Limited Collectors' Edition #C-23: "The House of Gargoyles!"

Near the top of the cover on nearly any post-1955 American comic book, you will find a strange little postage stamp containing the words "Approved by the Comics Code Authority." For nearly fifty years the "C.C.A." has controlled what you are permitted to read in almost all comics distributed to America's newsstands. So what is the origin of the C.C.A., still in force today, and how did it acquire this superpower?

Back in the late 1940s, before television, 10¢ comic books were the biggest selling entertainment around, consumed by nearly all children and many adults. In this expanding market, publishers jumped onto whatever was the next bandwagon: "true" crime launched by Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay; romantic confessions introduced by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Young Love; and the twist-ending horror story perfected in Tales from the Crypt and William Gaines' other EC titles.

But the more popular these racy genres grew, the more concerned certain Americans became about their possible harmful effects on younger readers' morals. Since they first emerged in the mid-1930s, comic books had been criticized for promoting illiteracy and even eyestrain. But after World War II, America's moral guardians became alarmed by the rise in juvenile delinquency. Rather than confront issues within society or the family, they picked on comic books, misunderstood as solely for children, as the easy scapegoat.

The case studies of leading psychiatrist Fredric Wertham provided their campaign with the vital voice of scientific authority. Treating troubled youngsters in his clinic in New York's Harlem ghetto, Dr. Wertham became convinced that reading comic books had a negative influence on every patient. As the media seized on his findings, moral panic swept the nation. Religious and civic groups blacklisted offending titles and told their members to boycott retailers who stocked them. School teachers organized mass comic book burnings. Nearly 50 cities adopted local laws banning the sale of certain titles.

The anti-comics crusade climaxed in 1954, when Wertham published his unrelenting expose of the industry, Seduction of the Innocent, and his calls for government intervention prompted three days of televised Senate Committee hearings into the links between comic books and juvenile delinquency. It was the comic's darkest hour.

Ranged against the damning testimony of Wetham and other experts, the defenses of EC Comics' William Gaines and only three other publishers failed to persuade. Although federal legislation was ruled out as contrary to freedom of the press, the pressure was on the comics industry to clean up its act.

Gaines attempted to rally his fellow publishers into opposing regulation and funding independent research and a public relations counteroffensive. But nearly all either closed down or caved in and conformed to the C.C.A., the industry's new self-regulating authority with the strictest code applied to any medium. Publishers could not get their product onto the newsstands unless they paid to submit their material for approval and removed any objectionable content. Only Dell's range and Classics Illustrateds were wholesome or educational enough not to need the C.C.A.'s stamp. Of EC's once proud line, only the satirical Mad survived by converting to a magazine.

Thanks to the Code, comics survived this attack but at a price. The market was decimated, artists exiled, content infantilized. The medium had to wait until the unregulated underground comix outrage of the late 1960s to address adult subjects again.

In 1971 and 1989, the Code was gingerly revised. It still polices the minority of comics sold from the newsstand, though most publishers now supply their comics just to specialist shops. The future of the C.C.A. looks less secure after Marvel Comics' withdrawal in 2001 of its entire line, replaced by in-house, movie-style ratings.

Still, the critics have not completely disappeared, so the industry has set up the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, just in case....



Credits

Cover: Nick Cardy
Script: Jack Oleck
Pencils: Jack Sparling
Inks: Jack Sparling

Reprinted:

• from House of Mystery (DC, 1951 series) #175 (July-August 1968).

• in Limited Collectors' Edition (DC, 1972 series) #C-23.
• in DC Special (DC, 1968 series) #11 (March-April 1971).
• in Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery (DC, 2006 series) #1.

Strange Sports Stories #2: "Tall in the Saddle!"

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Curtis Douglas Swan studied art at the Pratt Institute and was a staff artist on Stars & Stripes during World War II. After the war, he signed on with DC and remained there from then on. His early work, on such features as The Boy Commandos and Tommy Tomorrow, was stiff and rather bland. Gradually, however, Swan developed an effective and forceful style. He first drew Superman in 1951, remaining with him until 1986. He returned in 1988 to draw him for three more years. He worked on other characters while with DC, but Superman remained his favorite.

In his final years personal problems curtailed his production in comics.

Script: Frank Robbins
Pencils: Curt Swan
Inks: Murphy Anderson

The Unexpected #144: "Curse of the Black Cat!"

Download Tales of the Unexpected v1 #144

One good cat cover deserves another, I say. The Unexpected #144 I picked up in Canada while vacationing as a kid with my family, which brings back some really nice memories of the Great White North. That gorgeous Nick Cardy cover sold me on this one, but being a small child at the time I was genuinely disappointed that none of the stories inside contained a monstrously huge black cat as the cover implied. Instead, we're treated to a story about Johnny Dodge, who's an escaped inmate desperately trying to elude the law and the bloodhounds hot on his trail. Of course, bad luck crosses Mr. Dodge's path in the form of Charcoal, an all-black feral cat. This is a short story so I'll let you folks read what happens next. This isn't an especially great story, but it's okay, nicely illustrated, and the comic book itself has a lot of nostalgic value for me. While I have no idea who wrote the actual story "Curse of the Black Cat!," I do know that John Calnan did the penciling while Ernie Chan was responsible for the inking.

The Unexpected #157: "Who Will Kill Gigantus?"

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When I saw this one in the drug store sporting that beautifully drawn Nick Cardy cover, I knew that I HAD TO HAVE THIS! I wish I could get that excited about a comic book again, but the exuberance of youth and all that. This one is by George Kashdan and Alfredo Alcala.


Credits

Cover: Nick Cardy
Script: George Kashdan
Pencils:Alfredo Alcala
Inks: Alfredo Alcala

Witching Hour #38: "Makers of the Mist!"

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One of Murphy Anderson's specialties has always been science fiction. His earliest professional work was drawing Star Pirate and Life on Other Planets for Fiction House's Planet Comics in 1944. A fan of Buck Rogers since childhood, Anderson was given the opportunity to draw the daily strip in 1947. He stayed with it for two years, then quit, but was persuaded to draw Buck's twenty-fifth-century adventures again for a year in 1958. For Ziff Davis's brief fling with comic books, he worked on Amazing Adventures and Lars of Mars.

Signing up with DC in the early 1950s, Anderson went on to draw such sci-fi features as Captain Comet, The Atomic Knights, and John Carter of Mars. Anderson's style changed some over the years, but always remained attractive, visually appealing, and easily recognizable. He was also an excellent inker and worked with Carmine Infantino on Adam Strange and with Gil Kane on both The Green Lantern and The Atom.

Murphy Anderson took over the production of the Army's PS Magazine after Will Eisner left it. Having formed Murphy Anderson Visual Concepts, he withdrew pretty much from comic books to concentrate on commercial art and producing color separations. His cartooning work in recent years has consisted mostly of re-creations of old comic-book covers (his own and others'), which can be seen on such magazines as Alter Ego and the 2003 edition of the Comic Book Price Guide.



Credits

Cover: Nick Cardy
Script: Gerry Conway
Pencils and inks: Murphy Anderson

Batman #255: "Moon of the Wolf" (Neal Adams art)

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An influential and innovative artist, Neal Adams did the majority of his comic-book work after he'd drawn the successful newspaper strip Ben Casey in the early 1960s. By the late 1960s, he was working for DC Comics. Adams drew Deadman in Strange Adventures, upgraded Batman and rescued him from his TV-induced camp phase and, working with writer Denny O'Neil on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, epitomized the relevancy phase that comics went through in the early 1970s. He also drew X-Men and The Avengers for Marvel.

Neal Adams had worked for the Johnstone and Cushing art service while still in his teens. They produced cartoon and comic-strip ads, and one of their star performers was Stan Drake. The young Adams was much influenced by Drake's sketchy, illustrative style. Later he assisted Drake on The Heart of Juliet Jones newspaper strip. The work he did for comic books went beyond the house styles of DC and Marvel, bringing in a slick advertising look as well as a touch of gritty realism.

His Deadman, while causing fan enthusiasm and colleague admiration, did not prove to be a viable hero initially. The social awareness issues of GL/GA, dealing with such problems as drug abuse and racism and broadening the range of what comic books could do, gained considerable attention in the media. The magazine itself, though, was canceled early in 1972. Adams drew his modernized and somewhat sophisticated version of Batman about this time, also managing to work on The Avengers over at Marvel. His take on the Dark Knight influenced several artists who followed.

In the middle 1970s Adams was also one of those who campaigned for and succeeded in getting royalties for Jerry Siegel and joe Shuster for having created Superman. Adams started producing his own comics in the 1980s, including Echo of Future Past and Ms. Mystic. He has been far less active in comic books for the past two decades, and his Continuity Associates has concentrated on advertising and animatics.



Credits

Cover: Neal Adams and Nick Cardy
Script: Len Wein
Pencils: Neal Adams
Inks: Dick Giordano


























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