Association of Comics Magazine Publishers
Encyclopedia
The Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was an American
industry trade group
formed in May 1947 and publicly announced on July 1, 1948, to regulate the content of comic books in the face of public criticism during this time. Founding members included publishers Phil Keenan of Hillman Periodicals
, Leverett Gleason of Lev Gleason Publications
, Bill Gaines of EC Comics
, Harold Moore (publisher of Famous Funnies
) and Rae Herman of Orbit Publications
, as well as distributors Frank Armer and Irving Manheimer. George T. Delacorte, Jr., founder of Dell Publishing
, which included Dell Comics
, served as president, and Manhattan
attorney Henry E. Schultz, president of the board of Queens College and a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, as executive director.
The ACMP was formed after "accusations from several fronts charged comic books with contributing to the rising rates of juvenile delinquency
", and city and county ordinances had banned some publications though these were effectively overturned with a March 29, 1948, United States Supreme Court ruling that a 64-year-old New York State law outlawing publications with "pictures and stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" was unconstitutional. Regardless, the uproar increased upon the publication of two articles "Horror in the Nursery", by Judith Crist
, in the March 25, 1948, issue Collier's Weekly
, based upon the symposium "Psychopathology of Comic Books" held a week earlier by psychiatrist
Fredric Wertham
; and Wertham's own features "The Comics ... Very Funny!" in the May 29, 1948, issue of The Saturday Review of Literature. and “The Psychopathology of Comic Books” in the American Journal of Psychotherapy
, which stated that comic books were "abnormally sexually aggressive" and led to crime. Tiny Spencer
, West Virginia
held a comic-book burning
on October 26, 1948; after the Associated Press
reported on this, copycat comic-book burnings followed around the country, particularity in Catholic
parishes.
In 1948, the association released their "Publishers Code," drawing on the Hollywood Production Code
(better known as the "Hays Code"), which had also been drafted to stave off external regulation. Like the Production Code, it forbid portrayals of crime that might "throw sympathy against the law" or "weaken respect for established authority," and prohibited "ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group." "Sexy, wanton comics" were not to be published, and divorce
was not to be "treated humorously or represented as glamorous or alluring."
Comics that complied with the code were offered a "Seal of Approval." The code, however, was not a success, ignored by both large and small publishers. Some publishers, such as Dell Comics
, refused to join the organization. Others, such as founding member EC Comics, terminated their participation. Those who continued as members made use of the ACMP seal of approval without any formal process of review. Describing the situation in 1950, Director Schultz said: "The association, I would say, is out of business and so is the code." Nevertheless, comics continued to be printed with the association's seal right up until the 1990's, although by then,many of the code's regulations were being completely ignored. Marvel
was the first to publish without it, with no loss in sales or public outcry.
In 1954, a mounting tide of criticism, including a new book by Wertham (Seduction of the Innocent
) and congressional hearings, spurred the formation of the ACMP's successor, the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA). The ACMP Publishers Code served as the template for a more detailed set of rules enforced by the CMAA's Comics Code Authority
.
EC comics and Mad magazine publisher, William M. Gaines, in his 1983 interview with The Comics Journal
revealed: "After the Senate Subcommittee hearings, and this isn’t very well known, but I can prove it again, I sent a letter to every comics publisher, invited them to a meeting and footed the bill for the hall. We took a big place somewhere, and all these people showed up and I tried to convince them that we should form an association and hire the Gleuks of Harvard or anybody else we could find who could do some sort of independent, honest research into whether comic books in truth were the horrendous things that people said they were. And since I really didn’t think they were, I figured, such a study would exonerate us.
None of these guys wanted to do that, and right away the whole thing was taken away from me, and they turned it into a situation where they wrote a Code, and the Code forbade the use of the words horror, terror, or crime — this was all my books — and weird, even weird, [laughter] so that would wipe me out. So I didn’t join the association. But then I decided to drop all those books anyway and put out the New Direction stuff. I put out the six first issues, six b-imonthlies, and they sold 10, 15 percent. You can’t believe how horrendous the sales were. And I later found out that it was because the word was passed by the wholesalers, “Get ‘im!” So they got me."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
industry trade group
Industry trade group
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry...
formed in May 1947 and publicly announced on July 1, 1948, to regulate the content of comic books in the face of public criticism during this time. Founding members included publishers Phil Keenan of Hillman Periodicals
Hillman Periodicals
Hillman Periodicals, Inc. was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher...
, Leverett Gleason of Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Publications, founded by Leverett Gleason, was the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay, and Boy Comics....
, Bill Gaines of EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
, Harold Moore (publisher of Famous Funnies
Famous Funnies
Famous Funnies is an American publication of the 1930s that represents what popular culture historians consider the first true American comic book, following seminal precursors.-Immediate precursors:...
) and Rae Herman of Orbit Publications
Orbit Publications
Orbit Publications was a publishing house operated by Rae Herman known for its comic books of the 1940s and 1950s "Golden Age of Comic Books"...
, as well as distributors Frank Armer and Irving Manheimer. George T. Delacorte, Jr., founder of Dell Publishing
Dell Publishing
Dell Publishing, an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in...
, which included Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
, served as president, and Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
attorney Henry E. Schultz, president of the board of Queens College and a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, as executive director.
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
", and city and county ordinances had banned some publications though these were effectively overturned with a March 29, 1948, United States Supreme Court ruling that a 64-year-old New York State law outlawing publications with "pictures and stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" was unconstitutional. Regardless, the uproar increased upon the publication of two articles "Horror in the Nursery", by Judith Crist
Judith Crist
Judith Crist is an American film critic. She appeared regularly on the Today show from 1964-1973 and has appeared in one film, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories...
, in the March 25, 1948, issue Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
, based upon the symposium "Psychopathology of Comic Books" held a week earlier by psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-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. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...
; and Wertham's own features "The Comics ... Very Funny!" in the May 29, 1948, issue of The Saturday Review of Literature. and “The Psychopathology of Comic Books” in the American Journal of Psychotherapy
American Journal of Psychotherapy
The American Journal of Psychotherapy is the official scientific journal of the Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. It began publishing in 1947. It is published 4 times a year. Since 2001, it incorporates the Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research. The editor in chief is T....
, which stated that comic books were "abnormally sexually aggressive" and led to crime. Tiny Spencer
Spencer, West Virginia
Spencer is a city in Roane County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,352 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Roane County. Spencer is the home of the annual West Virginia Black Walnut Festival. Points of interest include Charles Fork Lake, Chrystal Water and Power...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
held a comic-book burning
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
on October 26, 1948; after the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported on this, copycat comic-book burnings followed around the country, particularity in Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
parishes.
In 1948, the association released their "Publishers Code," drawing on the Hollywood Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
(better known as the "Hays Code"), which had also been drafted to stave off external regulation. Like the Production Code, it forbid portrayals of crime that might "throw sympathy against the law" or "weaken respect for established authority," and prohibited "ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group." "Sexy, wanton comics" were not to be published, and divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
was not to be "treated humorously or represented as glamorous or alluring."
Comics that complied with the code were offered a "Seal of Approval." The code, however, was not a success, ignored by both large and small publishers. Some publishers, such as Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
, refused to join the organization. Others, such as founding member EC Comics, terminated their participation. Those who continued as members made use of the ACMP seal of approval without any formal process of review. Describing the situation in 1950, Director Schultz said: "The association, I would say, is out of business and so is the code." Nevertheless, comics continued to be printed with the association's seal right up until the 1990's, although by then,many of the code's regulations were being completely ignored. Marvel
Marvel
-In business:*Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company**Marvel Animation, an animation production company**Marvel Comics, a comic book publisher**Marvel Productions, a television and film studio subsidiary...
was the first to publish without it, with no loss in sales or public outcry.
In 1954, a mounting tide of criticism, including a new book by Wertham (Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...
) and congressional hearings, spurred the formation of the ACMP's successor, the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA). The ACMP Publishers Code served as the template for a more detailed set of rules enforced by the CMAA's Comics Code Authority
Comics Code Authority
The Comics Code Authority was a body created as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America, as a tool for the comics-publishing industry to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Member publishers submitted comic books to the CCA, which screened them for adherence to...
.
EC comics and Mad magazine publisher, William M. Gaines, in his 1983 interview with The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
revealed: "After the Senate Subcommittee hearings, and this isn’t very well known, but I can prove it again, I sent a letter to every comics publisher, invited them to a meeting and footed the bill for the hall. We took a big place somewhere, and all these people showed up and I tried to convince them that we should form an association and hire the Gleuks of Harvard or anybody else we could find who could do some sort of independent, honest research into whether comic books in truth were the horrendous things that people said they were. And since I really didn’t think they were, I figured, such a study would exonerate us.
None of these guys wanted to do that, and right away the whole thing was taken away from me, and they turned it into a situation where they wrote a Code, and the Code forbade the use of the words horror, terror, or crime — this was all my books — and weird, even weird, [laughter] so that would wipe me out. So I didn’t join the association. But then I decided to drop all those books anyway and put out the New Direction stuff. I put out the six first issues, six b-imonthlies, and they sold 10, 15 percent. You can’t believe how horrendous the sales were. And I later found out that it was because the word was passed by the wholesalers, “Get ‘im!” So they got me."
ACMP Publishers Code of 1948
- Sexy, wanton comics should not be published. No drawing should show a female indecently or unduly exposed, and in no event more nude than in a bathing suit commonly worn in the United States of America.
- Crime should not be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy against the law and justice or to inspire others with the desire for imitation. No comics shall show the details and methods of a crime committed by a youth. Policemen, judges, Government officials, and respected institutions should not be portrayed as stupid, ineffective, or represented in such a way to weaken respect for established authority.
- No scenes of sadistic torture should be shown.
- Vulgar and obscene language should never be used. Slang should be kept to a minimum and used only when essential to the story.
- Divorce should not be treated humorously or represented as glamorous or alluring.
- Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible.