History MediaNotes / TheComicsCode

* The 2018 animated film ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', as well as its 2023 sequel ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse Across the Spider-Verse]]'', open on the "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" stamp right after the studio logos, likely as [[TakeThat a jab]] referencing Spider-Man's role in the Comics Code Authority's fall from power. The stories of these films also would '''not''' have been approved, as they depict the murder of multiple people, sympathetic criminal characters, divorce, suggestion of an interracial romance between two of its leads, and have light profanity -- of course, it may have been approved by the CCA of an AlternateUniverse. The use of the seal is [[ParodyAssistance licensed from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the current owners of the trademark.]]

->''"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 the 'L' would run into the 'I' and Spider-Man would be saying, 'Look, he's got a fuck knife!'"'' [[note]] In America, flick knives are better known as switchblade knives. The specific alleged rule is actually just an urban legend. Spider-Man didn't exist when the Code was created, though comics editors were by that time quite aware of TheProblemWithPenIsland.[[/note]]

In [[TheFifties the early 1950s]], [[TheNewRockAndRoll a moral panic]] centred around crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in significant part to psychologist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham Fredric Wertham]] and his book ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent Seduction of the Innocent]]'', a putatively scholarly study which supposedly demonstrated an influential connection between severely troubled children and the comic books they read. (It wasn't until many years later that researchers discovered Wertham had based his conclusions almost exclusively on data that was [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml distorted or selective at best, and outright fabricated at worst]]).[[note]]In fact, the entire comic book controversy eclipsed some of his [[https://comicbookhistorians.com/fredric-wertham-was-more-than-just-an-anti-comic-caricature/ notable achievements]] such as helping desegregate schools.[[/note]] Wertham himself realized he had fallen prey to the WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer mindset in the early 70s, and [[https://www.amazon.com/World-Fanzines-Special-Form-Communication/dp/0809306190 wrote about the positive role fanzines had in geek culture]]. What of the comics they wrote about? "The creative imagination of fanzine writers and artists, especially the younger ones, tends in the direction of heroes, maybe in that lies a message for our unheroic age." However, by then it was too late.

* The 2018 animated film ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', as well as its 2023 sequel ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse Across the Spider-Verse]]'', open on an "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" stamp right after the studio logos, likely as [[TakeThat a jab]] referencing Spider-Man's role in the Comics Code Authority's fall from power. The stories of these films also would '''not''' have been approved, as they depict the murder of multiple people, sympathetic criminal characters, divorce, suggestion of an interracial romance between two of its leads, and have light profanity -- of course, it may have been approved by the CCA of an AlternateUniverse.
* In ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' (2019) by Tom Taylor, a character's head exploding was censored by an image of a Comics Code Authority Stamp, this was done by the artist, Bruno Redondo.

The effect of the Code's harsh censorship on the minds of young comic readers remains unknown, but it definitely worked to the detriment of the medium's artistic maturity. The "wholesome" entertainment created in the Code's wake stereotyped graphic storytelling (of any kind, regardless of whether they were CCA approved or not) as silly fluff fit only for children -- a stigma that, at least in the United States, persists to this day. As a side effect, the Code was designed to favour stories with a very conservative, pro-authoritarian message.[[note]]As a further note: this is considered, in retrospect, one of the elements that badly damaged ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' long-term, because DC's ''Superman'' titles hewed ''very'' close to the code as he was one of DC's breadwinners... which had the effect of making him a flawless ubermensch for much of the '50s and '60s and making him an icon of mid-century conservative America, with all the baggage that would later entail. Later writers -- starting with Mark Waid's ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' and onward -- would grapple ''heavily'' with this legacy, and it would dog Supes well into the [=21st=] century.[[/note]] The medium's most talented writers and artists of the period, growing frustrated because they could not tell stories the way they wanted, soon resorted to subverting the rules in increasingly creative ways.

* The 2018 animated film ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' opens on an "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" stamp right after the studio logos. Possibly it's included as a throwback reference to older versions of Spider-Man (given that the main character, Miles Morales, was created post-Code), but likely as [[TakeThat a jab]] referencing Spider-Man's role in the Comics Code Authority's fall from power. The story of the film also would '''not''' have been approved, as it has a supervillain murdering multiple characters, features sympathetic criminal characters, shows one character divorcing his wife, hints at a future interracial relationship between two of its leads, and briefly showcasing light profanity -- but it may have been approved by the CCA of an AlternateUniverse.

Oh to those that think that this scenario never happened to manga, you'd be wrong as Creator/GoNagai's Shameless School was on the verge of having a Wertham moment as well. And certain manga are still on the Japanese P.T.A.'s crosshairs to this day. And European comics, at least in the U.K. weren't exactly immune either as they faced heat under the likes of Mary Whitehouse.

Oh to those that think that this scenario never happened to manga, you'd be wrong as Creator/GoNagai's Shameless School was on the verge of having a Wertham moment as well. And certain manga are still on the Japanese P.T.A.'s crosshairs to this day.

[[caption-width-right:204:Approved by humourless 40-year-olds for concerned parents.]]

Oh to those that think that this scenario never happened to manga, you'd be wrong as Creator/GoNagai's Shameless School was on the verge of a having Wertham moment as well. And certain manga are still on the Japanese P.T.A.'s crosshairs to this day.

Oh those that think that this scenario never happened to manga, you'd be wrong as Creator/GoNagai's Shameless School was on the verge of having Wertham moment as well.

The first serious challenge to the Code's effectiveness came in [[TheSeventies 1971]], when Creator/StanLee wrote for Marvel Comics "Green Goblin Reborn!", a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story that not only [[DrugsAreBad portrayed drugs in an extremely negative light]], but had been written on the '''explicit recommendation''' of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. That fact in particular made the CCA look damned foolish when it refused to approve the story because it showed... a character using drugs.[[note]]In contrast, the CCA had approved an earlier ''Deadman'' story where the superhero fought drug smugglers because the story focused on the wholesale handling of narcotics by criminals. The CCA always handled the Code's rules in an inconsistent way.[[/note]] Since Marvel had earned the clout to [[DefyingTheCensors defy the CCA]], it simply removed the Code Seal from the comics containing the storyline, which appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #96-98. The story received considerable public appreciation and critical acclaim. By contrast, the CCA's explanations were dismissed by the public as a bunch of counterproductive excuses from a bunch of blinkered bluenoses.

Numerous publishing houses folded after the formation of the CCA because their more adult-themed subject matter could not pass the Code... which ''[[SarcasmMode coincidentally]]'' happened to cut down the amount of competition to Archie, DC, and DC-owned Independent News (then the largest distributor in the CMAA). William Gaines's Creator/ECComics, the industry's most notorious publisher during the backlash, tried to operate under Code compliance despite mounting frustration, but gave up within a year when a planned reprint of the {{Aesop}}-heavy [[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html "Judgement Day"]] was vetoed anyway... because the main character was a black man. That objection had no basis whatsoever in the Code; it was blatantly motivated by Comics Code Administrator Judge Charles Murphy's own racist views, and it confirmed EC editors' suspicions that they were being deliberately harassed into oblivion. Ultimately, EC won the battle and reprinted "Judgement Day" unedited (largely thanks to threats of legal action and bad publicity), only to lose the war: the story appeared in the final issue of their last comic title, after which they abandoned the newsstand comics business altogether. Instead, EC altered its focus exclusively onto ''Magazine/{{MAD}} Magazine''. [[note]]''MAD'' was originally published as a comic book before EC changed it to a magazine format. According to William Gaines, the change was done NOT to escape the Code, but [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/04/06/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-45/ to keep editor Harvey Kurtzman from jumping ship to work on another magazine]]. Although he still ended up leaving about a year later, the format change thus protected ''MAD'' from CCA interference.[[/note]]

There was nation wide public backlash against comics, including public comic burnings, and even some city councils such as Houston, Texas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma banning various horror comic series. In 1954, the U.S. comic book industry, trying to head off growing backlash and subsequent calls for government regulation, formed the Comics Magazine Association of America. The CMAA was initially led by major publishing houses Creator/ArchieComics (protected by an image of "wholesome American youth")[[note]]In fact, throughout the entire existence of the CMAA and the Comics Code Authority, it was run by Archie Comics' administration -- a blatant conflict of interest.[[/note]] and Creator/DCComics (which made a lot of money from kid-friendly romance and science fiction titles during this time period). The group subsequently set up the Comics Code Authority, or CCA, as a self-imposed censorship bureau; in hindsight, this move likely led to tighter censorship than was actually necessary to get their rules approved by the government.

In [[TheFifties the early 1950s]], [[TheNewRockAndRoll a moral panic]] centred around crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in significant part to psychologist Fredric Wertham and his book ''Seduction of the Innocent'', a putatively scholarly study which supposedly demonstrated an influential connection between severely troubled children and the comic books they read. (It wasn't until many years later that researchers discovered Wertham had based his conclusions almost exclusively on data that was [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml distorted or selective at best, and outright fabricated at worst]]).[[note]]In fact, the entire comic book controversy eclipsed some of his [[https://comicbookhistorians.com/fredric-wertham-was-more-than-just-an-anti-comic-caricature/ notable achievements]] such as helping desegregate schools.[[/note]] Wertham himself realized he had fallen prey to the WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer mindset in the early 70s, and [[https://www.amazon.com/World-Fanzines-Special-Form-Communication/dp/0809306190 wrote about the positive role fanzines had in geek culture]]. What of the comics they wrote about? "The creative imagination of fanzine writers and artists, especially the younger ones, tends in the direction of heroes, maybe in that lies a message for our unheroic age." However, by then it was too late.

** Shallow villains popped up out of nowhere with little backstory, because otherwise the writers risked giving them sympathetic pasts.

In [[TheFifties the early 1950s]], [[TheNewRockAndRoll a moral panic]] centred around crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in significant part to psychologist Fredric Wertham and his book ''Seduction of the Innocent'', a putatively scholarly study which supposedly demonstrated an influential connection between severely troubled children and the comic books they read. (It wasn't until many years later that researchers discovered Wertham had based his conclusions almost exclusively on data that was [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml distorted or selective at best, and outright fabricated at worst]]).[[note]]In fact, the entire comic book controversy eclipsed some of his [[https://comicbookhistorians.com/fredric-wertham-was-more-than-just-an-anti-comic-caricature/ notable achievements]] such as helping desegregate schools.[[/note]] Wertham himself realized he had fallen prey to the WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer mindset in the early 70's, and [[https://www.amazon.com/World-Fanzines-Special-Form-Communication/dp/0809306190 wrote about the positive role fanzines had in geek culture]]. What of the comics they wrote about? "The creative imagination of fanzine writers and artists, especially the younger ones, tends in the direction of heroes, maybe in that lies a message for our unheroic age." However, by then it was too late.

In [[TheFifties the early 1950s]], [[TheNewRockAndRoll a moral panic]] centred around crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in significant part to psychologist Fredric Wertham and his book ''Seduction of the Innocent'', a scholarly study which supposedly demonstrated an influential connection between severely troubled children and the comic books they read. (It wasn't until many years later that researchers discovered Wertham had based his conclusions almost exclusively on data that was [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml distorted or selective at best, and outright fabricated at worst]]).[[note]]In fact, the entire comic book controversy eclipsed some of his [[https://comicbookhistorians.com/fredric-wertham-was-more-than-just-an-anti-comic-caricature/ notable achievements]] such as helping desegregate schools.[[/note]] Wertham himself realized he had fallen prey to the WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer mindset in the early 70's, and [[https://www.amazon.com/World-Fanzines-Special-Form-Communication/dp/0809306190 wrote about the positive role fanzines had in geek culture]]. What of the comics they wrote about? "The creative imagination of fanzine writers and artists, especially the younger ones, tends in the direction of heroes, maybe in that lies a message for our unheroic age." However, by then it was too late.

Perhaps the one positive benefit resulting from the Code was completely inadvertent. Namely, when Creator/MarvWolfman wrote a horror story for DC's ''The House of Secrets'', the issue's framing story had the horror host, Abel, comment that he heard it from a "wandering Wolfman" as a StealthPun. The Comics Code flagged it because a werewolf was mentioned, which was specifically verboten. In response, the editor was able to tell the censors that the writer's surname was in fact Wolfman, after which the Code relented on the condition that it be clearly marked in the story as a credit that the writer with the name wrote it. After that compromise, the other writers at DC complained about Wolfman being given such special consideration and the editorship decided to give official credits for all its writers to placate them.

* "[[NotUsingTheZWord No comic magazine shall use the word "horror" or "terror" in its title]].

->''"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 the 'L' would run into the 'I' and Spider-Man would be saying, 'Look, he's got a fuck knife!'"'' [[note]] In America, flick knives are better known as switchblade knives. The specific alleged rule is actually just an urban legend. Spider-Man didn't exist when the Code was created, though comics editors were by that time quite aware of The Problem With Pen Island.[[/note]]

In [[TheFifties the early 1950s]], a moral panic centred around crime and horror comics swept North America, thanks in significant part to psychologist Fredric Wertham and his book ''Seduction of the Innocent'', a scholarly study which supposedly demonstrated an influential connection between severely troubled children and the comic books they read. (It wasn't until many years later that researchers discovered Wertham had based his conclusions almost exclusively on data that was [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml distorted or selective at best, and outright fabricated at worst]]).[[note]]In fact, the entire comic book controversy eclipsed some of his [[https://comicbookhistorians.com/fredric-wertham-was-more-than-just-an-anti-comic-caricature/ notable achievements]] such as helping desegregate schools.[[/note]] Wertham himself realized he had fallen prey to the WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer mindset in the early 70's, and [[https://www.amazon.com/World-Fanzines-Special-Form-Communication/dp/0809306190 wrote about the positive role fanzines had in geek culture]]. What of the comics they wrote about? "The creative imagination of fanzine writers and artists, especially the younger ones, tends in the direction of heroes, maybe in that lies a message for our unheroic age." However, by then it was too late.

There was nation wide public backlash against comics, including public comic burnings, and even some city councils such as Huston Texas, and Oklahoma City Oklahoma banning various horror comic series. In 1954, the U.S. comic book industry, trying to head off growing backlash and subsequent calls for government regulation, formed the Comics Magazine Association of America. The CMAA was initially led by major publishing houses Creator/ArchieComics (protected by an image of "wholesome American youth")[[note]]In fact, throughout the entire existence of the CMAA and the Comics Code Authority, it was run by Archie Comics' administration -- a blatant conflict of interest.[[/note]] and Creator/DCComics (which made a lot of money from kid-friendly romance and science fiction titles during this time period). The group subsequently set up the Comics Code Authority, or CCA, as a self-imposed censorship bureau; in hindsight, this move likely led to tighter censorship than was actually necessary to get their rules approved by the government.

For decades, the Comics Code Authority -- keepers of the Comics Code -- served as one of America's premier {{Censorship Bureau}}s. This site even named said page after the Code for a time.