by Tim Pilcher
1
Porn in the USA
RISE OF THE COMICS CODE
The Comics Code Authority’s seal of approval that appeared on nearly all comics after 1954.
Comic books have always suffered numerous prejudices that have caused the medium untold damage. Firstly, their name has always implied a humorous edge, an inheritance from the newspapers’ “funny pages” that were their progenitor. While humor is perfectly catered for by sequential art, that association in the general public’s mind inevitably tars the entire medium with a juvenile brush. It was this perception that comics were only fit for children that saw the entire industry almost destroyed in the mid-1950s, all by the hands of one particularly ardent anti-comic crusader, Dr. Fredric Wertham.
Wertham was an ex-pat German psychiatrist who settled in the United States in 1922. His work examined the effects that environment and social background have on psychological development. After working in several New York psychiatric hospitals, he published his first book, The Brain as an Organ, in 1934, and began to focus on the influences of culture and environment on criminal behavior. Dealing with a lot of juvenile criminals who were almost all avid readers of horror and crime comics gave Wertham a view of comics and crime that would prove disastrous for the comic industry.
Wertham first voiced his views in a 1948 article stating that the crime and violence depicted in comics were an important factor in leading kids down the criminal path. But it was the publication of his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, which really made an impact. There was already concern about an increasing number of horror comics, like Tales From The Crypt and Vault of Horror, and Wertham gave readers graphic examples of how comic books depicted sex, crime, murder, sadism, and drugs. Seduction of the Innocent caused a sensation, leading to comic burnings and a government investigation.
The witch-hunt was the beginning of the end for a number of publishers, particularly E.C. Comics. Faced with questions from Senator Estes Kefauver and the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, many frightened comic publishers got together and formed the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA). In an effort to save itself from destruction — and rather than face governmental censorship — the CMAA set up a self-regulatory body called the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in October 1954. All comics afterward had to have the seal stating that they were “Approved by the Comics Code Authority” or the majority of newsstands and stores simply wouldn’t stock them. Initially, a few refused to join, including E.C. Comics, Dell, and Classics Illustrated’s publisher Gilberton.
The CCA set up strict guidelines as to what could and, more importantly, couldn’t be represented in their medium. The code prevented the portrayal of everything from “profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols, that have acquired undesirable meanings” to “vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism.” It even banned using the words “horror” or “terror” in a comic’s title.
In terms of sexual content, “Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure,” and “Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.” Erotic comics — or anything even remotely romantic — were effectively neutered, as “Passion or romantic interest” was never to be shown “in such a way as to stimulate the lower and baser emotions.” And women were to be drawn as realistically as possible, “without exaggeration of any physical qualities.”
Interestingly, even when the code was revised in 1971, the repressive nature was revealed when “seduction” and “rape” were mentioned together in the same sentence, stating that rape shouldn’t even be “suggested.” The Code’s original vagaries were also revealed when it banned “Illicit sex relations,” “sexual abnormalities,” and “sex perversion” without specifically stating what these actually consisted of. Publishers generally interpreted them as referring to homosexuality.
Ads in comic books were placed under similar restrictions, and the sale of sex instruction books, picture postcards, “pin-ups,” “art studies,” or any other reproduction of nude or semi-nude figures was prohibited.
A “grand guignol” (a term for horror from the name of a Parisian theatre) cover to Faust #11, painted by Tim Vigil in 1995.
Wally Wood’s cover to his limited edition E.C. Comics pastiche portfolio, Weird Sex-Fantasy from 1977.
The fifth plate, Messiah, from Wood’s erotic portfolio. Only 2000 portfolios were ever printed, which included 11 plates.
Matt Baker’s cover to Phantom Lady #17 (April, 1947). Dr Fredric Wertham reproduced this image in his book, Seduction of the Innocent, as an example of “Sexual stimulation by combining ‘headlights’ [breasts] with the sadist’s dream of tying up a woman.”
DEATH OF THE COMICS CODE
Publishers knew that if they didn’t stick to the Comics Code Authority’s guidelines and get the literal seal of approval on the cover then it was unlikely that the comic would be distributed, let alone stocked by the numerous dime stores and soda stands that were essential for sales. And so the entire industry knuckled down to creating safe, dry, dull, and unchallenging comics for the next 10–15 years.
Things began to change in the late 1960s when the various underground comix artists — inspired by the original E.C. Comics — deliberately started smashing every sexual and social taboo they could find in their own self-published titles. Rather than going through traditional distributors they set up their own networks, reaching thousands who had grown tired of the lifeless superhero fodder offered by the mainstream. Specialist shops, the direct market and the rise of numerous independent publishers in the 1980s meant creators could circumnavigate the old newsstand systems and be free from the CCA’s restrictions.
In 1971 the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (today known as the Department of Health and Human Services) asked Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to write a cautionary comic about drug abuse. Lee wrote a three-part Amazing Spider-Man story (#96-98), showing drugs as unglamorous and dangerous. Yet the CCA refused to approve the story because it featured narcotics, regardless of the context. “I could understand them,” recalled Lee in a 1998 Comic Book Artist interview. “They were like lawyers, people who take things literally and technically. The Code mentioned that you mustn’t mention drugs and, according to their rules, they were right. So I didn’t even get mad at them then. I said ‘Screw it’ and just took the Code seal off for those three issues. Then we went back to the Code again.”
It was the beginning of the end for the code, as its power was obviously out of step with the times. The CCA tried to keep up, repealing its “ban” on homosexuality in 1989, stating that any slur against a character’s “sexual preference” should “be clearly shown to be wrong or ignorant.” But pretty soon the two largest publishers, Marvel and DC Comics, realized that everyone around them was publishing adult-related material without the Code. In 2001 Marvel opted out of the CCA and used its own age rating system instead. By 2007, only two major publishers, DC Comics and Archie Comics, still submitted certain titles for CCA approval, and the authority had finally lost all credibility, as it failed to keep up with society’s fast-changing morality.
History has perhaps treated the man who started it all, Dr Fredric Wertham, unfairly, and he has become a comic book bogeyman. Defending his earlier attacks on comics, he wrote in the 1970s, “My main interest is not in comic books or even mass media, but in children and young people… In the course of that work I came across crime comic books. I had nothing whatever to do directly with the Comics Code. Nor have I ever endorsed it. Nor do I believe in it…” He died at the end of 1981.
Writer and penciler Phil Foglio and inker Matt Howarth’s strip from the humorous and erotic independent comic, XXXenophile #2. The 1989 comic was the natural offspring of the Sixties’ underground comix exploring sexual themes while completely ignoring the Comic Code Authority.
Underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez’s reminiscences in The Birth of Porn,
which merged the death of E.C. Comics with the rise of Playboy magazine. The story appeared in 2003’s Blab! #14.
DAVE STEVENS AND BETTIE PAGE IN COMICS
Bettie Page was a legendary pin-up model from the 1950s, who posed for Irving Klaw, the publisher of various erotic fetish photo sets, and comics by artists such as Eric Stanton and Gene Bilbrew. Page’s appeal and influence stretched far beyond her modelling years, and she became a cult comic character in the 1980s.
Although he was born in 1955, near the end of Page’s modeling career, artist Dave Stevens was drawn toward the retro images of Page in old magazines. The Californian comic creator was so enamored by her look that he used her as a part prototype for a character in his pulp fiction/Republic serial-inspired comic, The Rocketeer. Stevens managed to track down Page and asked her permission to use her image in the comic and the two became friends. The strip had an erratic publishing schedule, to say the least, launching in 1982, but not collected until 1988 and 1989 by Comico. The third issue didn’t appear for another six years, this time by Dark Horse.
The stormy relationship between the hero, Cliff Secord — The Rocketeer — and his girlfriend Betty was loosely based on Stevens’ own on-and-off relationship with actress Charlene Brinkman, AKA “scream queen” Brinke Stevens. Married in 1980 for just six months, they remained friends and she later modeled for her ex-husband, providing the Bettie Page-esque poses, with Page’s face drawn on. Stevens also put in a cameo of his friend, glamour photographer ken Marcus, as the sleazy “Marco of hollywood.” The artist then drew numerous Betty pin-up pieces and he became renowned for his 1950s inspired pin-up drawings of women. He sadly died in 2008.
In 1987, comic book artist and men’s magazine illustrator Greg Theakston started a fanzine, The Bettie Pages, which sparked a further interest in Page, and Playboy illustrator and erotic artist Olivia De Berardinis has created more than 50 stunning Bettie Page paintings that have been collected into a book. Other artists who were inspired by Bettie Page included Roberto Baldazzini, Steve Woron, Teo Jonelli, and Jim Silke, whose comic debut was 1993’s Rascals in Paradise, published by Dark Horse Comics. Silke went on to create the popular erotic Bettie Page series and Eros Comics also published the tongue-in-cheek Tor Love Bettie about a fictional romance between Page and wrestler-turned-Z-movie-actor, Tor Johnson. Page has subsequently appeared on countless comic covers as her beauty and legend live on in never-aging, sequential splendor.
A beautiful charcoal study by the late, great Dave Stevens reveals his love for retro pin-ups.
Bettie Page’s infamous bondage photos from the 1950s inspired this cartoon study by Jordi Bernet.
This pin-up is a homage to Harvey Comics’ cute devil character, Lil’ Hot Stuff. Note that Dave Stevens drew the model’s breasts realistically, as opposed to the pneumatic beachballs of most female comic characters. The artist also dated the work as 1955, his birth year.
FRANK CHO
One artist who was inspired by Dave Stevens’ delicate line work and pin-up style, and shared a love of Bettie Page, was Frank Cho. Cho was born Duk Hyun Cho in 1971 in Seoul, South Korea. The family moved to the USA when Cho was six, and he soon reveled in Americana. He began drawing comic strips in college and created several strips for the school papers, his most popular being University2. Like his fellow Korean-American comic artist Jim Lee, Cho studied medicine, and he graduated from the University of Maryland in 1996 with a degree in Nursing. But rather than pursue a career in health care Cho signed up with Creators Syndicate, Inc., which then syndicated University2 as Liberty Meadows. The strip related the wacky activities of the staff and anthropomorphic “inmates” of the animal sanctuary/rehabilitation clinic. Cho enjoyed huge success with Liberty Meadows which mixed crazy humor and sexy women — in the shape of animal psychologist Brandy Carter and her roommate, Jen. Brandy was based on “a composite of several women who I have lusted after since 2nd grade.” According to Cho, “She’s based on [Wonder Woman actress] Lynda Carter, [fifties pin-up] Bettie Page, [Playboy Playmate] Candy Loving, and two girls from my high school, who, one of them particularly, looked like Brandy.”
Brandy’s flatmate, Jen, was similarly “…modeled after an old high school acquaintance of mine. She was a hottie,” explained the artist on his website. But the series wasn’t without its problems. Fed up with being censored by newspaper editors (who objected to the luscious ladies and a chain-smoking Pig called Dean) Cho decided to self-publish it as a comic book in 2001. The series went on hiatus in 2004, as other projects demanded the artist/writer’s attention. In 2007, Cho declared that he was only going to do another 5-6 issues before concluding the series around #44.
Cho has won numerous awards including the Charles Schulz Plaque for Excellence in Cartooning and two Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Comic.
Since Liberty Meadows Cho has illustrated other “good girl” series such as Shanna the She-Devil, which he also wrote for Marvel Comics, and his similarly themed Jungle Girl. Much of Cho’s Shanna artwork was censored by Marvel when they changed their target audience from 18+ to PG. Cho had revealed a little too much flesh on the “Queen of the jungle” and he was required to cover various flashes of nipples or to draw undergarments on. As fellow comic artist Mike S. Miller noted, “There’s a reason Shanna went out edited, because Marvel knew they wouldn’t make a dime on that book if it went out with the ‘creators vision.’”
This 1998 color sketch by Frank Cho has a pencil stroke reminiscent of Spanish erotic artist, Paolo Serpieri. Cho also drew several studies of 1998 Playmate of the Year Tiffany Taylor in a similar style, and the two often did signing events together.
These unlettered and unpublished strips by Cho express the artist’s twin loves of humorous storytelling and erotica.
EROTIC WORLDS OF FRANK THORNE
Frank Thorne started his comic book career in 1948, when he penciled several romance stories at Standard Comics, aged just 18. After graduation, he drew the Perry Mason newspaper strip and more comic book work, including Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and The Green Hornet for Dell.
As a comic artist in 1950s New York, it’s hardly surprising that Thorne came across Irving Klaw. In his graphic memoirs, Drawing Sexy Women: Autobiographical Sketches, Thorne recounts his experiences visiting Klaw’s “‘scruffy little shop.’ Nervous hopefuls stood two-deep, anxious for the opportunity to pore over the thick loose-leaf binders that displayed samples of Irving’s colossal inventory of bondage photos,” revealed the artist in a frank conversation with Gary Groth in The Comics Journal in 2007. Thorne recalled his favorite pinups such as Bettie Page, Bunny Pope, and Lynn Davis. “There were offerings other than bondage on Irving’s menu. Consider the Junoesque Irish McCalla — whatta pair she had! he had a binder devoted to strippers: Sherry Britton, Margie hart, Tempest Storm…I’m beginning to hyperventilate!” joked Thorne. “I was a porn man, still am,” he admitted. Yet, despite being such a connoisseur of erotica and the allure of women, Thorne remained a virgin until he was married: “I was whacking the willie so much, I didn’t have anything left!”
Thorne was introduced to Klaw via his life model, Bonnie, and attended a photo shoot with her and Bettie Page at the infamous Chelsea hotel. Thorne described Klaw as “a waiter from Smith and Wollensky’s,” and despite being offered work, Thorne declined. “I was never into bondage, so I backed off working for Irving. I was producing the Illustrated History and the pay was better than what Klaw offered. I was getting 25 bucks a pop for the daily feature in the local paper. It ran through 173 issues.” Thorne also met Gene Bilbrew in Klaw’s office, jokingly describing him as “the Thomas Kincade of bondage art!”
Thorne’s big breakthrough came in 1975, when he was 45, and asked to draw the sexy flame-haired barbarian spin-off from Conan, Red Sonja, for Marvel. Thorne — along with Conan artist Barry Windsor-Smith — was responsible for solidifying the look of the warrior woman in her chain-mail bikini. The artist initially based Sonja on the porn star Li
sa De Leeuw and the success of the title helped establish the “erotic fantasy” comics sub-genre. “One of the prouder moments,” recalled Thorne, “was when some guy advertised an eight-page Tijuana Bible of Red Sonja in The [Comic] Buyer’s Guide. It was called Red Sonja and Conan, Hot and Dry… I ordered a dozen!”
He left Red Sonja in 1978 to create his own woman warrior, Ghita of Alizzar, the sexy sci-fi series Lann for Heavy Metal and numerous other stories. He wrote and drew a Lil’ Abner pastiche, Moonshine McJuggs, for Playboy during the 1980s which won him the Playboy Editorial Award for Best Comic, but he later dismissed it as “crude juvenilia.”
In the 1990s he created the series The Iron Devil and The Devil’s Angel for Eros Comix, but despite all the erotica, Thorne never went as explicit as his later contemporaries. “That’s the dirty little secret of my act. My act is G-rated, but it looks dirty,” he said.
Thorne’s strip, The Deathman’s Head, appeared in The Erotic Worlds of Frank Thorne. Thorne took his erotic fantasy comics “seriously,” to the point of performing stage shows dressed as a wizard, with fellow fantasy artist and Elf Quest co-creator, Wendy Pini, dressed as Red Sonja in a tiny metal bikini.
This version of the cover to the first issue of Eros Comix’s Erotic Worlds of Frank Thorne (October, 1990) actually appeared inside on page 3, as the cover was censored from showing the naked breasts.
A panel from The Deathman’s Head strip, written and drawn by Frank Thorne, which reveals the creator’s tongue-in-cheek humor.