In the mid-1950s, a moral panic set in among politicians and psychiatrists who were concerned that overly gory, violent, and sexually explicit comic books were a threat to children. The U.S. Senate held hearings on the subject, and medical experts warned about the influence of comic books, culminating in the 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Frederic Wertham. The industry in response created the Comics Code Authority, which policed and self-censored comic book content for decades.
Today, not only are comics not banned, but the Krueger Library has comic books in our Special Collections. Further, we have on our shelves bound compilations of formerly banned comics. Below I have the cover of Tain’t the Meat … It’s the Humanity! illustrated by Jack Davis with text by Albert Feldstein and others. The bound volume is a compilation of graphic narratives that were originally written for the Tales from the Crypt series. Neither that book nor our copy of Seduction of the Innocent is on the Krueger Library retention list.
The book that is on the Krueger Library retention list is a master’s thesis in education written by a WSU student back in 1957. It cited Dr. Wertham among others, and it concluded, based on the published literature of the time, that comic books in fact were dangerous and might lead to juvenile delinquency, which is not the consensus view among experts today.
Davis, Jack, et al. ’Tain’t the Meat--It’s the Humanity! And Other Stories. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2013.
Otterson, Sidney. A Study in the Relationship of the Comic Book to Juvenile Delinquency: A Research Paper Presented to the Graduate Council of Winona State College. Thesis (M.S.)--Winona State College, 1957.
Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.
(Note: The information regarding the historical context of this story was provided by Brian Ohm.)
In the mid-1950s, a moral panic set in among politicians and psychiatrists who were concerned that overly gory, violent, and sexually explicit comic books were a threat to children. The U.S. Senate held hearings on the subject, and medical experts warned about the influence of comic books, culminating in the 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Frederic Wertham. The industry in response created the Comics Code Authority, which policed and self-censored comic book content for decades.
Today, not only are comics not banned, but the Krueger Library has comic books in our Special Collections. Further, we have on our shelves bound compilations of formerly banned comics. Below I have the cover of Tain’t the Meat … It’s the Humanity! illustrated by Jack Davis with text by Albert Feldstein and others. The bound volume is a compilation of graphic narratives that were originally written for the Tales from the Crypt series. Neither that book nor our copy of Seduction of the Innocent is on the Krueger Library retention list.
The book that is on the Krueger Library retention list is a master’s thesis in education written by a WSU student back in 1957. It cited Dr. Wertham among others, and it concluded, based on the published literature of the time, that comic books in fact were dangerous and might lead to juvenile delinquency, which is not the consensus view among experts today.
Davis, Jack, et al. ’Tain’t the Meat--It’s the Humanity! And Other Stories. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2013.
Otterson, Sidney. A Study in the Relationship of the Comic Book to Juvenile Delinquency: A Research Paper Presented to the Graduate Council of Winona State College. Thesis (M.S.)--Winona State College, 1957.
Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.
(Note: The information regarding the historical context of this story was provided by Brian Ohm.)