Psychologist Fredric Wertham decided that the phenomenon was a landmine of hidden and repressed Freudian issues, and that a sidekick's involvement in violent acts with his hero masked a sexual subtext.

Fredric Wertham ( March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981 ) was a German-born American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children.

( Wertham's claim that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as her creator William Moulton Marston had admitted as much ; however, Wertham also claimed that Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a lesbian.

Wertham's claim that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as her creator William Moulton Marston had admitted as much ; however, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a lesbian.

Wertham also claimed that Superman was both un-American and a fascist.

It is worth noting that, prior to its publication, Wertham was not an anti-comic crusader, nor did he likely mean for the book to generate the public reaction it did.

Primarily, Wertham assigned the blame to parents, not the industry nor the creators, in his book, and even his anxiety over Batman's and Robin's perceived homosexual subtexts was aimed at the welfare of a child introduced to that sort of family unit, not on some a priori immorality or sinfulness to such a lifestyle.

Baker's cover for Phantom Lady # 17 ( Apr, 1949 ) was reproduced in Seduction of the Innocent, the 1954 book by Dr. Fredric Wertham denouncing what he saw as the morally corrupting effect of comics on children.

The cover, which illustrated Phantom Lady attempting to escape from ropes, was presented by Wertham with a caption that read, " Sexual stimulation by combining ' headlights ' with the sadist's dream of tying up a woman.

The book also included a chapter that attacked contemporary comic books as harmful to children ; because his critique drew about his view that it was a consequence of the aforementioned cultural permissive views toward violence he wasn't a leading voice during the subsequent debate about the impact of comics that instead was dominated by Fredric Wertham.

The story was singled out by Robert Warshow in his 1954 essay " Paul, the Horror Comics, and Dr. Wertham ".

" It was also one of many examples used by Fredric Wertham in his book Seduction of the Innocent.

Seduction of the Innocent described overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within " crime comics "— a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster / murder-oriented titles of the time but also superhero and horror comics as well — and asserted, based largely on undocumented anecdotes, that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children.

Beaty notes " Wertham repeated his call ... national legislation based on the public health ideal that would prohibit the circulation and display of comic books to children under the age of fifteen.

" The committee's questioning of their next witness, EC publisher William Gaines, focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had decried.

To promote this book Wertham made two memorable appearances on the Mike Douglas Show where he ended up debating his theories with the co-hosts, Barbara Feldon ( April 10, 1967 ) and Vincent Price ( June 19, 1967 ).

Beaty reveals in 1959 Wertham tried to sell a follow-up to Seduction on the effects of television on Children, to be titled The War on Children.

Wertham always denied that he favored censorship or had anything against comic books in principle, and in the 1970s he focused his interest on the benign aspects of the comic fandom subculture ; in his last book, The World of Fanzines ( 1974 ), he concluded that fanzines were " a constructive and healthy exercise of creative drives ".

For example, Wertham expressed a concern for the impact of impossibly proportioned female characters on girl readers or on the advertisements of violent and harmful toys.

The committee's questioning of their next witness, EC publisher William Gaines, focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had decried.

Homosexual interpretations have been part of the academic study of Batman since psychologist Fredric Wertham asserted in his Seduction of the Innocent in 1954 that " Batman stories are psychologically homosexual.

" Wertham wrote, " Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature ' Batman ' and his young friend ' Robin.

Comics historian Les Daniels commented, " In retrospect the imperative seems less than inevitable, perhaps no more than trendy gender bending or possibly just a response to the homophobia inspired by Fredric Wertham more than thirty years earlier.

Wertham, author of the influential study Seduction of the Innocent, cited a particular panel of the story's dope-dealing narrator about to be stabbed in the eye with a hypodermic needle as an example of the " injury-to-the-eye " motif.

Comics, especially the crime / horror titles pioneered by EC Comics, were not lacking in gruesome images ; Wertham reproduced these extensively, pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid themes such as " injury to the eye " ( as depicted in Plastic Man creator Jack Cole's " Murder, Morphine and Me ", which he illustrated and probably wrote for publisher Magazine Village's True Crime Comics Vol.

Given the subsequent emergence of organized fandom for comic books among adults who grew up reading them during Comics ' Golden Age, it is ironic Wertham at one point in Seduction ( pp. 89 – 90 ) asserts " I have known many adults who have treasured throughout their lives some of the books they read as children.

Wertham objected to not only the violence in the stories but also the fact that air rifles and knives were advertised alongside them.

According to Wertham, news vendors were told by the distributors that if they did not sell the objectionable comic books, they would not be allowed to sell any of the other publications being distributed.

In extensive testimony before the committee, Wertham restated arguments from his book and pointed to comics as a major cause of juvenile crime.

Wertham described the Comics Code as inadequate, while most in the industry found it draconian.

This led to an invitation for Wertham to address the New York Comic Art Convention.

Still infamous to most comics fans of the time, Wertham encountered suspicion and heckling at the convention, and stopped writing about comics thereafter.

" The Strange Case of Dr. Wertham " Amazing Heroes # 123 ( August 15, 1987 ); " The Return of Dr. Wertham " Amazing Heroes # 124 ( Sept. 1, 1987 ); " From Dr. Wertham With Love " Amazing Heroes # 125 ( Sept. 15, 1987 ) part series, see below for link to condensed version posted online under title " Fredric Wertham-Anti-Comics Crusader Who Turned Advocate ".

Heidenstam was born in 1859, of a prosperous family.

Sherlock Holmes, the ancestor of all private eyes, was born during the 1890s.

Henrietta was discovering in the process of writing, as the born writer does, not merely a channel for the discharge of accumulated information but a stimulus to the development of the creative powers of observation, insight and intuition.

She was born Lilian Steichen, her parents immigrants from Luxemburg.

`` My mother read a book right after I was born and there was a Lilian in the book she loved and I became Lilian -- and eventually I became Paula ''.

By now she was sure she was going to have a baby, deciding it would be born in India or Burma that November.

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About the only time the Hetman seemed excited was when one of his own pet ideas was born.

On April 10, 1904, his first child was born, a son named George after the late Senator.

Modern warfare was born in this campaign -- periscopes, camouflage, booby traps, land mines, extended order, trench raids, foxholes, armored cars, night attacks, flares, sharpshooters in trees, interlaced vines and treetops, which were the forerunners of barbed wire, trip wires to thwart a cavalry charge, which presaged the mine trap, and the general use of anesthetics.

Deppy is Despina Messinesi, a long-time member of the Vogue staff who, although born in Boston, was born there of Greek parents.

Samuel Gorton was born at Gorton, England, near the present city of Manchester, about 1592.

Whether the Fathers, who died before Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, were justified and saved only by the blood which he shed, and the death which he suffered after his incarnation??

Whether the only price of our redemption were not the death of Christ on the cross, with the rest of his sufferings and obediences, in the time of his life here, after he was born of the Virgin Mary??

In the judgment of Chief of Staff Scott it was ironic that the draft policy of a Democratic President, aimed at Germany, had to be pushed through the House of Representatives by the ranking minority member of the Military Affairs Committee -- a Republican Jew born in Germany!!

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