Anything, Everything, or Nothing At All

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Leopard v Crocodile!

[Ronald Morgan]

I'll just have water. Where are the paper cups?

[Richard Willis]

Horrified Cabbies Pick up Ghosts in Japanese Tsunami Area

[Captain Comics]

And there was a hook on the door handle!

Richard Willis said:

Horrified Cabbies Pick up Ghosts in Japanese Tsunami Area

[Ronald Morgan]

Before automobiles they used to get horse drawn carriages to pick them up.

[Richard Willis]

Confidential File: Horror Comic Books (1955)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI8IJA8kdkIkdkI

[Ronald Morgan]

What comics showed disgustingly dirty scenes of honeymoons? Did they mean the one panel where we see the woman in her underwear in front of a mirror? That scene also appeared in non-horror stories where single women were getting read to go out on a date. Or even just get a job.

The big question is, why did the senate have so much free time to go after comic books? Didn't they have serious things to concern them back then? Did they suddenly find the Korean War was over in 1953 and had nothing to do in 1954 but go after the Crypt Keeper?

What surprises me is some of those comics they show the kids reading aren't very good. Why buy ACG or Standard when Atlas and Ajax were available? So it does suggest they weren't just reading horror comics, they were reading any horror comics they could find, whether they were any good or not.

"When I was a kid we wrote nasty remarks about our teachers." Yes, vandalism and insulting authority figures are so much better hobbies than reading.

Funny but I don't recall anything, book, movie, or whatever, that left me a "mass of tangled nerves" by the time I was finished with it.

This actually continues today, although they've found other things to go after, possibly because so few kids read comics these days. Many schools have banned games like tag, dodge ball, and duck, duck, goose. (Running around the circle in the last game might make you get dizzy and fall down.) One school in Minnesota just banned celebrating all holidays.

Wait. Aired October 1955. So the Code was already in affect and they were still saying comics were offensive and had to be stopped? I remember reading Wertham said he didn't want a Code, he wanted all comics wiped out. He said Donald Duck was as bad as Tales From the Crypt because they both made kids lazy readers who wouldn't read classic literature as long as something easy and illiterate was available.

One comment made a good point. Why didn't Gaines and others say their horror comics were meant for adults instead of saying they didn't see any reason kids couldn't read them?

[Richard Willis]

I forgot to mention that this video was brought to my attention by a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund newsletter.

Ronald Morgan said:

What surprises me is some of those comics they show the kids reading aren't very good. Why buy ACG or Standard when Atlas and Ajax were available? So it does suggest they weren't just reading horror comics, they were reading any horror comics they could find, whether they were any good or not.

I think he says these are regular kids. He forgets to tell us they are ACTORS playing a sick game dreamed up for the news story.

"When I was a kid we wrote nasty remarks about our teachers." Yes, vandalism and insulting authority figures are so much better hobbies than reading.

My favorite was when he told the kid he probably just looked at the pictures and the kid told him he actually read the comic. Also, bemoaning the fact that one kid had a nightmare was silly. All kids have nightmares. It's part of growing up.

Funny but I don't recall anything, book, movie, or whatever, that left me a "mass of tangled nerves" by the time I was finished with it.

If they were left a mass of jangled nerves they had preexisting problems.

This actually continues today, although they've found other things to go after, possibly because so few kids read comics these days.

Whatever kids like is always the target. They always forget to mention that the well-adjusted good students enjoy these things, not just the delinquents.

Wait. Aired October 1955. So the Code was already in affect and they were still saying comics were offensive and had to be stopped? I remember reading Wertham said he didn't want a Code, he wanted all comics wiped out. He said Donald Duck was as bad as Tales From the Crypt because they both made kids lazy readers who wouldn't read classic literature as long as something easy and illiterate was available.

Yeah, they mention that the Comics Code is already being used and (sorta) praise it. They're saying that old comic books are still being traded among kids even though they are no longer being published. It's like the reporter missed the real story years earlier and is a Johnny-come-lately. To their credit they weren't as extreme as Wertham, acknowledging that most comics were just fine. Even Kefauver said that.

One comment made a good point. Why didn't Gaines and others say their horror comics were meant for adults instead of saying they didn't see any reason kids couldn't read them?

When the committee came to New York, Gaines should have stayed away like all the other publishers, but he thought he could get through to them.

[Ronald Morgan]

No good deed goes unpunished. But I doubt him staying away would have helped much.

[Ronald Morgan]

http://screenrant.com/disney-stan-lee-media-lawsuit/

[Ronald Morgan]

Forgot to mention, above the picture it says "TRUST ME" and beneath it, it says "I'M A SUPERHERO". 

Ronald Morgan said:

[Ronald Morgan]

So many people have used the word "literally" incorrectly the dictionary now says the second meaning of the word is the opposite of the first meaning.

"She was literally frozen with fear." So, she was attacked by Jack Frost?

[JD DeLuzio]

Semantic drift is inevitable in language, but having a word literally take on its opposite due to literal stupidity literally annoys me.

Ronald Morgan said:

So many people have used the word "literally" incorrectly the dictionary now says the second meaning of the word is the opposite of the first meaning.

"She was literally frozen with fear." So, she was attacked by Jack Frost?