This pamphlet presents its case specifically against adventure strips and moronic creations parading un- der the banner of "comics." The case is against "so-called comics'" which fail to meet the wholesome standards of good recreational reading; it· is not a wholesale condemnation of "comics" per se. The fact still remains, however, that many parents. misled by the ring of the word "comics," are un- aware of the damage done by the moronic type. In view of this, we present Mr. Lynn's urgent plea to do something about the problem. If your school has a Parent-Teach- er group, you will want to make this pamphlet available to the organiza- tion. Copies will be sold below cost, at 3c each in lots of ten or more. Single copies 5c. Send Your Order to Catechetical Guild 128 E. 10th St., St. Paull, Minn. Oeactdtfted The Case Against The Comics A Study by Gabriel Lynn Catechetical Guild 1944 St. Paul Minnesota FOREWORD Parents concerned with the growing problem of juvenile delinquency might do well to give close scrutiny to a con- tributing factor found in nenrly every American home today-the misnamed comics and the multiple newspaper comic strips. In order to determine whether there is any correlation between juvenile delinquency and the comics an exhaus- tive study and analysis of 92 comic books and more than 1,000 newspaper comic strips was made. The facts and conclusions which fol- low in this CASE AGAINST THE COMICS are based on this survey and are of a nature to warrant the most thoughtful consideration of parents. The conclusions concerning the con- tent matter, the manner in which many of the comic books are merchandised and the organized campaign to lull the fears of parents and educators should be cause for judicious reflection. Gabriel Lynn I: Statement of the Case Against the Comics. Children. in increasing numbers, are arrest- ed by police and juvenile authorities for the theft of merchandise from markets and other retail establishments. These unhappy young- sters have not lacked expert schooling in the methods used in such circumstances. The technique is depicted regularly in the comic- strip adventures of master chiselers, swin- dlers, and ne'er-do-wells. Concerned observers are increasingly dis- tressed by the problem of scantily attired girls of high-school age. Perhaps they have been reading and studying a comic saga ade- quately summed up in the words of the gray- haired mistress of a band of sharpers: "Bring on the suckers!" The title page describes this charmer with the legend: "She's rough, tough and nasty!" In the 31 panels of the particular episode studied there is supplied a detailed description of the measures employed in swindling victims. This character poses with abandoned seductiveness to lure susceptible males with the brazen invitation of her exaggeratedly feminine body. She employs "spiritualism" to hoodwink deluded women. Only an attempted holdup by gangsters brings the police and lands her in a cell. Good has triumphed-but not too definitely. The concluding panel hastens to assure the reader that next month will bring more "thrilling adventures" with this so-called "heroine." 3 In spite of the ultimate victory over evil which is the standard formula employed in nearly all of the comic books, this conquest by good almost invariably is deferred until the final action. The preceding portions, making up most of the whole, are devoted to the depiction of horror, assault, thinly veiled seduction, mayhem, sadism, murder, and ex- tra-legal activities going counter to every basic principle of American liberty. The standards of thought and behavior en- countered in those portions in which the plot is unfolded are almost without excep- tion bad. Violence is glorified. In the 92 comic books included in this study, deeds of minor or major violence were found illus- trated in no fewer than 91 per cent! It must be emphasized that the one element which receives wholly disproportionate treatment in the comics is violence. Again and again scenes of physical assault, savage brutality, sadistic tortures are shown. Parents of young children have frequently been obliged to withhold comic books of this nature from youngsters whose nervous excite- ment was so great as to prevent sleep. In an effort to abate the alarm of parents, an argument is offered by one group of apolo- gists for the comics who declare: "Psycholo- gists point out that it is not the comics which create fear or distress, but rather the child's own neurotic fantasy which fastens upon the pictured people and creatures to objectify his 4 fears. A child who lies awake nights because of frightening stories, whether in comics or classics, presents special problems which call for careful consideration not in relation to his reading alone but to more fundamental emotional needs."* This statement receives little support from majority opinion. These unnamed psycholo- gists claim the problem is traceable to more "fundamental emotional needs"-not saying just what these needs are, and leaving un- developed the fact that every growing child presents an emotional problem. Consider the case of seven-year-old Helen whose mother hastened to her bed when she heard the child weeping hysterically and in a panic of fear. Helen had been poring over a horror comic book early in the evening, one in which a monstrosity had suddenly "grown" several heads and arms and hands and had proceeded, unaided, to capture a band of evil- doers after first subjecting these. criminals to savage physical assaults. ' When she quite naturally cried out and became fearful in the darkened room, she presented no "special problem." Her "fundamental emotional need" was only for parents wise enough to do what her parents did do: shut off the supply of comic books. It must further be recognized that the comic books in far too many instances are a menace to chastity, a fact equally applicable to many newspaper strips. There is a ten- ·Chlld Study, Summer, 1943. 5 dency to present female characters scantily attired and with their sexual characteristics emphasized to the extent of exaggeration. Male heroes are often clad in garments which stress their masculinity. Episodes abound in which relations between the sexes are given lewdly provocative treatment and there is often a furtively latent rather than overt suggestiveness which is extremely likely to stimulate unwholesome sexual curiosity in the young. There is an additional sexual menace in the frequency with which physically abnormal characters are presented. Such monstrosities and the unnatural situations in which they are depicted tend toward the development of an unhealthy mental state which is recog- nized as favorable to the growth of serious sexual disturbances. The behavior of these ab- normal persons- in the episodes in which are enacted the evil eventually to be overcome by good-tends to pervert moral character, thus providing fertile soil for the growth of sadistic and masochistic traits. Schrenck- Notzing coined the term "algolagnia" to de- scribe the connection between sexual excite- ment and pain. Dr. John Rathbone Oliver, associate in medicine on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, records his observation of the excited lustfully gloating intentness with which victims of algolagniacal urges watch any type of action, real or portrayed, in which pain is inflicted by one person upon another. While such discussions are properly 6 to be reserved for clinical circles, it is mani- fest that children should not be permitted to form reading habits which may with the passing of time develop into tragically serious conditions. A large number of the comic books depict the heroic adventures of one or more char- · acters whose philosophy may only be de- scribed as un-American and in a few in- stances, anarchistic. The vigilante spirit is rife in the comics: the gestapo method is glorified. A plot-pattern is used by many script- writers with a self-imposed mission to cor- rect injustices, to eradicate evil and its prac- titioners. Throughout subsequent episodes he will be shown ferreting out criminals, deter- mining their guilt, pronouncing judgment, in- flicting punishment-usually capital-upon them, all this without reference to due proc- esses of law. Always, in these sequences, the offenses committed by the malefactors are portrayed in such detail · as to constitute a veritable handbook of criminal tec~niques for impressionable young readers. An important part of what we proudly esteem as "The American Way" has to do with our lawfully established methods of dealing with lawbreakers. We set up and maintain police organizations;.prosecuting at- torneys, grand juries, judges and trial juries, and have created an elaborate series of safe- guards to assure that no man, however grave his offense, shall be tried, convicted, and pun- ished except by due process of law. Any lim- 7 itation placed upon these safeguards consti- tutes a threat to the perpetuation of Ameri- can liberties and represents a step toward the type of oppression of which Adolf Hitler stands as a current symbol. Of late, there has been a tendency on the part of comics to glorify characters who are engaged in crusading activities which infringe upon these liberties. Even harmless appear- ing child "commandos" act in the comics, as investigating police officers, as grand juries, as trial judges and juries, and, in certain in- stances, as jailers and even as executioners. The individuals upon whom all of these illegal attentions are visited are, of course, shown to be lawbreakers-but where in all the body of our laws is to be found provision for such action 'by volunteer vigilante groups working outside the regularly constituted agencies of law and order? Manifestly the ultimate result of a steady diet of such fare must be to condition the child mind for a philosophy akin to that fos- tered by the dictators. Certainly all of it is in conflict with the standards and principles of the United States and of our democratic form of government. It is one of the noble and inspiring tenets of our national creed that it is better that a hundred guilty persons should escape than that one innocent individ- ual should unjustly suffer-and to this prin- ciple the whole spirit of vigilante procedure is in opposition. The vigilante spirit is the mob spirit, the Ku-Klux spirit, the unleash- 8 ing of wild, unreasoning passions to deal with situations which call for the calm delibera- tion and impartial judgments which are pro- vided by our laws. It is a serious count in the indictment of the comic books and strips that they do vio- lence to this American principle. The sensa- tional exploits of individuals or groups en- gaged in executing masked and hooded jus- tice have proved profitable for the purveyors of comic books, but this fact remains un- shaken: No matter how despicable the vil- lains against whom this "justice" is aimed, no matter how triumphant the final defeat of vice by virtue, it is neither Christian nor American to permit the young to be taught in this way the pernicious totalitarian doctrine that the end justifies the means. This is, in a majority of all the instances studied in this survey, the principle upon which the creators of the comic-book characters operate, and it is a wicked fallacy toward whose exposure every generation of Americans from the time of George Washington has contributed, many with their lives. Another serious objection to many of the comics is that they depict characters and sit- uations which bear no practical relation to real life and real persons. The immature . mind, raptly following these fantastic adventures, becomes iII prepared for the realities of existence. The world of the comics is, in the main, an incredible world of make-believe, with heroes utterly heroic and villains unrelievedly villainous. In this respect the comics recognize but two tones: a spot- less white and an inky black. There are no grays. The effect of this upon the child mov- ing toward maturity must be damaging. One need not go beyond the newspaper comics to obtain corroboration of this. In real life, the "hero" of one particular strip would · rarely if ever be outside of jail. His activities, between amorous interluqes with waitresses and chorus girls, consist almost entirely of swindling operations of one variety or an- other. A feminine character in the same strip is regularly shown engaging in escapades suggestive of adultery. A recent chapter dealt with the reappearance of one of her former suitors who was promptly taken into her home as a "boarder," and the ensuing episodes could scarcely fail to suggest even to youthful readers that her relations with her returned admirer exceeded in intimacy the conventional landlady-boarder connection. The youthful brother of the "hero" in real life, would assuredly be a regular ward of the authorities dealing with juvenile delinquents, so lawless and antisocial are his exploits. No attempt is made by the artist or writer of this "comic" plot to suggest that this mis- behavior is anything but "smart," pr that retribution awaits the wrongdoer. It appears daily and Sunday in a large number of news- papers and also in comic-book format-eviI consistently "outsmarts" good. There is the further sexual danger in such 10 comic books that they condition the youthful reader for the openly salacious literature which has become so grave a menace to American youth. The youthful comic-book addict soon finds that he craves ever stronger and more vicious fare for his thrill-jaded ap- petite. Like the drug addict, he begins with the comparatively light dose afforded by cer- tain of the comics and then, after a condi- tioning interval, seeks more extreme material. He then becomes a ready "prospect" for the peddlers of the indescribably vile porno- graphic literature concerning the widespread sale of which Courtney Ryley Cooper h!l,s con- vincingly written in his invaluable book, Designs in Scarlet. Such vulgar books and pamphlets depict the men and women made popular in the regular comic books and strips as engaging in unspeakably obscene behavior. Mr. Cooper, an observer and investigator thoroughly hardened and "seasoned"-or so he believed himself to be at the outset of his investigations into this evil which covered a period of more than a year-found himself sickened by the widespread prevalence of this highly organized corruption of American youth. In roadhouses and other resorts where mere children nightly gathered to engage in forbidden drinking, improper dancing, and general dissipation, the peddlers of obscene literature were almost invariably present and active. Children do not walk until 'they have learned to crawl. Neither do adolescents 11 plunge abruptly into the slime of such de- praved pornography without having first un- dergone a term of conditioning in which they have been led, step by step, to the extremes which Mr. Cooper discovered. It must not be assumed that there is any intention here to hold the creators of the standard comic book and comic strip char- acters in any degree responsible for the vile productions of those who publish and dis- tribute the pornographic material herein described. But the unpleasant fact must be faced that in catering to the sensation-crav- ing tast es of youthful readers as they do in all too many instances in their books and strips, they contribute measurably toward conditioning a market for the filth-peddlers. n: What Do the Publishers of Comic Books Say in Defense of Their Product? The defensive campaign is conducted on two principal lines. The first of these is based upon a slogan of the comic book publishers, i.e., "Good triumphs over evil in the comics." The second line consists of variations on the theme that the comic book is here to stay, whether parents like it or riot; that it isn't really so bad, espe~iaIIy when compared with the penny-dreadfuls of an earlier age; that even if it does present certain undesirable aspects, it is nevertheless a force which must be reckoned with and endured because chil- dren insist upon its continuation. 12 This line of argument leads inevitably to some amazing conclusions. For example: in a survey entitled "Looking at the Comics," pre- pared by the Children's Book Committee of the Child Study Association, parents are warned not to prohibit reading of the . comic books by their children, as such interdiction "may only shake their confidence in our ability to 'understand'." Furthermore, this group cautions, "Prohibitions are likely to in- vite undercover reading, black market trad- ing, and other evils." And then, in a per- haps unintentionally revealing afterthought, the dictum follows: "All taste is a process of development of the crude to the more subtle forms." Here, surely, is great nonsense. Dangerous nonsense. Here, moreover, are half truths which demand close scrutiny and appraisal. Consider, for instance, the slogan, "Good tri- umphs over evil in the comics," already dis- cussed in the first section of this report. The evils over which final victory is gained are first depicted in the most graphic detail, with the result that youthful readers become fa- miliar with criminal techniques in every imaginable department of crime. In the 92 comic books which form the basis of the present study, I found 14 distinct techniques of murder, each shown in sufficient detail to leave nothing to the imagination. True, the murderer or murderers were in each instance brought to justice (more often than not by unlawful means!) but without erasing from 13 the mind the details of the crimes perpe· trated. Do children remember the ultimate triumph of good and forget the details of the evil? Here is a revealing light on this question, reported by a prominent state official who is the father of two small children less than ten years of age. This gentleman, hearing excited outcries from a group of children playing in his yard, went out to inquire into the cause. He found them dancing and 'shouting about one of their young playmates who had been fastened to a tree: he was the "bad man" in a scene they were re-enacting from one of the good-tri- umphs-over-evil comics. Lacking rope with which to bind the juvenile villain of their game, they had procured a wire clothesline ; when the official cited went over to unfasten the now terrified child, he found that his arms were already swelling from the tight ly wound wire which confined him. Only t his father's curiosity prevented serious conse- quences. On another occasion, reported in the newspapers, a small boy met death by hanging while trying to imitate the flying feats of a comic book hero. Do children relish the depiction of evil ' be- fore the eventual triumph of good? Not so generally as propagandists for the comic . books would have us believe. The state offi- cial mentioned above "eavesdropped" on his young daughter and a few of her playmates as they looked through a stack of comic 14 books, and was struck by their rejection of certain of these because "they show people all bloody," and was impressed by the com- ment of one little girl who remarked that "I can't sleep so good after I read that kind." Is it true, as the propagandists allege, that "children enjoy silly language" and that they find a certain pleasure in "words that are not 'refined'?" Is it true that even members of the youngest age group (under 12) demand blood-and-thunder and tales of horror? Here is an answer supplied by children of this group, as gleaned from their written statements, prepared without knowledge of the ,",se to which these statements were to be put. Cooperating with this survey, Sister Jane Frances of the Marquette (Michigan) paro- chial schools gave to a group of her pupils as an assignment in composition the problem of explaining in their own words what they liked-and what they did not like-in comic books. On one point, these children were unanimous: without exception they mentioned by name one or more of the animal char- acters of the comic books and strips-Donald Duck, Porky Pig, Bambi, and others. Else- where there was less unanimity of opinion. For example, 66 per cent specifically opposed "killing people," "too much shooting," "bad things that get you into trouble," etc. Nearly half (48 per cent) referred to the presence in the comics of unrealistic characters and ac- tions: "I don't 'believe some of it," "they don't have true pictures," "people couldn't do those 15 things," were observations noted among the comments . . Even after allowing for the probable desire of children to include comments likely to earn the approval of their teacher, the percentage of replies in which the words "right" and "good" and "bad" and "wrong" appeared is too great to be regarded as other than significant. Similar responses from non-parochial schools, would afford a basis for comparison between the reactions of children who do not receive systematic religious instruction and those who do. The conclusion drawn from this, in the light ot the comic book propagandists' assertion that children prefer violent action, "silly language," and the like, is that these are pre- ferred chiefly by those children who do not receive instruction and guidance designed to elimina te such preferences if they do indeed exist as claimed. These claims of the comic book propagan- dists find little or no support in the written works of such eminent psychologists and spe- cialists in child psychology as Dr. Carl R. Rogers (Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child), Dr. John Rathbone Oliver (Psychiatry and Mental Health), the Rev. Ioanne B. Fer- reres, S. J., the Rt. Rev. Louis J. Nau, Drs. Karl Menninger, Starch, Klapper, and others of equal standing. The persistence with which these assertions are made in written and oral defense of the 16 comics suggests that they x:nay have been de- vised to bewilder and even mislead parepts distressed by what they sense to be the men- ace inherent in many of the publications un- der consideration. Since the parroting of "silly language" and the imitating of swash- buckling, reckless action almost invariably follows the youthful perusal of the comics, the propagandists seek to allay parental concern over these manifestations by the assurance that they are "natural," that they are in effect a standard behavior pattern for chil~ dren, and that the comics, therefore, repre-, sent no new potential threat responsible for:. them. :-- Further to minimize adult concern, the comics are casually dismissed as "the Fred . Fearnots and the Frank MerriweUs of today." In other words. the same negative argument is employed: earlier generations had bad reading habits, is the implication, so do ,not be alarmed because the present generation also has; the modern super-hero is no worse than Frank Merriwell. So runs the appeal. It is a half truth. The whole truth is that only a minority of any of the earlier generations cited became addicted to the Frank Merriwells and other , unrealistic characters of the paper-back school of "dime novels." Moreover, compari- son of the Merriwell books with the average modern comic leads nowhere. The implausible Merriwell fought his battles on the baseball diamond, the football gridiron. and in other 17 such arenas. He did not engage in mass mur- der, in vigilante crusades against lawbreakers whose crimes were first described in informa- tive detail. He did not inculcate in his readers a habit of vulgar speech; indeed, the heroic Merriwell was a purist in speech. The choice of this character and the stacks of books re- cording his saga was an unfortunate one for the comic book propagandists. As for the argument that children must not be forbidden to purchase or read the comics lest we "shake their confidence in our ability to 'understand'," or for fear of inviting "undercover reading, black market trading, and other evils," little can be found to recommend this ·line of reasoning. If it were true, then parental bans on tobacco, narcotics, alcohol, and fornication might with equal wisdom and propriety be omitted. But it is not true. Most children between the ages of eight and fourteen- the group which the comic book publisher must enlist if his enterprise is to prosper- are not merely willing but eager to be guided by their parents' wisdom, so long as this wis- dom is imparted to them in an understanding and understandable way. A more careful, objective study by the "child psychologists" so often referred to by the comic book propagandists would have revealed the truism that young children tend to look upon their mothers and fathers as the very fountain- heads of wisdom; that they are anxious to gain parental approval; that most juvenile 18 misbehavior results from improper handling by parents rather than from an innate urge to misbehave or disobey in the child. That the comics constitute an actual men- ace rather than a force which is here to stay and which therefore must be tolerated by parents, is suggested by such an authority as Judge J. M. Braude, of the Chicago Boys' Court, a wise, experienced, understanding jurist who has handled thousands of youthful offenders. Judge Braude does not share the easy complacency of the apologists for the comic book publishers. He says: "As long as parents continue to let their youngsters read them just so long will comic books and newspaper strips continue to instill into children a distorted and depraved con- (1eption of the meaning of real life and liv- ing." "Distorted," "depraved" - severe words, these, but they represent the deliberate judg- ment of one who has for years dealt with the youthful victims of parental unwillingness to control the child's actions. Listing as "the motivating forces behind most juvenile and adolescent crimes" such factors as "improper literature, shady movies, 'he-man' radio thrillers, and the comics," Judge Braude blames these in turn upon "nagging or unin- terested parents," and asserts that they all flourish in one soil-"inadequate homes," and by this he does not limit himself to homes which are economically inadequate. Many parents have no idea of the danger- 19 ous influence of comic books. Perhaps the word comic has led them to believe that the subject matter of comic books is humorous and laugh provoking. Yet this is far from the truth for the word comic is a misnomer when applied to the adventures of mythical char- acters. It is hard to believe that a parent who hands a child a comic book would ever for a moment dream of permitting that child to associate with the character types portrayed in comic continuities. Without exception parents spend a great deal of time and go to much trouble to pro- tect their children from the harsh unpleasant realities of life. Yet the parent who hands a child an un- censored comic book is literally saying to that child: Meet these murderers, sadists and degenerates; observe and study how these inhuman monsters torture and kill their help- less victims; notice how inadequate the law enforcing authorities are in handling these criminals, and how necessary it is to set up illegal methods to bring about law and order. Sister Mary Clare, S. N. D., * has a reply ready for the propagandists who would like to induce parents to regard the comic book as a force which is here to stay. She says: "Decent living, God loving parents will not sit back complacently and let money-mad pagans carry moral disease germs into the souls of their children. Such parents will re- ·Comics. Our Sunday Visitor Press. Huntington, Ind .• 10c. 20 double their efforts to train their children in self-mastery and self-sacrifice, knowing that only through self-discipline can there be true freedom." Do the comic books, in fact, carry "moral disease germs into the souls of children?" gere are the findings. Ill: Analysis of Contents of Comic Books. The comic books employed in this study were selected indiscriminately from the total number available to children and others at newsstands and "drugstores." Altogether, a total of 92 were studied; in several instances these included one or two successive issues of the same book. In addition to these, more than 1,000 newspaper comic strips were analyzed. The latter represents 27 different strips ap- pearing during the months of August, Sep- tember, and October, 1943. The following are the principal objection- able features noted in t he material studied. It will be understood that if, for example, four major crimes are depicted in four sepa- rate panels of the same issue, these have been counted as four. MAJOR CRIMES DEPICTED-216 By this is meant 216 separate major fel- onies, depicted in greater or lesser detail, but in every instance included, in detail sufficient to afford at least a working knowledge of the technique employed by the criminal or criminals. 21 MINOR CRIMES DEPICTED-309 In this group are included actions depicted in which the offenses were less than felonious, i.e., misdemeanors as defined by the criminal codes of most states. ANTISOCIAL BEHA VIOR-271 Antisocial behavior, actions not in them- selves violations of either felony or misde- meanor statutes. Mere mischievous acts or annoying conduct are not included. PHYSICAL ASSAULTS-522 These include scenes in which acts of physical violence are performed upon human beings, with no obvious sadistic connotations but tending to glorify brute force, nearly all depicted with complete detail and an abun- dance of gore as the aftermath. LARCENIES-39 These represent individual panels or series of panels in which are shown the exact meth- od employed in carrying out various forms of larceny, ranging from shoplifting and pocket-picking to complicated confidence game swindles. SADISTIC ACTS--86 Included here are clearly defined acts of sadism, of a type clearly recognizable as such. Included are several (11) instances of whip- ping, revealed in its true light in Courtney Ryley Cooper's shocking expose, Designs in Scarlet, as a vice far more prevalent in modern America than Is suspected by most Americans. A typical sadistic per- formance included in this category: A 22 young girl is shown being beaten by a degen- erate who is clubbing her about the head with the butt of a revolver; one panel shows the girl in close-up, prostrate on the floor, one ear torn loose, her mouth an unrecognizable pulpy mass, blood pouring from her wounds. (After eight pages, Good Triumphs over Evil; a self appointed crusader shoots the degenerate; following this extra-legal retri- bution the police are notified.) VULGAR BEHAVIOR- 186 The greatest single source of examples for this classification was a particular strip in which, for the three-month period studied, not a single day failed to contain one or more examples of gross vulgarity. SUGGESTIVE ART-114 This ranges from the moderately sugges- tive to the patently pornographic, and ex- amples were especially noteworthy on the luridly colored covers of certain comic books. The suggestiveness commonly takes the form of scantily clad females, frequently shown in wantonly seductive postures. The female form is drawn so as to emphasize, often almost grotesquely, the breasts, hips, and legs of the subjects. Several of the newspaper strips offend in this particular. VULGAR SPEECH--49I This fault is widespread. Included as "vul- gar" are examples of words and phrases of underworld origin and use, and manufactured words intended to suggest commonly employ- ed profanity and blasphemy, such as "Judas 23 Priest," "gol dang," "jeez," and the like. GROSS GRAMMATICAL ABUSES-194 This classification is self-explanatory, ex- amples included being of the nature of "I seen," "I done," "He hain't," etc. ONOMATOPOEIA-362 These manufactured words include the usual specimens, "glunk," "zock," "pow," and the rest. PHYSICAL MONSTROSITIES-161 These present the total number of draw- ings of actual physical monstrosities, ranging from the merely grotesque to the revolting. FANTASTIC SITUATIONS AND ACTIONS-204 Included are scenes clearly divorced from any reasonable resemblance to reality-men walking up and down the sides of skyscrapers, holding a battleship up from the water, grow- ing twenty pairs of arms and hands and a dozen heads, etc. UN-AMERICAN, VIGILANTE ACTIVITIES-246 Those listed include the activities of self- appointed crusaders for righteousness, work- ing without knowledge of or association with the regularly constituted agencies of law en- forcement, presenting a picture wholly un- American in principle and practice. There are the facts as gleaned from the specimens included in this study. They sup- ply the evidence upon which The Case Against the Comics is based. 24 IV: Who Sponsors This Literary Diet for American Youth? Aside from the actual publishers of comic books, a new sponsorship for these publica- tions has been obtained by certain publishers who have established "advisory boards," con- sisting of men and women of high national repute. Such names as those of Mrs. Eleanor B. Roosevelt, Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Commander Gene Tunney, Dr. Allan Roy Da- foe, and others of equal renown are to be found in the various comic books, listed as members of an advisory board or committee, the implication being that the'se persons have placed the mark of their approval upon the contents of the book. A question of grave ethical import is raised by this practice. Aside from the fact that the name of Dr. Dafoe continued to appear after his death, there remain the living whose actual service in this connection may fairly be questioned. It appears to be beyond the limits of probability that such men as Rear Admiral Byrd and Commander Tunney, both officers in the armed forces of a nation engaged in war, could have any time to devote to a study of the material which is presented to the public with this suggested stamp of their approval and sponsorship. Publishers who employ this device do not make any specific statement to the effect that these advisory board members do per- 25 form any actual duties. The implication to troubled parents, however, is clear. Opening a comic book. finding the names of promi- nent men and women listed as members of the publisher's advisory board, these parents are quite likely to conclude: "This book must be all right, or such people wouldn't approve." Have they approved it? Have these edi- torial advisors. in fact, inspected the con- tents of the issues of comic books in which their names appear as a suggested pledge of good faith? These are Questions which may fairly be asked of the publishers employing this meth- od of sales promotion. If the method is to be employed reJ!ularly for the purpose of allaying the doubts of parents, would it not be reasonable to suggest that these lists of apparent sponsors be accompanied by a defi- nite statement as to the exact advisory duties performed by each member of the board? The use of "big names" in sales promotions is an old American custom. We have all read testimonials to a cigarette by some promi- nent man-who never smokes. We have seen the glowing laudation of ·a cosmetic by a socialite matroI). who has never in her life used the brand she has "endorsed." If the members of the advisory boards re- tained by comic-book publishers are actually performing a definite supervisory or advisory function, it should be so stated in clear English. If, on the other hand, names are used as mere window-dressing to lull parents into 26 an unwarranted sense of security concerning their child's reading, the practice should be discontinued. V: A Threat to the America of Tomorrow. The comic book plot pattern which appears with more frequency than any other deals with the adventures of a self-appointed cru- sader or liberator who undertakes, wholly on his own responsibility, to combat crime, evil, and international intrigue. He will be, this Whattaman, an incredibly powerful, superhumanly intelligent individual whose achievements will surpass anything ever accomplished by any known law-enforce- . ment agency. Alone and unaided he will dis- cover the identity of criminals, will pursue and capture them, will determine their in- nocence or guilt, pronounce judgment upon them and, in many instances, execute the sentence, often death. What of today's children whose minds are being conditioned by a regular diet of this type of adventure? Is it a training calculated to imbue these future citizens with respect for 'the slower methods of constitutional and statutory procedure? Are Whattaman ad- dicts likely to have patience with the dodder- ing oldsters who cling to the American con- ceptions of law and order and human liber- ties? Even juvenile characters in the comic books engage in un-American activities of 27 this nature. Fictitious "junior commando" groups bear a strong resemblance to the bands of child militarists in Nazi Germany. Impatience with the regular forces of govern- ment and law is the keynote in all of these features. One such little heroine couldn't wait for the Army and the Navy and the F.B.I. She and her "commandos" ferreted out the espionage gang; they discovered the hidden submarine nest; they imprisoned scores of Nazi spies, sailors, and soldiers; before the end they destroyed a fleet of submarines, snuffed out the lives of many enemy in- vaders-while carrying on, as an ennui-reliev- ing sideline, a municipal election campaign against political forces of evil. The appalling by-product is that it is teaching impressionable youngsters to hate, to hate savagely, and to applaud and emu- late those who would demonstrate that two wrongs make one right. Children all too soon mature, and if, upon reaching maturity, they are solicited to follow some leader who promises fast action against individuals and forces which he, the leader, declares to be evil, what reason, what hope is there to assume that they will not gladly enlist under his banner? It is not enough that good should triumph over evil. The triumph must be gained by lawful, American methods. In the study of the comic books upon which this report is based, there were discovered 246 un-American plots or episodes of a vigilante nature, a total 28 which indicates the extent to which the masked-and-hooded-Nstice falsity appeals to those who produce the features in which these were found. VI: Conclusion. The overall picture, no matter how persua- sively the comic book apologists may seek to minimize the objectionable features of their product, is a disheartening one. The actual figures, based upon a thorol!gh study of a representative collection of the books and strips, reveal the evil phases of this contemporary American menace to childhood. The books paint an unreal and unwhole- some world and fail miserably to prepare youthful readers for good living. Success, in the comics, is gained rapidly, in the grand manner, and often by questionable means. Long years of preparation for success, years of toil and application and frugality, the frustrations and obstacles of real life all are lightly passed over or ignored. The world of the comics is an unreal world. . It is, moreover, ' an almost totally irre- ligious world. Moral and Christian values are rarely to be found identified as such in the comics. Night clubs, gang hideouts, worldly scenes are to be seen with wearying fre- quency, but the church is practically never seen or referred to. The world of the comics is an irreligious world. It is, in the main, a Godless world. The editor of the NEW YORK SUN has 29 said: "The paganism of our times flows out of a general denial of all obligations save those of self-advantage." This is the out- standing theme of the overwhelming major- ity of comics: A general denial of all obliga- tions save those of self-advantage. The cure for this cancerous growth must be administered by three agencie's: Church, school and home. The urgings of those whose self-interest is involved may be disregarded. The services of law-enforcement agencies may be utilized only when the products of Church, school. and parental failure have been led into court. In count upon count in the indictment, we find evidences of the danger t o American children inherent in the comic books. They threaten the welfare of our boys and girls. This is the case against the comics. ao Timely Quotes Members of the American Association of University Women in Gary, Indiana, working with the schools, made a survey to find how widespread was the influence of the comics among school children. During the week of survey a committee questioned 696 grade school pupils with t he following findings: these children had read 915 books, of which 137 could be' termed "good." But, they had read a total of 2,370 comic magazines, or about 3.4 comic books per pupil. Thirty-five per cent had read nothing but comics! THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, Nov. 4, 1942. Comics Are No Longer Comic. By Margaret Frakes. Two factors have combined to skyrocket comics in the realm of big business: (1) the well-filled pockets of the nation's school child- ren; and (2) the war-developed soldier market. But children remain the best cus- tomers. A recent readership survey revealed that regular readers comprise 95% of the 8 to 11 age group; 84% of the 12 to 17 age group, and 35% of the 18 to 30 age group. After 30, comic-book publishers sadly confess, the urge for their product slackens off. Six thousand schools now use the comics as supplementary texts. NEWSWEEK, Dec. 27, 1943.-Escapist Pay- dirt. Seventy-five per cent of leisure-time read- ing of children in the 9-14 age group is spent on 125 different comic magazines, of which there are sold 180,000,000 a year. These facts were presented to three hundred thirty per- sons attending a children's Book Week lunch- eon in November, 1941, at the Hotel Roose- velt in New York City. The facts were com- piled by George J . Hecht, President and Pub- lisher of PARENTS MAGAZINE, who termed this form of reading a threat to character de- 31 velopment and called on publishers of child- ren's books to counteract the comics' effects. RECREATION, February, 1942. During a hearing on parole petitions, Crimi- nal Judge Charles W. Lusk of Chattanooga, Tenn., blamed the comic strips as one of the primary causes of crime. "I am fully con- vinced," he said, "that some of these strips based on disreputable, well-nigh criminal acts, are responsible for creating ideas in the minds of children," . . . The unfortunate influence of the comics on the youth of the country has either been ignored or deprecated in de- ference to their money-earning potentialities . . . . illtimately, the fate of both comic strips and comic magazines, must rest upon the action of the nation's parents. THE CATHOLIC WORLD, February, 1943. What's Wrong with the Comics? By Thomas F. Doyle. , The "comics" are a many-sided tragedy. The chief ill effects are mental and emotional; sometimes the harm is physical also. Instead of filling the children's minds with a balanced understanding of life-as-it-is and life-as-it- could and-should-be, the "comics" gear the kids to an impossible unrealistic, fantastic life. But the bad effect on the moral and religious life of the youngsters is something far worse. The "comic" books specialize these days in filling innocent minds and hearts with hate. Considering that the children in the lower grammar school grades are with their "comics" much more than with books proper for youngsters- and this goes for Catholic chlIdren as well as non-Catholic-what chance do Our Lord and His Gospel stand of becom- ing the dominant Person and the governing force in the lives of our boys and girls? OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, June 20, 1943. By Rev. Frank E. Gartland, C.S.C. 32 In presenting an unbiased case against the comics, it is only fair to state that there are some commend- able comics with genuine "kid ap- peal" or "adult appeal" -lamentably few and hopelessly outnumbered by those for which no practical justifi- cation may be advanced. Into the "kid appeal" category fall such strips as "Mickey Mouse," "The Teenie Weenies," "Peter Rab- bit," "U~cle Wiggly" and, generally speaking, all the animal comics. Into the "adult appeal" group fall "Little Lulu," "Blondie," "They'll Do It Ev- ery Time," and so on. But for adven- ture strips masquerading as "comics" and having only moron appeal there remain the incriminating words of the case against the comics. • 830115-001 830115-002 830115-003 830115-004 830115-005 830115-006 830115-007 830115-008 830115-009 830115-010 830115-011 830115-012 830115-013 830115-014 830115-015 830115-016 830115-017 830115-018 830115-019 830115-020 830115-021 830115-022 830115-023 830115-024 830115-025 830115-026 830115-027 830115-028 830115-029 830115-030 830115-031 830115-032 830115-033 830115-034 830115-035 830115-036