What has gone wrong within the comic book industry and can it be fixed? The rape and pillage, in
the eyes of some, may have left the comic book industry gasping for life support. It seems that for
an industry that has seen so much success, the history of comic books, has apparently been
confounded by seemingly dumb mistakes.
The first could have very well been the coining of the name "comic books". The earliest versions
of the so-called half-tab (for half tabloid) reprints of the Sunday funnies (the comics) became
known as "comic books". This led to the thinking in general, that comic books contained comic or
funny material, which we all know, is a far stretch from reality. Comic books can be very somber,
dark or adventurous magazines. It has often been suggested that
there should be another term coined to better describe this literary package we all know as comic
books. To date, no other user-friend term has been suggested for use in the comic book
industry.
A second misdirection came when magazine prices started to rise. Instead of increasing comic book
prices, like other successful magazines did, the comic book industry decided to cut pages to keep
the then current price tag of 10 cents. This brought on the impression that comic books were "cheap"
by definition, and neglected the fact that a dime was a lot of money at one time (steak & eggs cost
35 cents). This presented the image that comic books were just
for kids. It also made the product increasingly less viable for retail merchants to stock. Why take
up the same shelf space, when a higher priced magazine would do more nicely. Again the perceived
value of the comic book was loosing credibility.
Then as the 1950s rolled around, an individual by the name of Dr. Frederick Wertham, published a
book entitled "Seduction of the Innocents". Through the use of unscientific research and
assumptions, he stated that all the nation's ills were directly related to kids reading comic books
(ah hmm, what?). Central to his thesis, was the misassumption that comic books were strictly for
ksids. The more adult material, it was irrationally assumed, was aimed at our sweet, nadve innocent
children. Yes, we do have to protect our children, but it still bothers me to no end, that certain
self-righteous individuals believe their lot in life is to make the rest of the planet adhere to
their own personal beliefs. If this were the case, then our great country would have never been
founded.
With this wildly irrational attack on the comic book industry and many congressional leaders
jumping on the bandwagon, comic books were gaining a bad reputation. The comic book industry
publishers at this point could have banded together and declared that comic books, like movies, were
not "just for kids". It should have been stated that the wide range of comic book genres represented
was target to as wide a range of readers. All but one of the publishers (William Gaines, publisher
of EC Comics) buckled under to this Congressional Investigation and the Comic Code Authority was
created. This governed the content of comic books and ensured that for the next 15 years or so, the
literary content would not rise much above that of pablum for the mind. Therefore another slide into
incredibility for the comic book industry took place. Can the comic book industry be saved? Very
possibly, but when
the individuals in charge of the saving are as eager as ever to make the same mistakes all over
again, what will the outcome be? They don't even appear to be cleaver enough to make new
mistakes.
