“Ooh, your kisses, sweeter than honey, and guess what? So is my money! All I want you to do for me is give it to me when you get home.” From Respect, written by Otis Redding.
Back in the day — it wasn’t that long ago — if an adult was spied reading comic books, that adult was perceived as a person of obviously low intelligence who was incapable of reading more sophisticated material popular at the time… like, say, the works of Jacqueline Susann.
You are likely familiar with the efforts of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, anti-comics crusader and author of Seduction of the Innocent which detailed a causal relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquency. That was a big deal back in the late 1940s through much of the 1950s, when parents started to dislike taking responsibility for the way they raise their children. Of course, by “detailed” I mean “made-up.” Fred later recanted and, of all things, promoted comics fandom as a positive force.
Comic book burnings were rather common, back at a time when you could still burn fallen leaves. In an attempt to survive, most publishers bundled themselves together in an organization called “The Comics Magazine Association of America,” and they issued a (then) strict code detailing what publishers can not do in their stories. It was as remarkably restrictive as it was completely silly. Even stories that first appeared in newspaper comic strip sections before millions and millions of family people were heavily censored when reprinted in comic book form. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Respect”
