593: Parental Guidance

[JBex]

I like just having a spoon of peanutbutter, it works and its delicious.

[levendus]

Let's not forget that "Good Night and Good Luck" is a completely hippie rendition of one of their seminal trials and tribulations myths that they've been milking for almost 60 years now.

It's completely glossed over that there actually were Soviet espionage operations underway at this time and that the Communist Party of the United States of America was funded and controlled by the Kremlin or that party members were routinely recruited to spy against their own country.

Boo hoo for those cry baby "artists." The film industry privately decided to not hire them. There was no law against hiring communists, people just didn't like the idea of employing the wanna-be overthrowers of their country.

For perspective, imagine an industry coming out and saying they weren't going to hire active members of NAMBLA. Would anyone have sympathy for those who were "blacklisted?"

Spooky-- they did try to censor content in comic books. Believe it or not they were pretty graphic, especially the crime based books. I saw one that had some goon about to stab some dame in the eye with an ice-pick. Not to mention that there was a large jump in juvenile delinquency. Many blamed the culture, books, movies, comic books, just like they blame video games and more today. Back then, there was less trepidation about using the government to impose (or reinforce depending on your perspective) cultural norms.

[Bucho]

Come on Spooky me old mate, it's only mid-October, you can still get up off the canvas and save this year. The I-Want-People-To-Hate-Me pose was entertaining to a point, mostly in the way it's at odds with the I'm-A-High-IQ-Knife-Toting-Badass-Manly-Texas-Motherfucker pose but the novelty of it has worn off now and it's time for ACTION!

Thing is, at this late stage you wouldn't even need to get on the whole battle plan list to win some respect, just choose one or two, whatever you feel you have the capacity to handle. The hiphop dance class would take the biggest balls, the running would take the biggest heart and the Spanish the biggest brains. Do one and post some shows and yippee-ki-ay Spook is back in the game, a force to be reckoned with, a man among men.

[spooky]

Originally Posted by levendus

Spooky-- they did try to censor content in comic books. Believe it or not they were pretty graphic, especially the crime based books. I saw one that had some goon about to stab some dame in the eye with an ice-pick. Not to mention that there was a large jump in juvenile delinquency. Many blamed the culture, books, movies, comic books, just like they blame video games and more today. Back then, there was less trepidation about using the government to impose (or reinforce depending on your perspective) cultural norms.

they didnt try to censor, they did. EC comics was more or less the last straw. some english guy named Sabin has a pretty good run down on what happened, if youre interested. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art

[deuce]

Originally Posted by Bucho

yippee-ki-ay Spook is back in the game, a force to be reckoned with, a man among men.

[Keith]

Great point, Deuce.

A picture really does paint a thousand words.

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by levendus

It's completely glossed over that there actually were Soviet espionage operations underway at this time and that the Communist Party of the United States of America was funded and controlled by the Kremlin or that party members were routinely recruited to spy against their own country.

What you're completely fucking glossing over is the fact that under McCarthyism, a person was guilty simply after the accusation, and that innocent people had their lives completely destroyed in this hysteria. It's okay if a thousand innocent people are harmed as long as there are two bad guys running around? Where do you think we are, the fucking Soviet Union? We're supposed to be living in a free country. We're supposed to be outraged if one innocent person gets abused by the government. This resurgence of sympathy for totalitarianism makes me want to vomit.

*The moment you hand away your freedoms for a moment of fleeting "security," the bad guy du jour has already won. Yeah, I'm a little bit libertarian, if you haven't sussed that out.

[batlash]

Originally Posted by spooky

they didnt try to censor, they did. EC comics was more or less the last straw. some english guy named Sabin has a pretty good run down on what happened, if youre interested. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art

Actually - not 100% true. While the government did go after the comics industry - in the end, it was the comics industry that went after itself. What several of the companies did was band together and institute a self-regulated "comics code". This code was essentially designed to give up a sacrificial lamb to appease the complainers. In this case the sacrificial lamb was EC Comics - a company that was the focus of a lot of the complaints ( though it can be argued, that their books - which were horror based - weren't really targeting younger age groups like Archie was for instance ). Even though EC's comics were "horrific" and more or less for "mature" readers - the quality of the work tended to be superior to most comics of the day. One only need read the comics code to see how EC was unfairly singled out and targeted - words like HORROR and TERROR - were actually banned from being used in titles of books - and EC's "bigger" books at the time were books like "VAULT of Horror". This banning, instituted by the comics industry itself - eventually killed EC.

This self-imposed ruling- also killed a competitor.

Hmmmmmm !

[arty]

Originally Posted by batlash

- In this case the sacrificial lamb was EC Comics - a company that was the focus of a lot of the complaints

The upside of EC going under was Bill Gaines, who left the problems at EC and started up MAD Magazine, my favorite reading material growing up.

[NedLudd]

Originally Posted by batlash

Actually - not 100% true. While the government did go after the comics industry - in the end, it was the comics industry that went after itself. What several of the companies did was band together and institute a self-regulated "comics code". This code was essentially designed to give up a sacrificial lamb to appease the complainers. In this case the sacrificial lamb was EC Comics - a company that was the focus of a lot of the complaints ( though it can be argued, that their books - which were horror based - weren't really targeting younger age groups like Archie was for instance ). Even though EC's comics were "horrific" and more or less for "mature" readers - the quality of the work tended to be superior to most comics of the day. One only need read the comics code to see how EC was unfairly singled out and targeted - words like HORROR and TERROR - were actually banned from being used in titles of books - and EC's "bigger" books at the time were books like "VAULT of Horror". This banning, instituted by the comics industry itself - eventually killed EC.

This self-imposed ruling- also killed a competitor.

Hmmmmmm !

Also not 100% true. What was the self regulation a reaction to? Tell the whole story or don't act like someone is telling a lie, and say just a snippet more. Or you'll only go back and forth saying what the other said isn't 100% true. Maybe thats why he posted a link to get the whole history itself, comic nerd? That and the fact that beyond one line of trivia, probably nobody really cares, except comic nerds.

Or should he write out the entire history here, I bet it could be boiled down to 20 or 30 thousand words...

Why don't you, actually? I'm going back to bed.