Showing posts with label Comics Code Authority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comics Code Authority. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Twice-Told Tale of Terror INVASION!

One of the best-known Mars invasion tales is Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show...
Edited version
...which this twice-told tale "updates" to the television era!
But, it's radically-altered from it's first appearance, and the original version had never been reprinted!
First the toned-down version, then the original, scarier version...
Original version
 Note in the original version, both the wife and singer on tv show a lot more cleavage!
Edited version
Original version
Again, more cleavage in the original version...
Edited version
Original version
Oddly enough, the wife's cleavage is unchanged, but the look of terror in the last panel is toned down!
Edited version
Original version

Panel four in the original version is much more gruesome than the edited version. 
Note the dialogue balloon is 
unchanged, even though there's no actual weapons fire in the edited version!

Edited version
 This last page is radically-different! Prepare yourself!
Ready?
Proceed...but remember, I warned you...
Original version
Wow!
The edited pages were from Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958), which was reprinted in Harvey's Shocking Tales Digest #1 (1981)
The original, never-reprinted, story was from Harvey's Witches' Tales #21 (1953)
As you can see, the Comics Code Authority insisted on some major redos, including most of the last page!
What do you think, fans?
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Friday, February 21, 2025

Friday Fun / Baker Reading Room CANTEEN KATE vs The Comics Code Authority!

Besides Romance Comics and Scantily-Clad Heroines like Phantom Lady & Rulah... 

...pioneering Black comic book artist Matt Baker also did a military humor strip featuring (what else) a scantly-clad, beautiful WAC (Womens' Army Corps) officer assigned to run a canteen at a US military base not far from the front lines in Korea!
(She actually encountered North Koreans in a couple of tales)
The following, "Foxhole Floozie", appeared in St John's Fightin' Marines #7 (1952), where Kate's strip appeared in almost every issue from #2 to #12...while she also had her own comic book!
Straightforward, fun story with a little harmless cheesecake thrown in, illustrated by a master of the craft!
However...
When Charlton Comics bought out St John Publishing's inventory and began reprinting it, the brand-new Comics Code Authority literally got its' panties in a bunch, insisting on some ridiculous changes in the retelling of this tale in Charlton's Fightin' Marines #17 (1956)
Start with putting a bra/bathing suit top on Kate, and putting a boulder over her shapely legs in the opening panel and removing the story's title "Foxhole Floozie"!
Plus, throughout the tale, her tasteful shorts are replaced with mid-calf length Capri pants, and there's an olive-drab t-shirt under her uniform shirt, covering her cleavage!
One additional point...
Usually, when Charlton, Avon, and other publishers modified previously-published art to conform to the Comic Code's demands, they usually did it only to the black plate art, but, to save money, not to the existing cyan, magenta, and yellow plates!
Here, the reprint is totally-recolored!
Plus the retouching is so clean that it looks like the original artist, Matt Baker did it himself!
Did Charlton have the original art along with photostats and photo negatives, and asked Baker (who was doing freelance work for Charlton) do the reworking himself?
In truth, it's the sort of thing I'd expect editor Dick Giordano to do!
But, sadly, we'll never know the answer, since all involved parties are no longer on this mortal coil!
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Thursday, October 24, 2024

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told THIS IS SUSPENSE "Short Step to Oblivion"

 We saw this tale of terror and justice uncut in Part 1...

Now let's see how it looked after the Comics Code Authority took their censoring scissors to the reprinted version...
The knife, seen in panels 5-7 on the original page, is now missing!
The knife in panels 3 and 5 is missing in the reprint page!
Despite being removed from the previous pages, the knife is shown to be the murder weapon!
But how did the knife get there if it was deleted from the earlier pages?
Ruth's word balloon in the last panel is rewritten to eliminate reference to the knife shown on the original page!
Why is Ruth screaming?
It's not like there's a dead body, like there was in the original page!
Why did the villain fall to his death?
Maybe it's the fact that Holiday shot him in the original version of the first panel!
This Comics Code Authority-eviscerated reprint appeared in Charlton's This is Suspense # 24 (1955).
The writer is unknown and the illustrator is George Evans.
A comic with no more violence or blood than a TV cop show of the period is gutted by the CCA to Protect the Morals of the Youth of America.
Take a good look at your parents.
Did it work?
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Thursday, October 10, 2024

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told VOODOO "Goodbye...World!"

 ...with a cover that seemed as if was from another story entirely.
Well, it was...sort of.
The story in Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957) was a reprint of a tale from Ajax's Voodoo #7 (1953), which was published during the height of the horror comics boom!
And, let's just say that Ajax's editorial packager, the Iger Studio, was not noted for its' subtle (or even tasteful) stories.
The heavy hand of the Comics Code Authority forced quite a few changes from this wild original version, as you will see from the splash panel onward...
Beyond little things like making the duo who are sent into space to spawn the new human race a married couple instead of a pair of unmarried co-workers, the harpies were redrawn as insect-like humanoids (which made a certain amount of sense), and the ending was totally-redone as a happy ending with humanity surviving the alien onslaught!
Personally, I prefer the original!
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Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told MIDNIGHT "Project Final X"

Will the world end in an ecological disaster...
...or will it be something much more sinister?

Now that you've read this story from Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957), you might be asking yourself if it seems like it was a tad...disjointed, and that it didn't make much sense at a couple of points.
There's actually a good reason for thinking that.
The clues are in the cover for that issue...

Look carefully at the differences between the alien you see on the cover and the ones in the story itself.
There is a reason behind it all!
Be here Thursday for the surprising, shocking explanation!
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