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after WWII there was a growing threat of communism and the impact the Soviet Union was having on the world

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it was beginning to have influence on other countries, e.g. in Eastern Europe

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fears began to build

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America has a political response to this fear

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House Un-American Activities Committee

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investigation of communist sympathizers in America real and imagined

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McCarthy was aided by Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon

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involved in trying to find communists in American society

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focused attention on Hollywood

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the Hollywood Ten

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it was believed that movies were being used to infiltrate people's minds

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in the late 1940s, comic books were also a target of investigation

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a hotbed for finding information about lurid behavior and overt sexuality

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attributed it to the rise in juvenile delinquency in the United States

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being exposed to comic books was cited as a cause of this

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Dr. Fredric Wertham

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1954 wrote book "Seduction of the Innocent"

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had a negative influence on the comic book industry

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parents and teachers read it

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led to comic book burnings

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subcommittee to investigate juvenile delinquency

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examined the problem of comic books

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brought in comic book publishers, artists and writers

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the comic books companies of American created a self-policing force

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created the Comic Code Authority

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crime shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal

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no comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title

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all scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, lurid unsavory gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated

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suggestive and salacious illustrations or suggested posture is unacceptable

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sex perversion or inference thereof is strictly forbidden

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difficult times, many companies went out of business

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only with the advent of the Comics Code Authority in 1954 did the industry manage to get government authorities to let them self-regulate