Comic Books By Linda Stowe
Today has been overcast. When I was a kid, this would have been a perfect day to lay on the glider in our enclosed back porch and read. Our back porch was used as a utility room that housed a freezer, various cabinets, and a sofa-length glider with lots of pillows. It was always cool, so this glider was my favorite summer reading spot. I spent hours reading through library books or something from the cache of comic books that my brother and I used our allowance to buy each week.
Little did I know that while I was innocently reading the latest comic from Archie or Casper the Friendly Ghost, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. were debating about whether these books would turn me into a juvenile delinquent.
In 1954, a Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency met to discuss the problem posed by comic books. Over three days of hearings, numerous experts were called to testify whether the comics of the day were contributing to an increase in violent crimes among teens. One of those experts, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham, testified that comics contributed significantly to juvenile crime, brutality and violence, deviant sexuality, and promiscuity among young readers. He argued that readers internalized the messages of comics, and that these stories guided them into the world of juvenile delinquency.
I was ten years old in 1954 and already in my short life I was being turned into a hardened criminal.
~~~~~~~
Polly here. I loved every word of this. And as a kid, I sure did love reading the comics. I didn’t have many comic books. Actually, I don’t remember having any. But, every day, I would open the newspaper to the back section and read all my favorite comics. In a particular order.
It is funny how these things go. In 1954, it was comic books. In recent times, video games have been a subject of debate. Now, social media is the culprit for the demise of our young society. Round and round we go.
The world is in a constant state of change. The entire Universe is moving and changing in every single second. And so goes the things right around this.
Yesterday, comic books. Today, social media. Tomorrow? Heaven only knows.
