Comic Books

With prime-time television and major motion pictures regularly depicting “graphic” images of gunshot victims, fallen heroes, and glorified villains, it is hard to imagine that “graphic images” of gunshot victims, fallen heroes, and glorified villains were once targets of American efforts to curb juvenile delinquency. Yet comic strips and comic books were central to America's war on crime during much of the twentieth century, both as a cause and means of preventing social problems. Beginning in the 1930s, comic books depicting legal efforts to combat gangsters and thugs were used by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to convince the public that “crime does not pay.” By the 1950s, U.S. leaders were all but convinced that American comic books were actually responsible for producing crime and delinquency.

Crime has always been a staple of popular entertainment, whether in the detective mysteries of Sherlock Holmes or in the murderous plots of Shakespearian tragedies. Of course, the comics as a form of popular entertainment were no exception. The crime detective hero Dick Tracy first appeared in the pages of the Detroit Mirror in 1931, and soon comics featuring other [Page 252]crime crusaders followed. Secret Agent X-9 debuted in newspapers in 1934, featuring the writing talents of noted crime novelist Dashiell Hammett. By 1936, the comic strip crime fighter became somewhat more realistic with strips such as The G-Man having as their basis the real “government men” working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Eventually, the popularity of these crime-related newspaper strips found their own successful market in the form of comic books. Selling for about a dime, crime-themed comic books were a popular commodity that were bought and traded by America's youth. By 1954, the year a U.S. Congress Subcommittee began hearings on the harmful effects of crime comics, the genre comprised more than 25 percent of the total comic book market.

Many fictional crime fighters who first appeared as comic book characters later achieved fame on film and on television. Batman and Robin, played here by Adam West and Burt Ward, were popular crime fighters in the 1960s in the campy television series.

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