In the way back days of the Fifties the comics trade nearly ceased to exist – and most level the finger of blame at one man: psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham. But who was he? Come July 2024, the acclaimed creators behind Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? – crime author Harold Schechter and comics auteur Eric Powell – reteam to discover the life and legacy of the infamous Dr. Wertham in Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed The Comics Industry) from Dark Horse Books. The 200-page hardcover graphic novel will hit bookshops July 30 and comedian outlets July 31, priced at $29.99.
The Dark Horse press launch mentioned:
“Acclaimed true crime creator Harold Schechter, multiple- Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Eric Powell, and Dark Horse Books current a brand new true crime graphic novel, Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry), arriving Summer 2024.
“Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry) examines one of the most polarizing figures in pop culture: Dr. Fredric Wertham. Reviled by comic book fans as a witch-hunting zealot who stirred up panic among the parents of America for his own self-promoting purposes, he was also a renowned psychiatrist who, among other accomplishments, opened a clinic in Harlem for disadvantaged African-American patients and played an important role in the desegregation of the nation’s schools. Believing that murder could be abolished through a proper understanding of the mental and social roots of criminal violence, he took a genuinely humane approach to some of the most notorious homicidal maniacs of his time. Among these was the monstrous Albert Fish, whose relationship with Wertham forms a key section of Schechter and Powell’s book, epitomizing the renowned psychiatrist’s deep contradictions: his enlightened efforts to shed light on the most depraved aspects of human behavior and his willingness to exploit his subjects’ lurid cases histories for his own commercial ends.”
Talking in regards to the genesis of the guide, Powell mentioned:
“When Harold and I were discussing possible topics for another collaboration to follow Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, the minute Harold said, ‘What about Fredric Wertham?’, I knew we had something. The history of comics, civil rights and some of the most shocking murder cases in America. And a polarizing, complex individual at the center of it all. I think this book will be fascinating to anyone who is a fan of true crime, American history, psychology or comics.”
Dr Fredric Wertham was a German-American psychiatrist who wrote the textual content that many imagine incited the ethical panic that led to the close to finish of the American comedian guide trade – asserting that comedian books have been resulting in “juvenile delinquency”. The Seduction of the Innocent (1954) – with its fixation on apparent and delicate solutions of drug use, intercourse, sexuality, violence and extra throughout the pages of comedian books supposedly learn by youngsters and accusations it was warping their minds – led the cost in a particularly heated second of American tradition that noticed comics burnings, localised bannings, and congressional hearings…with the very actual threat that the US authorities may shut down or regulate the trade out of existence.
One of Wertham’s legacies was the Comics Code Authority, a self-censorship board established in 1954 that was a final ditch effort by publishers to avoid wasting themselves. Only comics passing extraordinarily strict (draconian) necessities obtained the stamp of approval that made them viable for distribution to newsstands, pharmacies and grocery shops. The finish outcome was the erasure or immolation of whole well-liked genres – together with horror, romance, and crime – for many years and a few publishers have been compelled to shut. It took years for superheroes to seek out their toes once more. In later years it was revealed that a lot of the interview proof that Wertham utilized in Seduction of the Innocent have been inaccurate, false, or ethically doubtful however the harm was performed. Wertham died in 1981, the CCA ceased to exist in 2011.
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