10 Major Milestones In Comic Book History

7. The 'Seduction Of The Innocent' Begets The Comics Code

Fredric Wertham is sort of the bogeyman of the comic book world, what with the pathos behind the 'Seduction of the Innocent' having censored the comics industry for some time.

Basically, in the fifties, comics sales were booming. Superhero stories were of course popular, but pulpy tales of suspense and horror were also finding a massive audience and that, much to the annoyance of creators everywhere, didn't sit well with one Fredric Wertham, whose book spawned a congressional inquiry into the effects of comics on America's youth and later gave way to the Comics Code Authority.

The comics code severely limited what publishers could and couldn't show in their stories, and, while it did continue to exist in a somewhat neutered aspect until 2011, counter-organisations like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund were still being founded as late as 1986.

As far as critics of the comic industry go, they don't get any worse - or notorious - than Fredric Wertham.