Word: comic-book
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...books by the publishers themselves. New York state decided that self-censorship is not enough. Last week Governor Averell Harriman signed into law a bill making it a crime (maximum penalty: $500 fine, one year in prison) to sell "obscene and objectionable comics" to minors, or to use such words as "crime, sex, horror, terror" in comic-book titles. The protests of comic-book publishers were joined by book and newspaper publishers; they pointed out that the wording of the law was subject to loose interpretation as to what is "objectionable." They also opposed even more strongly the part...
Next to newspapers, the best-read publications in the U.S. are comic books, the University of California's Bureau of Public Administration reported last week. Comic-book circulation exceeds a billion copies yearly, and the $100 million spent on them is 1) more than U.S. grade and high schools spend for books and 2) four times the book budgets of U.S. public libraries. Readers are not all children. Comic books are regularly read by 25% of high-school graduates, 16% of college graduates and 12% of U.S. teachers...
...Comics Magazine Association of America, created to combat public criticism of horror comics, last week announced its Comic Book Code, which will be enforced by Censor Charles F. Murphy, former New York City magistrate. Among the provisions: ¶ The words "horror" and "terror" are not permitted as comic-book titles, and no "scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism or masochism" are allowed. ¶ Sympathy for criminals, "unique details" of a crime, or any treatment that tends to "create disrespect for established authority" are banned. ¶ "Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, ridicule of racial or religious...
Clean Line. Last week the campaign was running so strong that in Manhattan one of the biggest horror-comic publishers announced he was stopping publication of the books in response "to appeals by American parents." Entertaining Comics Publisher William M. Gaines had been a star witness before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. He had insisted his comic-book cover of an ax-wielding man holding aloft the severed head of a blonde was "in good taste, [but] would be in bad taste if the head were held a little higher so the neck would show blood dripping out." Gaines...
...defense of the crime books. Publisher (Entertaining Comics Group) William Gaines opposed any censorship, on the ground that the publishers themselves are best qualified to decide what is "good taste." Tennessee's Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver drily asked whether Publisher Gaines considered "good taste" a comic-book cover showing an ax-wielding man holding aloft the severed head of a blonde. Answered Gaines: "Yes, I do-for the cover of a horror comic. I think it would be in bad taste if the head were held a little higher so the neck would show with the blood dripping...