History MediaNotes / TheComicsCode

* Good news, everybody! The language prohibiting "the walking dead," non-literary monsters, and words like "horror" and "terror" is gone now, and it's OK to use that stuff now!

Major publishing houses Franchise/ArchieComics (protecting its image of "wholesome American youth") and Creator/DCComics (which made most of its money from kid-friendly romance and science fiction titles during this time period) more or less forced the Code onto the entire comics industry. Numerous publishing houses folded after the formation of the CCA because their subject matter couldn't pass the Code -- which ''[[SarcasmMode just happened]]'' to cut down on Archie and DC's competition, as well as the competiton to DC-owned Independent News, then the largest distributor in the Comics Magazine Association of America (the Code's governing body).

** (Villains could not torture, murder, or sexually assault their victims, and so had to resort to a lot of gloating and outrageous GlobalDomination schemes. Also, no stories centered on sexual perversion - consensual or otherwise.)

* "Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure]."

* "Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is [[BarbieDollAnatomy indecent or undue exposure]]."

Among other things, the CCA (and its governing rules, known as The Comics Code) prohibited depictions of characters questioning public authority figures, revealing clothing, and narcotics (in any context). The Code also banned certain words from comic titles ('horror' and 'terror', most notably) and forced every story to have a happy ending. The Code regulated what advertising could appear in comic books, as well, but most of the restrictions it put into place wouldn't count as surprising or controversial even now (no ads for liquor, tobacco, weapons, fireworks, or gambling equipment).

The Code began to lose power in [[TheSeventies the 1970s]] when Creator/StanLee wrote a ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Spider-Man]]'' story involving narcotics. Even though he portrayed drugs in an extremely negative light and wrote the story on the recommendation of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the CCA refused to place a seal of approval on the story because of the depiction of a character using drugs. In contrast, the CCA approved an earlier ''Comicbook/{{Deadman}}'' story where the superhero fought drug smugglers because the story focused on the ''wholesale'' handling of narcotics (the CCA always handled its own rules in an inconsistent way). Lee defied the CCA by removing the Code Seal from the storyline, which appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' issues #96-98.

When Lee's story gained considerable public appreciation and critical acclaim, all the egg on its face forced the CCA into changing the Code to allow negative portrayals of drug abuse -- but even with the change, the CCA would never recover from the damage to its reputation.

Back in [[TheFifties the 1950s]], a moral panic about the corrupting influence of crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in part to psychologist Frederic Wertham and his book ''Seduction of the Innocent''. To head off calls for government regulation, the comic book publishers formed the Comics Code Authority as a self-censoring body to prevent the government from stepping in and making a mess of things -- which likely led to even tighter censoring in order to get their ruleset approved by the government.

* Good news, everybody! The language prohibiting "the walking dead," non-literary monsters, and words like "horror" and "terror" is gone now, and it's OK to use that stuff now!

DC Comics dropped the Code from the majority of its titles shortly after the turn of the 21st Century; MarvelComics withdrew from the Code entirely at around the same time period. In January 2011, DC abandoned the Code entirely in favor of its own in-house rating system. After those major departures, Archie Comics remained the Code's sole participant and administrator[[note]]An Archie employee had always supervised the Code since its inception[[/note]]. Archie figured that the Code served no purpose in light of its publishing standards [[note]]"We aren't about to start [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing bodies into refrigerators]]", said Archie Comics' President Mike Pellerito[[/note]], Archie abandoned the Code the day after DC's abandonment. The Comics Code had officially died.

(According to [[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/who-has-been-running-the-comics-code-authority-11012-22.html some sources]], the CMAA barely existed in its final year or so anyway. One person would check the few DC books that still used the code, and Archie just assumed that their comics would always pass muster because... Well, why wouldn't they? Granted, this was ''before'' Archie suddenly decided to [[AfterlifeWithArchie decided to make a series featuring its namesake's setting in a zombie apocalypse]], which makes Mike Pellerito's quote HilariousInHindsight.)

* Good news, everybody! The language prohibiting "the walking dead," non-literary monsters, and words like "horror" and "terror" is gone now, and it's OK to use that stuff now!

(According to [[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/who-has-been-running-the-comics-code-authority-11012-22.html some sources]], the CMAA barely existed in its final year or so anyway. One person would check the few DC books that still used the code, and Archie just assumed that their comics would always pass muster because... Well, why wouldn't they? Granted, this was ''before'' Archie suddenly decided to [[AfterlifeWithArchie decided to make a series featuring its namesake's setting in a zombie apocalypse, which makes Mike Pellerito's quote HilariousInHindsight.]])

(According to [[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/who-has-been-running-the-comics-code-authority-11012-22.html some sources]], the CMAA barely existed in its final year or so anyway. One person would check the few DC books that still used the code, and Archie just assumed that their comics would always pass muster because...well, why wouldn't they?)

* "Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent walking dead]], torture, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires and vampirism]], [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]], [[IAmAHumanitarian cannibalism]], and [[WolfMan werewolfism]] are prohibited."

Once in place, The Code killed off adult interest in comic books ''and'' stereotyped the medium as fit only for children. William Gaines' ECComics essentially left the newsstand comics business to focus on ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''. [[note]]The company originally published ''Mad'' as a comic book, but later changed to magazine format. Many people think the company made the change to escape the Code; while this did happen, [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/04/06/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-45/ the company actually changed formats to keep editor Harvey Kurtzman on board]].[[/note]] Incidentally, Dr. Wertham (whose book started the whole moral panic in the first place) denounced the Code as a whitewash that made comics worse by removing the consequences of violence.

** (Law enforcers were not allowed to appear [[BadCopIncompetentCop incompetent]] or [[DirtyCop corrupt,]] and there was no such thing as an [[PunchClockVillain antagonist who only dabbles in villainy as a hobby]].)

** (Law enforcers were not allowed to appear incompetent or [[CorruptCop corrupt,]] and there was no such thing as an [[PunchClockVillain antagonist who only dabbles in villainy as a hobby]].)

DC Comics dropped the Code from the majority of its titles shortly after the turn of the 21st Century; MarvelComics withdrew from the Code entirely at around the same time period. In January 2011, DC abandoned the Code entirely in favor of its own in-house rating system. After those major departures, Archie Comics remained the Code's sole participant and administrator[[note]]An Archie employee had always supervised the Code since its inception[[/note]]. Archie figured that the Code served no purpose in light of its publishing standards [[note]]"We aren't about to start [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing bodies into refrigerators]]", said Archie Comics' President Mike Pellerito[[/note]], Archie abandoned the Code the day after DC's abandoment. The Comics Code had officially died.

DC Comics dropped the Code from the majority of its titles shortly after the turn of the 21st Century; MarvelComics withdrew from the Code entirely at around the same time period. In January 2011, DC abandoned the Code entirely in favor of its own in-house rating system. After those major departures, Archie Comics remained the Code's sole participant and administrator[[note]]An Archie employee had always supervised the Code since its inception[[/note]]. Archie figured that the Code served no purpose in light of its publishing standards [[note]]"We aren't about to start [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing bodies into refrigerators]]", said Archie Comics' President Mike Pellerito[[/note]] Archie abandoned the Code the day after DC's abandomnet. The Comics Code had officially died.

For decades, '''''The Comics Code''''' served as one of America's premier {{Censorship Bureau}}s (this site even named the page after it for a time).

Back in [[TheFifties the 1950s]], a moral panic about the corrupting influence of crime and horror comics swept North America, leading to calls for government regulation. To head it off, the comic book publishers formed the Comics Code Authority as a self-censoring body to prevent the government from stepping in and making a mess of things - which probably led to even tighter censoring in order to get their code approved by the government. Among other things, the CCA - and its governing rules, known as The Comics Code - prohibited characters from questioning public authority figures, the usage of revealing clothing, and ''any'' depiction of narcotics, as well as banning certain words from titles ('horror' and 'terror', most notably) and demanding that every story have a happy ending. The Code also regulated what advertising could appear in comic books, though the restrictions are not especially surprising or controversial even now (e.g, no ads for liquor, tobacco, weapons, fireworks or gambling equipment...)

Once in place, The Code killed off adult interest in comic books ''and'' stereotyped the medium as fit only for children. William Gaines' ECComics essentially left the newsstand comics business to focus on ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''. [[note]]The company originally published ''Mad'' as a comic book, but later changed to magazine format. Many people think the company made the change to escape the Code. The change indeed ''did'' allow ''Mad'' to escape the code, [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/04/06/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-45/ but in truth, the reason for the change was to keep editor Harvey Kurtzman on board]].[[/note]] Incidentally, Dr. Frederic Wertham, the psychologist who fueled much of the public backlash against the medium with his book, ''Seduction of the Innocent'', actually denounced the code as a whitewash that made comics worse by removing the consequences of violence.

Major publishing houses Franchise/ArchieComics (protecting its image of "wholesome American youth") and Creator/DCComics (which, at the time, made most of its money from kid-friendly romance and science fiction titles) more or less forced the Code onto the comics industry. DC also owned Independent News, then the largest distributor in the Code's governing body, the Comics Magazine Association. Numerous publishing houses folded after the formation of the CCA since their subject matter was too dark, or had the living dead in their most popular comics, and so couldn't pass the code, which ''[[SarcasmMode just happened]]'' to cut down on their competition.

Creator/DellComics and Gilberton (publisher of ''Classics Illustrated'') stayed out of the CCA; Dell believed that their company brand and reputation was enough to reassure parents, and sold its comics with the slogan "Dell Comics are ''Good'' Comics." Neither publisher's lack of a CCA stamp harmed their profits, as both companies' comics sold well for most of the Comics Code's heyday. This also allowed Dell (and GoldKeyComics, which "spun off" from Dell in 1962) to occasionally publish comics that would not pass muster under the code, such as an adaptation of ''Series/DarkShadows'' featuring vampire Barnabas Collins.[[note]]Even then, Gold Key was careful to show restraint - for example, vampire bites were only implied, never explicitly shown.[[/note]]

The Code began to lose power in [[TheSeventies the 1970s]] when Creator/StanLee wrote a ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Spider-Man]]'' story involving narcotics. Even though he portrayed drugs in an ''extremely'' negative light and wrote the story ''on the recommendation of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare'', the CCA stubbornly refused to place a seal of approval on the story because of the depiction of narcotics being used. In contrast, the CCA approved an earlier ''Comicbook/{{Deadman}}'' story where the superhero fought narcotics smugglers because the story focused on the ''wholesale'' handling of narcotics (it was often wildly inconsistent that way0. Lee defied the CCA by removing the Code Seal from the storyline, which appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' issues #96-98. Lee's story gained considerable public appreciation and critical acclaim, and thanks to all the egg on its face in light of the story's success, the CCA changed the Code to allow negative portrayals of drug abuse -- but even with the change, the CCA would never recover from the damage to its reputation.

Two major revisions - [[http://www.thecomicbooks.com/old/cca2.html one in 1971]] and [[http://www.reocities.com/athens/8580/cca3.html another in 1989]] - relaxed and outright dropped many of The Code's stricter rules. The 1971 revision altered some of the stricter and more outdated provisions of the original Code while maintaining its basic structure, and the 1989 revision combined less restrictive views on old "crime, punishment, and sexuality" issues with PoliticallyCorrect injunctions against stereotyping.

The Code lapsed into true irrelevance during [[TheEighties the 1980s]]. "Direct market" comic book specialty stores (which the Code didn't cover) cut into sales on the newsstands (which the Code ''did'' cover), and as "direct-only" comics from the established publishers became increasingly common, those publishers began to publish more and more comics without the Code Seal. Newer publishers, often producing comics explicitly aimed at older teen and adult readers, ignored the Code entirely.

DC Comics dropped the Code from the majority of their titles shortly after the turn of the 21st century, at about the same time that MarvelComics withdrew from the Code entirely. In January 2011, DC abandoned the Code entirely in favor of its own in-house rating system. After those major departures, Archie Comics remained the Code's sole participant and administrator[[note]]The Code had always been under the supervision of an Archie employee[[/note]], and after concluding that the Code served no purpose in light of its publishing standards - "We aren't about to start [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing bodies into refrigerators]]", said Archie Comics' President Mike Pellerito (although that might have made an interesting plot twist) - Archie abandoned the Code the day after DC did, thus rendering The Comics Code officially defunct.

According to [[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/who-has-been-running-the-comics-code-authority-11012-22.html some sources]], the CMAA barely existed in the final year or so anyway; one person was checking the few DC books, while Archie just assumed that their comics were entitled to bear the stamp because, well, it was Archie, why wouldn't they?

On September 29th 2011, the Comics Magazine Association of America announced it had sold the intellectual property rights of the Comics Code seal to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (a U.S-based non-profit organization which helps to protect the First Amendment rights of comic creators, publishers, and retailers by helping cover legal expenses). In a nice little twist, the sale coincided with the annual Banned Books Week campaign.

----

** (Self-explanatory: Don't use racial or ethnic stereotypes.) *** Ironically, the Code office itself tried to use their power for this exact purpose at least once. One of the last EC stories, a science-fiction piece called ''Judgement Day'', focused on a planet of intelligent robots - who [[FantasticRacism have a strict segregation between orange- and blue-plated robots, despite all being made from the same parts]] - being denied membership in [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]] by a human diplomat named Tarleton. In the final panel, Tarleton finally removes his space helmet, revealing that he's a black man - and realistically-drawn, without giant lips or googly eyes. The Code authority tried to force EC editor Bill Gaines to change the ending, because, in their exact words: "You can't have a Negro."

-->-- '''Jonathan Ross''' on ''Series/{{QI}}''. The specific alleged rule is [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/23/comic-book-legends-revealed-217/ just an urban legend]], though comics editors were aware of TheProblemWithPenIsland.

Back in [[TheFifties the 1950s]], a moral panic about the corrupting influence of crime and horror comics swept North America, leading to calls for government regulation. To head it off, the comic book publishers formed the Comics Code Authority as a self-censoring body to prevent the government from stepping in and making a mess of things - which probably led to even tighter censoring in order to get their code approved by the government. Among other things, the CCA - and its governing rules, known as The Comics Code - prohibited characters from questioning public authority figures, the usage of revealing clothing, and ''any'' depiction of narcotics. The Code also regulated what advertising could appear in comic books, though the restrictions are not especially surprising or controversial even now (e.g, no ads for liquor, tobacco, weapons, fireworks or gambling equipment...)

The Code began to lose power in [[TheSeventies the 1970s]] when Creator/StanLee wrote a ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Spider-Man]]'' story involving narcotics. Even though he portrayed drugs in an ''extremely'' negative light and wrote the story ''on the recommendation of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare'', the CCA stubbornly refused to place a seal of approval on the story because of the depiction of narcotics being used. In contrast, the CCA approved an earlier ''Comicbook/{{Deadman}}'' story where the superhero fought narcotics smugglers because the story focused on the ''wholesale'' handling of narcotics. Lee defied the CCA by removing the Code Seal from the storyline, which appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' issues #96-98. Lee's story gained considerable public appreciation and critical acclaim, and thanks to all the egg on its face in light of the story's success, the CCA changed the Code to allow negative portrayals of drug abuse -- but even with the change, the CCA would never recover from the damage to its reputation.

DC Comics dropped the Code from the majority of their titles shortly after the turn of the 21st century, at about the same time that MarvelComics withdrew from the Code entirely. In January 2011, DC abandoned the Code entirely in favor of its own in-house rating system. After those major departures, Archie Comics remained the Code's sole participant and administrator[[note]]The Code had always been under the supervision of an Archie employee[[/note]], and after concluding that the Code served no purpose in light of its publishing standards - "We aren't about to start [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing bodies into refrigerators]]", said Archie Comics' President Mike Pellerito - Archie abandoned the Code the day after DC did, thus rendering The Comics Code officially defunct.

* "Criminals shall not be presented [[EvilIsSexy so as to be rendered glamorous]] or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation."

* "Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent walking dead]], torture, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires and vampirism]], [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]], [[IAmAHumanitarian cannibalism]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking werewolfism]] are prohibited."

** (Basically, limited who the hero could have a romantic relationship with and what kind of relationship it could be. No homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, pedophilia, open relationships, sadomasochistic relationships, incestuous relationships, relationships with transvestites or transsexuals, or [[MalignedMixedMarriage interracial relationships]].)

** (Self-explanatory: Don't use racial or ethnic stereotypes.)

** (Basically, limited who the hero could have a romantic relationship with and what kind of relationship it could be. No homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, pedophilia[[note]]though that one should be illegal no matter what era[[/note]], open relationships, sadomasochistic relationships, incestuous relationships, relationships with transvestites or transsexuals, or [[MalignedMixedMarriage interracial relationships]].)

Major publishing houses Franchise/ArchieComics (protecting its image of "wholesome American youth") and Creator/DCComics (which, at the time, made most of its money from kid-friendly romance and science fiction titles) more or less forced the Code onto the comics industry. DC also owned Independent News, then the largest distributor in the Code's governing body, the Comics Magazine Association. Numerous publishing houses folded after the formation of the CCA since their subject matter was too dark, or had the living dead in it, and so couldn't pass the code, which ''[[SarcasmMode conveniently]]'' cut down competition for the big guys.

** (Corrupt government officials and cops are allowed, but they must always be caught, so they can't be recurring characters. Also they must be depicted as aberrations in a mostly-honest system.)

** (Corrupt government officials and cops are allowed, but they must always be caught, so they can't be recurring characters.)

* While there's no specific language about it, the 1971 revision was interpreted as allowing AntiHero or AntiVillain characters up to a point - e.g., the Western AntiHero JonahHex and Marvel's supervillain Sandman, who was often portrayed as a PunchClockVillain.

->''Comics were investigated after a certain Doctor Fredric Wertham brought out a book called '''Seduction of the Innocent''' in 1954, calling for the introduction of a self-regulating body known as the Comic Code Authority, that had such ridiculous rules as, you could not use the word "flick" in a comic for fear that [[TheProblemWithPenIsland the "l" would run into the "i"]] and Spider-Man would be saying, "Look, he's got a fuck knife!"''
-->-- '''Jonathan Ross''' on ''{{QI}}''. The specific alleged rule is [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/23/comic-book-legends-revealed-217/ just an urban legend]], though comics editors were aware of TheProblemWithPenIsland.