Thursday, January 27, 2011

Seduction of the Innocent

To comic book readers, this is the bible of Satan.
Content
Fredic Wertham (the author) blamed comics for juvenile delinquency. The book, in reality, is mainly based on undocumented events, which may have not even happen. He claimed that reading comics would cause kids to do the same thing as the characters in the stories. Despite superheroes not being popular at the time, Wertham made incredibly stupid and rash statements about them: he claimed Batman and Robin were a gay couple, Wonder Woman was lesbian and Superman was a fascist. The book has gone out of print, due to the fact that it uses comic panels and he didn't ask permission from any of the companies.
Legacy
This book caused a Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency meeting, where there was a debate between Wertham and Willaim Gaines, publisher of EC Comics. Despite the SSJA not taking Wertham's side, they suggested to publishers to tone down the comics. This led to the formation of the Comic Code of Authority. Despite banning everything Fredric complained about, he thought it was "inadequate" to protect the youth.
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