BW Media Spotlight

There’s a section of the second chapter of Seduction Of The Innocent I didn’t go over because the darn thing ran two parts to begin with. That’s more than Chapter By Chapter ever gets for a single chapter. It’s like the opposite of The Black Stallion’s Ghost where I actually combined chapters. The section was on comics involving drugs and one comic he brought up was Teen-Age Dope Slaves, which is actually Harvey Comics Library #1, but if he can’t figure out Superman I don’t expect him to understand the bizarre titling system of 1950s comics. Whiz Comics #2 is the first issue for example.

When adolescent drug addiction had finally come to public attention, it led to the publication of lurid new comic books devoted entirely to the subject, like the one with the title, Teen-Age Dope Slaves. This is nothing but another variety of crime comic of a particularly deplorable character.

So I had to check this book out, because it’s the closest thing to a source name I’ve seen in this book, and I have to wonder if Fredric Wertham even bothered to look into it. This is not a comic that is going to push kids into drugs. Nothing about this comic makes drugs look cool. You know why? IT’S AN ANTI-DRUG PSA COMIC! Wertham seems to come from the “ignore it and it will go away” school which is funny considering that one woman who thought ignoring the neighborhood kids molesting girls and breaking into houses was the answer and was surprised to see things keep getting worse. How stupid can you be? The only thing that comes from not warning kids about drugs is that they won’t be prepared when they’re offered the stuff and are told how cool it is to see planets shooting out of your fingernails based on what color they turned. And you wonder why I have issues with the psychiatric community? With the past few years I’ve had I could probably use some therapy but guys like this is why I’d rather not.

But back to the comic. The story features comic strip character Rex Morgan, MD, the creation of two comic creators and a doctor who doesn’t want to be named. I’ve never really read the comic so I can’t tell you anything about it. What’s important is this comic, as Rex and his nurse (and future wife from what I just read), June Gale, are drawn into the life of a promising young football star who becomes addicted to drugs. I don’t know if this was created for Harvey Comics Library or not, but it’s written like a newspaper strip, in that you have things being repeated that the reader should already know from a few pages back. The question is how off the mark was Wertham with this one? To be honest I though this was a visit to crazy town. I was surprised.

Harvey Comics Library #1

Harvey Comics (April, 1952)

“Teen-Age Dope Slaves”

(so when did we lose the hyphen in “teenage”?)

WRITER: Nicholas Dallis?

PENCILERS: Marvin Bradley [as Bradley] & Frank Edgington [as Edgington]

INKERS: Marvin Bradley [as Bradley] & Frank Edgington [as Edgington]

This is all the credits you got from comics in those days and I can’t help but think Comic Book +, the website I got this from, was guessing on some of the credits they gave at the time. Oh don’t worry, these comics are in public domain, so you can read this one along with me free and legal.

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