Ding Dong, the wicked code is dead!

[Dr.J.]

Its gone where the goblens go! After 56 years, the code, is NO more! It took 40 solid years, for what marvel and Lee did, with spidy 96, to topple the code.back then, I think few fans even noticed at the time.Marvel said nothing in their bullpin page abaout it. i think that they were pretty scared,at the time, because they well remembered the days of 1954.They droped it about 10 years ago, and its been limping along since. If you want to see an example of how bland the new powerful code was, pick up the third archives of journey into mystery.its like the life was sucked right out of that title.Im suprized it managed to avoid cancelation.Things had been stirred up like a hornets nest, over comics, and it was an act of desperation, that comic publishers did,in submiting to the code.Whats ironic,is a year later, something came along, that they couldnt regulate, and that was rock and roll.

[dupont2005]

I know the code was horribly misguided, but it might have saved comics.nif not for the code, would there have been an act of congress that would have had far reaching unforeseen effects not just in comics, but in all entertainment? Would South Park or Grand Theft Auto have been a reality if a law had been passed banning violence and vulgarity from comics before comics and cartoons had been marketed at a strictly adult audience, and before video games even existed?

[shaxper]

Honestly, I think the code did a lot of good. Censorship, in general, is an ugly thing, but I'm not sure our classic Silver Age heroes would have been so virtuous and upstanding without it. Essentially, if the code had never been there, the medium would have continued, but I'm not sure its heroes would have attained the mythological stature they have in our culture today. They wouldn't have been the kinds of characters that people from all walks of life could love and respect. My 69 year old mother and 2 and a half year old daughter would not be able to regard Batman as highly as I do.


I'm glad that brave creators like Lee were able to force the code to loosen over the years, allowing those characters to grow more mature and complex as well as allowing for the horror genre to return, but I really don't need stories with a drenched Ant man walking out from between The Wasp's legs. I'm not sure writers and editors are always the best self-regulators. When Marvel first broke free of the code, they did it with all the maturity of a 12 year old breaking out dad's porno mags.

[The Darknight Detective]

I'm glad that brave creators like Lee were able to force the code to loosen over the years, allowing those characters to grow more mature and complex as well as allowing for the horror genre to return, but I really don't need stories with a drenched Ant man walking out from between The Wasp's legs. I'm not sure writers and editors are always the best self-regulators. When Marvel first broke free of the code, they did it with all the maturity of a 12 year old breaking out dad's porno mags.

Heh. Very true.

I don't mourn the death of the Comic Code, but I wish there were more comic books around featuring the classic superheroes that you could give to a kid without having to peruse it for content first. Not that you couldn't explore serious subjects, but have it more between the lines like it was during the Bronze Age. Besides, without the younger generation, the industry will die that much faster.

[Ramage]

The code was a tool in which the bigger publishers used to put the smaller publishers out of business. The smaller publichsers like EC were attracting older readers...usually with more lurid content, but still mostly tame by today's standards. Despiter Wetham's accusations of homosexuality at Batman, National was never threatened. Superman was on television at the time creating a national schoolboy craze and Batman had been so diluted.

If I'm not mistaken, Dell never submitted to the code. They got by with a sign on their spinners saying--"Dell comics are good comics." They had 50% of the market.

The code if anything marginalized comics as "kids stuff" for another thirty years. It degraded comics cultural acceptance and maturation that might have sprung up from the EC horror stuff. It was a pox that is only now being eliminated as comics enter their own death spiral.

[Kumar]

I'm not sure writers and editors are always the best self-regulators.

But that doesn't mean they should necessarily be regulated by outside forces. I mean, have you seen the wording of the Code? It was not really about content control -- it was about making sure that certain publishers would no longer be able to stay in business. The Code was just as ugly as any other form of censorship.

KS

[CaptChucky]

I'm glad it's gone. Censorship isn't a good thing.

[Kirk G]

IIRC, it was the U.S. government that approached Stan Lee at Marvel, ASKING him to do an anti-drug story that they could use to try to combat drug usage among the youth. He had to tell them that it was not allowed to do a story that even represented drug usage and certainly not without legal repercusions.

But, if I remember the story Stan Lee has told, he kept thinking about it, and decided to take a stand...not to break the code, but to tell a story and to publish it without the code approval.

It was the first chink in the armor of the code authority, and the story was roundly praised.

I don't think "Marvel was afraid" when they did it, as one poster above has claimed. I think Stan Lee was proud and took a stand. And he had the backing of Marvel when he did it.

Almost immediately, Marvel's writers began exploring horror themes, vampires, werewolves, mummies and more. Just look at Mobius, the living Vampire...and before that Sauron, the psychic vampire over in X-men, just a few issues before the series was cancelled.

Clearly, Marvel was testing the boundries as well as looking for the next big thing.

As far as Rock and Roll being birthed in relation to Journey into Mystery, I think the growth of R&R or Rythm and blues or the teen culture was totally independant of anything the comic code or government were attempting to restrict or control.

At least IMHO....

[The Darknight Detective]

Almost immediately, Marvel's writers began exploring horror themes, vampires, werewolves, mummies and more. Just look at Mobius, the living Vampire...and before that Sauron, the psychic vampire over in X-men, just a few issues before the series was cancelled.

The success of Hammer, Amicus and other production companies dedicated to horror films probably were the biggest impetus to test the Code by the Seventies. Once horror films (many that could be seen without an adult) caught up to EC-style macabre, it seemed silly to ban them from comic books.

[Kirk G]

Interesting point, Darknight D. I was unaware of those production/film companies. I was more a mainstream movie drive-in movie fan who was just starting to date during those years.

[The Darknight Detective]

Interesting point, Darknight D. I was unaware of those production/film companies. I was more a mainstream movie drive-in movie fan who was just starting to date during those years.

Heh. Sounds like they could have been running a film about paint dripping for all you cared back then.

[Kirk G]

Heh. Sounds like they could have been running a film about paint dripping for all you cared back then.

Hey! You saw that movie too, huh?

[shaxper]

Interesting point, Darknight D. I was unaware of those production/film companies. I was more a mainstream movie drive-in movie fan who was just starting to date during those years.

If you missed out on Hammer horror films, you missed too much!

I strongly recommend checking out The Horror of Dracula (1958) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as an entrance point.

[The Darknight Detective]

I strongly recommend checking out The Horror of Dracula (1958) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as an entrance point.

That's my favorite Hammer film, FWIW.

[dan bailey]

That's my favorite Hammer film, FWIW.

Whereas I'll take the 1st & 3rd Quatermass movies, if you please, with Plague of the Zombies added in for good measure.