Comic book censorship advocates?

[INCspot613]

Aside from Fredric Wertham, are there any notable comic book censorship advocates out there?  I'm particularly looking for information on people who were to comic books what Jack Thompson is to video games, like Sterling North.  (It's for research for an academic paper.)

[Yoc]

Hi I,
I'd suggest checking these -

http://www.tcj.com/warren-bernard-1954/

http://www.panelology.info/Wertham1940s.html

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3785.msg38731.html#msg38731

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2682.0.html

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2448.0.html

[Yoc]

This is an old topic but I just found this truly impressive blog called 'Yesterday's Papers' run by John Adcock with a great series of articles from 'the Southtown Economist' in 1945 that were all about the terrible menace comics were posing.
Here is the link - http://john-adcock.blogspot.ca/search/label/That%20Superbeing%20Philosophy

Tilliban and other precode horror fans might enjoy this.
-Yoc

[crashryan]

The new Alter Ego reprints another chapter from Amy Nyberg's book about the history of the Comics Code. It details efforts to regulate comics in the post-WWII period and names many people involved in the anti-comics movement. One surprise was Judith Crist, whom I knew as an old-time TV critic. It's interesting to see how much activism was on what we now call the grass-roots level, with self-appointed local decency groups visiting retailers to check out their comics and pressure them to drop offending magazines. I highly recommend these articles to those interested in comics censorship and/or regulation.

[erwin-k]

Slightly Off Topic, but of interest.

Laurie Powers, grand-daughter of of a top western pulp writer, has been working on a history of the love pulps and Street & Smith's "Love Story" in particular. In 1943 Love Story & about a dozen seemingly random pulps got their Second Class mailing privileges yanked by the Postmaster-General. Based on what's been found by various researchers, this seems to have been a personal CRUSADE against what the P-G considered smut.

Laurie's blog can be found here:
http://lauriepowerswildwest.blogspot.com/

You may have to search and/or scroll down a bit to find all the gory details, but the Supreme Court apparently told the P-G to sit down and shut up. (Of course in somewhat politer terms.)