The Horror Shift: A Brief History Of Western Comic Books Part 2

The appeal of comic books in the Western world was among the most flexible of any storytelling medium thus far explored, with its action-packed content, brightly coloured panels and equally colourful satirical wit. This was particularly prevalent in the new and exciting world of Superheroes. Even with the lighthearted atmosphere that came so naturally to this brand new breed of fun-filled crime fighter, the satire-fueled storylines nevertheless continued. Frequently featuring depictions of Superheroes beating up Hitler, they became a patriotic morale-booster and a symbolic facet of the war effort.

Over time, however, the more sardonic side of comic-based storytelling began leading the medium down a darker route.

While images of Captain America clobbering Hitler was, initially, as heroic and satisfying to the readership as it was shocking, over time, some members of the comic book audience grew desensitised. As such, a collective longing for darker and more graphic themes began to arise.

Sensing the emerging gap in the market, Avon Publications produced Eerie in 1947. Although there is some debate on the subject, Eerie is widely considered to be the first Western Horror Comic, containing a full-length adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case Of Dr Jackyll & Mr Hyde, as well as original material produced specifically for the anthology’s release.

From here, the darker world of comics began to spiral, giving birth to an entirely separate branch of gore and horror-based material.

Throughout the 1950s, this new facet of comic books became increasingly more macabre. Comics such as EC’s Vault Of Horror and Harvey Publication’s Chamber Of Chills (two examples among many) turned heads and stomachs alike with their taboo-breaking concepts and shockingly graphic visuals.

These comics garnered so much attention that they eventually caught the eye of German-American psychiatrist, Fredric Wertham, who subsequently filed a scathing study in 1954. He titled his study Seduction Of The Innocent: the influence of comic books on today’s youth.

Seduction Of The Innocent discussed what Wertham believed to be the morbid influence of comic books on young people, exploring their depictions of drug use, criminal influences and hidden sexual themes. Wetharm described comics such as EC’s Eerie as causing “injury to the eye”, stating in his study that 95% of children in reform school read comic books, thus proving them to be a direct cause of juvenile delinquency.

It wasn’t just the horror and crime genres that fell under Wertham’s scrutiny but the world of Superheroes as well. Wertham argued that Batman and Robin were implied secret lovers and that Wonderman’s strength and independence was an explicit indication that she was a lesbian. With society’s demonisation of homosexuality at the time, this conjecture of Wertham’s was one of many to grab the world’s attention. Distracted by the then taboo, the question of validity behind these claims fell by the wayside.

Stan Lee of Marvel Comics would later recall: "[Wertham] said things that impressed the public, and it was like shouting ‘fire’ in a theatre. But there was little scientific validity to it. And yet because he had the name ‘doctor’ people took what he said seriously, and it started a whole crusade against comics."

The public was taken with Wertham’s arguments and before long, the US Senate Subcommittee Of Juvenile Delinquency was cracking the whip over the comic book industry, implying veiled threats of legal censorship. To quell the backlash, the comic book industry developed the Comic’s Code Authority with which to censor their own content.

This banned the production of violent artwork, taboo concepts and the use of words pertaining to violence, as well as dictating that the explicit punishment of all criminal and morally compromised characters must be depicted.

The knock-on effect was immediate, destroying the majority of EC’s titles and killing off the exploration of amoral concepts within comics, leaving readers with little more than a sterilised subset of Superheros as the chief presiding genre.

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