Canada Censors Cartoons

While everyone is getting on their high horse about censorship and freedom of speech over the issue of the Danish Cartoons, and I plead guilty, lets look at the fact that in Canada in the Criminal Code cartoons are banned as well. Yep. In particular Crime Comics. By name.

Now these are particular comics that existed during the forties and fifties and were published without the censors seal of the Comics Code Authority on them. They were lurid graphic comics about crime.

Prior to the CCA most crime comics were just as lurid and usually depicted cops being killed by bad guys. The CCA then banned that kind of depiciton . But some comics like the EC series run by Mad Magazine of horror, science fiction and crime comics refused to be censored.

While the comic industry in the U.S. engaged in self censorship the Grundy's in Canada made the publication of crime comics illegal. And they still are. So are horror comics. And sex comics. And horror sex comics. Yet we see them in most comic stores.

So whatcha gonna do about it. This law is so out of date its like one of the mangled corpses that comes back to life in an EC comic.



Offences Tending to Corrupt Morals

Corrupting morals


163. (1) Every one commits an offence who

(b) makes, prints, publishes, distributes, sells or has in his possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation a crime comic.

Definition of “crime comic”

(7) In this section, “crime comic” means a magazine, periodical or book that exclusively or substantially comprises matter depicting pictorially

(a) the commission of crimes, real or fictitious; or

(b) events connected with the commission of crimes, real or fictitious, whether occurring before or after the commission of the crime.

The Dark Age of the Justice Society of America

All-Star Comics #57 not only marked the end of the original run of the Justice Society of America, for many it marks the end of the Golden Age. Many would end the Golden Age with World War II, others at some point in the late Forties, but, regardless, it was quite clearly the end of an era. After all, the Justice Society of America had been one of the last remaining superhero titles from the Golden Age. In the early Fifties the comic book industry would be dominated by other genres. Science fiction, horror, western, and romance comic books could be found on newstands everywhere. Perhaps the two most popular genres at the time were crime and horror. Lev Gleason' Crime Does Not Pay had debuted in 1942 and proven to be a great success. In the late Forties several other companies followed Gleason's lead and produced their own crime comic books. Horror comics appeared on the scene in the late Forties. Among the most popular titles in the genre were those published by E. C. Comics, a relative latecomer to the field. Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, and The Vault of Horror were among the best sellers in the industry. Indeed, they would become classics in the medium, inspiring not only a generation of young comic book artists and writers, but novelists and film makers as well.

It seemed that the day of the superhero was past. In 1954 Atlas Comics (formerly Timely Comics) tried to revive their superhero line. Unfortunately their revivals of Captain America, The Human Torch, and The Sub-Mariner failed--Sub-Mariner Comics lasted the longest, at nine issues. Charlton Comics' attempt to revive Fox Feature Syndicate's flagship superhero, the Blue Beetle, in the pages of Space Adventures also met with failure. Superheroes were passé or so it seemed.

Unfortunately for the comic book industry, it might have been better had they stood by the superheroes of old. Since 1947 comic books had been increasingly coming under attack in newspaper editorials and magazine articles. Many people believed that they had a deleterious effect on youth and some even believed that they led to juvenile delinquency. As hard as it is to believe today, some areas even held comic book burnings. Foremost among the industry's critics was Dr. Frederic Wertham, a noted author and at one time the senior psychiatrist at Belleview. Beginning in the Forties Wertham wrote several articles attacking comic books and in 1954 published a book on the subject, Seduction of the Innocent.

Contrary to popular belief, Wertham's primary target was not the horror comic books of the era. Dr. Wertham was much more concerned about crime comic books, although he included a large number of genres under the heading of "crime (including science fiction and horror)." Nor did he single out E. C. Comics in his attacks, though they were one of his favourite targets. In fact, the company whose comic books Wertham cited most often in his works was Fox Features Syndicate, the notorious publisher of sensationalistic and often graphic crime and jungle comic books (who, ironically, had gone out of business in 1950).

Regardless, neither Wertham's articles nor his book, Seduction of the Innocent, were hardly based on sound scientific principles. His conclusions were based primarily on his work with juvenile delinquents and contained no empirical evidence of comic books' effects on normal children. Seduction of the Innocent, in particular, is filled with a priori assumptions, conclusions based on guilt by association, and interpreting material out of context. Despite the fact that Seduction of the Innocent offered no real evidence for the harmful effects comic books supposedly had on children, the book severely damaged the industry. What had once been mere public outcry against violence in comic books soon became all out war against the comic book industry. The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, headed by Estes Kefauver, would even investigate comic books to see if there was a link between them and juvenile delinquency.

The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency regarding comic books ended inconclusively and, contrary to what many believe now, there appears to have been no real threat of government intervention in the comic book industry. Even in the absence of government intervention, however, the comic book industry perceived its existence as being threatened. In October 1954 several major publishers joined together to create the Comics Code Authority. The publishers referred to the Comics Code as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media (sic)." With the Comics Code in effect, most comic books became very squeaky clean affairs, with an absolute minimum of violence and absolutely no sex (not that there ever had been any to begin with). Perhaps as a result, comic book sales plummeted to all time lows.

Another EC classic from artist Johnny Craig. This controversial cover holds a special place in the history of the formation of the Comics Code. I've borrowed the following commentary from Richard Wolfe's excellent crime comic cover website- Crimeboss

[This cover] wins the contest for "most notorious cover illustration" hands down. When the Senate Committe of the Judiciary to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency began hearings in New York City in 1954, this particular cover caught the eye of Senator Estes Kefauver. William Gaines, the publisher of E.C. Comics, was put in the awkward position of having to defend the cover:

"Here is your May issue. This seems to be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman's head up, which has been severed from her body. Do you think that's in good taste?" asked Kefauver.
"Yes, sir, I do...for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that blood could be seen dripping from it, and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody," replied Gaines.
"You've got blood coming out of her mouth."
"A little."

By the end of the day, William Gaines had achieved nationwide notoriety and crime comics had been pronounced guilty of corrupting the youth of America.

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Canada
Criminal Code
Crime Comics
Comics
Censorship