Make sure you buy 20 copies, so you can put your children through college.

"BATMAN. [...] The Nov. DETECTIVE features 'Hunters of the Elephants' Graveyard'. When an 'elephant goddess' appears to Batman, it may give you the shudders; but the new Batman won't let you down. [...] The cover story of the Nov. Superman will actually show Batman's eyes through the holes in his mask!"

Ah, you got me. I looked this up! The November 1964 Superman didn't have Batman on the cover ~ in fact, Batman didn't appear on Superman covers at any time during 1964. Fun stories, though.

Robin is plucky. Possibly stupid, but plucky.

That is one big elephant.

You do feel Batman is facing incredible danger.

If I were Robin, I'd poke the elephant in the eye.

Batman looks like he is stretching out after a long nap.

If I were Robin, I'd be looking for a new partner.

And I'd put on pants.

But I'm funny like that.

You *are* funny like that.

Pants are over-rated...

So soon after Dr Wertham?
I doubt DC would have the nerve to do an "Injury to Eye" motif!

Speaking of old comics....I guess I was being harsh on Geoff Johns.....Black Adam appears to have always been, kind of a violent jerk.

Yes, that soon.

I'd poke a stick in Dr. Wertham's eye, too, if I could.

Seduction of the Innocent is a great title though, as destructive as the book was.

I've also read that, otherwise, Wertham did help a lot of children out

Little known, but he did some studies on the effects of racial segregation on children I think that were used in the Brown v. Board of Ed case to get "separate but equal overturn"

Good bit of Seduction Of The Innocent is simple literary snobbery.

Some kid was asking what was wrong with Wonder Woman and his answer had nothing to do with the values that WW was teaching kids, but rather the disaterous effect her style of stories had on children being able to appreciate reading a conversation in literature without a couple of costumed clowns bursting through the window.

Of course, sometimes I read people's comments about how boring it is to watch two characters talk for a page or two in comics, so maybe he had a point

Years later, he would discover the comic fan scene and would write a very favorable book about it and the social connections that it helped create between fans. He, however, never did change his mind about the comics themselves. which he still thought were trash.

Yeah, he was a snob, as many people are about comics. (I am sure that many functionally illiterate people did read comics because they couldn't read anything else-but in my experience, they've helped a lot of people begin/learn to love reading*)

the bondage stuff in the early Wonder Woman is a bit freaky though-especially considering Marston's lifestyle. Wonder why they let that stuff in?

*Wonder if that helps explain comics declining popularity-was a time when they were even somewhat popular with young adults/soldiers. However, as TV came along, the functionally illiterate had other ways of experiencing fiction without having to read comics.

That Black Adam stuff is funny!

"For that, you get a poke in the eye with a stick!!"

hah hah

There was an over-all sexual naitivity back then. No one really talked about sex, so unless you were doing those sort of things, you probably didn't even know they existed. As a result, lots of very questionable things slipped by. Perhaps because the editor wasn't in the know, or because the editor thought it was funny and the Straights would never figure it out.

Which makes you wonder if a lot of those odd comic panels people love to post *really* are as innocent as some folks like to make them out. How much of the Batman & Robin stuff was people reading too much into it and how much of it was someone at DC having a bit of fun.

And does anyone here really believe Marvel "accidentally" published Giant-Sized Man-Thing? They probably okayed it just because of the rather obvious joke of the title, figuring that most parents wouldn't notice... and if they did, just think it was unintentional.

Eh?



And again, I say, "Eh?" What book?

The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication

This appears to go into some of it, although I've done nothing but skim a couple of paragraphs, so who knows.
http://art-bin.com/art/awertham.html

I have known many adults who have treasured throughout their lives some of the books they read as children. I have never come across any adult or adolescent who had outgrown comic-book reading who would ever dream of keeping any of these 'books' for any sentimental or other reason. - Seduction of the Innocent (1954)

I keep seeing Sexual Nativity.

Now there's an album title...

Didn't Marvin Gaye do that album?