They Were the Police, Jury, and Executioners
A Poster Showing the Committee a Variety of Comic Books
The fear and public outcry over comic books led the United States Senate to respond by putting comic books on trial. Over the course of two days, the committee delved into the connection between comic books and juvenile delinquency, hearing testimonies from both child psychologists and members of the comic book industry and ultimately deciding whether or not the comic book industry needed stricter oversight by the government. However, the truly striking and influential testimonies during the hearings were by Dr. Fredric Wertham and by Entertaining Comics publisher William Gaines.
The Doctor's Diagnosis: Dr. Fredric Wertham
Dr. Fredric Wertham in Front of the Subcommittee
As previously stated, Dr. Wertham believed that comic books were a significant factor in teenage crime and corruption. On the afternoon of the first day of the hearings, the subcommittee listened intently to the words of the respected psychologist, as he reiterated the assertions and opinions contained in his book. Some highlights of his testimony were:
After making his case, Dr. Wertham concluded that comic books were indeed a threat to public health, seducing adolescents to lives of crime and delinquency. Dr. Wertham did not give the court a specific course of action to follow in order to solve the comic book problem, but advised that there should be a method so that children under a certain age could not access comic books. But before he left the stand, the senators asked Dr. Wertham about a piece of satire directed towards him from the comic book Haunt of Fear, which asserted to readers that communists were the most active in trying to ban comic books and that those who are against comic books have been "Duped," by communist ideology. However, Dr. Wertham just blew it off as an insignificant comic book image.
But though Dr. Wertham may have thought of the comic as insignificant, the Senators held a much different view and were about to call up the publisher of said comic: Entertainment Comic's William Gaines.
- The Superman Complex, which stated that children who read Superman comics were instilled with fantasies of dishing out punishment repeatedly on people while being immune to such punishment themselves
- Stressing that comic books espouse a sense of contempt for the police
- Makes children want to become spectacular and amazing like superheroes, without being hardworking and diligent -"They [Adolescents] want to be like Superman, not like the hard working, prosaic father and mother."
- Comic books glorify the concept that it is really evil, not good, that triumphs in comic books and that many times comic books include perfect crimes where the suspect gets away free.
- Comic books teach and expose adolescents the techniques and tools of delinquency, seducing them into becoming delinquents.
After making his case, Dr. Wertham concluded that comic books were indeed a threat to public health, seducing adolescents to lives of crime and delinquency. Dr. Wertham did not give the court a specific course of action to follow in order to solve the comic book problem, but advised that there should be a method so that children under a certain age could not access comic books. But before he left the stand, the senators asked Dr. Wertham about a piece of satire directed towards him from the comic book Haunt of Fear, which asserted to readers that communists were the most active in trying to ban comic books and that those who are against comic books have been "Duped," by communist ideology. However, Dr. Wertham just blew it off as an insignificant comic book image.
But though Dr. Wertham may have thought of the comic as insignificant, the Senators held a much different view and were about to call up the publisher of said comic: Entertainment Comic's William Gaines.
An Empire Strikes Back: EC Comic's William Gaines
William Gaines on the Stand
Immediately following the testimony of Dr. Fredric Wertham, the subcommittee called William Gaines, head publisher of Entertainment Comics, to the stand. Gaines was a pioneer of the comic book world, changing his company from focusing on educational comics (It was formerly called Educational Comics) to focusing on story driven comics in the science fiction, crime, war, and horror genres. This decision led his company to making what are now considered some of the greatest illustrated stories published; however, it also put him on a collision course with the government once fears began to resonate in the public over the influences of comic books on adolescents.
Yet, though he knew that the public was up in arms against these stories, Gaines went into the hearings with a feeling of indignation over the condemnation of his company's comics. Taking the stand of his own volition, Gaines declared to the committee that he was the first publisher to publish horror comics and that if they didn't like them that was simply a matter of their personal taste. Confrontational throughout the hearings, Gaines maintained that:
However, the Senators in the committee were hostile to Gaines after respectfully listening to Dr. Wertham's testimony and after taking offense to the "Red Dupe," comic above. In this hostility, it was a line of questioning by Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser and Senator Estes Kefauver that would seal the fate of the comic book industry.
Yet, though he knew that the public was up in arms against these stories, Gaines went into the hearings with a feeling of indignation over the condemnation of his company's comics. Taking the stand of his own volition, Gaines declared to the committee that he was the first publisher to publish horror comics and that if they didn't like them that was simply a matter of their personal taste. Confrontational throughout the hearings, Gaines maintained that:
- Entertaining Stories never brought harm to anyone.
- American children are bright, but those who want to prohibit comic books are "Dirty, sneaky, perverted little monsters," who don't read comics.
- Children are citizens too, and hold the same rights to read what they want to that any citizen has.
- Children are not so simple minded that reading a story about crime will lead them into lives of crime
- The basic personality of a child is developed well before they are comic book reading age.
However, the Senators in the committee were hostile to Gaines after respectfully listening to Dr. Wertham's testimony and after taking offense to the "Red Dupe," comic above. In this hostility, it was a line of questioning by Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser and Senator Estes Kefauver that would seal the fate of the comic book industry.
- Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser: Let me get the limits as far as what you put into your magazine. Is the sole test of what you would put into your magazine whether it sells? Is there any limit you can think of that you would not put in a magazine because you thought a child should not see or read about it?
- Bill Gaines: No, I wouldn’t say that there is any limit for the reason you outlined. My only limits are the bounds of good taste, what I consider good taste.
- Beaser: Then you think a child cannot in any way, in any way, shape, or manner, be hurt by anything that a child reads or sees?
- Gaines: I don’t believe so.
- Beaser: There would be no limit actually to what you put in the magazines?
- Gaines: Only within the bounds of good taste.
- Beaser: Your own good taste and saleability?
- Gaines: Yes.
- Senator Estes Kefauver: Here is your May 22 issue. [Kefauver is mistakenly referring to Crime Suspenstories#22, cover date May.] This seems to be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman’s head up which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste?
- Gaines: Yes sir, I do, for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that the neck could be seen dripping blood from it, and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody.
- Kefauver: You have blood coming out of her mouth.
- Gaines: A little.
- Kefauver: Here is blood on the axe. I think most adults are shocked by that.