Set Description
This set contains comics that are documented in one or more of the comic censorship books, pamphlets, magazine articles or legislative hearings from the late 1940s and early 1950s such as Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent (SOTI)”, Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure (POP)”, Gershon Legman’s “Love & Death (L&D)”, the 1950s New York State Legislative reports, and the 1954 US Senate report. For each comic I will include a description of why the comic was noted and a scan of the cover as well as scan of the objectionable material from the comic.
Set Goals
To assemble a comprehensive collection of comics documented in one or more of the comic censorship reference materials from the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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| Family Circle 2/1949 | Universal |
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Superman #49 is one of the comics shown in the picture of three boys reading comics that accompanied the story “What Can You Do About Comics?” published in the February 1949 issue of Family Circle Magazine. It is the top comic on the pile located on the ground between the two boys.
The 1949 magazine story, written by Professor Harvey Zorbaugh and Mildred Gilman, describes the conflicting messages experts give parents on the harms and benefits of comics. Rather than relying on experts, the piece advocates for parents to form their own opinion by reading and discussing comics with their children.
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| Fredric Wertham Picture | Universal |
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Following the implementation of the comic code in 1954, E.C. Comics introduced the magazine “Shock Illustrated” in October 1955. Described as “picto-fiction”, Shock Illustrated was an attempt by E.C. to recapture the audience that had been reading its highly popular horror and crime comics that were now banned by the comic code. Other magazines in the picto-fiction series included Terror Illustrated, Crime Illustrated, and Confessions Illustrated.
Fredrick Wertham, author of the “Seduction of the Innocent” and godfather of the comic book censorship movement, was keeping a watchful eye on comic book publishers and was pictured skeptically reviewing E.C.’s first issue of Shock Illustrated. The series did not prove to be popular and had a short run of just three issues.
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| Hendrickson & Fitzpatrick Picture | Universal |
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Hand of Fate #18 is featured on a poster board prop used in the 1954 U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings exploring the link between comics and juvenile delinquency.
The poster board, displaying 24 comics of the “Crime, Horror & Weird Variety”, appears in a picture with Senator Robert C. Hendrickson (Chairman of the Senate subcommittee). Standing alongside Senator Hendrickson is New York State Assemblyman James A. Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick chaired a similar juvenile delinquency subcommittee of the New York State Legislature. The cover of Hand of Fate #18 is located on the poster board at row 2, 5th in from the left.
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| Love & Death | All-American Western 103 |
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All-American Western #103 appears in Gershon Legman’s “Love & Death” (L&D) in the text on page 36.
On page 36, Legman is describing the proliferation of crime based comic book titles and mentions that publishers have resorted to disguising the ever increasing number of crime based comics and includes All-American Western #103 as one of those disguised titles.
All-American Western #103 was the inaugural issue of this title as it was formerly the superhero based All-American comic and Legman identified this renaming as a means of disguising the switch to another crime based comic.
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| Love & Death | Universal |
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Fight Comics #48 appears in Gershon Legman’s “Love & Death” (L&D) in the text on page 48.
Legman criticizes comic books for their use of inappropriate sexual symbols and uses an example from Fight Comics to illustrate his point “As to this enormous use of sexual symbols in comic books it is almost useless to speak, except to mention that it is a predictable enough result of censorship: the whales rushing up between the legs of women who go out to fish for minnows (Jumbo Comics #94), the rhinoceros with double horns on his nose coming up at a six-year old girl-child in the crotch (Fight Comics #48)”.
Legman’s rhinoceros horn sexual symbol referenced is taken from the splash page panel of the story “Tiger Girl” contained in Fight Comics #48.
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| Love & Death | Universal |
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Jeanie #16 appears in Gershon Legman’s “Love & Death” (L&D) in the text on pages 47-48.
Legman is critical of comics targeted at teenage girls and uses an example from Jeanie #16 to make his point: “And so there are published not only a handful of female crime and western comics, but whole series of so called teenage comic-books specifically for girls, in which adolescent sexuality is achieved in sadistic disguise, without father-daughter incest, without intercourse, without petting, without even a single kiss, through a continuous humiliation of scarecrow fathers and transvestist boyfriends by ravishingly pretty girls, beating up the men with flowerpots and clocks and brooms, wearing their clothes, throwing them out of windows, setting them on fire, pulling out their teeth with plies, smashing them in the face with flatirons, and breaking bottles of ketchup over their heads so as not to deprive young readers of the sight of something that at least looks like blood. (With the exception of the standard ketchup trick, all of these are from a single teenage comic, Jeanie #16.)”
I have included a scan of Jeanie pulling teeth with pliers as described by Legman.
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| Love & Death | Universal |
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Jumbo Comics #94 appears in Gershon Legman’s “Love & Death” (L&D) in the text on page 48.
On page 48, Legman references a panel from Jumbo Comics #94 for its sexual symbolism “As to this enormous use of sexual symbols in comic-books it is almost useless to speak, except to mention that it is a predictable enough result of censorship: the whales rushing up between the legs of women who go out fishing for minnows (Jumbo Comics #94)”.
The references to whales between the legs of women comes from a panel in the story “The Hawk” contained in Jumbo Comics #94.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Action Comics 168 Universal |
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Action Comics #168 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 90. In this section of the POP, Wagner dissects the character flaws of various superheroes and the worlds in which they inhabit. He notes the absence, or incompetence, of police in many of the superhero comics and uses Action Comics issues #168 and #176 to illustrate his point. In addition to Superman, he references excerpts from storylines starring the character Vigilante (the alter ego of Greg Sanders a western singer and songwriter that takes up guns to avenge his father’s death by the hand of bandits) that are contained in Action Comics.
He describes Vigilante as follows: “The last story in Action Comics number 176, by the way, is called ‘Vigilante’ and features a hero of this name and type in the usual Western extravaganza. With lariat and pistol ‘Vig’ accounts for literally scores of villains in the bloodbath of each issue, and in these stories the police seldom put in an appearance at all. Recently, however, Sup’ has been toning down his activities somewhat and Vig has followed suit; in Action Comics no 168 the former dealt solely with animals, while the latter did his shooting on a target-range.”
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
5.5
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| Parade of Pleasure | Adventure Comics 189 Universal |
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The cover of Adventure Comics #189 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) as a full page black and white illustration. In addition, the cover is referenced in full color on the POP dust jacket (more specifically 4th row from the top, 4th comic in from the left). For additional reference, I have included a scan of the interior black and white cover illustration of Adventure Comics #189 contained in POP. Please note Wagner’s incorrect captioning of the illustration as he refers to Superboy being Superman’s brother.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Atomic War! 4 |
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Atomic War! #4 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 96 and as a color picture on the dust jacket cover (bottom row, 2nd from the left).
On pages 95-96 Wagner, in context to how Russians are portrayed in war comics, describes Atomic War #4 as follows “Total war is assumed. Geneva Conventions go by the board. No prisoners are taken by either side, unless to be tortured (only by Russians, in this case). Poison gas, flame-throwers, and atomic bombs are frequently employed by both sides. One war-comic I have before me is called Atomic War and shows a jet plane delivering a bomb, marked ‘New Year Greeting 1961’ while from the cockpit emerges the balloon ‘When this NEW guided missile hits the Kremlin, those Russkies will really have a hot time!’
I have included a scan of the title page from the “Arctic Assault” story to give a flavor of how atomic war is depicted in war comics from the early 1950s.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Batman #74 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 90.
On page 90, Wagner describes Batman as follows “Batman is another of these Fuhrer incarnations, hooded, begauntleted with a strong right in place of the normal processes of the law. However, I did notice that in his swank Gotham City apartment he is undemocratic enough to employ a butler. He has a young and adoring help, called Robin, and his enemy is again often the intellectual. In Batman no 74 he has three villains to cope with, all of them brainy, and the first, called ‘The Joker’, ends up in a padded cell, the proper place, presumably, in the universe for those who think. As Batman dives on his second victim in the final act of ‘justice’, he tells him that none may escape Batman’s law – and delivers a haymaker with his left.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Battle Action #5 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on pages 93-94.
One of Wagner’s chief complaints with war comics is the way they misrepresent how modern warfare is conducted and he uses Battle Action #5 to provide several examples - “In my experience the Army is a corporate affair, achieving its major successes through obedience to discipline. The war-comic, however, shows the individual running the war, generals accepting plasy-walsy advice from enlisted men, and it concentrates on the more awful moments of combat in well-nigh hilarious terms. So Battle Brady, an heroic G.I., the central figure in Battle Action, continually wins the Korean war alone. More, he virtually created the war – ‘The fighting in Korea was just a police action… but when Battle Brady and Sgt. Socko Swenski got there it became a Real War!’ ‘BRAC! CAK! CAK! VOOM! WA-BRUM-BA!’ are the opening ‘words’ of Battle Action no 5 with Pvt ‘Battle’ Brady rain’ to go. Battle, in fact, dotes on action, in a way I have seldom, in real life, been privileged to observe in a human being, who usually rather enjoys hanging on the existence. ‘Hooray for the Brooklyn Dodgers!’ he yells as he plunges his bayonet hilt-deep in het another red.’
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Battle Action #12 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) as a full color illustration on the dust jacket. The upper left corner of the comic can be seen on the front cover of the dust jacket on the bottom row of comics to the far right.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Battle Brady #11 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 95 and both color and black and white illustrations.
The cover of Battle Brady #11 is printed in black and white as an interior illustration and in full color on the POP dust jacket (more specifically 3rd row from the top, 1st comic in from the left).
On page 95, Wagner describes a story from Battle Brady #11 as follows “Short-skirted women, like the recurrent Yalu River Rosie, constantly appear, usually as commie agents. Battle Brady no 11, decorated with a cover of a GI bayoneting two reds at a time (‘Heads up, commies! It’ll only hurt a minute!’), has a concluding yarn in which six girls, all reds, appear, all showing their knees, and most of them most of their thighs. This story involves the search for an enemy ‘intelligence’ agent call Manchuria Mary. She is caught, but only after she has KO’ed two GIs and been seen bathing nude in a pool.”
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Beyond #18 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 81-82.
Wagner describes Beyond #18 as follows “These crime-terror booklets, seemingly on the increase, show a monstrous reiteration of the morbid, of tombs, electric chairs, mortuaries, surgeries, and so forth. Take The BEYOND no 18: its first story tells of a girl who tries to murder her husband, only to find him turn into a phoenix which finally burns her in its embrace… The second is a welter of murders committed by a ‘ghost’. The third concerns a man who finds a severed hand in a Ming dynasty box. This hand steals his girl-friend in a fine scene and eventually strangles the man himself while he is in a strait-jacket in a lunatic asylum… The fourth story starts off with a man dying in the electric chair, but he proves unkillable and returns to life to run a gang of crooks in a city where the police are powerless to stop him with mere bullets. In the end his body decays, rather contradictorily, and ‘Jules Scholler dragged his rotting body to the dump. There, amidst the burning garbage, he committed his tortured soul to the flames.’
As described by Wagner, I have included a scan of the panel of Jules Scholler committing his rotting body to the dump.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Blackhawk 61 |
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Blackhawk #61 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 91-92.
Wagner identifies Blackhawk as a form of politically extreme comic book and, while not named, references the story “Stalin’s Ambassador of Murder”, contained in Blackhawk #61, to illustrate his point. He describes the story as follows “A typical issue, then, no 61, finds the gang up against ‘a horror so simple, so fiendishly ingenious that it walks besides you and me on the street, and we cannot recognize it’. What else could this be but American Communism? The first picture sets the tone; it shows the boys busting in the platform of commie speakers … and Blackhawk himself smacking open the jaw of one of the offenders concerned”. Wagner goes on to describe additional story elements from Blackhawk 61 that he views as politically extreme.
I have provided a scan of the title page to “Stalin’s Ambassador of Murder” for additional reference.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Classics Illustrated #89 featuring Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) with a full page black and white illustration of the comic’s cover with the caption “Pictures from a typical classic-comic”.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Classics Illustrated 128 |
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Classics Illustrated #128 featuring Macbeth is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 102.
Wagner believed that educational comics, such as Classics Illustrated, had done little to improve the comic genre and often overemphasized violence. For example, on page 102, he described the stories of Hamlet and Macbeth as depicted in Classics Illustrated as follows “In Hamlet, for instance, I noticed that of the forty-four pages nine were of the ghost scene, while eight more were of direct physical combat (Hamlet himself goes about most of the time with a drawn sword). Six pictures show Ophelia slowly drowning. Hamlet, however did not seem to be, in text, quite so strictly corrected as Macbeth, the ‘classic’ (in all senses) comic of which Punch made so much”.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Combat Casey #8 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 94.
On page 94, Wagner describes the unrealistic portrayal of war in comic books and provides an example from Combat Casey #8 “A favourite, recurrent, screamingly funny joke is for two commie soldiers to make simultaneous bayonet lunges at the grinning GI hero (‘I’m surrounded,’ he winks at us), who then ducks, with the result that the commies kill each other. Even on the most bathetic of crass Hollywood screens this sort of thing would seem rather stiff, but, believe it or not, I found this identical situation recently in two contemporaneous war-comics, Combat Casey no 8 and Combat Kelly no 11.
Wagner’s example from Combat Casey no 8 comes from the story “Slam into Combat on the Side of Combat Casey” where Casey and his fellow GI Penny do indeed duck in the nick of time.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Crime Exposed #13 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 80.
On page 80, Wagner describes several crime based comic books and summarizes Crime Exposed #13 as follows “Crime exposed no 13 (how hypocritical can these titles get, by the way?), with the cover of another bosomy beauty in the grip of a killer, has twenty-six ‘acts of violence’ (actual shots gone home, or blows delivered) in twenty-one pages of pictures: ‘UNGHH!’ or ‘AGHRRR!’ or ‘UGHHH!’ or again ‘EEEAGHH!’ describe the victims various reactions, while the attitude of the police is typified by the following invitations put into the mouths by officers of the law, ‘Come here, Punk’ and ‘Cut out the tough act, or I’ll clout you one’.”
The story with the expressive victim sound effects is “The Hidden Man” and the unbecoming police officer dialogue is from the story “The Cat’s Paw!” both of which are from Crime Exposed #13. I have included a scan of the page with the police officer dialogue as described by Wagner.
Note that Overstreet lists Crime Exposed #13 used in POP on page 81 but its actually page 80.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Crime Must Lose #11 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 89.
On page 89 Wagner is providing examples of how comics don’t appreciate brainy stories or characters and describes Crime Must Lose #11 as follows “In Crime Must Lose no 11, as a matter of fact, there is a crime-character ironically nicknamed ‘Brains’; he crushes his chief rival under a lead chandelier with a splash (he himself, however, is mown down with a tommy-gun by his victim’s busty blonde sister in the next picture).
The scene Wagner describes comes from the story “Mob Rule!” featuring Pete “Monster” Malkins and Henry “Brains” Benedict.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Famous Funnies #204 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 79 and 99.
On page 79, Wagner describes the cover as follows “Famous Funnies no 204 has a picture of reds being burnt alive by napalm bombs”. On page 99 he again references the issue “In Famous Funnies no 204 there is a quite detailed, near-pathological whipping of a coloured man by a brawny, bosomy girl Queen.” In this instance, Wagner is referring to the story “Tom Terriss the Vagabond Adventurer and the Queen of Tuareg”. I have included a scan of the cover page from this story showing the Queen with her whip.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Fight Against Crime 15 |
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Fight Against Crime #15 is depicted in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) as both black & white, and color illustrations.
An interior page of POP contains a black and white illustration of the cover of Fight Against Crime #15. The black & white illustration appears alongside other comic covers with the caption “Crime and politics go side by side in some typical crime and superman-comics”.
The color illustration of the cover of Fight Against Crime #15 is located on the POP dust jacket. Its located in the 2nd row of comics 3rd in from the left.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Fight Comics #78 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 99.
On page 99 Wagner narrates several jungle girl themed stories and uses a Tiger Girl storied contained in Fight Comics #78 as one his examples. He describes the story as follows “Tiger Girl, in Fight Comics no 78, is thrown to crocodiles (these ‘crocs’ again – this time they end up fighting each other for her!), and, when saved, metes out justice to mere males with a ferocious bull whip – ‘Then the fury song of that singing whip…’”.
I have included a scan of the page that contains the panel with Tiger Girl’s singing whip.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Jungle Comics #143 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 99. On page 99, Wagner is comparing the similarities between various jungle based comic books and describes Jungle Comics #143 as follows “In Jungle Comics no 143 Kaanga’s mate is being tied up once more. She is abducted on a zebra by a hulking character in a T-shirt, resembling an ex-pug, and well and truly roped up. ‘I’ll be killed,’ she says as she squirms seductively in her bonds, ‘ripped to pieces by apes!’ Actually, the reverse is what happens in this kind of comic. Animals are no match for these Wonder Women.”
The panels referenced by Wagner coming from the opening story Kaanga story “The Moon’s of Devil Drums” contained in Jungle Comics #143. I have included a scan of the page with the panel of Kaanga’s mate squirming seductively in her bonds.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Jungle Comics 145 |
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Jungle Comics #145 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 99. On page 99, Wagner is comparing the similarities between various jungle based comic books and describes Jungle Comics #145 as follows “In no 145 of this series, the same girl is tied up three times in ten pages, while another called Camilla (no shades of Fanny Burney here) stabs two savages, one tiger, rides a rogue elephant, and wrestles successfully with a bearded male guard”. I have included a scan from the Camilla story that shows her wrestling.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Jungle Thrills 16 |
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Jungle Thrills #16 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 98-99.
Jungle Thrills #16 reprints Rulah, Jo-Jo and Phantom Lady stories from All Top #15. On page 98, Wagner references a panel from the Rulah story “Jungle Murder in Duplicate” as he describes comic book based heroine figures: “However, the physical proportions and lack of warm clothing on the Wonder Women heroine are obviously designed to catch the male eye and draw in the adult buyer. For all these girls, who are generally engaged in attacking Red Indians, African Negroes, gorillas, leopards, and the wicked queens of jungle tribes, are equipped with a Bikini uniform of some animal skin. In fact, in Jungle Thrills no 16 I actually came across a derisive reference to the new look made by one of the heroine’s henchwomen, herself got up (or down) in the briefest of shorts and bra.” I believe Wagner’s use of the term “new look” is referring to a fashion trend introduced in 1947 by Christian Dior that became known as the post WWII new look.
Wagner again references Jungle Thrills #16 on page 99 “In Jungle Thrills no 16, with a cover of a buxom blonde in the grip of the perennial gorilla (animal), Rulah concludes a wild career of killing by savagely twisting her coloured opponent’s leg until he screams for mercy – ‘Let me go, Jungle Goddess, and I will be your slave for life.’ It is rather understandable that in the district of New York where I live, the children play games in which the coloured ones act out the roles of ‘slaves.’ The last book also features two more Wonder-Jungle heroines, Tanee and Phantom Lady, both of whom run around slapping other girls to make them talk.”
Wagner’s leg twisting/slave reference comes from the Rulah “Jungle Murder in Duplicate” story and the girl slapping scene is contained in the Phantom Lady “The Substitute Cinderella” story both contained in Jungle Thrills #16. I have included a scan of the Rulah leg twisting panel.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Leave it to Binky #29 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 76.
Wagner characterizes comic books such as “Leave it to Binky” as “adolescent-girl” books and criticizes these comics for their portrayal of women as dominating figures. On page 76 he describes Leave it Binky #29 as follows “In all these adolescent-girl comic-books, in fact, woman occupies a dominating position in the pre-marital mix-up. ‘Sis’ comes out on top. And, after reading of this kind of courtship, how thankful I felt that I had not myself gone through that stern school, that which a mincing machine would seem to be more tender. ‘What do I do now, Teacher?’ a balloon-breasted lass asks her judo instructor on the cover of Leave it to Binky no 29, as she heaves her boy-friend over her shoulder in an excruciating flying mare.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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The Marvel Family #78 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 92-93.
Wagner is critical of the inaccurate portrayal of the Korean conflict in comic books and uses a story contained in Marvel Family #78 to illustrate his point. He describes the story as follows “The Marvel Family, however, who interfere in the Korean war fairly consistently now, consist of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jnr (the little lad who, as we have seen, has his own comic book to himself), and Miss Marvel, whose swirling skirt seldom comes much lower than her lap. Take the first story in The Marvel Family no 78, a patriotic legend entitled ‘The Marvel Family Battles the Red Star of Death’ (we have already had the Captain himself battling the ‘Red Crusher’ in Captain Marvel no 142). This latter personifies the red soldier in Korea in these stories, an unshaven, toothy Russian who evidently goes into action in Korea with a whip rather than a rifle and who makes remakes like ‘Die Yankee dogs! Let your blood and bone splatter all over the landscape!’ One page in this comic book features the word ‘WHAM!’ four times, each letter measuring three quarters of an inch in thickness. This is essentially a simple tale. Captain Marvel stops an American general from calling ‘a full scale retreat’ after the man has read one enemy pamphlet, and goes on to halt a bombing raid in mid-air. He deals as easily with Ruski soldiers as he does with those undefined foes who swear ‘By Buddha!’ The ‘red vulture’ himself is personally KO’ed by the Captain, Miss M administering a ladylike kick to the jaw (‘CHUMFFFF!’), followed by a snorting right hook (‘WHAM!’ again, I fear).
I have included a scan of the page containing the quadruple “WHAM!” as described by Wagner.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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The Marvel Family #82 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on pages 92-93.
Wagner is critical of the inaccurate portrayal of the Korean conflict in comic books and uses a story contained in Marvel Family #82 to illustrate his point. He describes the comics as follows “In the Marvel Family no 81, where the Marvels go after the ‘mightiest mongol’, young Marvel shows that he is not behind the rest of his family in brutality; he mops the floor, literally, at the end of a stick, with a coloured, Mongolian enemy.
The Marvel Junior mopping scene is contained in the story “The Marvel Family Battles the Plundering Pasha, Chapter Two: The Perils of the Pasha”.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Plastic Man #40 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 91.
Wagner describes Plastic Man #40 as follows “In Plastic Man no 40 ‘Plas’, as he is known to his intimates, starts off in an FBI Office – ‘YAWWWN! I’ve never seen crime so dull! Chief! I wish something would happen!’ It does. Using his arms as lassoos [sic], as ropes for binding recalcitrant prisoners, and for slugging round street corners, Plas swiftly fixes things up and catches the crooks, including a hula-hula dancer who turns men into monsters by hypodermic injections and cool Cola drinks. Wiggly Wanda, as this girl is called, apparently has some rather unlikely connection with the scientists at Los Alamos. The last story in this issue ends in the usual all in with a dozen criminals and Plas’s remark, as he KOs them one by one, ‘I’ll put you out of your misery!’
Wagner’s narrative comes from the story “Maker of Monsters” contained in Plastic Man #40.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
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Sheena Queen of the Jungle #18 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 98.
On page 98, Wagner is describing the characteristics of Wonder Woman like heroines and uses several examples of jungle book heroines. He uses story examples from Sheen Queen of the Jungle #18 “As often as not these stories will show the rescue of some American girl in topee [sic] and tight fitting jodphurs [sic] (but slightly more slender and girlish than Sheena), who is exploring the jungle. Sheena no 18 begins with a tale characteristic of this kind. Wicked natives capture and tie up the ‘civilised’ [sic] girl and prepare her for the guillotine. Sheena, however, performs a last minute rescue, scattering the Africans with her thrashing limbs, and tossing men about like dice. In the second story Sheena spears a rouge elephant in the eye, knives an alligator, and having quelled a Negro insurrection reports to the local commissioner (who is, of course, white) ‘You won’t have any more trouble with traders in that district, I promise you!’ In the last story, Bob, a white man and a friend of Sheena, is captured by a wicked Negro Queen, called Nairu. Sheena rescues him and goes for Nairu who (wise woman) runs for it – in vain, of course, ‘for the Jungle Queen’s bronze arms locked around her…’ The last picture shows the ‘poor benighted eathen bowing to the ground before the erect and rigid heroine, and submissively chorusing, “Sheena is the true Jungle Queen. Long Live Sheena!’
These story references all come from Sheena Queen of the Jungle #18. The specific stories are “The Skull Wearer of Wando Grotto”, “The Ivory Smugglers”, and “Secret of the Snake Queen”. I have included a scan of the page with Nairu surrendering to Sheena the true Jungle Queen.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
5.5
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Superman #81 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 88.
Wagner, describing his research on superhero comics, provides the following description in a footnote on page 88 “Although I did not, in my research, discover a Superwoman comic itself, I discovered Superwoman in several other comics. In Superman no 81 this Amazon visits earth from Zor; she is called ‘Tharka’ and equally announces the new womanhood along with Wonder Woman – ‘Tharka is a mutation, a Zorian born ahead of her time, who has super-powers!”
Ironically, the story that Wagner referenced, “The Superwoman from Space”, is all about Superman helping Tharka save face by assisting her in accomplishing super deeds as, unbeknownst to her, her superpowers are inactive on Earth.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
3.5
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Suzie Comics #88 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on pages 76-77.
Wagner provides commentary on several girl themed comic books and describes the cover of Suzie Comics #88 as follows “Suzie is another example of this genre, a typical dumb but effective blonde of generous build, whose style of humor is about as side splitting as the following extract hints: Electrician mending radio: ‘I found the trouble Suzie! There’s a short circuit in your TV set! Suzie: ‘Goody! Now all you have to do is make it longer!’”
Wagner goes on to comment on several other aspects of Suzie’s character and also describes a Katy Keene story contained in the Suzie #88 with passages such as the following “Throughout this story the buxom Katy is shown in the most suggestive of scarlet two piece bathing costumes (and one reads with alarm that some of those pictures were contributed by girl readers, fans of Katie, under fourteen – a fifty year old Rotarian couldn’t have improved some of them).”
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| Parade of Pleasure | Thrilling Crime Cases 47 Universal |
7.0
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Thrilling Crime Cases #47 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 84.
On page 84, Wagner is describing the negative depiction of women in comic books and uses an example from Thrilling Crime Cases #47 “A scene from a story called ‘Thrill Crazed Killer’ in Thrilling Crime Cases no 47 shows an enormous blonde standing over a man she has just floored; he remarks, with reason, ‘Whew! I feel like I been run over by a truck’ to which she replies, ‘You haven’t been yet. But if you want to keep yourself from being put through a meat-grinder…you better pony up all the dough.’ The last picture in this plaintive little parable shows our heroine suggestively manacled, sweetly smiling, as she is led off to prison, the payoff in one picture after sixteen of successful violence.”
I have included a scan of the page from the story that contains the “enormous blonde standing over the man she has just floored.”
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
5.5
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Vault of Horror #23 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on pages 83-84.
Wagner, describing “crime-terror” comic books, uses examples from Vault of Horror #23 “To conclude this survey of almost unadulterated ghastliness, I refer to The Vault of Horror no 23, in which a woman is pursued by a Thing (‘It stand from oozing grave mud!, Clods of rancid crawling rotted flesh fell from its eyeless face…’), a man is decapitated (‘THOK!’), another boiled alive in a showerbath, and a tyrannous employer, who slaps his nine women employees, is burnt alive in his own sweatshop, the girls first flinging him under a sewing-machine and stitching up his lips in a perfectly sickening series of pictures accompanied by the text, ‘Heh, heh, heh! Well, a stich in time saves nine …’”. All these examples come from stories contained in Vault of Horror #23.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
4.5
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War Report #4 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 94.
On page 94 Wagner describes several war themed comics and uses the story “Cross of Courage” from War Report #4 as an example of how religious themes are presented in war comics. He describes the story as follows “The Church, meanwhile, in these war comics also ‘talks turkey’ (as a nun puts it, speaking of His Holiness the Pope, in a recent propaganda film); War Report for March 1953 kicks off with the story of a padre who learns that might is right and who at the end brings a sword, not peace, with a vengeance. Chaplain James Tucker at first hates carnage but in the last pictures he hurls a grenade, shouting ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ and cracks a commie on the skull with his rifle-butt (‘YAGHH!) remarking, ‘And the Lord has a long arm, my erring brother!’
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
5.0
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Whiz Comics #142 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) on page 89.
Wagner observed that superhero comics use primitive vocabulary and often depicted scientists as hapless fools in constant need of rescue. He uses an example from Whiz Comics #142 to illustrate his point “As a character in Whiz Comics no 142 puts it as he knocks three others flying (‘SMACK… UGGH… POW!’), ‘Your friends, Mike, have a limited vocabulary.”
The panel that Wagner references comes from the story “Lance O’Casey and the Contraband Cargo” contained in Whiz Comics #142.
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| Parade of Pleasure | Universal |
5.5
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World War III #2 is referenced in Geoffrey Wagner’s “Parade of Pleasure” (POP) in the text on page 78. In addition to the text reference, a black and white illustration of the cover is included and a color illustration of the cover is found on the dust jacket.
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| 1954 New York Legislative Report | Universal |
5.5
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In 1949 the State of New York formed a legislative committee to study the publication of comics. The committee issued a series of reports beginning in 1950 and carrying through 1957. The 1951 report and the 1954 report contained illustrative sections depicting comics that the committee found objectionable.
The cover of Fantastic Fears #6 is contained in Appendix A of the 1954 report. Page 16 of the report describes Appendix A as containing examples of covers “depicting sex, terror, crime and brutality”. In addition to appearing in the 1954 report, the cover of Fantastic Fears #6 is considered a classic by the Overstreet Guide.
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| 1954 New York Legislative Report | Universal |
4.5
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In 1949 the State of New York formed a legislative committee to study the publication of comics. The committee issued a series of reports beginning in 1950 and carrying through 1957. The 1951 report and the 1954 report contained illustrative sections depicting comics that the committee found objectionable.
The cover of Horrific #10 is contained in Appendix A of the 1954 report. Page 16 of the report describes Appendix A as containing examples of covers “depicting sex, terror, crime and brutality”.
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| 1954 New York Legislative Report | Universal |
7.0
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In 1949 the State of New York formed a legislative committee to study the publication of comics. The committee issued a series of reports beginning in 1950 and carrying through 1957. The 1951 report and the 1954 report contained illustrative sections depicting comics that the committee found objectionable.
The cover of Out of the Night #14 is contained in Appendix A of the 1954 report. Page 16 of the report describes Appendix A as containing examples of covers “depicting sex, terror, crime and brutality”.
In addition to being referenced in the 1954 New York Legislative Report, Out of the Night #14 was also featured on a poster board prop used in the 1954 U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings exploring the link between comics and juvenile delinquency.
The poster board, displaying 24 comics representative of the “Crime, Horror & Weird Variety”, appears in a picture with Senator Robert C. Hendrickson (Chairman of the Senate subcommittee). Standing alongside Senator Hendrickson is New York State Assemblyman James A. Fitzpatrick. The cover of Out of the Night #14 is located on the poster board at row 3, 1st in from the left.
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| 1954 New York Legislative Report | Startling Terror Tales 9 Universal |
5.5
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In 1949 the State of New York formed a legislative committee to study the publication of comics. The committee issued a series of reports beginning in 1950 and carrying through 1957. The 1951 report and the 1954 report contained illustrative sections depicting comics that the committee found objectionable.
The cover of Startling Terror #9 is contained in Appendix A of the 1954 report. Page 16 of the report describes Appendix A as containing examples of covers “depicting sex, terror, crime and brutality”.
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| 1955 US Senate Report | Universal |
5.0
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| 1955 US Senate Report | Universal |
4.0
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In 1954 and 1955 the U.S. Senate convened hearings and issued a report on comic books and juvenile delinquency. Noteworthy participants in the hearings included Fredric Wertham, author of the book “Seduction of the Innocent”, and William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics.
Mysterious Adventures #18 is one of the comics cited as an example of “depraved violence” in the Senate report. In particular, Mysterious Adventures #18 interior story “Bottoms Up” is used as an example of inappropriate content for children. “Bottoms Up” tells the story of an alcoholic husband and father whose neglectful actions leads to the death of his son. In rage, the wife murders the husband and puts various body parts in bottles of alcohol. The story ends with the macabre note that its not a case of the liquor being in Lou but rather Lou being in the liquor.
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| 1955 US Senate Report | Universal |
6.0
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In 1954 and 1955 the U.S. Senate convened hearings and issued a report on comic books and juvenile delinquency. Noteworthy participants in the hearings included Fredric Wertham, author of the book “Seduction of the Innocent” and William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics.
Panic #1 is one of the comics cited in the testimony given by William Gaines. During questioning by Senator Kefauver Gaines was asked why he maintained 5 different corporations to publish comic magazines. Kefauver asserts the reason is to isolate comic publications in order to protect them should one get into trouble and he uses Panic #1 to illustrate this point:
Senator Kefauver: How many corporations do you have?
Mr. Gaines: Well, I don’t really know. I inherited stock in five corporations which were formed by my father before his death. In those days he started a corporation, I believe, for every magazine. I have not adhered to that. I have just kept the original five and published about two magazines in each corporation.
Senator Kefauver: Do you not think the trouble might have been if one magazine got in trouble that the corporation would not adversely affect the others?
Mr. Gaines: Oh, hardly.
Senator Kefauver: You did get one magazine banned by the attorney general of Massachusetts, did you not?
Mr. Gaines: The attorney general of Massachusetts reneged and claims he has not banned it. I still don’t know what the story was.
Senator Kefauver: Anyway, he said he was going to prosecute you if you sent the magazine over there any more.
Mr. Gaines: He thereafter, I understand, said – he never said he would prosecute.
Senator Kefauver: That is the word you got though, that he was going to prosecute you?
Mr. Gaines: Yes.
Senator Kefauver: When was that?
Mr. Gaines: Just before Christmas.
Senator Kefauver: Which magazine was that?
Mr. Gaines: That was for Panic No. 1.
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| 1955 US Senate Report | Universal |
7.0
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In 1954 and 1955 the U.S. Senate convened hearings and issued a report on comic books and juvenile delinquency. Noteworthy participants in the hearings included Fredric Wertham, author of the book “Seduction of the Innocent” and William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics.
Panic #3, published by EC Comics, contains a story that parodies the Senate hearings. The parody appears on page 8 of the opening story “Li’l Melvin”. The Li’l Melvin story parodies the comic strip “Li'l Abner" and the last page of this story, entitled “Li’l Melvin… A Threat to America”, mocks the Senate hearings through absurd examples of subliminal messages contained in the Li’l Melvin story. For example, one panel describes a cow from the story being Melvin’s Mother’s Cow or “Ma’s Cow” which is code for Moscow and communist propaganda.
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| Seduction of the Innocent | Universal |
9.2
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A-1 Comics Guns of Fact and Fiction #13 is referenced in Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” (SOTI) in the text on page 19.
Wertham describes the alluring nature of the titles of comics and provides several examples on page 19 and uses the subtitle “The West Thunders with the Roar of GUNS” from the cover of A-1 Comics Guns of Fact and Fiction #13 as one of his examples.
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