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Rh Chief Godfrey declured, “Chilfren are the citizens of tomorrow and oust be protected frota harnifnl iniluences. These eaniic hooks represent a yery dangerous situation which should be corrected immediately.”

Ele said one of the major problems is the lack of parental guidanee. “Some parents dot know where their children are or what the children are doing and care less,” he commented.

Parskey, chairman of the city council's committee on crime aud youth prob- lems, saidl outright censorship is daugerous hecause it would put control in the hands of one person or body, Another danger of censership, he said, is that the public world get a false sense of security.

With censorship, he said, the public wonld tgnore the danger af books such as these, thinking that because there is a law. everything is all right,

What is needed to combat this problem, Parskey said, is an awakening of parental responsibility and @iscipline, “ZT think the churches shovl@ go into this matier as well as social and ciyie organizations, with the aim of educadug the parents fo the danger of these comic books,” he satd.

Editorial, March 14, 1954

Not long ago, following the series of arlicles describing the offensive comic books heiug sold in Hartford, one publisher of comic books felt he had been dealt with unjustly and protested, In the interests of treating this publisher fairly jt is well to give further details of his views ahout these so-called comic hooks. He is Williain M. Gaines, publisher of Eutertaining Comies, and he expresses his view in the February issue of Wriiers’ Digest,

There Mr. Gaines tells with considevable satisfaction that his comic books Mad are pushing 1 million circulation. He calts it a “sweet breath of fresh air” in the eomic-book field because, among other things. it Lampoons classical poetry. Then Myr, Guiles goes on to list his requirements in a plea for writers to contribute plots for his other ningazines, He is frank. He says they love “Walking eorpse”’ stories. They will aecept an oeeasional zombie or mnmmy, And he says they relish the “conftest cruel,” which is, of course, the story of sadism. Ife is anxious also to get crime stories in which the villain tries to get away with murder “and probably docs,” because, as Mr. Gaines observes,
 * virtue does not always have fo trigmph.”

As the Senate Subcominittee To investigate Comic Books is about to reapen its heurings on fhis subject. we suggest thet Mr, Gaines would make an ex- eelleont witness for the defeuse, flis steut endorsement of herror, murder, and ef the theme that “crime does pay” might furnish just Lhe kind of “fresh air’ thal he has been selliug th the children of the Tnited Sites at 10 eents a copy.

Editorial, March 30, 1954

The Entertainment Comie Group of 225 Lafayette Street, New York, is among the worst offenders in a commercial group thet makes money by selling im- morality and vice to small children. These panderers to children specialize in viimpirism, adulierg, ang cannihalism, have now come out with what shonkdl go down in history as one of the really stupid propaganda efforts in modern history,

in its frenzied defense af dirty camic books this company says, “The gronp most anxious to destroy comics are the Commuoaists.” Then it asks the ques- tion, “Are you a Lied dupe?” The final admonition is as follows: “So the next time some joker gets up al a PIA ineeling or slarts jubbering about the naughty comic books ut your Jocal candy store, give him the once-over. We're not saying he is a Communist. * * * He may not ever read the Daily Worker, It’s just that he’s swallowed the Red hait—hook, line, nnd sinker.”

Thus do the sellers of Lilerars sewage Justify their prolits from the debanch of youth. It may interest the varions service groups, church organizations, and all other leading citizens who have come out against filthy comies to learn that Entertainment Coirics considers them Red dupes.