Since 1982, Banned Books Week has highlighted the value of free and open access to information by drawing national attention to efforts to remove or restrict access to books. Banned Books Week is supported by a coalition of organizations, including the American Library Association (ALA). This year, Banned Books Week is being observed on October 5–11. The theme for 2025’s Banned Books Week is “Censorship is so 1984—read for your rights.”

We may associate banned books with books that touch on race and racism, LGBTQIA+ characters or themes, or other controversial topics—books such as Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are all perennial targets for book bans—but comic books as a genre have long been derided as unfit reading material for children. For this year’s Banned Books Week, the HeinOnline Blog is exploring the history behind the comic book industry’s practice of self-censorship for more than 50 years.

Nights of Horror and the Brooklyn Thrill Killers

Comic books have been around since the 1800s and share a lineage with Britain’s penny dreadfuls, cheap mass-produced serialized literature that focused on the perennially best-selling subjects of crime, criminals, and the supernatural. The American Golden Age of Comic Books began in 1938 with Superman’s debut, setting the template for the modern comic book that we are familiar with today. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and many more classic superheroes were introduced to the public between 1938 and 1941, and comic books’ popularity exploded, especially among children.

Since time immemorial, adults have been concerned about the content children consume and are exposed to, and in the postwar era comic books came into the moral crosshairs. This scrutiny increased following a gruesome series of crimes throughout Brooklyn in the summer of 1954.

Throughout the summer of 1954, a group of teenage boys—later dubbed by the press as the Brooklyn Thrill Killers—committed a series of crimes across Brooklyn. The boys primarily targeted homeless people, brutally assaulting them and horsewhipping women. They were finally arrested after beating and throwing William Mentor into the East River, where Mentor drowned. The four teenagers were Jack Koslow, 18; Melvin Mittman, 17; Jerome Lieberman, 17; and Robert Trachtenberg, 15. Koslow confessed to additional crimes, including setting a man on fire, and to murdering Reinhold Ulrickson, a local homeless man.

The Brooklyn Thrill Killers caused a media frenzy, especially when Jack Koslow admitted to reading^[1]Kevin W. Saunders. Violence as Obscenity: Limiting the Media’s First Amendment Protection (1996). This book is found in HeinOnline’s Legal Classics. the Nights of Horror^[2]Rachel Silverstein, The Law of Obscenity in Comic Books, 35 TOURO L. REV. 1315 (2020). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. comic books. Nights of Horror debuted in 1954 and was drawn by Superman co-creator and artist Joe Shuster. It featured sexually suggestive illustrations and its stories revolved around torture and bondage.

Nights of Horror was hardly an outlier in the comic book market. Several titles, such as Tales from the Crypt, Reform School Girl, and Crime Detective, featured sexually charged stories revolving around torture and murder in a genre known as crime comics. Together with horror comics, crime comics were a major portion of the 1954 comic book market, publishing some 60 million comics per month.^[3]Anders Walker, Blackboard Jungle: Delinquency, Desegregation, and the Cultural Politics of Brown, 110 COLUM. L. REV. 1911 (November 2010). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

Comics, Juvenile Delinquency, and Dr. Wertham

Dr. Frederic Wertham, a psychiatrist who had made a name for himself after testifying in defense of child rapist and cannibalistic serial killer Albert Fish,^[4]Louis H. Cohen; et al. Murder, Madness, and the Law (1952). This book is found in HeinOnline’s World Trials Library. had long been concerned about the effects of comic books on children. After studying the subject for years, in 1954 he published Seduction of the Innocent, in which he argued that a perceived rise in juvenile delinquency was due to “mass influences on the child’s mind.”^[5]Anders Walker, Blackboard Jungle: Delinquency, Desegregation, and the Cultural Politics of Brown, 110 COLUM. L. REV. 1911 (November 2010). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. In Wertham’s argument, mass influences were comic books, which glamorized crime and all of mankind’s baser instincts, creating an “ethical confusion” for children. Wertham was not critical of only crime and horror comics, but of comics as a genre; Wonder Woman, for example, was a threat to American womanhood,^[6]Janice Dickin McGinnis, Bogeymen and the Law: Crime Comics and Pornography, 20 OTTAWA L. REV. 3 (1988). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. and Superman taught “complete contempt of the police”^[7]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading and created “phantasies of sadistic joy in seeing other people punished over and over again while you yourself remain immune.”^[8]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading An abridged version^[9]J. P. Williams, Why Superheroes Never Bleed: The Effects of Self-Censorship on the Comic Book Industry, 26 FREE SPEECH Y.B. 60 (1987). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. of Seduction of the Innocent was published in Reader’s Digest as “Blueprints for Delinquency,” and Reader’s Digest made Seduction of the Innocent its selection for its June 1954 Book-of-the-Month.

Coinciding with the Brooklyn Thrill Killers case, the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held hearings^[10]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading to investigate if crime comics specifically were contributing to juvenile delinquency. Opening the hearings, subcommittee Chairman Robert Hendrickson said, “We are not a subcommittee of blue-nosed censors. We have no preconceived notions as to the possible need for new legislation. We want to find out what damage, if any, is being done to our children’s minds by certain types of publications which contain a substantial degree of sadism, crime, and horror.”^[11]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading

Dr. Wertham testified^[12]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading before the subcommittee, telling the Senators, “I would take up all of your time if I would tell you all the brutal things”^[13]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading depicted in crime comics. Of particular concern for Dr. Wertham were the advertisements^[14]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading for whips, guns, and knives often included in the comics. Comics, according to Wertham, preyed upon children’s innate curiosity^[15]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading by teaching the methods of crime in their stories and then providing the instruments to commit those crimes with the weapons sold in their advertisements.

Also testifying before the Senate subcommittee was William Gaines,^[16]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading publisher of the Entertainment Comics Group, claiming to be the first publisher in the United States to publish horror comics. ^[17]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading “Nobody has ever been ruined by a comic,”^[18]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading Gaines told the subcommittee, citing examples of equally disturbing content published in newspaper headlines. His testimony was not well received. Senators confronted Gaines with examples of violent comics published by his company, asking if there were any limits to the type of content he would publish (“Only within the bounds of good taste,”^[19]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading was Gaines’ reply).

The hearings concluded with Chairman Hendrickson promising to continue investigating crime and horror comics, and calling upon the publishers, distributors, and wholesalers to take “any action…with reference to these materials which will tend to eliminate from production and sale…A competent job of self-policing within the industry will achieve much.”^[20]Juvenile delinquency (comic books) Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. 190. Investigation of juvenile … Continue reading Chairman Hendrickson would not have to wait long for the comic book industry to heed his advice.

The Comics Code Authority

Months after the conclusion of the Senate’s investigation into crime and horror comics, several comic book publishers joined together to form the Comics Magazine Association of America and its Comics Code Authority,^[21]J. P. Williams, Why Superheroes Never Bleed: The Effects of Self-Censorship on the Comic Book Industry, 26 FREE SPEECH Y.B. 60 (1987). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. a self-censorship organization that set guidelines for acceptable storylines, artwork, and advertising in comic books. The comic book industry had elected to self-regulate rather than wait for the government to do it for them. Functioning similarly to the movie industry’s Hays Code, the Comics Code Authority required member publishers to submit all comics in advance for review to be approved for publication. Approved comics would bear an approval seal on their front covers. The Comics Code Authority made its debut in October 1954.

While Comics Code Authority membership was not compulsory for comic book publishers, wholesalers and distributors refused to carry most comics that did not bear the Comics Code Seal of Approval on their cover,^[22]J. P. Williams, Why Superheroes Never Bleed: The Effects of Self-Censorship on the Comic Book Industry, 26 FREE SPEECH Y.B. 60 (1987). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. making membership and compliance a foregone conclusion. Still, some major publishers, such as Dell, which had licensing deals with Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera, refused to join, choosing instead to adhere to their own code of standards—and those of their licensors. But most publishers were not in a position to take such a stand and had to submit to the Code.

“Juvenile delinquency is the hydra-headed monster of our time, far too complex to have a single spawning ground,”^[23]Charles F. Murphy, A Seal of Approval for Comic Books, 19 FED. PROBATION 19 (June 1955). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. wrote Charles F. Murphy, the first Administrator for the Comics Code Authority, before detailing the Authority’s review process and Code standards.

“Ours is a code with teeth in it,”^[24]Charles F. Murphy, A Seal of Approval for Comic Books, 19 FED. PROBATION 19 (June 1955). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. said Code Administrator Murphy. “In fact it is one of the strongest codes ever adopted by a communications medium. To interpret and apply it wisely for the best interests of young readers is no light responsibility.”^[25]Charles F. Murphy, A Seal of Approval for Comic Books, 19 FED. PROBATION 19 (June 1955). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

Comics at the U.S. Supreme Court

Nights of Horror‘s influence can be seen in the Comics Code’s provisions. Before the Code was announced, in September 1954, New York City used its statutory authority^[26]Ted V. Morrison, Constitutionality of Enjoining Publication of Obscene Literature, 6 J. PUB. L. 548 (Fall 1957). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. under New York Code § 22-a to file suit against several bookstores in the city to stop them from selling Nights of Horror, declaring the comics to be obscene. One of the affected bookstores was Kingsley Books, an adult bookstore that sold, among other things, Nights of Horror. Kingsley fought back against the state’s injunction to stop selling Nights of Horror. The New York State Court of Appeals found Nights of Horror to be “indisputably pornographic, indisputably obscene and filthy.”^[27]1 N.Y. 2d. 177 (1956). This case is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. Kingsley Books appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the state’s injunction constituted a prior restraint, or a statute or law that prohibits speech before it happens, and violated their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and press.

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kingsley Books v. Brown^[28]Kingsley Books, Inc., et al. v. Brown, Corporation Counsel, 354 U.S. 436, 448 (1957). This case is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Supreme Court Library. that that state’s injunction did not infringe upon the First Amendment right to free speech or the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In his dissent, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “It savors too much of book burning.”^[29]Kingsley Books, Inc., et al. v. Brown, Corporation Counsel, 354 U.S. 436, 448 (1957). This case is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Supreme Court Library.

The Comics Code underwent revisions in 1971^[30]J. P. Williams, Why Superheroes Never Bleed: The Effects of Self-Censorship on the Comic Book Industry, 26 FREE SPEECH Y.B. 60 (1987). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.—but not to loosen its requirements. After the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare approached Stan Lee to create a Spider-Man story showing the dangers of drug use (which the Comics Code Authority refused to approve), the Code was revised to allow drug use to be depicted but only if it was portrayed as “a vicious habit.” The second change was to prohibit implications that politicians were dishonest; any depictions of government officials behaving badly had to be “declared as an exceptional case,” an interesting editorial choice made a year before the Watergate break-in.

Changes in the publishing world ultimately undermined the Comics Code Authority’s power, thanks to the rise of direct market distributors and independent comic book stores willing to sell books without the Seal of Approval. In 2001, Marvel Comics abandoned the Comics Code in favor of its own ratings system. In 2011, DC Comics announced that it too would stop submitting its work for Code Authority approval, leaving just one publisher, Archie Comics, still participating. The day after DC’s announcement, Archie Comics also dropped the Seal of Approval, ending the Comics Code.

Ban Ignorance with HeinOnline

We’ve all heard that knowledge is power, and we hope this post helped illuminate another surprising subject area that can be researched with the breadth of content available in HeinOnline. The debates and hearings of Congress are often a wonderful barometer into the cultural zeitgeist, showing the issues of the day persistent enough to permeate the debates on Capitol Hill.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held dozens of hearings on juvenile delinquency, primarily from the 1950s through the 1970s, often traveling across the country to hold hearings exploring problems plaguing the nation’s youth, focusing both on systemic problems, like access to youth programs, unemployment, drug use, and child abuse, and the low-hanging fruits of media and popular culture. Other hearings you may wish to explore on the topic include:

• Juvenile delinquency (television programs) : hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. 89, investigation of juvenile delinquency in the United States. June 5, October 19 and 20, 1954. 
• Juvenile delinquency (plural marriages) : Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, first session, pursuant to S. Res. 62, investigation of juvenile delinquency in the United States. April 28 and May 2, 1955.
• Juvenile delinquency (obscene and pornographic materials) : hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, first session, pursuant to S. Res. 62, May 24, 26, 31, June 9 and 18, 1955.
• Juvenile delinquency (motion pictures) : hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, first session, pursuant to S. Res. 62, investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States. June 15, 16, 17, and 18, 1955.

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