Crime comics is a
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of
American comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s and format of
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
. The genre was originally popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s and is marked by a moralistic editorial tone and graphic depictions of violence and criminal activity. Crime comics began in 1942 with the publication of ''
Crime Does Not Pay'' published by
Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Publications, founded by Leverett Stone Gleason (1898–1971), was the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, including '' Daredevil Comics'', '' Crime Does Not Pay'', and '' Boy Comics''.
Backg ...
and edited by
Charles Biro
Charles Biro (May 12, 1911 – March 4, 1972) was an American comic book creator and cartoonist. He is today chiefly known for creating the comic book characters Airboy and Steel Sterling, and for his work at Lev Gleason Publications on '' Dared ...
. As sales for superhero comic books declined in the years after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, other publishers began to emulate the popular format, content and subject matter of ''Crime Does Not Pay'', leading to a deluge of crime-themed comics. Crime and
horror comics
Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...
, especially those published by
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...
, came under official scrutiny in the late 1940s and early 1950s, leading to legislation in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
, the creation in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
of the
Comics Magazine Association of America and the imposition of the
Comics Code Authority
The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. ...
in 1954. This code placed limits on the degree and kind of criminal activity that could be depicted in American comic books, effectively sounding the death knell for crime comics and their adult themes.
Precursors
Although petty thieves, grifters, and outright crooks have existed in American comic books and strips since their inception, books and strips actually devoted to criminals and criminal activity are relatively rare. The comic strip ''
Dick Tracy'' was perhaps the first to focus on the character and plots of a vast array of gangsters.
Chester Gould
Chester Gould (; November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the '' Dick Tracy'' comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.
...
's strip, begun in 1931, made effective use of grotesque villains, actual police methods, and shocking depictions of violence. ''Dick Tracy'' inspired many features starring a variety of police, detectives, and lawyers but the most memorable devices of the strip would not be featured as prominently until the publication of ''Crime Does Not Pay'' in 1942.
''Crime Does Not Pay''
As edited and mostly written by
Charles Biro
Charles Biro (May 12, 1911 – March 4, 1972) was an American comic book creator and cartoonist. He is today chiefly known for creating the comic book characters Airboy and Steel Sterling, and for his work at Lev Gleason Publications on '' Dared ...
(with
Bob Wood), ''
Crime Does Not Pay'' was a 64-page (later 52-page) anthology comic book published by Lev Gleason Publications beginning in 1942 and running for 147 issues until 1955. Each issue of the series featured several stories about the lives of actual criminals taken from newspaper accounts, history books, and occasionally, as advertised, "actual police files." The stories provided details of actual criminal activity and, in making the protagonists of the stories actual criminals — albeit criminals who were eventually caught and punished, usually in a violent manner, by story's end — seemed to glorify criminal activity, according to several critics. An immediate success, the series remained virtually unchallenged in the field of non-fiction comic books for several years until the post-World War II decline in other
genres
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of comic books, including superhero comic books, made it more viable to publish new genres.
Other titles and series
Beginning in 1947, publishers began issuing new titles in the crime comics genre, sometimes changing the direction of existing series but often creating new books whole cloth. Many of these titles were direct imitations of the format and content of ''Crime Does Not Pay''.
In May, 1947, Arthur Bernhard's Magazine Village company published ''
True Crime Comics'', designed and edited by
Jack Cole. The first issue (#2) featured Cole's "Murder, Morphine, and Me", the story of a young female drug addict who became involved with gangsters. The story would become one of the most controversial of the period and samples of the art, including a panel from a dream sequence in which the heroine has her eye held open and threatened with a hypodermic needle, would be used in articles and books (like Geoffrey Wagner's ''Parade of Pleasure'') about the pernicious influence and obscene imagery of crime comics.
Later in 1947, the team of
Joe Simon and
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gre ...
began packaging a pair of crime comics for the Prize Comics line.
''Headline Comics'' (with a cover date of March) was transformed from adventure to a crime theme. Published with a date of October/November,
''Justice Traps the Guilty'' was a full-fledged crime comic from the onset, and besides Simon and Kirby, featured art by
Marvin Stein,
Mort Meskin, and
John Severin
John Powers Severin (; December 26, 1921 – February 12, 2012) was an American comics artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics ''Two-Fisted Tales'' and ''Frontline Combat''; for Marvel Comics, ...
. At the same time, Simon and Kirby revitalized ''Real Clue Comics'' for
Hillman Comics, giving the title a true-crime veneer and transforming it from a serial character-driven mystery title.
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...
began publishing ''
Crime SuspenStories
''Crime SuspenStories'' was a bi-monthly anthology crime comic published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title first arrived on newsstands with its October/November 1950 issue and ceased publication with its February/March 1955 issue, produc ...
'' in 1950 and ''
Shock SuspenStories
''Shock SuspenStories'' was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The bi-monthly comic, published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, began with issue 1 in February/March 1952. Over a four-year span, it ran for 18 issues, ending wi ...
'' in 1952. Both titles featured, in the manner of the EC horror comics, fictional
noir-style stories of murder and revenge with stunning art and tightly plotted twist-endings.
Backlash
Growing opposition to crime comics
In the late 1940s, the comic book industry became the target of mounting public criticism for their content and their potentially harmful effects on children. In some communities, children piled their comic books in schoolyards and set them ablaze after being egged-on by moralizing parents, teachers, and clergymen. In 1948, John Mason Brown of the ''Saturday Review of Literature'' described comics as the "marijuana of the nursery; the bane of the bassinet; the horror of the house; the curse of kids, and a threat to the future." The same year, after two articles by Dr.
Fredric Wertham put comic books through the wringer, an
industry trade group, the
Association of Comics Magazine Publishers
The Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was an American industry trade group formed in the late 1940s to regulate the content of comic books in the face of public criticism during that time. It was a precursor to the Comics Magazine As ...
(ACMP) was formed but proved ineffective.
Criminalisation of crime comics in Canada
In 1949, spearheaded by the campaigning of MP
Davie Fulton, crime comics were banned in Canada in Bill 10 of the
21st Canadian Parliament's 1st session (informally known as the
Fulton Bill). The
Criminal Code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
defined crime comics as ''a magazine, periodical or book that exclusively or substantially comprises matter depicting pictorially (a) the commission of crimes, real or fictitious; or (b) events connected with the commission of crimes, real or fictitious, whether occurring before or after the commission of the crime'' and made it an offence to produce, publish or distribute them. The provisions remained in the Criminal Code until December 2018 when Bill C-51 was adopted during the
42nd Canadian Parliament. Previously, crime comics also could be ordered forfeited by the provincial courts.
''Seduction of the Innocent''
In 1954, Wertham once again brought his wrath to bear upon comic books. In ''
Seduction of the Innocent
''Seduction of the Innocent'' is a book by German-born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was tak ...
'', he warned that "crime comics" were a serious cause of
juvenile delinquency, citing overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare. Wertham asserted, largely based on undocumented anecdotes, that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children. Many of his other conjectures, particularly about hidden sexual themes (e.g. images of female nudity concealed in drawings of muscles and tree bark, or
Batman and
Robin as
homosexual partners), were met with derision within the comics industry. His claim that
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...
had a
bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as her creator
William Moulton Marston
William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947), also known by the pen name Charles Moulton (), was an American psychologist who, with his wife Elizabeth Holloway, invented an early prototype of the lie detector. He was also known as a se ...
had admitted as much; however, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a
lesbian (she is traditionally portrayed as a heterosexual and a
virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
) . ''Seduction of the Innocent'' created alarm in parents and galvanized them to campaign for censorship.
Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
Public criticism brought matters to a head. In April and June 1954, the
Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency conducted investigations led by anti-crime crusader
Estes Kefauver. The splash made by Wertham's book, and his credentials as an expert witness, made it inevitable that he would appear before the committee. His extensive testimony restated arguments from his book and pointed to comics as a major cause of juvenile crime.
The subcommittee's questioning of publisher William Gaines focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had decried. When Gaines matter-of-factly contended that he sold only comic books of good taste, ''
Crime Suspenstories
''Crime SuspenStories'' was a bi-monthly anthology crime comic published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title first arrived on newsstands with its October/November 1950 issue and ceased publication with its February/March 1955 issue, produc ...
'', issue 22, April/May 1954, was entered into evidence. Gaines' testimony achieved notoriety for his unapologetic tone and he became a
bogeyman
The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, bogieman, boogie monster, boogieman, or boogie woogie) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance and conceptions var ...
for those wishing to censure the product. One exchange became particularly infamous:
*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. ''
efauver_is_mistakenly_referring_to_Crime_Suspenstories_#22,_ efauver_is_mistakenly_referring_to_Crime_Suspenstories_#22,_cover_date_May">cover_date.html"_;"title="efauver_is_mistakenly_referring_to_Crime_Suspenstories_#22,_cover_date">efauver_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.
Though_the_committee's_final_report_did_not_blame_comics_for_crime,_it_recommended_that_the_comics_industry_tone_down_its_content_voluntarily.
_Decline
In_the_immediate_aftermath_of_the_hearings,_several_publishers_were_forced_to_revamp_their_schedules_and_drastically_tone_down_or_even_cancel_many_popular_long-standing_comic_series._Gaines_called_a_meeting_of_his_fellow_publishers_and_suggested_that_they_fight_outside_censorship_and_help_repair_the_industry's_damaged_reputation._The__
Comics_Magazine_Association_of_America_and_its_Comics_Code_Authority_
The_Comics_Code_Authority_(CCA)_was_formed_in_1954_by_the__Comics_Magazine_Association_of_America_as_an_alternative_to_government_regulation._The_CCA_allowed_the_comic_publishers_to_self-regulate_the_content_of__comic_books_in_the_United_States.__...
_was_formed._The_CCA_code_was_very_restrictive_and_rigorously_enforced,_with_all_comics_requiring_code_approval_prior_to_their_publication._The_CCA_had_no_legal_authority_over_other_publishers,_but_magazine_distributors_often_refused_to_carry_comics_without_the_CCA's_seal_of_approval._Some_publishers_thrived_under_these_restrictions,_others_adapted_by_canceling_titles_and_focusing_on_Code-approved_content,_and_others_went_out_of_business.
Gaines_believed_that_clauses_in_the_code_forbidding_the_words_"crime",_"horror"_and_"terror"_in_comic_book_titles_had_been_deliberately_aimed_at_his_own_best-selling_titles_''