 | Seduction of the Innocent is an influencial book by American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. Due to the publication of the book, a voluntary Comics Code Authority was established, bringing an end to the Golden Age of comic books. The book railed against depictions of sex, violence, drug use, and horror in comic books, that it was claimed were mainly read by children. And that such content was damaging and twisting their young minds. That they emulated the story-lines, leading them to act out the violence in the comic books in real life. The book didn't appear out of nowhere, it was the culmination of Wertham's moral crusade against comic books. And came out of a period of post-war moral panic about the state of America's youth. |
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.
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.
