I missed this during Banned Books Week, but with Halloween and Bonfire Night around the corner, it still seems somewhat timely…
At Print magazine Michael Dooley looks back at the comic books featured in Fredric Wertham’s infamous 1954 book The Seduction of the Innocent: The Influence of Comic Books on Today’s Youth.
Part one deals with “subliminal nudity, women’s ‘headlights,’ and the fascism and homosexuality of DC superheroes.” Part two, as Dooley gleefully notes, delivers “pages of eye injuries, Nazi vampires and teenage dope fiends.”
Dooley makes it clear he wants to “bury Dr. Fredric Wertham,” so don’t expect a lot of context (if you want more to read more about it, pick up The Ten Cent Plague by David Hadju), but hell, it’s fun anyway.
‘An Uncensored Look at Banned Comics’, a full-length story on banned comics, will appear in Print‘s February 2014 issue.
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