Editing Comics Code Authority (section)

==Beginning==
[[File:Councilman Ernest Debs with comic books (LA Daily News 1954).jpg|thumb|upright|Los Angeles councilman [[Ernest E. Debs|Ernest Debs]] holding horror and crime comics purchased in his district (''[[Los Angeles Daily News]]'', 1954)]]
The [[Comics Magazine Association of America]] (CMAA) was formed in September 1954 in response to a widespread public concern over graphic violence and [[horror fiction|horror imagery]] in comic books.<ref name=time/> It named New York magistrate Charles F. Murphy (1920–1992), a specialist in [[juvenile delinquency]], to head the organization and devise a self-policing "code of ethics and standards" for the industry.<ref name=time/> He established the Comics Code Authority (CCA), basing its code upon the largely unenforced code drafted by the [[Association of Comics Magazine Publishers]] in 1948, which in turn had been modeled loosely after the 1940 Hollywood [[Production Code]], also known as the "Hays Code".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hajdu|first=David|title=The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America|url=https://archive.org/details/tencentplaguegre00hajd|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tencentplaguegre00hajd/page/128 128–130]|isbn=9780374187675 }}</ref>

Before the CCA was adopted, some cities had already organized public [[Book burning|burnings]] and bans on comic books.<ref>Costello, Matthew J. ''Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America'' (Continuum, 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-8264-2998-8}}, p. 32</ref> The city councils of [[Oklahoma City]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas]], passed ordinances banning crime and horror comics, although an attempt by [[Los Angeles County]], [[California]], was deemed [[Constitutionality|unconstitutional]] by the courts.<ref name=time>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071023075655/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820350,00.html "The Press: Horror on the Newsstands"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', September 27, 1954. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090620022905/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820350-1,00.html WebCitation archive].</ref> In his introduction to ''[[Archie Americana Series]] Best of the Fifties'', editor [[Victor Gorelick]] reminisced about the code, writing, "My first assignment, as a new art assistant, was to remove cleavages and lift up low cut blouses on [[Katy Keene]]."<ref name="americanap">{{cite book|title=Archie Americana Series Best of the Fifties Volume 2 | year=1992 | page = 4 | publisher=Archie Comic Publications | chapter = Introduction | first = Victor | last =  Gorelick}}</ref> He also wrote of Archie artist [[Harry Lucey]] that, "His sometimes suggestive storytelling–and he was one of the best–almost cost him his job. When his pencilled stories came in, the characters were dressed on one page only. A woman who was an inker, a woman, Terry Szenics, later had to draw clothes on the characters on the remaining pages."<ref>Gorelick, page ?</ref>

Although the CCA had no official control over the comics publishers, most distributors refused to carry comics that did not carry the seal.<ref>Silberkeilt, Michael, cited in Costello, page ?</ref> However, two major publishers of comics–[[Dell Comics]] and [[Gold Key Comics]]–did not display the seal, because their output was subject to a higher authority: their licensors, which included [[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney]] and the producers of many TV shows aimed at children.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Arndt |first= Richard J |date=October 23, 2016 |title=From Dell to Gold Key to King - with the New York Times in Between |url=https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/alterego144preview|magazine=Alter Ego #141 |publisher= TwoMorrows|access-date=December 21, 2016 }}</ref>

=== Criticism and enforcement ===
Some publishers thrived under these restrictions, while others adapted by cancelling titles and focusing on code-approved content; still others went out of business. In practice, the negative effect of not having CCA approval was lack of distribution by the comic book wholesalers, who, as one historian observed, "served as the enforcement arm of the Comics Code Authority by agreeing to handle only those comics with the seal."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://cbldf.org/comics-code-history-the-seal-of-approval/ | title = Comics Code History: The Seal of Approval | first = Dr. Amy Kiste | last = Nyberg | publisher = [[Comic Book Legal Defense Fund]] | date = n.d. | access-date = January 17, 2013 | archive-date = October 1, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111001032230/http://cbldf.org/comics-code-history-the-seal-of-approval/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Publisher [[William Gaines]] believed that clauses forbidding the words "crime", "horror", and "terror" in comic book titles had been deliberately aimed at his own best-selling titles ''[[Crime SuspenStories]]'', ''[[The Vault of Horror (comics)|The Vault of Horror]]'', and ''[[Tales from the Crypt (comics)|Tales from the Crypt]]''.<ref>Jacobs, F: "The Mad World of William M. Gaines", pages 112–114, Lyle Stuart, Inc, 1972</ref><ref>"An Interview With William M. Gaines", Comics Journal #83 pages 76–78, Fantagraphics, Inc, 1983</ref>

Wertham dismissed the code as an inadequate half-measure.<ref>{{cite news|work=[[The New York Times]]|date= February 5, 1955|title=Whip, Knife, Shown as 'Comics' Lures|first= Emma |last=Harrison|page= 17}}</ref> Comics analyst [[Scott McCloud]], on the other hand, later commented that it was as if, in drawing up the code, "the list of requirements a film needs to receive a G rating was doubled, and there were no other acceptable ratings!"<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCloud |first1=Scott |author-link1=Scott McCloud | title=Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form |year=2000 |publisher=Perennial |location=New York |isbn=0-06-095350-0 |oclc=44654496}}</ref>

=== "Judgment Day" ===
In one early confrontation between a comic-book publisher and the code authorities, [[EC Comics]]' [[William Gaines]] reprinted the story "[[EC Comics#"Judgment Day"|Judgment Day]]", from the pre-code ''[[Weird Fantasy]]'' #18 (April 1953), in ''[[Incredible Science Fiction]]'' #33 (February 1956).<ref name="Newfangles">[[Maggie Thompson|Thompson, Don & Maggie]], "Crack in the Code", ''Newfangles'' #44, February 1971</ref> The reprint was a replacement for the Code-rejected story "An Eye for an Eye", drawn by [[Angelo Torres]],<ref name=gcdisf>{{cite web|url=http://www.comics.org/issue/12592/#106097|title=GCD :: Issue :: Incredible Science Fiction #33|work=comics.org}}</ref> though "Judgment Day" was itself also objected to because of the central character being [[Black people|black]], despite there being nothing in the Code prohibiting a black protagonist.<ref name="Newfangles"/> The story, by writer [[Al Feldstein]] and artist [[Joe Orlando]],<ref name=gcdisf/> was an allegory against [[racism|racial prejudice]], a point that was necessarily nullified if the lead character was not black.<ref name="Newfangles"/> After an order by code administrator Charles Murphy to change the final panel, which depicted a black astronaut, Gaines engaged in a heated dispute with Murphy.<ref>Diehl, Digby (1996). ''Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives'', St. Martin's Press (New York) p.85</ref> He threatened to inform the press of Murphy's objection to the story if they did not give the issue the Code Seal, causing Murphy to reverse his initial decision and allow the story to run. Soon after, however, facing the severe restrictions placed upon his comics by the CCA, and with his "[[List of EC Comics publications#New Direction|New Direction]]" titles floundering, Gaines quit publishing comic books to concentrate on ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]''.<ref name="Newfangles"/>