Weird Retro Fact: Read about the equally bizarre Japanese Chuck Norris Action Sex Doll.

I first came across Tatsumi's work in the late 80s, with the publication of an anthology of some of his early work, Good-Bye And Other Stories (1988). The stories of the foibles of ordinary citizens living in the big cities of postwar Japan fascinated and enthralled me. Cramped living, the hustle and bustle of daily life on the streets, and how one person trapped in this "new" Japan can so easily get lost. How beneath the surface of saving-face and correct customs of behaviour, there was a quite corruption of the traditional way of life. How men who had been through the war in particular felt emasculated, out of place in an ever changing cityscape, lonely, emotionally detached and desperate for love and affection. It was these insightful works of Tatsumi that started my life-long interest in Japan, and in particular the hectic streets of growing Asian metropolises like Tokyo. The heart-wrenching stories life's daily grind were it turned out wonderfully rendered snippets of reality, as I would later discover for myself when I was fortunate enough to spend many years living South Korea and had the opportunity to visit Japan. 

Other influences that Moore brought to the work, were the dystopian novels of Orwell, Huxley also the Harlan Ellison short-stories "Repent, Harlequin!" Said The Ticktockman (1965) and The Prowler In The City At The Edge Of the World (1967). Also the character of V was loosely based on the character Night Raven, published by Marvel UK and illustrated by David Lloyd. The graphic novel was written and published during the Thatcherite political period of Cold War threat in the UK, which can be seen as an influence throughout the work. 

As with Moore's seminal work Watchmen from 1986, the plot is dense and complex. Full of clever cultural nods, wordplay and literary references. As with Watchmen, V For Vendetta took the humble comic book to a whole new level of serious adult literature. Spawning one of the most iconic cultural phenomena of the 21st century.

It was when the ring-wing Christian publishing firm Fleming H. Revell Company contacted him to work on and adaptation of pastor David Wilkerson's book,The Cross and the Switchblade (1962). The story of Wilkerson's ministry work in New York City, working with hoodlums and drug addicts. The book had already been made into a successful Christian exploitation movie in 1970, and the publishers wanted it turning into a comic book. The comic came out in 1972, but got into trouble with the Comics Code Authority. It wasn't that they had a problem with Christian propaganda damaging children, it was the references to drug use that broke their rules.

The first wholesome (as if Archie could get any more "wholesome") comic book to be created by Hartley and published by Spire was Archie's One Way. In the beginning of the story Archie and Jughead accidentally walk into a Christian discussion group being held in a coffee house when Jughead follows a sign promising free food. And that was it! Suckered in by a free feed, Archie and the gang were born-again and would pray, quote Bible verses and mull over moral issues for another 18 issues.

Back in the 80s and early 90s I was hooked on comic books. I spent hours flicking through racks of comic books of the local comic book store, silently ignoring the other geeks stood close-by doing the same thing. Hoping to grab that precious new addition to my collection before those losers spotted it before me. Filling in the gaps in collections, waiting for the latest edition to come out, buying multiple copies of the same comic. (The newsstand edition, the special edition cover, the other special edition cover, and one to actually read!!!) Then rushing home to carefully bag and board your ‘precious’ in specially acquired acid free protective shells, never to be opened, never to be read, hardly ever to be brought out into the light of day. I ended up with hundreds, if not thousands of comics over those heady days of manic collecting. Gradually I realized that the collection was taking up too much room, and that there was a lot of money wrapped up in those sealed-up plastic bags. I began to off-load them, selling them on to other collectors, part funding my eventual 9 months of travelling around South-East Asia in the mid-2000s. I did keep back a few very precious items that I just couldn’t bring myself to sell. I still have my original copies of 8-Ball, by Daniel Clowes, that have the serialization of Ghost World in them. Among a few other random comics, that I still can’t work out why I specifically decided to keep, but all the same I have moved-on from being a comic book geek. Or have I?

Now my love of comic books is expressed through digital acquisition of the rare and the weird. Now I can get my hands on comic books I probably never dreamed I would in their physical form. Wonderfully strange pre-code items, rare propaganda pieces, and knee-jerk reactionary public information releases only printed in small runs. I was digging through the Weird Retro archives, and realized I still have a lot of comic books. Even if they are in digital form now, they are just as precious as the bagged and boarded ones I kept under the stairs. Most of which have yet to see the digital light of day on Weird Retro, as I’m not always sure others share my obsessive love of these ephemeral things. However back in the early days of Weird Retro on facebook I did post a whole bunch of examples related to the theme of drug use, and the fears around the youth of America being sucked into this dark world. I was originally going to do a ‘From The Archives’ piece on the Captain’s Blog, but there were so many it became an article. 

Users Are Losers: A History Of Drugs In Comic Books - From the Weird Retro archive, a list of some of the best and worst of comic books about the dangers of drugs on the youth of America.

As far back as 1945, there had been a suggestion of the sidicious nature of comic books, in a Time magazine article entitled "Are Comic Books Fascist?" The moral panic over comic books really started to take a grip in 1948, when ABC Radio ran a debate called "What's Wrong with the Comics?" In the debate John Mason Brown, critic for the Saturday Review of Literature described comic books as, "the marijuana of the nursery; the bane of the bassinet; the horror of the house; the curse of the kids; and a threat to the future." At the same time, Wertham was regularly giving talks about the dangers of comic books, which eventually lead to the writing and publication of Seduction Of The Innocent. In he'd taken part in a symposium called "The Psychopathology of Comic Books", from which Time magazine later published an article of the same name. The panic grew over the next few years, with comic book burning and the establishment of committees to investigate the influence of comic books on society and the young.

The publication of the book and its subsequent fame made Wertham a cause celebre, giving expert testimony at a Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. The CCA voluntary code remained in place right up until the 2000s, until publishers started to break away from its restrictions, as many comic books and graphic novels became a accepted and recognised element of adult literature. 

Weird Retro Fact: In 1935 Wertham testified for the defense in the trial of the infamous serial killer and cannibal Albert Fish, declaring him insane. (It's claimed the the character of Hannibal Lecter from Silence Of The Lambs is loosely based on Fish.)

On the Weird Retro facebook page, there is an album of images named after Seduction Of The Innocent.