What has gone wrong within the comic book industry and can it be
fixed? The rape and pillage, in the eyes of some, may have left
the comic book industry gasping for life support. It seems that
for an industry that has seen so much success, the history of
comic books, has apparently been confounded by seemingly dumb
mistakes.
The first could have very well been the coining of the name
"comic books". The earliest versions of the so-called half-tab
(for half tabloid) reprints of the Sunday funnies (the comics)
became known as "comic books". This led to the thinking in
general, that comic books contained comic or funny material,
which we all know, is a far stretch from reality. Comic books
can be very somber, dark or adventurous magazines. It has often
been suggested that there should be another term coined to
better describe this literary package we all know as comic
books. To date, no other user-friend term has been suggested for
use in the comic book industry.
A second misdirection came when magazine prices started to rise.
Instead of increasing comic book prices, like other successful
magazines did, the comic book industry decided to cut pages to
keep the then current price tag of 10 cents. This brought on the
impression that comic books were "cheap" by definition, and
neglected the fact that a dime was a lot of money at one time
(steak & eggs cost 35 cents). This presented the image that
comic books were just for kids. It also made the product
increasingly less viable for retail merchants to stock. Why take
up the same shelf space, when a higher priced magazine would do
more nicely. Again the perceived value of the comic book was
loosing credibility.
Then as the 1950s rolled around, an individual by the name of
Dr. Frederick Wertham, published a book entitled "Seduction of
the Innocents". Through the use of unscientific research and
assumptions, he stated that all the nation's ills were directly
related to kids reading comic books (ah hmm, what?). Central to
his thesis, was the misassumption that comic books were strictly
for kids. The more adult material, it was irrationally assumed,
was aimed at our sweet, naïve innocent children. Yes, we do have
to protect our children, but it still bothers me to no end, that
certain self-righteous individuals believe their lot in life is
to make the rest of the planet adhere to their own personal
beliefs. If this were the case, then our great country would
have never been founded.
With this wildly irrational attack on the comic book industry
and many congressional leaders jumping on the bandwagon, comic
books were gaining a bad reputation. The comic book industry
publishers at this point, could have banded together and
declared that comic books, like movies, were not "just for
kids". It should have been stated that the wide range of comic
book genres represented was target to as wide a range of
readers. All but one of the publishers (William Gaines,
publisher of EC Comics) buckled under to this Congressional
Investigation and the Comic Code Authority was created. This
governed the content of comic books and ensured that for the
next 15 years or so, the literary content would not rise much
above that of pablum for the mind. Therefore another slide into
incredibility for the comic book industry took place. Can the
comic book industry be saved? Very possibly, but when the
individuals in charge of the saving are as eager as ever to make
the same mistakes all over again, what will the outcome be? They
don't even appear to be cleaver enough to make new mistakes.
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