Forever susceptible to trends and personalities, once noble actions can be dismissed as bigoted and vice versa.
It is for these reasons that Dr. Fredric Wertham remains a deeply polarising figure.
A German Jew who found fame in America due to his testimony at the trial of child rapist/murderer/cannibal Albert Fish, Wertham was an interesting character: he was heavily involved in the setting up and running of Lafargue Clinic (one of the first mental health clinics for poor black residents in New York City), with the work that he undertook there led to him being a witness for the NAACP in Brown vs Board of Education (leading to the desegregation of schools and beginning the long battle for civil rights for black Americans).
And yet, he is far more notorious for attempting to kill off the comic book industry.
Speaking at a US Senate Sub-Committee, Wertham made the following bold claims:
I think Hitler was a beginner compared with the comic-book industry. They get the children much younger. They teach them race hatred at the age of 4 before they can read …. Formerly to impair the morals [of] a minor was a punishable offense. It has now become a mass industry. I will say that every crime of delinquency is described in detail and that if you teach somebody the technique of something you, of course, seduce him into it. Nobody would believe that you teach a boy homosexuality without introducing him to it. The same thing with crime …. I would like to point out to you one other crime comic book which we have found to be particularly injurious to the ethical development of children … the Superman comic books. They arose in children's fantasies of sadistic joy in seeing other people punished over and over again while you yourself remain immune. We have called it the Superman complex. In these comic books the crime is always real and the Superman's triumph over good is unreal. Moreover, these books like any other, teach complete contempt of the police …. I am just a doctor. I can't tell what the remedy is. I can only say that in my opinion this is a public-health problem. I think it ought to be possible to determine once and for all what is in these comic books and I think it ought to be possible to keep the children under 15 from seeing them displayed to them and preventing these being sold directly to children. In other words, I think something should be done to see that the children can't get them.
His book, Seduction of the Innocent, also contains gems like this:
1
Clearly a complex man with an interesting story, he is ripe for exploration especially in the form of the graphic novel.
Not only because the medium allows for greater depth in comics, but because they brought a respectability and intellectual confirmation to comics that would have been unthinkable during Wertham’s time.
There’s a quote from 2000AD legend Alan Grant that I often refer to when it comes to comics, but for good reason:
..comics are one of the most subversive forms of literature that you can get. Nobody wants to ban television, because television doesn't make you think, it just entertains you. Nobody wants to ban books, because you read books in a logical, linear fashion. Comics force you to use both sides of your brain at once, which is why they were banned in repressive societies like the USSR.
So it’s a perfect opportunity to examine this divisive and misunderstood figure.
True crime author Harold Schechter has clearly done his homework researching Wertham’s history and artist Eric Powell delivers beautifully rendered panels that not only invoke post war minimalism but also allow the text to carry the story without drowning out the art. Take this page as an example:
The extensive focus on Fish has been criticised by some reviewers who feel that it turns the graphic novel an actual true crime novel which then becomes jarring when the narrative moves to Seduction of the Innocent. Although I believe that not only does the spotlight on the deranged rapist/murderer serve as the backdrop for Wertham’s crusade as well as reinforce the point that actual violence against children is far more common and much more horrific than what one would find in a comic book, I think the criticism is valid.
Also, Fish acts as a complete contrast to Gaines: Fish appeared as a respectable old man but harboured nightmarish secrets and yet the contrasts aren’t fully remarked upon: Gaines appeared to relish in blood and gore but not only was he the first person to have a black character as a lead in comics, it has been argued by some that these EC horror and crime comics were a secular Jewish response to Auschwitz in the post-war years.
Ultimately, Schechter and Powell don’t seem to know what to make of Wertham, other than he was a cantankerous type whose obsession with fame and the welfare of children led him into areas that would have seismic changes in American society.
Although it’s now well known, thanks to his files being in the public domain, that a good proportion of his data was at best selectively edited and at worst fabricated, this is not given the exploration that it deserves and almost feels like a kind of gotcha: he wrote that Batman and Robin represent “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together,” and cited a young gay man who says that he put himself “in the position of Robin” and “did want to have relations with Batman” but in Wertham’s original notes, these quotes were from two teenage boys who were already in a relationship with each other and who told Wertham they were more likely to fantasize about heroes like Tarzan or the Sub-Mariner.
Wouldn’t it have been fascinating to see how and why he chose to draw these conclusions, based on his pioneering work in Harlem?
Undoubtedly a fascinating read, but one that would have benefitted from taking a definitive stand.
Harold Schechter, Eric Powell. “Dr. Werthless”, Dark Horse Comics ISBN-13: 978-1506744360
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
No comments