America almost destroyed the comic book industry 0

[woowoo]

Great vid

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/20/comic-con-comic-books-sci-fi-fantasy-politics-superheroes.html

[catman76]

I thought the senate committee footage didn't exist anymore. Is the whole thing available anywhere? I have read the transcripts of it, but always wanted to see the actual footage.

[Cat-Man_America]

On 7/22/2018 at 2:01 PM, woowoo said:

Great vid

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/20/comic-con-comic-books-sci-fi-fantasy-politics-superheroes.html

It's fine as a cursory view of the history, but does gloss over some things.  Comics are over 80 years old, not 90.  Bill Gaines claimed to invent the horror comic, which is certainly debatable, but an understandable claim given EC's New Trend titles became the genre leader.  What BG did was perfect the theme and develop a 7 to 8 page storytelling system that relied on an ironic twist.

The number of comics sold during WWII is eye opening given the population numbers and paper rationing. Many comic readers were actually the troops overseas!

Frederick Wertham is worthy of a documentary unto himself given the that he based his book Seduction of The Innocnt at least in part on manipulated research data and his apparent agenda was personal aggrandizement.

The collapse of the comic industry was actually a double whammy, not a single blow from reformers.  The Senate sub-committee findings that led to the industry conceding to be monitored by the CCA may have been the final nail in the coffin for publishers who were just barely making a profit, but there were other problems with distribution.  One of the two biggest magazine distributors closed shop, which gave D.C. an immediate advantage, since they either co-owned or had an arrangement with their distributor allowing them monopolistic control over the competition.  Marvel got D.C.'s assistance, but had to cut back publication and reduce their remaining titles to bi-monthly.  It was lean times for Marvel from mid-'55 to the early 60's.

Sorry 'bout the length of this response, but it is a fascinating history when one digs into it a bit deeper. 

[fifties]

Gaines did not "invent" the horror comic; his "New Trend" books which were cover dated during 1950 came several years after the first horror comic, Eerie, published by Avon in 1947, and ACG's "Adventures into the Unknown, a year later.

And if you haven't already read this little discourse, here is another take on the good Doctor Wertham, enjoy!

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by fifties

[Jayman]

24 minutes ago, fifties said:

Gaines did not "invent" the horror comic; his "New Trend" books which were cover dated during 1950 came several years after the first horror comic, Eerie, published by Avon in 1947, and ACG's "Adventures into the Unknown, a year later.

And if you haven't already read this little discourse, here is another take on the good Doctor Wertham, enjoy!

 

Pretty neat. Who wrote this?

[fifties]

You'll notice that it says, "even now, nearly a half century later"; I believe it was written in the late '80's -  early '90's.  I got it from a collector with whom I had been buying crime comics from, located IIRC in Arizona.  I can't remember the comics newspaper we used to use before the internet, but that was the medium where I found him.  I don't have a clue as to who wrote the essay though.