Comic Book Censorship - How Did Some Companies Avoid The Comics Code?

Comic Book Censorship - How Did Some Companies Avoid The Comics Code? | Dell Edition

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Күн бұрын

Comic Book history has many twists and turns, and of course some pivotal moments that change everything. 1954 and the adoption of the Comic Code across the industry, after years or rising moral panic surrounding the medium, is one such moment. However, a couple of players managed to avoid using the CCA seal/stamp of approval. Dell comics was one such publisher. The how's and whys of this are not exactly what some modern readers may expect. Dell comics didn't have a code instead it had a pledge for parents. While DC comics and Marvel comics may rule the modern (time of typing lol) era they didn't even exists as we know them in the time the code rose to prominence. Instead there were other power players such as Dell who had ties to Disney, Warner Brothers and more! Find out how and why they avoided the Comics Code here on Casually Comics!
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Comic Book Censorship - Was The Comics' Code That Bad?
• Comic Book Censorship ...
#casuallycomics #comics #comicbooks #dellcomics #history #comicbookhistory
0:00 Intro
1:23 History
6:26 Dell Comics Statement
10:12 No Code/Parents Pledge
14:18 In Conclusion
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Пікірлер: 278

@CasuallyComics Жыл бұрын

Reading The Comics Code kzfaq.info/get/bejne/irGHqLiW1pixqnU.html

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

Nice to see a follow up on this subject. Dell was something special back in the day.

@tomcruisenukedmyaccount5388 Жыл бұрын

Awesome video.

@kcollier2192 Жыл бұрын

Love these history lessons on things like the Comics Code. More of such topics would be welcomed by myself and, i suspect, others.

@paultapner2769 Жыл бұрын

Like me

@rodneylindsey849 Жыл бұрын

Definitely agree 🖖🏾

@slake9727 Жыл бұрын

Agreed

@stevenbogart169 Жыл бұрын

I definitely agree.

@princesskatarina351 Жыл бұрын

Agree × 5

@dallasgrey4247 Жыл бұрын

Instead of trying to stop Seduction of the Innocent from being published they should have used Wertham’s words against him. On page 245 Wertham says: “It’s true that many children read comic books and few become delinquent. But that proves nothing.” They could have made a claim that their comics were not causing delinquency and that Wertham is disproving his own argument.

@nicodemous52 Жыл бұрын

I actually have a few Dell comics in my collection. I find the whole thing very weird with the code. I think it is partly why we never had a comic culture here like say in Europe or Japan, because the code made folks in the US look at it as only for kids, and really I guess they already felt that way, which is why they felt they needed the code to begin with.

@nicholashodges201 Жыл бұрын

Even if they didn't see comics as "for kids only" it STILL would have happened. You only need to look at the Hayse Code to see that. Unfortunately there's ALWAYS been a segment of our population made uneasy by freedom of thought or action and either beg for the hand of authority or try to be it. And it doesn't matter left or right, and they often work in concert to fulfill that demand

@nicodemous52 Жыл бұрын

@@nicholashodges201 You have a point. On the flip side, I wonder if it was all good for us. As we've loosened up on standards it's hard not to notice that our society has become a cesspit of debauchery and idiocy. Perhaps those former standards were holding that back on some way.

@nicholashodges201 Жыл бұрын

If anything the current stupidity is just an extension of what I was talking about. The jackwads we're dealing with only want things like free expression and "adult liberty for *themselves* They want the rest of us to just shut up and die

@bluehero-96 Жыл бұрын

@@nicodemous52 No. The growing lack of standards is mostly the result of unfettered capitalism, not overly religious helicopter parents.

@nicodemous52 Жыл бұрын

@@bluehero-96 what? Who is blaming religious parents for the erosion of standards? And you can blame capitalisms to a point, but they are just marketing. There is a reason marketing has changed, our standards have changes. I think you have that part backwards. Marketing will move with standards, because they want to sell. Back in the day, they were smart enough to realize offending people is not how you sell things.

@gilgy4626 Жыл бұрын

“The code is more what you’d call ‘guide lines’ than actual rules” - Some guy at Dell

@tomorrow4eva Жыл бұрын

-Captain Barbossa

@orinanime Жыл бұрын

I'm loving this dive into the 40s/50s/60s and the comics code. I'd love to see you cover even more material.

@pkfatstephen6287 Жыл бұрын

I remember Tipper Gore's attempt to regulate content in music back in the late 90s - early 00s. It just led to the privatization of media. People sifted from public radio to Sirius. Public TV to cable's premium packages. I would argue, media consumption being so outrageously high in cost is a direct result of censorship.

@bluehero-96 Жыл бұрын

"Never let a good crisis go to waste." - vulture capitalists.

@seanraines5871 7 ай бұрын

She wasn't getting any so she heard sex everywhere (twisted sister)

@christopherulichney Жыл бұрын

Keep up this series. I once did a semester long research paper on this topic so I love hearing someone else talk abut it. The lack of actual scientific studies tocounter Wertham's arguments has lays bothered me. My professor called me out on not including any🎉 rebuttal studies in my paper and I had to tell him there weren't any. Big fan of your work on the comics code era. ❤❤❤❤

@tskmaster3837 Жыл бұрын

The primary success of Dell comics is based upon the talents of writer/artist Carl Barks with one small, minor detail: Carl Barks was an outside contractor working for Disney so he never read the Dell Comics Pledge. So he broke it, constantly. You know, for kids. Honestly, he did for his own entertainment as he worked in pretty much an editor-less vacuum who only saw his work after it was completed. Dell DID send Barks a list of Don't, eventually.... in the 50s, after he broke most of them in the 40s. That's how you ended up with Donald Duck fighting a zombie in "Voodoo Hoodoo" or enjoying the sight of women in bikinis on the Riveria in "Dangerous Disguise". Barks would get lightly rebuked after the fact with notes of "Don't draw humans" or "don't do horror". Meanwhile, Barks creates added material "Trick or Treat" which gets censored prior to printing; "STOP doing horror". "Don't show death."... also Dangerous Disguise... "don't show snakes." Even Barks thought that one was weird. He did it anyways because... Barks really. Barks was Dell's silent, unknown cashcow so Dell didn't want to upset him all that much, least they kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. They were dead the day he retired and they knew it.

@darthmaltodextrin1899 Жыл бұрын

In the 90s, Don Rosa did a series called The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck where he took a bunch of Barks references to Scrooge's past and turned them into a hilarious story. Disney recently banned that series from publication because of Bombie the zombie. ☹️

@richardranke3158 9 ай бұрын

Carl Barks was told to write for a pre-teen audience. He did, but he never underestimated the intelligence of the average pre-teen.:-)

@tomcolby5821 Жыл бұрын

Another great history lesson Sasha! Knowledge of disingenuous censorship in the past should make it easier to recognize today. The past is indeed prologue.

@BladeRedwind Жыл бұрын

I think parents should just take an active interest in their kids media consumption and quit trying to ruin it for the rest of us and other parents by expecting book sellers, libraries, and online services to parent their children.

@tomorrow4eva Жыл бұрын

Amen. Every media panic comes back to this.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

That would take time and a modicum of concern that most parents I know seem to lack.

@GambleChance Жыл бұрын

This will never change.

@Polycomical Жыл бұрын

Fascinating stuff. I forget if there has been a video on this but it's still crazy how an American and British publisher both came up with Dennis The Menace within a couple of months and it really was a total coincidence.

@TheBandicootNerd131 Жыл бұрын

I'd love to see a retrospective on EC Comics side in all of this. It sounds fascinating!

@Skeezer66 Жыл бұрын

I have no problem with Dell's POV. If I'm Disney animation, I don't want to be lumped in with Ralph Bakshi! I'd like to hear more about the history of Harvey comics. When I was a kid in the 70's, I read as many of their books (Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc.) as I did the superhero ones.

@rodneylindsey849 Жыл бұрын

This video is one of those things I didn’t know I needed, until you Brilliantly gave it to me 👊🏾…I think Dell’s strategy while largely C.Y.A. was also brilliant…If the public is crying out for wholesomeness, give it to them & convince them that you are doing for them , & don’t need big brother to regulate you 🤷🏾‍♂️ …More videos like this Please …Keep Up The Outstanding Work Sasha 🖖🏾

@ryangreen6255 Жыл бұрын

Sasha tends to do it all brilliantly...if not with sass and salt.

@rodneylindsey849 Жыл бұрын

No Arguments, this is my Favorite Channel 🖖🏾

@d-manthecaptain1382 Жыл бұрын

Walt Disney Comics And Stories issue 123 features a sadly untitled story where Donald sleep walks into a strangers bed, and when the guy wakes up and sees a duck he says "(Gulp!) A duck! Now where did I pick up with a duck? I get acquainted with the darnest people!" This seems to be imply that this guy mistakeningly thinks he had a drunken one night stand with Donald, which, this was awhile before The Dell Pledge but still funny in hindsight. Also for some reason Donald wears his blue sailor suit from the cartoons, and the newphews wear color coded shirts, which is weird because it had become the standard a few years before to draw Donald wearing a black sailor suit in every comic, and the boys were black shirts with only the hats colored.

@willmendoza8498 Жыл бұрын

More comics history please! Really enjoying this series on the Code

@Dougeb7 Жыл бұрын

I have really enjoyed both of your full vids on the comics code. I was born well after the code was adopted, and I started reading comics after the hysteria had died down and things relaxed a bit. But comics were still published with the little code stamp, and i used to wonder who this mysterious "authority" was. Some other companies could probably have made similar claims as Dell, such as Archie Comics, but they chose to adopt the code. I kind of respect Dell for their stance, as it didn't make sense to lump their brand in with publishers of more adult-themed Horror and Crime Comics. Personally, I prefer the freedom of the marketplace. Parents should have been the ones deciding what their children should read, and publishers that produced comics too edgy for the mainstream would have been restricted by lower sales and distribution, while still being available to those who enjoyed that content. But it is what it is, and a lot of great comics were produced in this era. You did such a great job with this; it was very professional and well informed and had all the personality and humor of a Casually Comics video that I love. I felt like I was in a college class, taking my favorite subject with the coolest teacher on campus who knows how to make the material fun. Your obvious talents have my utmost respect.

@sarawelling5271 Жыл бұрын

I read plenty of horror comics during the Silver Age not only in comics proper but also in comics magazines published by Warren and Eerie. Of the comics, countless titles featured monsters and scary stories. No less an influencer than Boris Karloff added his name to a title that ran for several years initially tied to his TV show, Thriller.

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

Not only did he (or a drawing of Karloff) introduce the stories, sometimes he was even featured as a character in the story. Not sure if Karloff himself was aware of the comics or cared.

@graduator14 Жыл бұрын

Casual history lessons are the best history lessons!

@rubiconprime1429 Жыл бұрын

Take a shot every time Sasha says “good comics”

@dwaynemuth8775 Жыл бұрын

I’ve been reading comics for quite awhile and this kind of knowledge needs to definitely see the light of day! More please!🎯👍⚡️❤️

@JKevinCarrier Жыл бұрын

Thanks as always for doing the research and bringing the receipts! I've often heard about William Gaines' testimony before the Senate, but never Helen Mayer's. It's interesting to speculate about what might've happened if the publishers had all presented a united front and argued against censorship, but pretty much everyone was just covering their own butts and were happy to throw each other under the bus. More comics history videos would definitely be welcomed by me, it's an endlessly fascinating subject.

@StephanieM772 Жыл бұрын

As a little kid in the 50’s I was a huge fan of Dell Comics, buying pretty much only Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, and other “funny animal” books. I still collect vintage Dell Comics and Carl Barks reprint volumes. Dell Comics were a big part of my childhood.

@cookieDaXapper Жыл бұрын

wow Sasha,.....just WOW!!!!!! Your thoroughness to the medium is SUPERB, love your content, AND LOVE YOU dear Sister. Keep up the MAGNIFICENT work, you have my Supreme Thanks and RESPECT. PEACE AWESOME Lady, and God bless you and your Family with Favor continually.

@emenefer Жыл бұрын

I don't understand how you manage to churn out the videos so frequently but I appreciate it.

@Planag7 Жыл бұрын

I love your channel and the expanded on the Comics Code! I only really know the TV and movie side of things and how the Hays code affected that. It's always good to know multiple aspects of History

@PharaohOfTheDamned Жыл бұрын

"Gaming! I mean comics!" I want you to know I very loudly barked out a laugh

@AnkfordPlays Жыл бұрын

I pretty much learned to read because of Disney comics, so I guess I owe Dell comics thanks. In these parts they still reprint classic Carl Barks Duck comics now and again. I actually have a reprint of Anders And & Co. #1 (Donald Duck & Co.) from 1949 and on the back of the magazine they have a written statement ensuring parents that "this is enriching for the child and teaches them good values with fun adventures" (This is the same magazine that features Donald chasing his nephews with a stick to whoop their bums for teasing him btw, times have changed xD)

@KasumiKenshirou Жыл бұрын

Disney recently told Don Rosa that two of his stories were now banned from being reprinted, one of which is part of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, due to the presence of Bombi the Zombie.

@darkguardian1314 Жыл бұрын

Growing up there were comics for everyone. Kiddy comics like Saturday mornings for the little ones, hero and romance comics for teens. I think Archies is the last of the romamace comics still around. Then there's the adult college age comics like Terror, Creep Show, Horror, and gore. This followed the local talent running Friday and Saturday night movies like Elvira Ghoulardi, The Ghoul, Hoolahan and Big Chuck... Nudes were a niche for Heavy Metal and Playboy...mostly Europe and Japan.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

There's still a good mix for different age ranges and interests, but you won't find them all from just the Big Two. And you certainly won't find them in regular stores the way you once did. It's pretty much all specialty comic shops now, and even then many of the books will never get ordered unless you subscribe to them. No stumbling across something new at the newsstand (as if those exist any more) or the drug store or your supermarket.

@darkguardian1314 Жыл бұрын

@@richmcgee434 Yeah I got all my comics at the Drug store...they had a malt shop attached. Closed in 1979...

@jimgillespie6109 Жыл бұрын

An instant Casually Comics Classic! Well done! How about a future video on Dell's super-hero monsters that you touched upon. I think they just might be up your alley.

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

Frank Stone, Al U. Card & Wiley Wolf! All drawn (terribly) by Tony Tallarico. He also drew Dell's Lobo, the 1st comic named for an African American character.

@andynystrom1519 Жыл бұрын

What would be also interesting to look at is Casper and Hot Stuff, one of whom is presumably the spirit a dead boy and the other a confirmed devil. Maybe it was just that common sense prevailed and the Comics Code Authority realized that while those characters violated the letter of the code, they were harmless enough to be in keeping with the spirit of the code.

@aldinbaroza9640 Жыл бұрын

Yeah, the Harvey books were obviously not horror comics. Satanic panic didn't arrive until the Reagan years.

@KasumiKenshirou Жыл бұрын

I remember reading that they claimed that Casper was always just a ghost and not actually a dead person. I'm not sure if it was like that when the character was originally created, though. (And I think that live action movie shows how he died, so they obviously didn't stick with that story.)

@andynystrom1519 Жыл бұрын

I've heard that claim too. But that begs the question: What is a ghost if not the soul of a dead person?

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

Why does everyone leave Wendy out of this discussion? Is it the "Good" in the title? She's a practicing witch for crying out loud, the type that Colonial era Protestants (and a fair number of modern Born Agains) get all bent about and start collecting firewood for. Probably still has a third nipple for her familiar to suckle blood out of, "good" or not. :)

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

I remember Hot Stuff had an uncle who collected cuss words & came back from Mars with the worst thing a Martian can say: "Gazonka Lukas!!" (it's been over 50 years since I read that, so I could be a bit off)

@Sammmmmmmm617 Жыл бұрын

I wish we got that counter study done. I'm 99% sure, a majority of those horror/crime books are adults 😆

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

It probably wasn't quite that high, although that was the target audience. Remember that the late 40s and 50s were an era where gangster and noir crime films and shows (both radio and TV) were enormously popular and not just for kids. The 50s also saw the rise of the low-budget monster movie and a continuation of films about the classic literary monsters Universal had popularized. Kids were watching this stuff and reading the comics - but I doubt they amounted to more than 10-15% of the overall sales. Just enough to drive the hysteria and pearl-clutching.

@wariodude128 Жыл бұрын

One thing I know for sure about Dell is they released a series called Four Color Comics. It ran for 1,354 issues. I don't know of any other comic title that has run for so many issues, but some are only now getting close. If you do another video regarding the code, I'd like to see one on Archie Comics. Formerly MLJ Comics named after Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Leonard Goldwater, the name changed in 1946 to Archie Comics after a comic featuring a freckled redhead became popular. Not only did they go all in on the comics code, but they were one of the last holdouts to keep the code if not THE last. Haven't read one in awhile, but sort of hope Archie and Valerie as an item is still a thing.

@MoonjumperReviews Жыл бұрын

Excellent documentary video. One thing that Dell got right was acknowledging that kids exist. That’s one things that modern comics have seemed to have forgotten. It’s great having more mature titles that adults can enjoy, but let’s not be so selfish in wanting to entertain ourselves that we forget about our own kids. I grew up loving Batman. I still love Batman. But try finding a Batman or Bat-family comic that a child can actually read or a Bat-related TV show or movie that a kid can actually watch. They virtually don’t exist. And eventually that means the end of Batman because today’s kids aren’t growing up with it. He’s being hogged by their parents who actually get pissed off if a comic or comic book movie seems too kid-friendly. A generation of parents who think only of themselves and not their own kids - which adds up to a dwindling market. Dell wasn’t wrong.

@mttylerdurden9 Жыл бұрын

There are plenty of kid friendly comics being published by the big 2 and other companies. DC still publishes Scooby Doo, young adult, and all ages comics. I see them in my comic store all the time. Dark horse,boom studios and IDW publish a lot of licensed comics for children.

@MoonjumperReviews Жыл бұрын

@@mttylerdurden9 - But no Batman? Why are superheroes suddenly relegated to adults-only? Are we that immature that superheroes are only for us now? Well, I guess they’ll die with us. Shame.

@TeruteruBozusama Жыл бұрын

When I think of American comics I think Disney (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and their universe) and superhero comics (that I hardly read myself because there's so much among other things but find fascinating to hear about. I have read other American comics, The Prince and the Dressmaker, My Aunt is a Monster, and the Avatar/Korea comics, but with their Asian ambience and/or authors do I think of that. I also read many American WebToons and Web comics, but my head places them as "internet" instead 😅 But with what you said people feared about comics... So... Miyamoto say before complaining about video games it was rock and roll, then... It means before rock and roll it was action movies and before action movies it was comics and before comics it was books I guess? How dare the youth have fun?!

@seventhbracken4466 Жыл бұрын

Really liking these comics-code-era videos, looking forward to the next one.

@GleeChan Жыл бұрын

Like Sasha said, the main reason for the outrage was the protection of children from questionable material... yet no serious study was given on who was actually buying that material. Soooo while self-indulgent, I think Dell made great points.

@Raatcharch Жыл бұрын

Very much enjoying your Comics Code historical series!

@Therese504 Жыл бұрын

Another fantastic video & a fascinating window into the past. I think we could delve a bit deeper & compare/contrast that "panic" with others in recent history & current events. Thank you so much for your amazing work

@leonardkrol2600 Жыл бұрын

Teen age dope fiends was my favorite comic when I was young. You brought back many happy memories.

@stephenvelez9710 Жыл бұрын

Sasha, this is awesome, well-researched, beautifully edited, perfectly delivered. More comic’s history, plz❤

@harryschlitz4067 Жыл бұрын

Another Great Breakdown Sasha, I have some of these Dells in my collection, Disney-Warner Bros etc etc and my issues have the Dell Code. Great, back when big corporations were believed.

@goredongoredon Жыл бұрын

I had access to a variety of comics as a child including Dell - mostly Donald Duck and other Disney comics. My favorites were Harvey Comics which I can't imagine having the comic code stamp on them since they were books like Baby Huey and Casper, but after watching this video I'm not so sure now.

@dennismason3740 Жыл бұрын

MAD Magazine - Bill Gaines' baby - was insanely subversive in the late fifties early sixties. Mister Gaines did what no one else could and he used writers and artists of horror and crime comics, which were basically outlawed.

@KennAKALeo Жыл бұрын

*sigh* The never ending crusade to avoid saying "absent parenting leads to criminality among youth." Past few decades, it's been video games. There was time when I was young when it was table-top role playing games. Before that it was Saturday morning cartoons, and before that comic books. One of the biggest "gee this is kind of pointless" about the code is it wasn't installed until after the Korean War ended. WW2 ended in 1945, but the occupying forces in Germany and Japan remained. But when Korea started, the occupations finally started ending. So by 1954, the dads were finally being sent home. Also a not insignificant portion of the of the people who bought comics: GIs, stopped buying them as often. The need to buy cheap disposable entertainment at the PX dwindled. So yeah, Dell distanced themselves from the Comics Code. I'm not sure the CCA ever did any goo anyway.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

I think I'd use the term "incompetent" rather than "absent" there. Plenty of people actually manage to make their children worse people by being there for them. Abusive behavior, addictions, bigotry, insane religious beliefs, those are all easily passed on, and as harmful or worse as absentee parenting is.

@jordanasiegel2099 Жыл бұрын

The comics code is really interesting history to learn about. I hope you make this into a series.

@taha_boy Жыл бұрын

This is one of my favourite videos of yours. I have literally never heard any other comic on youtube talk about the larger landscape around the code. I am doing an animation module at university rn and am soo bringing this up with my lecturer next class to talk about censorship and the idea of cartoons/animation being for children! Such a good video

@haldon12 Жыл бұрын

I have a lot of fond memories of reprints of Dell comics. Loved those early Donald Duck and Scrooge comics. Was Harvey Comics part of this same 'good comics' move to preempt/reject the code?

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

Harvey published some of the most violent horror comics in the '50's, but when the Code was implemented they did a 180 & put out the most innocuous kiddy comics out there: Casper, Richie Rich, Little Audrey, Sad Sack, Hot Stuff (the Little Devil), all with the CCA Seal on the covers.

@haldon12 Жыл бұрын

@@johnpjones182 I didn't know that! Amazing - this is part of what u love about this channel.

@unrequin4805 Жыл бұрын

Why couldn’t they just put a label on the comic that said 15+ up or 18+ up so that parents could gauge whether to buy the comic for the kid or the vendor could sell it to a a kid that visited

@DoubleMrE 6 ай бұрын

I had some Dell Comics years ago, and I never noticed that they didn’t have the CCA seal. Slightly mind blowing.😮 Thanks for this vid and aloha from Hawaii. 🤙

@GunmadMadman Жыл бұрын

I think my grandparents had some dell comics. I’d read them on occasion

@tchristensen81 Жыл бұрын

You are an amazing comic academic.

@dadaoh9112 Жыл бұрын

OMG one of the finest analysis of this period of comic publishing I have ever read. God bless and thank you so much for getting this out there!!

@ryangreen6255 Жыл бұрын

You just made me fall in love with Dell all the more.

@CardboardBots Жыл бұрын

Great topic. Very educational video. I didn't know that Dell avoided the code. Do we know if they suffered in sales because they didn't adopt the code?

@notaraven Жыл бұрын

Fascinating glimpse in part of the reason why EC was never able to gather industry wide support against the establishment of the comics code. It's easy to see the situation as regulators vs the industry but each company often has different demographics and moral values. I can imagine companies trying to figure how to screw over their competitors or exploit the situation. I am vaguely reminded of the ESRP rating, where nintendo threw sega under the bus by using a similar argument that Dell did.

@100dfrost Жыл бұрын

I read a lot of Dell Comics, I didn't remember it much. We also read a lot of Gold Key, usually a presentation of classical novels.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

For me, childhood Gold Key is all about their weird fantasy and scifi stuff. Magnus Robot Fighter, Space Family Robinson, Samson, Star Trek, Turok - oh, and Ripleye's Believe It Or Not, which was way stranger than it sounds. Almost lightweight EC fare, that one was.

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

You're thinking of Classics Illustrated, which was published by Gilberton.

@klscott6262 Жыл бұрын

I’m glad you did your research this was definitely a eye opener

@ryantwombly720 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic coverage as usual. Casually Comics are good comics (videos)!

@abrealcomics4149 Жыл бұрын

Between Dell publishing and Dell comics you could say it was a pledge on both their houses

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

They still publish crossword puzzle magazines. Not sure if they still put out paperbacks.

@supernova1969 Жыл бұрын

Excellent Presentation. Thanks a lot Sasha

@geraldmartin7703 Жыл бұрын

Dell actually had a "horror" line, "Ghost Stories" (1962-73). Weak compared to E.C.; but the few I read as a kid were "problematic". Dell also had a weak Mad Magazine knock off, "Yak Yak", which ran a couple of issues in 1962. Perhaps Dell was looking to expand to a "more mature" audience.

@camerondodge2070 Жыл бұрын

Funny how timely this video is for me, I was just looking into some of their old stuff. They had a Monkees comic for a bit, which automatically makes them the best comic company.

@jamesallard7223 Жыл бұрын

Why do I watch every episode of yours? Videos like this one. 10/10

@barbwyer5322 Жыл бұрын

i love this series!!! i only know a surface level of the CODE

@ssatva Жыл бұрын

Love this history, I didn't know this about Dell though I remember seeing their pledge on older comics! Interesting times, and something I wouldn't have know about, thank you!

@spews1973 Жыл бұрын

Yes, I love hearing about the history of this era and I'm really looing forward to seeing more videos about it.

@AgentownshipRebelion Жыл бұрын

This was really interesting. Thanks for sharing!

@carolgottlieb1271 Жыл бұрын

i would love more comic book history lessons

@Darknamja Жыл бұрын

I was a big fan of Dell comics in the early '60s. 😉

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

I wish there were comics for kids today.

@EinDose Жыл бұрын

Dell's arguments remind me of Nintendo's when video game classifications came around: objecting not because they were publishing objectionable content, but because they WEREN'T and they resented being tarred with the same brush. Right down to them eventually publishing exactly the sort of things they were originally saying they never would!

@betitoargento Жыл бұрын

Very informative and interesting, thanks for the video!

@benjabarker1255 Жыл бұрын

I love these deep dives! Fantastic work. I love all the weird silver age nonsense you indulge in.

@millernumber1 Жыл бұрын

I think there were a lot of comics that were a lot of a lot. I am very intrigued by the fact that Dell was selling millions and now doesn't exist anymore.

@nighttigercomics7323 8 ай бұрын

Im still perplexed how Dell's Four Color Comics #165 got published! Little Lulu smokes her doll's hair and trips out throughput the story 😅

@RABartlett Жыл бұрын

Something that's interesting is that the story of the Comics Code was that the other publishers piled on EC/Gaines because they were being blown away in sales and could only take them in such an underhanded way. If Meyers's testimony is to be believed (And granted "most horror" could largely refer to most of the EC knocks off, not the Cryptkeeper himself*) its 250,000 per month sales would be comparable to say, "New Warriors" peak in the early 90's. Now, that's not nothing, NW was a hit and briefly treated as an important title, but it wasn't exactly shaking the industry up. I often wonder if the admitted excellence of EC, Gaine's very illustrious personality (And still had MAD), and that Tales of From the Crypt would be revived as an iconic TV show, mythologized EC as a martyr of censorship a little. (By contrast, Lev Gleason is rarely brought up.) *That said, if those knock offs weren't doing EC numbers, it would be strange for publishers to want to bring down EC, as that strategy would be lowering a bottom to feed from.

@hankhill242productions6 11 ай бұрын

12:08 So that's why some of my Carl Barks Donald Duck reprints have blank panels

@CaelynTekVP Жыл бұрын

When I was a teenager I bought comics from yard sales. Old comicd from before the code. They were cool horror and crime comics.

@kylecarter1599 Жыл бұрын

I always thought those companies just published in a different format, i.e. magazine or newspaper format.

@loklobo Жыл бұрын

awesome content, very illuminating

@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm Жыл бұрын

The Recommending Ones & Zeros apologizes for the devastating and overwhelming distress that must have happened while waiting on our blessing.

@robs6952 Жыл бұрын

Hi Sasha, have you read David Hajdu’s “The Ten Cent Plague”? It’s really good and more depth on the scare than I’ve seen before with great research.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

Does that one get into the boom in the "erotic novel" publishing industry as well? It doesn't get talked about as much as EC and the Code, but there was a titanic boom in demand for smutty books in the late 40s and 50s and the printers raced to get in on the market. Whole lot of big names in the pulp scifi/fantasy/horror/Westerns field wrote tons of erotica on the side - the money was too good to resist - and of course there were the "spicy" pulps themselves that doubled as early porn. All that helped drive the general hysteria about "corrupted youth" that led to the Code.

@daviderwin4705 Жыл бұрын

That bit about not wanting to be tied to crime comics, even by a code limiting them, seemed to be genuine. They had already proven that kid (and parent) friendly licensed properties were lucrative. Keeping the market they had established seems to be their motivation. I do wonder how much influence those license holders had on Dell's decision to forego the code as well. Was that pledge just point of sale, or also for the entities whose IP they published to continue doing business with them?

@euansmith3699 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for another interesting video.

@kevinw374 Жыл бұрын

I hope there's a part 3 In my opinion, manga , sunday funnies , and super heroes comic are all different types of comics. It's anything, where the words of page share equal importance with pictures across planned out panels.

@hisuiantyplosion Жыл бұрын

Growing up in the 80s and having people around me taking in the things said by wertham as absolute truth I can say that not having his books could have been a blessing. for some reason his reasoning became "common knowledge" where I grew up with, so it it did some damage. I remember people constantly judging me for reading comic books (older and people around my age as well) and pointing out the same idiotic reasoning (that I would be corrupted if I kept reading them). just the stigma alone (and fyi I am talking about a country outside of the US) is a big deal. the after effects of his "findings" and the introduction of the code brought forth a stigma in the comic community in my opinion. lets not forget that the psychologists back then had rage against (almost) everything they deemed "problematic" or unsystemic, like the damage made by them to the queer community in the past... Yes one might argue different times and all, but my point is: words and their subsequent enforced actions can hurt and manipulate people, making them kinda dangerous.

@lancerutt9936 Жыл бұрын

So my only question is how did Harvey get away with Casper and especially Hot Stuff

@oliverbrownlow5615 Жыл бұрын

And what about Wendy?

@KierTheScrivener Жыл бұрын

I love learning about the history!

@WhiteRaven696 Жыл бұрын

I would’ve loved to have seen all the publishers come together and defeat the Comics Code. I wonder how different the landscape would look nowadays if they had.

@richmcgee434 Жыл бұрын

There would almost certainly have been direct governmental censorship put in place and comics would likely have been even more straightjacketed than they were, and far more infantilized. Imagine nothing but kiddie books and the tamest of educational fare with plenty of de facto propaganda baked into them. And since governments never like to ease control once they have it, that censorship wouldn't have quietly faded away the way the Code did, and would likely still be affecting things today.

@oliverbrownlow5615 Жыл бұрын

@@richmcgee434 I would argue that the Code is still affecting things today.

@SpaceJawa Жыл бұрын

Yay for more Comic Code videos!

@fumochabalala6284 Жыл бұрын

This stuff should be a film

@geribaldi2 Жыл бұрын

WOW, I remember when I started collecting - Dell Four Color's were the thing to collect.

@jessewilley531 3 ай бұрын

Wertham MIGHT have had a vendetta against comics. He apparently didn't get along with William Moulton Marston.

@jeffkeller9009 Жыл бұрын

Way cool history !!!! Thank you.

@jasongold4312 Жыл бұрын

All the jabs at other comic companies in the statements to congress really reminded me of Nintendo of America vice president testifying in the hearings about video game censorship. He similarly stated that all the games they publish are family friendly. He even said Night Trap (controversial game at the time) would never appear on a Nintendo console. Buuut, Night Trap now has a Switch port.

@joebob2572 Жыл бұрын

I told Jim Lee, that he should study Donald Duck comics in how to tell story. True story

@adrianomoraes5992 Жыл бұрын

If I am not wrong the main difference between Magazines and Comics was the distribution. Mad survived because it moved from comics to a magazine and the magazine distribution was unrelated to the comics code. The code was literally written against Gaines. He couldn't win any other way.

@johnpjones182 Жыл бұрын

Sasha could do a video about the black & white comics-magazines: MAD & its imitators (Cracked, Sick, Crazy), Warren's EC-inspired horror mags (Creepy, Eerie & Vampirella) & its imitators: Skywald with Psycho, Nightmare & Scream, and Myron Fass's Eerie publiucations, which reprinted '50's horror comics, but with new art.