Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/186

174 very offen come with puberty, So I don't think it is unreasonable to. ee anad which might do something for a youngster 12 to 14 years old.

Mr. . You mean adults to include teen-agers?

Mr. . I am saying it 1s quite difficult to evaluate your readership on these books, but I think there is a very substantial per- centage in a true adult area.

Mr. . "Bed wetting, how to stop bed wetting."

Mr. . That is an adali problem. Certainly not to the degree of a 2-month-old child, but certainly it is prevalent enough. You will find that in colleges, a person of college age, such as that. The Armed Forces know that.

Now may I continue?

Mr. . Yes.

Mr. . I say we watch sales trends. We frequently change our product to meet the demand. When the demand was eveated for so-called weird or fantastic comics we felt that it was wise for our conupany Lo haye a relatively few comics in the field provided they met the shundards.

Now hanging over this part of our operation I can't overemphasize the fact that dollarwise it is 5 to 6 pereent tops, but the Sword of Damocles criticism is directed by many in the direction of weird comics and this faces us with the problem of producing them or with- drawing from that phase of the comic market. We are in the comic business and we want to stay init. It is a good business. here is. no reason for it to be sunlhed by marginal operators.

Tf we are convinced that uny comic magazine or any conventional magazine we publish causes harm to any reader, we would immedi- ately discontinue such a publication. We are nof so crass as to be unmindful of the effects on the reader, but to the best of our knowledge nobody yet has proven that our weird comics are harmful.

Now we are still in an area of mixed opinion on that point in gen- eral and additionally we gct into an area of degree with regard to the art and editorial work in weird comics. We bave many times spoken to our editors and we through the editors' supervision believe we ad- here to the letter and the spirit of the code.

Mr. . Would you also say that nobody has proven to your satisfaction that any of these crime and horror comics can do harm?

Mr. . I wouldn't say that. I have maintained a large file over the years on opinions as lo the value and merit of comics, and within the comie field generally of specific types, for and against them. I have tried to do as much reading as I could as a layman on this subject, because I feel so sirongly about the business. It is a good business. It serves a purpose just as a magazine of many fields and newspapers serve u purpose. The youngsters love them. The mere fact that. we sell T or 8 or 6 million copies per month without adyer- tising or without any conscious effort to create a demand other than a superior product would indicate thai.

Certainly I know that. the Gluecks testified before your committee; they certainly are highly respected as authorities in the field, and I was yery much strnck in Lheir book Task of Prevention, which T be- lieve is the layman's book, of the tremendons work they put together, with the following quotation: