-lied-and-lied-and-lied-about-comics/

Wertham outright lied according to this researcher who studied his original case notes.

[chaard]

So it could very well be an hour-plus of modern writers whining about how much more they'd have enjoyed comics if Superman cursed like a truck driver.

Maybe this has been explored by boring comics scholars already, but... it's an interesting what-if: What if Wertham had bombed? What if his lies hadn't provoked Kefauver, hadn't instigated the Comics Code, hadn't led to blatant censorship? Bill Gaines would have done quite well with the bloody EC line and wouldn't NEED to make MAD a magazine and Al Feldstein the world's richest editor. Superheroes would have kept killing people; characters would have vivid sex lives; depravities would have been pandered. Peter Parker wouldn't have been a nice wimpy kid. 'Underground' comix wouldn't have been necessary. Today's scene would be very different.

I could argue that Wertham and the CCA, although they gutted the 1950s comics industry, did set a barrier that creative folk worked within and pushed against and eventually shattered. Limitations are good, creatively. Arts that allow ANYTHING usually don't generate much of interest. 12-tone music failed because harmonic limitations were discarded, resulting in many really awful sounds. Of course, some limits are not practical, as when Louis B Mayer ordered that no minor scales be used in his movie music. The CCA era produced way too many dumb comics.

I won't nominate Wertham as the saint of unintended consequences. But without him, we might not have MAD and Warren and R.Crumb et al. As for his dishonesty and lies -- well, he was playing a political game, so utter BS is hardly surprising. Yeah, all things considered, I'd urinate on his grave, sure.

[darkmark (RIP)]

I agree with the above.  I've always thought that EC was playing a dangerous game, keeping on pushing the bounds of good taste as they did.  "Foul Play" was enough to get the line busted, and I think essentially that's what it did.  We like to defend comics creators as noble souls, but they can step over the line and produce bad stuff too...and they need to be told when they're doing it.

[tilliban]

I was never shocked by a pre-code horror comic book.
"Foul Play" is no good story because it's badly written and unplausible.
But you always knew in advance what they were up to.

I WAS really shocked just last month by reading "The Soda Mint Killer", a Phantom Lady story from PHANTOM LADY #17.
A friend of hers gets brutally strangled (to death!) while Miss Phantom runs out of the place - to change into something "more comfortable"?!
Then returns and is baffled to see dead people lying around the scene.
But takes it rather lightly.
THAT still churns my stomach. See for yourself.

[Yoc]

Yeah, that was about the worst moment ever for a PL story.

[CharlieRock]

So it could very well be an hour-plus of modern writers whining about how much more they'd have enjoyed comics if Superman cursed like a truck driver.

Maybe this has been explored by boring comics scholars already, but... it's an interesting what-if: What if Wertham had bombed? What if his lies hadn't provoked Kefauver, hadn't instigated the Comics Code, hadn't led to blatant censorship? Bill Gaines would have done quite well with the bloody EC line and wouldn't NEED to make MAD a magazine and Al Feldstein the world's richest editor. Superheroes would have kept killing people; characters would have vivid sex lives; depravities would have been pandered. Peter Parker wouldn't have been a nice wimpy kid. 'Underground' comix wouldn't have been necessary. Today's scene would be very different.

I could argue that Wertham and the CCA, although they gutted the 1950s comics industry, did set a barrier that creative folk worked within and pushed against and eventually shattered. Limitations are good, creatively. Arts that allow ANYTHING usually don't generate much of interest. 12-tone music failed because harmonic limitations were discarded, resulting in many really awful sounds. Of course, some limits are not practical, as when Louis B Mayer ordered that no minor scales be used in his movie music. The CCA era produced way too many dumb comics.

I won't nominate Wertham as the saint of unintended consequences. But without him, we might not have MAD and Warren and R.Crumb et al. As for his dishonesty and lies -- well, he was playing a political game, so utter BS is hardly surprising. Yeah, all things considered, I'd urinate on his grave, sure.

Or, you could have looked at it like this. The 'Dark Age' a.k.a. the comics of the 90s would have happened sooner, and thus the end of that comic book low point would have come quicker. Leaving the industry time to recover before trying to face the digital age.
Instead of now, with the readers abandoning comics in droves during the 90s and digital comics usurping the remaining readers. The industry would have been allowed it's folly well before technology had a chance to eclipse it.

[John C]

Another angle is that, since society was becoming more rigid, other industries were self-censoring, and companies like DC already had their own Code-like set of guidelines, exactly what happened would have happened, plus or minus a few years.

Well, no, that's not true.  At a bare minimum, no Marvel comic would have resorted to using the word "zuvembie" to get around the ban on mentioning the undead.

Or to go more extreme, the lack of a Comics Code could have driven customers (or, rather, distributors) away and crashed the industry well before 1960.  Or the government might have stepped in to censor the industry outright.  Remember, there were many book burnings in the '40s because of the "filth" in comics.  Wertham wasn't some Bond villain cackling in his chair orchestrating some movement, he was just a symptom.

[CharlieRock]

Could have really gone either way. If not Wertham, then somebody else would realise there was good money to be made pandering to parents' paranoia. I just contend it took so long to overcome the CCA that the excess of 90s comic-bookdom coming right before the dawn of digital media may well be what drives comics into a niche market.
Is it a niche market now? Possibly. Comic book movies are getting more popular and same with video games based on comics. Now that is a big, non-niche market that is founded on comics and may be what pulls us along until the next renaissance of comics.
They have even crept back into prime time television: The Walking Dead, Arrow, even two reality shows (King of the Nerds, and Comic Book Men) and Smallville enjoyed a very long run (And, old Adam West reruns are showing on retro cable channels). We've won the War of Comic Book Acceptance.
So with all this in mind, comic books in print format are at a very precarious point. Brought on by the stifling CCA and advancing technology.

[chaard]

@CharlieRock - You bring up an intesting point. Films have long depended on cartoonists aka storyboarders. I recently saw (I forget where) storyboards sketched by Hitchcock for the Psycho shower scene, and by Kubrick for Spartacus scenes. Many comics aka paper movies seem like detailed storyboards for proposed films and games. I've read that game production is now a bigger industry than film production (but I don't know how TV rates against these). Films and comics and TV and texts and games have always fed material to each other -- and comics can be surprisingly influential. Consider that the Men In Black comics probably never sold many thousands of copies, yet engendered a huge film franchise.

Back to the topic. Would CCA censorchip have occurred even without Wertham? Were the post-WWI and -WWII right-wing political swings in the US related? I'm not enough of a cultural scholar to draw connections. But I suspect that opportunistic politicians will sieze upon any lurid diversion, to distract attention from REAL problems. Prestidigitation, hey? DON'T look at unemployment, exploitation, discrimination, etc, oh no, just focus on those evil-violent-sexy comics-games-movies. Waging culture wars is easier than problem-solving.

[John C]

As I said, Chaard, it's worth pointing out that the Hayes code already existed, DC had its own internal code, and there had been mass comic burnings shortly after the war.  Blaming Wertham exclusively would be like blaming McCarthy for Communist witch-hunts.  He was a major figure, sure, but hardly the only significant engine.

[chaard]

I can't argue with you there, John.

Your mention of the Hays Code (1934) hints at something else in the repression of comics: thinly-veiled anti-Semitism and anti-'foreign' dread. Like Hollywood studios, the comics industry was perceived as being dominated by Jews. Many prominent Golden and Silver age comics writers, artists, editors and publishers were not WASPs -- and even Italian-Americans weren't considered "real" Americans by the mainstream -- stereotyped as peasants or mafiosi. Nativist bigotry surely influenced the pushes for censorship of films and comics, while racism powered criticism of rhythmic music. American popular culture has largely been created by 'outsiders' who remain despised for generations.

Somewhat related: the current kertuffle over DC hiring prominent homophobe and former LDS (Mormon) Church propagandist (yes, that was his day job) Orson Scott Card to write a Superman arc. What's next -- Glenn Beck to write Wonder Woman? The culture wars are still hotly raging. Stay tuned for more excitement.