The was a set of regulations instituted by the Comic Magazine Association Of America in response to a Moral Panic that led to a 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
Moral panic over Comic Books began as the Pulp Fiction crime and horror genre developed at the end of World War II by companies such as Street And Smith in New York City . In 1948, the psychologist Fredric Wertham wrote about the prohibition of comic books to children under the age of 16. He noticing that all of the delinquent children he had come in contact with had read comic books.
In response the industry's trade organization devised the 1948 code to regulate content, but less than one-third of the publishers adopted the regulations. The 1948 Supreme Court overturned a state statute banning the sale or distribution of pulp crime literature. In 1954, the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency convened hearings on comic books and asked the industry to adopt self-regulation or risk having the government write strict regulations. A new trade association was formed and they created a the 1954 Code to self-regulate content. The adoption of the code on October 26 , 1954 shifted the industry away from the crime and horror genre, and into the Superhero and crime fighting genre. The Code symbol appeared on approved comic books. The 1954 Code was rewritten in 1971 and again in 1989, and is still in force As Of 2006 .
Below is a selected list of regulations:
- Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
- If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
- Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
- In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
- Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
- No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.
- All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
- All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
- 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.
- Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
- Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
- Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
- Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
- Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
- Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.
- Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.
- Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
- Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.
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