HEY! KIDS! COMICS! The Dr. Fredric Wertham Memorial Funnybook Collection: The Comics Featured in Seduction of the Innocent

This week was Banned Books Week. I decided to celebrate by seeing how many of the comics featured in Fredric Wertham‘s notorious book Seduction of the Innocent I could find floating out on the internet to share with the world in one convenient location.

Wertham’s writings on comic books as a cause of juvenile delinquency were very influential in the senatorial investigation into juvenile delinquency in 1953, and Seduction of the Innocent went on to become a best-seller, outraging parents across the nation.

Public outrage over the content of comic books led to some spineless publishers of the time adopting what is probably the most restrictive code of censorship for a medium in American history, The Comics Code (which can be read in its entirety on Wikipedia). While it was never an explicit requirement to adhere to the comics code, after the code was introduced, distributors would not carry books that didn’t have the Comics Code seal.

Following the adoption of the comics code, comic books became more puerile and less interesting for a long time, and many comic book publishers went out of business (some have argued it was at least partially a ploy by the larger comic book publishers to drive their smaller competition out of business).

Some of the rules of the comics code have to be seen to be believed (example: “Policemen, judges, Government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.”)… I highly recommend reading it.

So, while the comics in Seduction of the Innocent were not necessarily censored themselves (there were some organized comic book burnings around that time), they were directly responsible for inspiring one of the most repressive campaigns of censorship in American history. It crippled creativity in comic books for many years… some comics are STILL published with the comics code on the cover today!

Obviously, many of the below comics are not intended for children. While all of them were probably read by children, they were not necessarily the intended audience for them as far as the cartoonists were concerned. Harvey Kurtzman’s Frontline Combat, for example, was written with a military audience in mind, and Kurtzman frequently received fan letters from men in the military.

A big part of the reason comics were hard to defend at the time was the popular, pea-brained notion the general public had that comics as a medium was inherently intended for children… this notion had a lot to do with why children were ending up reading material intended for adults.

It has always been a lot easier for some parents to blame a convenient scapegoat like comic books, video games or bubble gum for their childrens’ problems than it is to blame their own parenting shortcomings.

Fortunately, today comics seem to have finally found mainstream acceptance among intelligent adults in the US… but it was a really long haul. It was made a lot longer than it should have been by the repressive Comics Code.

About the below comics…

If the images are in color, they are available to download. If they are in black and white no download is available. Clicking on an image will take you to a larger, color version of that image… links to download sites are below the images after a brief text description. More information about the below books can be found here.

I plan on updating this list as more comics become available… if you know of good locations to download the missing comics, or if you see errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments.

A1 Guns of Fact and Fiction #13

SOTI text mention page 19.

No download found.

All-Famous Crime #9

SOTI illustration. Caption: “The wish to hurt or kill couples in Lovers’ Lanes is a not uncommon perversion.”

No download found.

All-Top #14

SOTI illustration. Caption: “Corpses of colored people strung up by their wrists.”

A1 Guns of Fact and Fiction #13

All-Famous Crime #9

All-Top #14

Authentic Police Cases #3

Authentic Police Cases #6

Authentic Police Cases #27

Beware #6

Beware #12

Beyond #27

Black Cat Comics #27

Black Cat Mystery #36

Black Cat Mystery #39

Blue Beetle #54

Blue Beetle #56

Brenda Starr V.2 #4

Bugs Bunny Diamond Daze (Four Color #250)

Captain Video #2

Chamber of Chills #7

Classic Comics #10: Robinson Crusoe

Classic Comics #13: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Classic Comics #15: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Classic Comics #43: Great Expectations

Classic Comics #44: Mysteries of Paris

Classic Comics #50: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Classic Comics #55: Silas Marner

Classic Comics #68: Julius Caesar

Crime and Punishment #2

Crime and Punishment #3

Crime and Punishment #59

Crime Can’t Win #10

Crime Clinic #3

Crime Detective #9

Crime Does Not Pay #63

Crime Does Not Pay #64

Crime Files #5

Crime Reporter #2

Crime Smashers #1

Crime Supenstories #19

Crime Supenstories #20

Crimes By Women #3

Crimes By Women #10

Dagar, Desert Hawk #19

Dagar, Desert Hawk #21

Dynamic Comics #17

Eerie Adventures #1

Exposed #6

Exposed #7

Famous Crimes #3

Famous Crimes #7

First Love Illustrated #35

Frontier Romances #1

Frontier Romances #1 (reprint)

Frontline Combat #4

Fugitives From Justice #3 (see Authentic Police Cases #27)

Giant Comics Edition #4 (reprint of Red Seal #16)

Harvey Comics Library #1

Haunt Of Fear #17 (#3)

Haunt Of Fear #19

Hopalong Cassidy #5

Hopalong Cassidy & the Mad Barber

Howdy Doody #6

Hunted #13

Ideal, A Classical Comic #3

Inside Crime #2

Jon Juan #1

Journey Into Fear #15

Jungle Comics #98

Justice Traps the Guilty #13

Justice Traps the Guilty #58

Kewpies #1

Killers #1

Law Against Crime #3

Lawbreakers Always Lose #7

Martin Kane #4

Meet Corliss Archer #1

Meet Corliss Archer #2

Meet Corliss Archer #3

Murder Incorporated #8

Murder Incorporated #9

My Life #4 (previously Meet Corliss Archer)