A fifteen-year-old boy was accused of having shot and killed a boy of fourteen (the authorities chose to consider this accidental), of having thrown a cat from a roof, of having thrown a knife through a boy's foot, of sadistic acts with younger children, of having shot at a younger girl with a B.B. gun. After a full study of the psychological and social background, we came to the conclusion that the fact that he was an inveterate reader of comic books was an important contributing factor. His favorite comic book, read over and over, contained no less than eighty-one violent acts, including nineteen murders.
Even if the Howard Lang case had been the only one - there were many others - it should have been enough to make adults take steps against crime comics. This thirteen-year-old boy killed seven-year-old Lonnie in a dreadful fashion. In a lonely wood he stabbed him many times with a pocket knife, choked him, stamped and jumped on him, and then dropped on his face - four times - heavy blocks of concrete. After this, with the help of another boy, he hid the still-living victim under a heap of leaves. Lonnie lived another twelve to fourteen hours before finally dying in agony. The judge in the case, Judge Daniel A. Roberts, commented especially on the influence of crime comic books on Howard. He took judicial notice of twenty-six of the boy's comic books and stated that they showed
the homicidal, near-homicidal and brutal attacks upon the persons of the characters depicted by means of knives, guns, poison, arrows and darts, rocks off cliffs, etc.
It was testified that the defendant had observed or read these comic books since before he could actually read.
Judge Roberts further characterized these comic books as
startling in the extreme, and nauseating and degrading to the moral sense. That these publications are permitted to be sold to the youth of the country is a travesty upon the country's good sense. The crime and horror comics are extremely ugly in appearance, caused by their creators' diabolic twist of mind . . . sordid killings and gruesome plottings . . . something must be done . . . by law if the publishers will not properly censor their own work.
Glenn R. Winters, editor of the Journal of the American Judicature' Society, a leading publication on jurisprudence, commented on Judge Roberts's observation that it "may be verified by an examination of practically any copy of any of the magazines." Mr. Winters further wrote in this connection that people are entitled to the cherished right to believe that comic books
had nothing whatever to do with making a potential murderer out of Howard Lang and that he would have been as likely to go the same way on a literary diet of The Bobbsey Twins and Pilgrim's Progress, but millions of American parents deeply concerned about surrounding their children with proper influences will not be so convinced.
At the retrial of the case Judge John A. Sbarbaro also referred specifically to the bad influence of comic books. The judge said, that in his opinion:
After much consideration of this evidence the Court feels it to be his duty to make certain specific suggestions for much needed legislation . . . regulatory statutes restricting publication and distribution of harmful features of so-called comic books.
Despite all this, little Lonnie seems to have been forgotten and his horrible comic-book death has been in vain.
A very experienced youth counsellor in the course of group therapy in an institution asked two groups of delinquent boys whether and what they had learned about delinquency from comic books. From the first group, composed of nine boys from thirteen to fifteen, everyone said that he had received helpful suggestions from comic books:
1) Now listen to this. If you see a bathroom window lit up, you know someone is at home. If it's still lit next day, no one is at home. They leave the key in the mailbox, under mats or in corners. If you see a milk bottle and a note in it, the note gives you a pretty good idea of the house. If you keep up with the notes, you know everything.
"Another thing: after a bride and groom get married, they have a lot of presents they keep in the house, so the only thing you have to do is get two tickets to a show like Oklahoma, cost about $5.50 apiece. You send them to the bride and groom and they're pretty sure to go. On most tickets they have a date, so that you know when they go. When they're gone, you go in and take your time and help yourself.
"As smart as I am, I never thought of this. I got it all from the comics."
2) "I got my bad ideas from the comics, stabbing, robbing, stealing guns and all that stuff. In a comic book I read two kids rob a store and steal guns and get away and grow up to be bank robbers. So I did the same thing - only I didn't grow up to be a bank robber - yet!"
3) "I read about a perfect robbery and used parts of it. This was in a crime comic magazine, and it said these three men were still at large and didn't get caught, so I figured I could pull the same stuff."
The second group was made up of ten boys, twelve to sixteen. Except for one boy, all described the delinquency lessons of comic books:
1) "In the comics I saw a cat kicked by a man, so I kicked the cat because I saw it happen that way.
2) "I saw how to carry a gun in a suitcase and a shopping bag. If I ever had to do it, that's the way I'd do it."
3) "I learned how to break a seal off a freight car from the comics and how to put on another, so you don't get caught."
4) "I learned how to rob cars from the comics. They tell you, if the door's open, how to switch wires.
5) "I got this from the comics. The patrolman would make his beat. We'd find out what time he goes past and back. We saw how they take a strip from a window and take out the window, and we did the same. Another idea we got was taping the windows and cracking them. Then you take the tape off and pick the glass out. When a train goes past, like the Third Avenue El, we'd crack the window with our fist. We got all this from comics."
Some members of the Hookey Club described some of their delinquencies which had not been found out. One boy told how he had snatched purses from women.
In the comic books it shows how to snatch purses. You should read them if you got the time [To me.]. It shows a boy going to a woman and asking her where the church is. She naturally drops her arm and goes waving. So you just grab the purse and run. Usually they can't run after you. She has the bag in her hand, waving to a certain place. You just grab her arm. It was in different comic books. They all build that stuff up. You pick desolate places, where nobody is around.
If such delinquent fantasies are stirred in hundreds of thousands of children, it is inevitable that some of them will carry out their fantasies in fact.
There is no doubt that the impulse to commit a delinquent act is important. What counteracts the impulse, however, is equally important. In the children I have studied, I have endeavored to determine what perspective of life the child had and what it came from. Children, like adults, are impelled in different directions, good or bad. It is up to us to determine the factors which in the individual case tip the scales.
To disregard the comic-book factor is unfair to children, particularly in the light of the severe punishments they so often receive, after they have become delinquent. A little attention beforehand would do away with a lot of detention afterwards.
Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham (Rinehart & Company, Inc. New York, Toronto 1953, 1954)
GVN Talking Comics Interview: Writer J. Holtham For Oni Press ‘Epitaphs From The Abyss’
In 1949, EC Comics, also known as Entertaining Comics, began a new series of publications under the direction of Bill Gaines, who succeeded his late father Max. This series included horror-themed titles such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. These publications took delight in a macabre exuberance, often concluding with grimly ironic twists for the protagonists of the stories. The covers of these titles often followed suit and despite the grim stories being told, the EC Horror line was quite popular with readers. Especially YOUNG readers. This proved to be a problem for parents and those critics who worried about the possible effect such stories had on young minds.
The scrutiny of comic books, especially those by Dr. Fredric Wertham, escalated following the release of his book “Seduction of the Innocent” in 1954. This publication, coupled with a highly publicized Congressional hearing on juvenile delinquency, portrayed comic books, and specifically the EC line, in a very negative light. The situation led to publishers opting for self-censorship through the formation of the Comics Code Authority. However, Gaines chose not to participate in the Association, and on September 14, 1954, EC discontinued its horror line of comics.
In February 2024, Oni Press announced the revival of the EC brand, licensed by the Gaines family, beginning with the horror series ‘Epitaphs from the Abyss.’ This series, as well as future ones, will showcase the talents of a diverse group of writers and artists, perpetuating the legacy of the original series famed for its notable creators who contributed to the EC Horror line. Such names include Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Will Elder, George Evans, Frank Frazetta, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, Joe Orlando, John Severin, Al Williamson, Basil Wolverton, and Wally Wood.
This Week In APORIA
Ever wonder why billionaires from outside the country get involved in U.S. politics? The Crypto Bros have been running the same scam for well over a decade now…. and they NEVER give up. Everybody knows it’s a pyramid scheme for mobsters looking for an easy way to launder their filthy lucre. Judd Legum explains:
15 years after Bitcoin was created, there are still few legitimate use cases. Today, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are primarily used for financial speculation and to facilitate organized crime. The broader crypto industry, meanwhile, has been rocked by scandals, including the spectacular implosion of FTX and criminal charges against Binance.
But crypto lobbyists still have one ace up their sleeves: lots of money.
The industry's primary Super PAC, Fairshake, has raised over $202 million in the 2024 election cycle. Most of this money was collected in the form of 8-figure contributions.
Coinbase alone has donated $70 million so far, and crypto investors like Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, and the Winklevoss twins have written multi-million dollar checks. The largest individual donors are also supporting Trump's candidacy. This money dwarfs the spending by Sam Bankman-Fried in the 2022 election cycle. Of the approximately $45 million Fairshake and its subsidiaries have expended thus far, two-thirds was used to attack Democrats or support Republicans. The cash stockpile positions the industry to be one of the most powerful forces in politics over the next 100 days.
The strategy appears to be paying off.
Fred’s Video Collection
It’s funny to think that the birth of our country’s strip clubs traces back to a total drip like Barry Goldwater, but that conservative also-ran was in San Francisco to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president when — on the night of June 19, 1964 — a lounge singer by the name of Carol Doda decided to show the city what she thought about his “traditional American values.”
Okay, technically it was PR maven Davey Rosenberg who had the idea for Doda to descend from the ceiling of the Condor Club in a monokini with her nipples on full display, and the fact that Goldwater was in town for the RNC was more of a coincidence than anything else, but those pesky facts didn’t stop Doda from stealing the Republicans’ thunder and becoming a political icon all her own. Goldwater’s sons even came to see Doda’s show before they returned to the campaign trail, blissfully unaware that the half-naked blonde they watched sing atop a baby grand piano would soon be regarded as a symbol of the women’s liberation movement their father was promising to stop in its tracks.
David Ehrlich, IndieWire