Seduction of the Innocent, Parade of Pleasure, and more stuff to hate

[SOTIcollector]

If, like me, you are interested in that era when doctors and Senators were screaming about how comic books rot your brain, stick around for my Seduction of the Innocent thread. Some great stuff coming up... not just SOTI but POP, L&D and more! I'll list them as time allows over the next few days.

 

No HOS, probies, or purple polliwogs. Payment by PayPal, please. If that's a problem, let me know and we can probably work something out.

 

I typically ship only on the weekends, so please be aware of that in case you're in a big rush to get your purchases.

 

Shipping is free in the CONUS unless otherwise specified. Shipping outside the US at my cost, as long as I can fully insure the shipment (which means it will probably be rather expensive).

 

The first in the thread is the winner, period. I'm always willing to listen to offers, but it's first come, first served when it comes to

 

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

First up, Dr. Wertham's apology to the comic book industry for nearly destroying the medium back in the 50's. It's World of Fanzines by Dr. Fredric Wertham. Former library copy, with dust jacket. If I recall the DJ is permanently affixed to the mylar wrap it's in.

 

Yours for $30 $24 shipped in the US.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

This is it. The book that nearly killed the entire U.S. comic book industry. This book led to the comics code, the end of EC comics, and the end of horror and crime comics. It's hard to overstate the importance of this book to the history of American comics.

 

There are two printings of this book from 1954. This is a first print, as evidenced by the R colophon on the publication page. Like most copies of this book, this one has no bibliography page. The book's publisher, Rinehart, was so terrified of lawsuits from comic book publishers that he ordered the bibliography page sliced out of copies of Seduction of the Innocent, so very few copies of SOTI survived with that bibliography intact. For your reading pleasure, I'm including a photocopy of the bibliography tipped into this copy. This copy also does not have the original dust jacket, so I have provided a reproduction dust jacket to dramatically improve the book's eye appeal.

All 16 of the illustration pages are present. The book is unmarked except for some stray marker on the title page, as you can see in the photos below.

Yours for $145 $125 shipped in the continental US.

 

[SOTIcollector]

First softcover printing of Love & Death by Gershon Legman. Like SOTI, this book also railed against the dangers of comic books. However, this predated Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent by five years.

 

Solid, unmarked copy.

Shipped anywhere in the US for $50 $40.

 

[Fantastic Thor]

Stephens collection is one of the best. excellent man to deal with

 

[SOTIcollector]

Before Love & Death, there was Neurotica. Neurotica was a trailblazing periodical that contained the works of such luminaries as Marshall McLuhan and Allen Ginsburg. In Neurotica, Gershon Legman published anti-comics articles, and those articles formed the basis of what later became Love & Death. So in the postwar years Neurotica was the precursor to Love & Death, which was the precursor to SOTI.

This book is the 1963 collection that reprints every issue of Neurotica. The book is in pretty nice shape, but the dust jacket is rough as you can see in the photos. It can be yours for $95 $85 shipped in the CONUS.

[SOTIcollector]

And you thought finding a copy of Seduction of the Innocent was tough? Try finding a copy of Parade of Pleasure!

POP is pretty much the UK counterpart to SOTI. Geoffrey Wagner criticizes comic books, movies, and girlie mags. This book is missing it original dust jacket, but has a stunningly beautiful reproduction dust jacket. Many of the books listed as POP books in Overstreet were pictured only on the dust jacket and not in the interior of the book, so if you have the book you certainly need the dust jacket at least in some form.

 

This book is complete and has no interior markings except for a very old pencil price inside the back cover. A small piece out of the spine. All pages of illustrations and photos are present, including the picture of Marilyn Monroe.

Yours for $499 SOLD

 

[SOTIcollector]

Issues 2 and 3 of the phenomenal magazine From the Tomb, dedicated to horror comics with lots of pre-code goodness. Each would be VF or better if not for the rusty staples & rust migration.

 

Impossible to find mags,

 

Yours for $25 $20 each OR $35/pair shipped in CONUS.

 

[Fantastic Thor]

That POP book is a very good deal considering that a copy went for just under $800 2 weeks ago ..

[SOTIcollector]

House of Fury paperback, by Felice Swados (1950) with photocopy of the excised Reform School Girl page.

This one is tangentially related to SOTI. Perhaps you'd call it a SOTI book with two degress of separation. Sorry... there's no way to make this a short story, and I can be pretty long-winded, so please bear with me.

You may recall that one of the most notorious illustrations in Seduction of the Innocent is the cover of the Reform School Girl comic book. Dr. Wertham wrote, "Comic books are supposed to be like fairy tales" as a caption for Reform School Girl.

The comic book, published in 1948, got its cover image came from another 1948 Avon publication, the Reform School Girl paperback book cover. Both the Reform School Girl comic book and its namesake paperback are highly sought after by collectors and can be extremely tough to find. Look at Heritage's past auctions and you'll see that they have sold only three copies of the book ever.

The book Reform School Girl was originally published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1941 under the title House of Fury. When Avon republished it in 1948, they chose the the paperback format, a racier name and sexy cover image. Avon again published the book in 1950, but this time they restored its original name: House of Fury. It's this 1950 paperback I'm offering.

 

But wait. There's more.

 

When Avon published its 1948 book Reform School Girl, they did a couple things of note. First, they credited the cover model, noting that Canadian figure skater Marty Collins had posed for the cover photo. Second, they added two pages of text (one printed leaf) at the beginning of the story, featuring an exchange of letters between two characters in the book. Apparently Marty Collins' father didn't like the content of that page and thought it would reflect badly on his daughter, because he successfully sued Avon over it. As a result, Avon tore the offending page out of copies of the book before distribution. Heritage says that the page was removed from "all" copies of the book, but that's not completely accurate. After years of searching, I was able to find and purchase a copy of Reform School Girl, the paperback, with that lawsuit-losing page intact. So I've photographed the page, and you'll get House of Fury plus a photocopy of the offending Reform School Girl page tipped in. That way, you can read all of Reform School Girl in its entire sleazy splendor, without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for it.

 

Whew.

 

Thanks for sitting through all that.

 

This book has somjavascript: void(0)e loose pages and some pen on the FC, as evident in the photos.

It's yours for $25 $13, shipped in the CONUS.

 

 

FOR REFERENCE ONLY: Here's what the original Reform School Girl book cover looks like. This book is NOT for sale in this thread... or at all.

[SOTIcollector]

Saturday Review of Literature bound volumes, all of 1948. Another listing with a story.

Dr. Wertham's first nationally-distributed attack on comics came in the May 29, 1948 issue of Saturday Review of Literature. In "The Comics... Very Funny", Dr. Wertham laid out his arguments regarding why comic books were dangerous for kids. The article is accompanied by illustrations from notorious books like Jo-Jo Comics #15 and True Crime Comics v1#2.

In subsequent weeks, SRL published responses to Wertham's attacks. One of the most notable was the response from 14 year old David Wigransky, who composed a brilliant rebuttal to Dr. Wertham's claims. In return, many of the Marvel books of early 1949 included an anti-Wertham editorial that mentioned Wigransky's well-reasoned rebuttal. You can read more about it here: http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/tag/david-wigransky

 

What you get here is not just Wertham's first big attack on comics, but the published debates that followed. All of 1948, neatly bound into two library volumes.

 

These things are HEAVY, so shipping outside the US would likely be prohibitive. $225 $195 for the pair, PLUS shipping.

 

FOR REFERENCE ONLY. THE EDITORIAL BELOW IS NOT BEING SOLD HERE. THIS CAME FROM A JANUARY, 1949 MARVEL COMIC, AND SHOWS MARVEL'S RESPONSE TO WERTHAM'S ATTACK.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

Next up...

 

Americana in Four Colors. A Decade of Self-Regulation by the Comic Industry $20 SOLD shipped in CONUS.

Former library copy, with tape stains along spine and some tape stains on first & last pages, as pictured. The story of how comics are made and how the code approval process works. Contains the full text of the comics code.

 

 

 

One more item to post, probably late tonight.

[jpepx78]

Next up...

 

Americana in Four Colors. A Decade of Self-Regulation by the Comic Industry $20 shipped in CONUS.

Former library copy, with tape stains along spine and some tape stains on first & last pages, as pictured. The story of how comics are made and how the code approval process works. Contains the full text of the comics code.

 

 

 

One more item to post, probably late tonight.

I'll take this. PM coming.

[SOTIcollector]

Next up...

 

Americana in Four Colors. A Decade of Self-Regulation by the Comic Industry $20 shipped in CONUS.

Former library copy, with tape stains along spine and some tape stains on first & last pages, as pictured. The story of how comics are made and how the code approval process works. Contains the full text of the comics code.

 

 

One more item to post, probably late tonight.

I'll take this. PM coming.

 

Thanks!

[SOTIcollector]

Comics, Radio, Movies and Children $30 SOLD.

Public affairs pamphlet, published in response to criticism of mass media and its influence on children. By Josette Frank, who was always willing to defend comics when Wertham was attacking.

I'm guessing this was in part a response to Wertham's 1948 article that sparked the anti-comics hysteria.

The original edition of this pamphlet cost 20 cents and was published in 1949. This is a later edition (1950's?) with a 25-cent price tag.

[snitzer]

as always - another incredible offering by SOTIcollector. Gotta get me on of those POPs at some point

[SOTIcollector]

And you thought finding a copy of Seduction of the Innocent was tough? Try finding a copy of Parade of Pleasure!

POP is pretty much the UK counterpart to SOTI. Geoffrey Wagner criticizes comic books, movies, and girlie mags. This book is missing it original dust jacket, but has a stunningly beautiful reproduction dust jacket. Many of the books listed as POP books in Overstreet were pictured only on the dust jacket and not in the interior of the book, so if you have the book you certainly need the dust jacket at least in some form.

 

This book is complete and has no interior markings except for a very old pencil price inside the back cover. A small piece out of the spine. All pages of illustrations and photos are present, including the picture of Marilyn Monroe.

 

Comics, Radio, Movies and Children

Public affairs pamphlet, published in response to criticism of mass media and its influence on children. By Josette Frank, who was always willing to defend comics when Wertham was attacking.

I'm guessing this was in part a response to Wertham's 1948 article that sparked the anti-comics hysteria.

The original edition of this pamphlet cost 20 cents and was published in 1949. This is a later edition (1950's?) with a 25-cent price tag.

 

Both sold via PM.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

Price drops on all before they go elsewhere.