And when undergrounds reached critical mass as part of the general ferment of the Sixties (TM), they went completely wild in the other direction, outdoing themselves to do what was forbidden by the Comics Code. Result was a lot of X-rated temper tantrums which reinforced the dichotomy that the only two alternatives were Squeaky-Clean Superheroes and Anything-Goes Undergrounds.
For a history of that moral panic and its aftermath, check out the book The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. You think the "Harry Potter Is SAY-TANN-IC!" book-burnings and "Demon-Possessed D&D Miniatures Screaming as they were Melted Down (DM)" were over-the-top, you haven't seen the Fifties moral panic/witch hunt over comic books.
Hm, I was involved in underground comics for a while in the 80s- not quite the same thing, as they owed more of their origins to the tijuana bibles than to regular comic books
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I'd say it's become fairly well-accepted that comics aren't 'kid stuff' any more, considering that top-name novelists and TV writers like Strazynski are proud to say that they wrote for such-and-such a comic at one point.
Sadly, in their rush to become 'serious literature' and 'relevant', most hero comics are throwing away everything that ever made them fun to read in the first place.
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Wikipedia article on the Kyle's Mom/Witchfinder General who started the entire "Comics Corrupt Our Children!" moral panic in the Fifties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent
For a history of that moral panic and its aftermath, check out the book The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. You think the "Harry Potter Is SAY-TANN-IC!" book-burnings and "Demon-Possessed D&D Miniatures Screaming as they were Melted Down (DM)" were over-the-top, you haven't seen the Fifties moral panic/witch hunt over comic books.
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Sadly, in their rush to become 'serious literature' and 'relevant', most hero comics are throwing away everything that ever made them fun to read in the first place.
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