{"id":27796,"date":"2021-06-26T20:31:42","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T00:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=27796"},"modified":"2021-06-26T20:33:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T00:33:05","slug":"comics-code-misunderstanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2021\/06\/26\/comics-code-misunderstanding\/","title":{"rendered":"A mid-’70s Comics Code misunderstanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s another 1950s horror story which raised concerns with the Comics Code Authority when Marvel chose to reprint it during the 1970s, as revealed by documents I found among my sister-in-law Ellen Vartanoff’s papers. The original appeared in Uncanny Tales<\/em> #3 (October 1952).<\/p>\n

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When it came time for the three-page “Crazy” \u2014 scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Jerry Robinson \u2014 to be republished in Where Monsters Dwell<\/em> #34 (March 1975), the CCA had a question about the tale of a hit-and-run driver. (Note: neither time was the story considered cover worthy.)<\/p>\n

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But before I point out the CCA’s problem \u2014 a tangential aside. The Bullpen Bulletins page in that issue of Where Monsters Dwell<\/em> #34 took note of my move from the company’s British reprint over to the U.S. titles. I can still clearly remember the day it happened!<\/p>\n

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Another reason that Bullpen Bulletins page invokes nostalgia in me \u2014 it also advertised the 1975 Mighty Marvel ComicCon \u2014 a project I helped pull together. It still astonishes me they’d put a 19-year-old in charge of such a thing!<\/p>\n

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But back to the Comics Code’s suggestions \u2026<\/p>\n

Here’s the panel which raised a red flag for the CCA, as it appeared back in 1952. Before taking a look at the sheet sent to Marvel about this image, can you guess their concern? (HINT: It comes from a complete and shocking misunderstanding of the visual language of comics.)<\/p>\n

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So this is what administrator Leonard Darvin wrote: “There appear to be large splatters of blood coming from the man who was stuck by the car. If this is blood, please reduce it substantially.”<\/p>\n

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On the photocopy of that panel, he scribbled: “If this is blood, please remove it substantially.” Those jagged lines are of course not<\/em> blood, but represent the force of the impact \u2014 which seems obvious to me. That a Comics Code censor would be unclear on the concept is baffling.<\/p>\n

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After an explanation was given, no change was required, and here’s the panel as it was republished in 1975, with only the coloring altered from the original. <\/p>\n

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Another peek into how the mid-’70s Marvel Comics sausage was made!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another 1950s horror story which raised concerns with the Comics Code Authority when Marvel chose to reprint it during the 1970s, as revealed by documents I found among my sister-in-law Ellen Vartanoff’s papers. The original appeared in Uncanny Tales #3 (October 1952). When it came time for the three-page “Crazy” \u2014 scripted by Stan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,25,20],"class_list":["post-27796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics","tag-comics-code","tag-marvel-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27796"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27809,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27796\/revisions\/27809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}