HISTORY This Week: "The Great Comic Book Scare"

Episode Date: February 2, 2026
Host: Sally Helm
Guests/Commentators: David Hajdu (author, The Ten Cent Plague), Jeremy Dauber (author, American Comics)

Episode Overview

This episode explores the "Great Comic Book Scare" of the mid-20th century—a moral panic in the United States that targeted comic books as the cause for an alleged rise in juvenile delinquency. Through expert interviews, historical context, and memorable anecdotes from pivotal figures like Dr. Frederic Wertham and publisher Bill Gaines, the show examines why comics became the focus of mass anxiety, how the backlash shaped the industry, and what it can teach us about recurring cycles of public panic over new media.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Setting: Comic Books on Trial (00:39–05:00)

• Backdrop: February 1955, New York State—Comics are under scrutiny. Judge Charles F. Murphy, known as the "comics czar," is tasked with enforcing a new code meant to sanitize comic book content in response to mounting backlash against violence and immorality in comics.
• Demonstrations: Murphy shows legislators before-and-after panels to illustrate censorship in action—graphic violence and sexuality removed.
• Central Figure: Dr. Frederic Wertham, psychologist, dramatically presents a whip and knife (allegedly purchased from comic book ads) at a hearing, blaming crime comics for inspiring real-world violence, including the notorious "Brooklyn Thrill Killers" case.

  "I will go so far as to say that had it not been for the crime comic books, these particular crimes would not have been committed." —Frederic Wertham (03:44)

2. Origins of the Moral Panic (05:00–11:00)

• Comic Strips Predecessors: Early comics like "The Yellow Kid" (1895) and "The Katzenjammer Kids" generated controversy from their inception—facing accusations of promoting illiteracy and bad behavior.

  "They were faulted for everything they were and everything they did." —David Hajdu (05:52)

• Comics as Immigrant Art: Comics were created by and for immigrants, sparking anxieties with roots in xenophobia.
• The Rise of Comic Books: By the 1930s and '40s, comic books evolve, gaining mass popularity with superheroes like Superman and Captain America.

  "Comics were a contagion. They were a plague on American culture that was infesting young people in particular." —David Hajdu (06:05)

• Wartime Approval—and Postwar Suspicion: Superheroes thrive during WWII (e.g., Captain America punches Hitler). After the war, concerns about youth behavior intensify.

3. Comics and Juvenile Delinquency: The Postwar Anxiety (11:00–15:00)

• Societal Shift: Adults notice and fret about changing youth behavior: motorcycle gangs, leather jackets, rebellious attitudes, and experimenting with sex and drugs.
• Search for a Scapegoat: Comics are blamed, especially as their subject matter grows darker, reflecting the postwar cynicism and trauma lingering among veterans and the younger generation.

  "They started to fear that these comics could incite violent behavior in young people, that they were the cause of this new phenomenon, juvenile delinquency. And then all hell broke loose." —David Hajdu (11:38)

• Frederic Wertham Emerges: Popular psychologist Wertham becomes the figurehead for anti-comics sentiment, claiming every delinquent child he studied read comics.

  "We found that comic book reading was a distinct influencing factor in the case of every single delinquent or disturbed child we studied." —Frederic Wertham (14:00)

4. Early Self-Regulation Failures and Escalating Paranoia (14:50–18:50)

• Self-Policing Attempt: Publishers create a toothless code to preempt government action—no gore, no crime-glamour, no racism or sexism—but enforcement fails.

  "Almost everybody had left this association... their business was doing gangbusters..." —Jeremy Dauber (15:48)

• Bill Gaines & EC Comics: Gaines takes over EC, pivots from "Educational Comics" to "Entertaining Comics," publishing noir, crime, sci-fi, and pioneering horror comics for young adults rather than kids.
• Public Backlash: Waves of legislation, book burnings, and consumer boycotts pressure stores to drop comics.

  "There were dozens of public burnings of comic books in schoolyards and other locations..." —David Hajdu (17:34) "Concerned shoppers would fill their supermarket carts with frozen food and refuse to pay unless the store stopped selling comics." —Jeremy Dauber (17:47)

• Wertham’s ‘Seduction of the Innocent’: His 1954 book becomes the anti-comics manifesto, mixing reasonable suggestions (against racism, for rating systems) with wild claims (comics directly cause crime and perversion, superhero/sidekick relationships promote homosexuality).

5. The Senate Hearings & Public Humiliation (19:21–25:19)

• Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency (1954): The federal government steps in to investigate, spurred by tens of thousands of concerned citizens.

  "Are we afraid of our own children?... Do we think our children so evil, so vicious, so simple-minded that it takes but a comic magazine story of murder to set them to murder, of robbery to set them to robbery?" —Bill Gaines (23:05)

• Key Testimony: Wertham, in a white lab jacket, leverages his "expert" status to denounce comics.

  "It is my opinion without any reservation that comic books are an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency." —Frederic Wertham (22:31)

• Bill Gaines on the Stand: The EC publisher tries to defend the genre but falters under pressure and awkwardly justifies a grisly cover ("in good taste for a horror comic"), harming public perception.

  "A New York Times headline the next day reads, ‘comics publisher sees no harm in horror, discounts good taste.’" —Sally Helm (24:29)

6. The Aftermath: Collapse & Code Enforcement (25:25–26:53)

• Stronger Comics Code Established: Under threat of legislation, the industry creates and enforces an even stricter code—virtually ending crime and horror comics.

  "The comics industry essentially collapsed after this. The most mature, sophisticated, adventurous kinds of comics all folded up. And comics for a while became juvenile, happy, cheerful, and just a shadow of what they had been." —David Hajdu (26:09)

7. Cycles of Moral Panic & the Return of Underground Comics (26:53–28:48)

• The Pattern Repeats: The episode draws historical parallels—every generation faces a panic over new, challenging art forms (Plato, comics, video games).

  "All sorts of new things have some kind of moral anxiety that often comes about them. The kids are generally better off... We should be very leery about assigning any kind of monocausal explanation for a social phenomenon." —Jeremy Dauber (27:03)

• Alternative Comics Reemerge: Underground comics defy the code in the 1960s, leading its eventual abandonment (by 2011).
• Legacy of Bill Gaines: After quitting comics, Gaines founds Mad Magazine, which becomes a new countercultural touchstone, influencing subsequent generations.

  "Mad magazine, of course, became a central urtext in the development of juvenile delinquency, and countercultural feeling would go on to influence all the countercultural things." —Jeremy Dauber (28:38) "By 1960, almost 60% of American college students are reading Mad and being influenced by its countercultural ideas. The adults are not happy, and so the cycle keeps on going." —Sally Helm (28:48)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Frederic Wertham, villain or visionary?:

  "He was the Lex Luthor of the comic books debate." —Narrator/Commentator (13:27)

• On unfounded paranoia:

  "Look at a newspaper from 1948... there's a story almost every day about either the horror of comic books or the Red Scare or about flying saucers. And they're all of a piece of a post-war paranoia." —David Hajdu (14:33)

• Senate hearings spectacle:

  "An investigator makes his way solemnly through a series of posters... ‘The following picture shows the school teacher as she stabs her husband to death in order to inherit his money.’" —Senate Hearing Record (21:28)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Comics code enforcement and Wertham’s testimony | 01:39–04:51 | | Early comics and social anxiety | 05:00–07:31 | | Superheroes’ rise and onset of postwar panic | 07:31–11:38 | | Wertham’s crusade and postwar public fears | 12:15–14:33 | | Self-regulation, bill burnings, EC Comics | 15:14–18:50 | | Senate subcommittee: testimony and “public trial”| 19:29–25:19 | | Aftermath, code enforcement, industry collapse | 26:09–26:53 | | Moral panic cycles and the return of comics | 26:53–28:48 |

Takeaways

• The Great Comic Book Scare was shaped by xenophobia, generational anxiety, postwar trauma, and a tendency to blame new media for society’s ills.
• The crackdown nearly destroyed creative, mature American comics for decades, demonstrating the impact of cultural panics.
• Such moral panics repeat with every new art form—then fade as the culture adapts.
• Meaningful reform (like labeling, ratings) can get lost in the extremes of panic.
• Mad Magazine rose from the ashes of the comics code, showing how suppressed creativity often finds a new form.

Episode Tone

• Engaging, with a narrative drive and an eye toward big-picture historical patterns.
• Expert voices are authoritative but approachable; the host maintains a balanced, inquisitive tone throughout.

Guests Cited:

• David Hajdu, The Ten Cent Plague (Columbia University)
• Jeremy Dauber, American Comics (Columbia University)

Host: Sally Helm

Those interested in history, censorship, youth culture, or pop culture origins will find this episode a rich account of how comics came under fire, what was lost, and how the story echoes through today’s similar controversies.