Comics Code Authority - Wikipedia

The Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) was formed in September 1954 in response to a widespread public concern over graphic violence and horror imagery in comic books.[8] It named New York magistrate Charles F. Murphy (1920–1992), a specialist in juvenile delinquency, to head the organization and devise a self-policing "code of ethics and standards" for the industry.[8] He established the Comics Code Authority (CCA), basing its code upon the largely unenforced code drafted by the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers in 1948, which in turn had been modeled loosely after the 1940 Hollywood Production Code, also known as the "Hays Code".[9]

Before the CCA was adopted, some cities had already organized public burnings and bans on comic books.[10] The city councils of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Houston, Texas, passed ordinances banning crime and horror comics, although an attempt by Los Angeles County, California, was deemed unconstitutional by the courts.[8] In his introduction to Archie Americana Series Best of the Fifties, editor Victor Gorelick reminisced about the code, writing, "My first assignment, as a new art assistant, was to remove cleavages and lift up low cut blouses on Katy Keene."[11] He also wrote of Archie artist Harry Lucey that, "His sometimes suggestive storytelling–and he was one of the best–almost cost him his job. When his pencilled stories came in, the characters were dressed on one page only. A woman who was an inker, a woman, Terry Szenics, later had to draw clothes on the characters on the remaining pages."[12]

Although the CCA had no official control over the comics publishers, most distributors refused to carry comics that did not carry the seal.[13] However, two major publishers of comics–Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics–did not display the seal, because their output was subject to a higher authority: their licensors, which included Walt Disney and the producers of many TV shows aimed at children.[14]

Criticism and enforcement

Some publishers thrived under these restrictions, while others adapted by cancelling titles and focusing on code-approved content; still others went out of business. In practice, the negative effect of not having CCA approval was lack of distribution by the comic book wholesalers, who, as one historian observed, "served as the enforcement arm of the Comics Code Authority by agreeing to handle only those comics with the seal."[15]

Publisher William Gaines believed that clauses forbidding the words "crime", "horror", and "terror" in comic book titles had been deliberately aimed at his own best-selling titles Crime SuspenStories, The Vault of Horror, and Tales from the Crypt.[16][17]

Wertham dismissed the code as an inadequate half-measure.[18] Comics analyst Scott McCloud, on the other hand, later commented that it was as if, in drawing up the code, "the list of requirements a film needs to receive a G rating was doubled, and there were no other acceptable ratings!"[19]

"Judgment Day"

In one early confrontation between a comic-book publisher and the code authorities, EC Comics' William Gaines reprinted the story "Judgment Day", from the pre-code Weird Fantasy #18 (April 1953), in Incredible Science Fiction #33 (February 1956).[20] The reprint was a replacement for the Code-rejected story "An Eye for an Eye", drawn by Angelo Torres,[21] though "Judgment Day" was itself also objected to because of the central character being black, despite there being nothing in the Code prohibiting a black protagonist.[20] The story, by writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Orlando,[21] was an allegory against racial prejudice, a point that was necessarily nullified if the lead character was not black.[20] After an order by code administrator Charles Murphy to change the final panel, which depicted a black astronaut, Gaines engaged in a heated dispute with Murphy.[22] He threatened to inform the press of Murphy's objection to the story if they did not give the issue the Code Seal, causing Murphy to reverse his initial decision and allow the story to run. Soon after, however, facing the severe restrictions placed upon his comics by the CCA, and with his "New Direction" titles floundering, Gaines quit publishing comic books to concentrate on Mad.[20]