Full disclosure: I am not a horror fan. While I won’t deny anybody any genre (within a certain amount of reason…snuff films can disappear forever, for example), I am not one of those people who enjoy being scared. I don’t go on roller coaster or other high-speed rides that have the goal of scaring someone. I have no problem with the horror genre except that I’m a “hero always wins” kind of guy. I want to see Jason or Freddy punted into a wall by Superman. That’s just who I am. And in some of those movies the hero quite win the way I would like. It’s tough to explain in this short segment so I’m going to move on.
Horror in comics used to be a big thing. Tiles like Tales From The Crypt and Creepshow had a strong enough fanbase that they were made into television shows and movies in the 80s. Even kids like to be scared to a point, which is how R.L. Stein has a career. The trick is to do it without emotionally scarring them for life. But in the ye old days of the Comics Code we had to protect kids from all of the things we didn’t like. Actually, I withdraw my membership from the we. “General Standards part B” of the Comics Code addressed what was acceptable or unacceptable in horror comics. It boiled down to “no horror comics”. IF Charles Murphy really was out to get EC Comics publisher William Gaines as we discussed in the first installment, this is exhibit A.
1) No comic magazine shall use the word “horror” or “terror” in its title.
Last time I made fun of how the Code restricted how the word “crime” was used in the title of a comic, but this is an outright ban of the word. I don’t know how many comics used “horror” or “terror” as part of the title. What I also don’t know is how just seeing the words were supposed to scar some kid for life. The point of the thing is to show it’s a scary comic. Again, this was intended for restricting comics sold to minors but certain parties insured any comics minus the code seal would never be sold on newsstands and drug store racks to anybody! Comic stores were a long way away and I don’t know if tobacco stores (I’ve seen comics on those shelves in the past, near the car and wrestling mags but thankfully away from the porn) but I don’t know about today since I don’t smoke) were around back then. So even if you were pursing an adult audience with The Terror Of Horror you wouldn’t be getting out there because you used a proper title.
2) All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
Kind of defeats the purpose of a horror comic? Well, Disney has done its share of thrillers aimed at a family audience and not starring Eddie Murphy that shows it’s possible.
3) All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
image source: DC Database
ONE of those was not under the comics code. Of course the original version of the first page would have shown Alex fully dismembered and even Blackest Night avoided that. Doesn’t make it any less disturbing. There are people who think the unseen is scarier than the seen and that makes a bit of sense, plus what you can’t see is up to your imagination and if you have yet to be exposed to the more graphical concepts the depraved among the human race has committed you can come up with your own scare without scarring you emotionally, just giving you nightmares for a few days. I don’t have a problem with it, but those crying censorship do have a point. I guess it’s tougher to relate to a genre you’re not a fan of.
4) Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
I’m with you up to “injure the sensibilities of the reader”, because that feels like legalese. I guess it goes back to Part A (the crime comics section) requesting that good always win in the end, which again is how most of us want the story to end. But what if the reason for evil isn’t so much a “moral issue” as it is catharsis? I can see not wanting to make evil look good to a kid (again, the supposed reason for the code) but what if you’re making it look alluring to later prove the downsides of a criminal…wait, this is the horror section. Are we trying to teach kids not to become a zombie? Or maybe out of joining a cult? With your luck, kids, you end up following a dude with giant hands on his robe and acting like your drunk when your stone cold sober.
This one I’m a little murkier on because when has evil looked good in a horror story? (Said the non-horror fan.)
5) Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
I guess “lycanthropy” wasn’t a term back then. I’m trying to figure out what “instruments” are associated with any of those things, except torture? I think this is the line that buried EC since ghosts were the only thing left if someone wants to count a frankenstein type monster as “walking dead”. I’m not sure we want to see a person eat another person in a kids comic, but vampires, ghouls, and werewolves were showing up in kids stories even after the code came out. I can’t find the readjusted Code but Marvel made Dracula and Werewolf By Night in the 70s and those had the Code seal on them.
Werewolf by Night #40 (Sept. 1976): Topaz, Jack Russell, Brother Voodoo and Dr. Glitternight. Pencils by Ed Hannigan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I can see horror having more restrictions than crime comics but again I say that the Code kept non-kids stuff off of store shelves, and brought a serious blow to horror comics. And the sad part is Gaines was actually in responsible in part for its forming. From Wikipedia:
Gaines called a meeting of his fellow publishers and suggested that the comic book industry gather to fight outside censorship and help repair the industry’s damaged reputation. They formed the Comics Magazine Association of America and its Comics Code Authority. The CCA code expanded on the ACMP’s restrictions. Unlike its predecessor, the CCA code was rigorously enforced, with all comics requiring code approval prior to their publication. This not being what Gaines intended, he refused to join the association.[13] Among the Code’s new rules were that no comic book title could use the words “horror” or “terror” or “weird” on its cover. When distributors refused to handle many of his comics, Gaines ended publication of his three horror and the two SuspenStory titles on September 14, 1954. EC shifted its focus to a line of more realistic comic book titles, including M.D. and Psychoanalysis (known as the New Direction line). It also renamed its remaining science-fiction comic. Since the initial issues did not carry the Comics Code seal, the wholesalers refused to carry them. After consulting with his staff, Gaines reluctantly started submitting his comics to the Comics Code; all the New Direction titles carried the seal starting with the second issue. This attempted revamp failed commercially and after the fifth issues, all the New Direction titles were canceled.[14]
And when you look further into EC’s past they were influential in comics. Originally EC stood for “Educational Comics” before William Gaines took over from his father and the company had larger successes in the horror field. They came up with the letters page that comics abandoned in recent years and the fan club idea in comics. If in fact Murphy saw Gaines idea as a way to ruin his enemy, it didn’t have a positive impact on comics, especially a genre that can serve kids and adults with different rules. You can make the case that Part B was intended to ruin horror comics, and that’s not something even a conservative Christian like me can support. After all, how can we defeat evil, natural or supernatural, if we’re afraid to identify it?
Breaking The Comics Code: Backstory
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