You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart radio and Grimm and Mild

from Aaron Manky.

In late 1953, four senators convened in Washington, D.C. They had formed a bipartisan subcommittee

with the purpose of trying to understand the causes of the nation's juvenile delinquency problems.

And at the center of their concerns were comic books.

A less than two decades before, comics were forever changed when the world met Superman.

Clark Kent spawned an entire genre, and his arrival marked the beginning of what's now known

as the Golden Age of Comics. Brought World War II, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and many

others joined the heroic ranks. Together, they provided a hopeful patriotic distraction to readers.

These were the good guys. After the war, superheroes continued to dominate the market,

but there were challengers on the horizon. Nostalgic westerns competed with science fiction,

Archie and his Riverdale friends lived out the teenage experience, and of course Walt Disney entered

the fray with Mickey Mouse. It may seem silly to us today that paper-bound illustrations could cause

such a moral panic. But by the 1950s, comic books were the single most popular form of reading material

for young people. The dramas of good and evil played out between their pages. The nation was

captivated, and some parents were worried. What worried the most were the stories that also had a

wildly popular reception, those about crime and horror. The first single dime, America's children

ravenously consumed titles such as Tales from the Crypt and Seduction of the Innocent.

In the nightmares of these parents, comics were leading their children down a dark path.

By 1954, the Senate subcommittee convened two hearings on comic books and what to do about them.

In response, the industry adopted a voluntary code of conduct that outlined what could and could

not be published. For example, it said that all lured, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be

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