Comics Code Authority

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Image:CCA.gif The Comics Code Authority (CCA) is an organization established to regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Member publishers submit comic books to the CCA, which screens them for conformance to its Comic Code, and authorizes the use of their seal on the cover if the books comply. At the height of its influence, it was a de facto censor for the U.S. comic book industry.

1 Foundings
2 See also
3 Reference
4 External links

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Foundings

The CCA was founded in 1954, in response to a public outcry about what was deemed inappropriate material in many comic books, especially crime and horror comics, and the sexual innuendo of Good Girl Art. Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent rallied opposition to this sort of material in comics, arguing that it was harmful to the children who made up a large segment of the comic book audience. Senate subcommittee hearings led by Estes Kefauver had many publishers concerned about government regulation, prompting them to form a self-regulatory body to prevent that.

In its original form, the Code prohibited depictions of gore, sexuality, and excessive violence; it required that authority figures were never to be ridiculed or presented disrespectfully, and that good must always win; it prohibited any scenes with vampires, werewolves, ghouls or zombies. The code also prohibited advertisements of liquor, tobacco, knives, fireworks, nude pin-ups and postcards, and "toiletry products of questionable nature".

There were critics from both sides of the debate. Wertham dismissed the Code as an inadequate half measure. William Gaines, head of EC Comics - whose best selling titles included Crime SuspenStories, The Vault of Horror and The Crypt of Terror - complained that clauses prohibiting titles with the words "Terror", "Horror", or "Crime", as well as the clause banning vampires, werewolves, and zombies, all seemed targeted to put EC out of business. Indeed, these restrictions quickly made EC unprofitable, and all of their comics besides MAD Magazine were dropped in the years following the CCA's introduction. Image:Astonishing30.jpg

While the CCA did not have any legal authority over other publishers, magazine distributors often refused to carry comics without the CCA's seal of approval. Some publishers thrived under these restrictions, others adapted by canceling unapproved publications and focusing on Code-approved content, and others were unable to survive. The range of comics published contracted substantially following the introduction of the Code. Older readers abandoned the medium, dissatisfied by stories written within parameters intended to make them suitable for children. The medium came to be even more strongly associated with children, a perception that persists to this day.

In the late 1960s, the underground comics scene arose, with artists creating comics that delved into subject matter explicitly not allowed by the Code. However, these comics were distributed largely through other channels, such as head shops, making CCA approval unnecessary for their success.

In 1971, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee was approached by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a Spider-Man story which portrayed drug use as dangerous and harmful. The CCA refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with the approval of his boss Martin Goodman, published the story anyway in Amazing Spider-Man #96, without CCA approval. The story was well received and the CCA's argument for denying its approval was criticized as counterproductive.

Subsequently the Code was revised in 1971 to permit the depiction of "narcotics or drug addiction" if presented "as a vicious habit". Also newly allowed were vampires, ghouls, and werewolves, "when handled in the classic tradition of Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high caliber literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world." Zombies - lacking a respected "literary" background - remained forbidden. However, Marvel skirted the zombie restriction in the mid-1970s by calling the apparently deceased mind-controlled followers of various Haitian super-villains "zuvembies".

Despite periodic revisions to the Code to reflect changing attitudes about appropriate subject matter, i.e. the original ban on making reference to homosexuality as a sexual perversion was revised in 1989 to include gay and lesbians among the classes of people that comic books could not sterotype, its influence on the medium continued to diminish, and publishers gradually reduced the prominence of the seal on their covers. The development of new distribution channels, especially "direct market" comics specialty shops, provided additional means for non-Code books to reach a large audience, and newsstand distribution - a shrinking component of industry sales - became less important. A new generation of publishers emerged in the 1980s and 1990s that distributed solely to specialty shops and did not join the CCA or submit their books for approval. DC Comics, Marvel, and other CCA sponsors began to publish lines of comics intended for adult audiences, without the CCA seal. For example, in the 1990s DC Comics' Milestone imprint submitted its books to the CCA, but published them regardless of their ruling, placing the CCA seal only on issues that passed. In 2001, Marvel Comics withdrew from the CCA in favor of its own ratings system. As of 2005, DC Comics and Archie Comics are the only major publishers which still submit their books for CCA approval, and in the case of DC, only books from their Johnny DC and DC Universe superhero lines are submitted.

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