Is Comic Book Censorship Needed
Comics are a form of art that, depending on how it is put together, it can relay many shades of the same story to the reader. There are many different genres for readers to choose from that present many different moral issues and stories to its readers. The comic book art form has become a very popular way to indulge in your favorite superhero, or just a good story. While Comics have always been entertaining their audiences, they tend to over exaggerate on how violence and crime are portrayed, especially to young readers. Some would say a comic is just a picture book that can have no effect on someone because it is just a story, and it is the responsibility of the reader to dismiss something that might not have a moral value in the end. However, there has been quite an extensive amount of negative images and acts that argue that censorship in comic books is important to the potential effects it can have on its readers and how they can think, or potentially act. Comic book censorship has been brought up on several different accounts. It goes all the way back to 1950’s when the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) created the Comics Code Authority. “ At the time, comics were selling more than eighty million copies a week. But unlike movies and the new TV industry, they were unregulated” (Hajdu 434). This issue went through many congressional hearings, which was all started because of Fredric Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham wrote this to show that these comics that kids would get a hold of do not just have pictures filled with happiness and cute singing dinosaurs, but full of scenes with excessive violence, provocative and gruesome images along with crime that is presented in the wrong light (Park 5). This is what forced comics to follow the Comic Code Authority, which still exists today, but does not hold much power against comics. This created a big uproar on judgment behind comics and the well being of the youth. Since then
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