Did Fredric Wertham destroy comics for a generation?

Did Fredric Wertham destroy comics for a generation?

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cbldf.org/2013/03/carol-tilley-on-her-wertham-research/
thecomicbooks.com/1954senatetranscripts.html
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Yeah but then everyone was quickly like "lol who cares"

Also, why did the mods delete the other thread about Wertham?

If by "everyone quickly" said "who cares" you mean hundreds of people lost their jobs and had their lives ruined because they were called fascists, racists, xenophobes, and nazis by a bunch of far-left nutjobs in the Senate?

Are you okay?

What do you mean?

Have you ever read "The Ten Cent Plague"? The book literally ends with hundreds of names of people whose careers were ended by Wertham.

In highly recommend it, I found it to be an extraordinarily detailed book.

>far-left
Are you fucking insane?

Do you not know who Senator Kefauver was?

I don't think there was anyone in the Senate who was more far-left than him.

pretty much..

Dumb ass couldn't tell the difference between correlation and causation. nowadays his research would be considered unsound.

He started a firestorm, dumb parents panicked, politicians saw an easy softball to act outraged over.

basically everything died but Superhero comics who changed radically under the self imposed Comics Code Authority. no more monsters or ghosts. drugs don't exist. sexuality is a myth. that there is no masturbation in the DC universe would explain a whole lot actually.

poor EC comics got murdered.

Batman and Robin got a lot girl partners and villains like Poison Ivy. "Look how not gay they are!"

It's not just not getting the difference, it's actively lying about his original research.

cbldf.org/2013/03/carol-tilley-on-her-wertham-research/

This researcher Carol Tilley went through all of his original research and found massive difference between what he published and what his original research found. He'd combine interviews, he'd put things out of context, he's do all kinds of shit.

Typical Sarkeesian tactics.

I'm impressed that you managed to politicize this, but disappointed because I think you might actually what you're posting.

It's not politicising when you'er talking about something that's inherently political.

thecomicbooks.com/1954senatetranscripts.html

>Senator KEFAUVER. While you are on that subject, Dr. Wertham, may I see that thing, anybody who opposes comic books is a Red?

>Dr. WERTHAM. Yes; that is part of it.

>Senator KEFAUVER. I have read a number of your writings. I have read your Seduction of the Innocent. You remember a number of years ago I had several visits with you and you told you about the pressure they tried to apply on you in connection with this.
>But I noticed here this thing, that anyone who opposes comic books are Communists. "The group most anxious to destroy comics are the Communists."
>Then they have here the statement:
>This article also quoted Gershon Legman (who claims to be a ghost writer for Dr. Frederick Wertham, the author of a recent smear against comics published in The Daily Worker) - This same G. Legman, in issue No. 2 of Neurotica, published in autumn 1948, wildly condemned comas although admitting that "The child's natural character must be distorted to fit civilization * * * Fantasy violence will paralyze his resistance, divert his aggression to unreal enemies and frustrations, and in this way prevent him from rebelling against parents and teachers * * * this will siphon off his resistance against society, and prevent revolution."
>This seems to be an effort to tie you up in some way as Red or Communist. Is that part of a smear?

>Dr. WERTHAM. This is from comic books. I have really paid no attention to this. I can tell you that I am not a ghost writer. Like this gentleman who criticized it severely, they know I don’t have a ghost writer.
>Gershon Legman is a man who studied comic books. He is a man who tried to do something against comic books, so they tried to do something about him.

he had NOTHING to do with the CCA and was opposed to censorship and only wanted parents to be aware of what was in comics

blame the government

>Mr. HANNOCH. Do you know anything about this sheet called, "Are you a Red dupe?"
>Mr. GAINES. Yes, sir I wrote it.
>Mr. HANNOCH. How has it been distributed?
>Mr. GAINES. It has not been distributed. It is going to be the inside front cover ad on five of my comic magazines which are forth coming.
>Mr. HANNOCH. And it is going to be an advertisement?
>Mr. GAINES. Not an advertisement. It is an editorial.
>Mr. HANNOCH. Do other magazines have copies of this to be used for the same purpose?
>Mr. GAINES. No, Sir.
>Mr. HANNOCH. You haven't made this available to the magazines as yet?
>Mr. GAINES. No, sir; and I don't intend to.
>Mr. HANNOCH. You believe the things that you say in this ad that you wrote?
>Mr. GAINES. Yes, sir.
>Mr. HANNOCH. That anybody who is anxious to destroy comics are Communists?
>Mr. GAINES. I don't believe it says that.
>Mr. HANNOCH. The group most anxious to destroy comics are the Conimunists?
>Mr. GAINES. True, but not anybody, just the group most anxious.
>The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other questions?
>Mr. HANNOCH. No.
>Mr. BEASER. I have some questions.

I guess it's so weird to politicise something that involved politicians right? Let me guess, you've never read Seduction Of the Innocent but read about it on Wikipedia?

No. They were taking his fucking dishonest panicky nutjob bullshit as fact- that's what led to literal comic book burnings- which also had nothing to do with the government.

Wertham lied, people died. Well, at least a few people's careers.

That dude's correct. The main justification for the CCA was because congress called comics "racist" and "hate propaganda" and compared the comics industry to the literal nazis and hitler.

Most of the anti-comics "movement" was literal communists. Wertham was a communist himself and HATED McCarthy and admitted in his testimony that the main force of anti-comics sentiment was communists who wanted to censor fictional violence because they thought it relieved aggression, which they didn't want because they believed angry youth were easier to manipulate into supporting communist agendas.

His book didn't cause shit. You're making a correlation where none exists. The CCA was literally DC's internal S&P code and it was pushed through congress by the head of Archie. Literally the only reason the CCA happened was because of Archie's connection to the government and DC's wanting to put their competitors out of business.

Also, Kefauver was literally the more far-left member of McCarthy- he also HATED McCarthy, and McCarthy hated him and accused him of being a communist and a "coon.". Kefauver was probably the most far-left member of the Senate until the 1980s.

>In addition, during the national hysteria generated by the mid-fifties phenomenon of McCarthyism, Kefauver was a consistent and outspoken defender of civil liberties. In what was perhaps the most courageous stand of his career, he was the only member of the Senate to vote against a measure in 1954 to make it a crime to belong to the Communist Party. [1]

Because it namedropped Anita Sarkeesian.

The CCA wasn't a fucking government body, what the fuck are you talking about with Congress?

Also, what led you to believe that Wertham's best-seller wasn't influential when it led to Senate hearings?

Read The Ten Cent Plague.

>Let me guess, you've never read Seduction Of the Innocent but read about it on Wikipedia?

This describes 99% of Sup Forums. They all have opinions on Wertham yet know NOTHING about the actual facts.

How is that a problem?

Wertham was the Anita Sarkeesian of the 1950s.

Yeah, he did a lot of damage.

>Read The Ten Cent Plague

Why don't you try reading the fucking book and the senate hearing transcripts instead.

You're asking me to read senate transcriptions... that I already posted???

Do you... think I posted those without reading them to know what was in them?

???

Is Anita a a the shitty Sup Forums version of Wertham? For the things i have read in this thread, it seams both were and are manipultive attention seekers.

he destroyed American comics forever, period and they haven't been able to recover. No wonder the most successful companies were still are Marvel and DC.

Looks like a pretty cool old dude.

She got her money and disappeared into obscurity after that UN fiasco.
I don't think she finished those videos.

Anyone whos saying this guy was farleft is a fucking redneck sapstic. He was as far right as they come.

isn't she trying a new series about history?

After a certain point they're all the same