TODAY'S POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ANDROID'S DUNGEON & BASEBALL CARD SHOP: Although comic books began simply as reprinted collections of newspaper comic strips, by the late 1930s and 1940s they had come into their own as a full-fledged form of popular culture. (Their history gets a rich, engaging retelling in Bradford Wright's Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, as well as the History Channel documentary, Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked, which features talking-head commentary by Michael Chabon and Kevin Smith, along with many comic-industry greats.) The most popular comic-book figures were costumed heroes like Superman, who burst onto the scene in 1938 in the famous Action Comics No. 1. Superman was quickly joined by colleagues and rivals like Batman, Captain Marvel, and the recently deceased Captain America, and the boom in superhero comics fueled a wider expansion of the comic-book industry into genres ranging from romance and detective to Western and horror.
After World War II -- during which comics became a favorite entertainment of American GIs -- comics reached even greater heights of popularity. Sales figures were breathtaking, with average monthly circulation reaching 70 to 100 million by 1953, and well over 90 percent of teenagers reportedly read comics regularly. At that very moment, however, comics ran into growing criticism from politicians, civic leaders, and child-development experts, who argued that comic books corrupted their young readers by condoning violence, mocking authority, and trafficking in sexual innuendo. Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham brought the anti-comics crusade to a head with his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, which in turn led to an investigation, public hearings, and a scathing report by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency (commonly known as the Kefauver committee). In the familiar pattern of an entertainment industry choosing to censor itself (rather than allow government officials to do so), the leading comic-book publishers hurriedly unveiled the Comics Code Authority in October 1954; much like Hollywood's Hays Code, the Comics Code prohibited potentially offensive content and required writers and illustrators to secure the CCA's seal of approval for any publication. At precisely the moment when the movies and popular music were starting to embrace youth culture and to commodify teenage rebellion, the comics were becoming domesticated and sanitized.
Of course, the comics weren't dead yet, as they would enjoy a revival in the 'sixties "Silver Age" and another wave of commercial and critical success with the ambitious "graphic novels" of the 'eighties. Yet comics would never again enjoy the broad-based popularity they had in the early 1950s. Still, comic book lovers remain an unusually and intensely devoted audience, perhaps the ultimate "fanboys." (I believe we have a number of comic aficionados around these here parts.) But what exactly causes this geekly love? Why do comic books inspire such fanatical commitment among their readers? And is that commitment fundamentally different from the devotion stimulated by other forms of pop culture?
Next week: the birth of rock 'n' roll, Elvis, and baby-boomer girl culture.
After World War II -- during which comics became a favorite entertainment of American GIs -- comics reached even greater heights of popularity. Sales figures were breathtaking, with average monthly circulation reaching 70 to 100 million by 1953, and well over 90 percent of teenagers reportedly read comics regularly. At that very moment, however, comics ran into growing criticism from politicians, civic leaders, and child-development experts, who argued that comic books corrupted their young readers by condoning violence, mocking authority, and trafficking in sexual innuendo. Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham brought the anti-comics crusade to a head with his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, which in turn led to an investigation, public hearings, and a scathing report by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency (commonly known as the Kefauver committee). In the familiar pattern of an entertainment industry choosing to censor itself (rather than allow government officials to do so), the leading comic-book publishers hurriedly unveiled the Comics Code Authority in October 1954; much like Hollywood's Hays Code, the Comics Code prohibited potentially offensive content and required writers and illustrators to secure the CCA's seal of approval for any publication. At precisely the moment when the movies and popular music were starting to embrace youth culture and to commodify teenage rebellion, the comics were becoming domesticated and sanitized.
Of course, the comics weren't dead yet, as they would enjoy a revival in the 'sixties "Silver Age" and another wave of commercial and critical success with the ambitious "graphic novels" of the 'eighties. Yet comics would never again enjoy the broad-based popularity they had in the early 1950s. Still, comic book lovers remain an unusually and intensely devoted audience, perhaps the ultimate "fanboys." (I believe we have a number of comic aficionados around these here parts.) But what exactly causes this geekly love? Why do comic books inspire such fanatical commitment among their readers? And is that commitment fundamentally different from the devotion stimulated by other forms of pop culture?
Next week: the birth of rock 'n' roll, Elvis, and baby-boomer girl culture.
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