Did Kids Actually Read the Horrifying EC Comics, or Was it Their Parents?
Recently I have started a mini ethnography study in which I am interviewing people who remember reading EC comics in the 50's and how they think horror media for children has changed since then. One of my main topics of inquiry is whether people feel that horror media directed at children is more scary now than it was in the 50’s. While I feel that children have access to a lot more scary content than what is produced in comics today, in the 1950’s comics were a main source of entertainment for children. I am curious whether people were aware of the comics code as a child and if they feel it was rational. As is known by most comic lovers, EC comics played a huge role in causing the upset over violent content available for children. Through a series of podcast style interviews I have found several professors, family members, and comic lovers in the community that remember EC comics.
While I was pretty certain that I was going to hear a lot about how graphic the content that children have access to today is far more intense than that of the 50’s, I was surprised by the interviews I have conducted thus far. The people that remember these EC comics from their past say that they were more interested in the science fiction series rather than any of the Tales from the Crypt or Vault of Horror series, let alone the Crime Suspenstories series that were brought up in many of the trials leading to the Comic Code. At this time, nuclear war was the new threat to society that most people feared. It makes sense that some artists started projecting these fears into comics as a way of reacting to society. Science was starting to get popular, and the threat of nuclear invasions was much more pressing than that of some of the more crime related series EC published.
What I found really surprising is that in multiple interviews, informants commented on the fact that they simply were not interested in these more gothic style comics. So, if children weren’t interested in reading these violent series, why were adults so worried about constructing censorship of this art form? In the interviews I have at this point, most have stated that their parents weren’t even really aware of the content of comics and didn’t seem to feel any imminent danger threatening their children's sanity as a result of reading them. As a result of more discussions with people I hope to discover more information about the Comic Code and what really sparked this censorship. I would also like to know whether people feel that a “code” would benefit current children’s media in regards to their accessibility of violence.
