Anybody have any pre-SOTI books? 2 2

[SOTIcollector]

Family Circle, February, 1949.  This one would have had a significantly larger circulation than the Saturday Review of Literature or Commentary.  "What Can YOU Do About Comic Books?"

The title presumes that the parent is already aware of the "problem" with comics and knows that something must be done about them.

I always love pics of stacks of minty-fresh golden-age books. Superman #49, anybody?

[SOTIcollector]

From March, 1949.  Comics, Radio, Movies and Children.   Pictured is a first printing, but there were other printings.  Offhand, I recall seeing a 25 cent price tag, and "Television" being added to the title. 

 

Edited December 8, 2018 by SOTIcollector

[SOTIcollector]

Also from March, 1949.  Household magazine article on "The Truth About Comics."  this is a pre-publication condensation of the pamphlet I posted just before this ("Comics, Radio, Movies and Children").

[SOTIcollector]

In May, 1949, Art Digest reported on an "exhibit" at the Charles-Fourth Gallery in New York City called "School for Sadism:  Folk Art in the Atomic Age".  The exhibit was anti-comics propaganda based on Wertham's work.  The photos on display were meant to be provocative, such as (if I recall correctly) a photo of young children staring in shock at the True Crime v1#2 image of the needle to the eye (If you're reading this, you know the image.. it's my avatar).

 

[SOTIcollector]

Wertham's article "Fathers Are People" from Vassar Alumnae Magazine, December, 1949.  Here Wertham barely mentions comic books, but he does acknowledge that comics are but one of many influences on kids.

 

Edited December 8, 2018 by SOTIcollector

[SOTIcollector]

Love & Death, by Gerson Legman, 1949.  This book took some of Legman's work for Neurotica, reworked it and published it as a book with a significant anti-comics section.  This is the first of the "big three" anti-comics books that are mentioned in the Overstreet guide, Seduction of the Innocent and Parade of Pleasure being the other two  Pictured here is the impossible-to-find hardcover of L&D.  Over the years, I've probably had a dozen copies of SOTI with the bibliography and a dozen copies of POP.  But this is the only hardcover L&D I've ever seen.

 

[SOTIcollector]

Throughout the decade of the 1950's, Parents' Magazine published semi-annually the comic book ratings provided by the Committe on Evaluation of Comic Books, a Cincinnati group of anti-comics crusaders.  Here's the first one, from February, 1950.  It's great to see what they chose to put in the margins to illustrate the story.

They had "no objection" to Classics Illustrated, although Wertham found plenty to dislike in that series.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

From 1950, Our Rejected Children, by Albert Deutsch, was cited by Wertham in SOTI.

 

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

In 1950, Saturday Review of Literature published a "Best of..." magazine.  Featured prominently is a reprint of Wertham's "The Comics, Very Funny" from 1948.

 

[SOTIcollector]

Newsweek, January 29, 1951.  "New York Wakes up to Find 15,000 Teen-Age Dope Addicts"

What does this have to do with comics?  Absolutely nothing.  Unless, of course, you're Dr. Wertham.  In discussing the problem of drug use among teens, he cited this specific headline on page 25 of Seduction of the Innocent.

 

[SOTIcollector]

By 1952, the anti-comics hysteria had jumped the pond.  Here's "The Lure of the Comics", from April of that year.

 

[SOTIcollector]

In May, 1952, Picture Post magazine had this anti-comics article.  "Should US comics be banned?"  "Do parents realize the effect [comics] can have?"   The article takes as its starting point the "fact" that comic books are inherently dangerous and something must be done about them.

[SOTIcollector]

By November, 1953, SOTI was complete or nearly so.  An excerpt of the upcoming book was published in Ladies' Home Journal, giving it extensive exposure.

If comic books are really that dangerous, then wasn't it irresponsible, perhaps even criminal, of the photographer to pose children with issues of Justice Traps the Guilty and Haunt of Fear?

Note that Wertham's favorite image, the needle-to-the-eye, makes an prominent appearance here. Some of these panels were reproduced in SOTI, but some were not.

 

[SOTIcollector]

And my final entry from 1953, until I find some more, is Aggression, Hostility and Anxiety in Children.  This book comes from a series of the Bellevue Studies of Child Psychiatry.  Take note that there's a fraction of a page devoted to comic books.  In one of my 1954 posts, you'll see why.

[sfcityduck]

[SOTIcollector]

Seduction of the Innocent was published in April, 1954.  For a thread of pre-SOTI items, many of the 1954 items I have wouldn't strictly qualify for posting here.  But I do have some items that came out in 1954, and it's not clear to me whether they were pre- or post-SOTI.  Case in point, the third book in the BELLEVUE STUDIES OF CHILD PSYCHIATRY series.  This is The Dynamic Psychopathology of Childhood, by Dr. Lauretta Bender.  Here we see a dramatically increased focus on comic books as compared to the prior book in this series.  Comics warrant an entire chapter of the book plus numerous index entries.  

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by SOTIcollector

[SOTIcollector]

The undated pamphlet "Comics and Your Children" cites figures from 1953, so it's likely the pamphlet came out in 1954.  Perhaps it was before SOTI, or more likely after.  Note thes pamphlet contains some of the same illustrations that appeared in SOTI, like the blood draining scene from Authentic Police Cases #3, and the "I'll tear ya" scene from Women Outlaws #1.

 

[SOTIcollector]

By the time I made it though the 1940's to 1954, posting chronologically some pre-SOTI items, realized that I had missed some. So now some other things that fit the category, not necessarily in any particular order. 

Here's the Spirit section of 2/27/1949.  Dr. Wolgang Worry is worried about, of course, comic books.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

January, 1942 National Parent Teacher.  "Those Troublesome Comics".  Predates all that other stuff I posted. 

Up next... the origin of the comic book.  At least, I think so.  Maybe.

 

[adamstrange]

This is an absolutely killer thread because of all your posts, SOTI Collector!