Happy National Comic Book Day!
The National Archives has a copy of issue #1 of MAD magazine. This copy of the famous comic book is a permanent federal record, and was submitted to a Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency as evidence of comics’ corrupting influence on young people.
For three days, experts testified on whether or not comic books were “printed poison” for young people. The hearings created so much bad press for the comics industry that it created the Comics Code Authority to self-regulate the content of the magazines.
Examples of the 1954 Code criteria include “Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader” and “Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.”
Mad? Lovers’ Lane? The Fighting American? What was (or is) your favorite comic book?
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Csodálatos történet. Azt eléggé bírom az amerikai kultúrában, ahogyan a rendszeresen jelentkező ordas hülyeségeket...
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